What's cooking for dietetics? A review of the literature

Aim: There has been no systematic research on the role of cooking skills for improving dietary intakes in Australia. Cooking skills are proposed to be declining and/or being devalued. If cooking skills have been devalued and declining, then what evidence is there for this decline and what impact might this have on dietary intakes? The aim of the present paper is to explore these assumptions with particular reference to Australia. The objectives of the present paper are to define the terms cooking and cooking skills, discuss evidence on levels of cooking skills in Australia and describe the evidence linking cooking skills to dietary intakes.---------- Methods: A review of the peer-reviewed literature using multiple databases from 1990 to September 2009.---------- Results: Cooking skills are complex and require a range of processes for people to develop efficiency or confidence in food preparation. There is little evidence on the level of cooking skills in the Australian population and how this relates to dietary intakes. The Australian Bureau of Statistic’s latest Time Use Survey and Household Expenditure Survey suggest that cooking is still a gendered activity and that the time devoted to cooking has changed little in the past 15 years, but there is an increasing use of foods prepared outside the home.---------- Conclusion: Further research is required to examine the prevalence of different types and levels of cooking skills in Australia as well as their potential effects on dietary intakes. Dietitians need evidence about the level of cooking skills people require for healthy dietary intakes.

Food literacy : time for a new term or just another buzzword?

Eating is an essential everyday life activity that has fascinated, captivated and defined society since time began. We currently exist in a society where over-consumption of food is an established risk factor chronic disease, the rate of which is increasing alarmingly. 'Food literacy' is an emerging term used to describe what we, as individuals and as a community know and understand about food and how to use it to meet our need, and thus potentially support and empower citizens to make healthy food choices. What exactly the components of food literacy are and how they influence food choice are poorly defined and understood, but increasingly gaining interest among health professionals, policy makers, community workers, educators and members of the public. This paper will build the argument for why concepts of 'food literacy' need to extend beyond existing terms and measures used in the literature to describe the food skills and knowledge needed to make use of public health nutrition messages.

Web searching interaction model based on user cognitive styles

As more and more information is available on the Web finding quality and reliable information is becoming harder. To help solve this problem, Web search models need to incorporate users’ cognitive styles. This paper reports the preliminary results from a user study exploring the relationships between Web users’ searching behavior and their cognitive style. The data was collected using a questionnaire, Web search logs and think-aloud strategy. The preliminary findings reveal a number of cognitive factors, such as information searching processes, results evaluations and cognitive style, having an influence on users’ Web searching behavior. Among these factors, the cognitive style of the user was observed to have a greater impact. Based on the key findings, a conceptual model of Web searching and cognitive styles is presented.

User-web interactions : how wholistic/analytic web users search the web?

User-Web interactions have emerged as an important research in the field of information science. In this study, we examine extensively the Web searching performed by general users. Our goal is to investigate the effects of users’ cognitive styles on their Web search behavior in relation to two broad components: Information Searching and Information Processing Approaches. We use questionnaires, a measure of cognitive style, Web session logs and think-aloud as the data collection instruments. Our study findings show wholistic Web users tend to adopt a top-down approach to Web searching, where the users searched for a generic topic, and then reformulate their queries to search for specific information. They tend to prefer reading to process information. Analytic users tend to prefer a bottom-up approach to information searching and they process information by scanning search result pages.

Consuming authentic neighborhood : an autoethnography of experiencing a neighborhood's new beginnings and origins within its servicescapes

Purpose - This chapter examines individual and collective quests for authenticity, as experienced through consumption activities within an urban neighbourhood. It investigates the interplay between consumption experiences as authenticating acts and authoritative performances (Arnould and Price 2000), and considers the implications with regard to Zukin’s (2010) theories on urban authenticity, and how it may be experienced as new beginnings and origins. Methodology - The chapter is based on autoethnographic research that explores how interaction and identity definition within servicescapes can work to construct place-based community. Findings - It describes how a servicescape of new beginnings offered opportunities for individual authentication that also enabled personal identification with a specific cultural group. This authentication drew on the cultural capital embedded in such locations, including their association with gentrification. This is contrast with the collective identification offered by a servicescape operating as a place of exposure. This site of origins displayed the social practices of a different demographic, which worked to highlight a relational link between the authentication practices of the broader neighbourhood. These sites also worked cumulatively, to highlight the inauthenticities within my identification practices and offer opportunities for redress. Through this interplay it was possible to establish an authentic sense of neighbourhood that drew on its new beginnings and its origins, and was both individual and collective. Originality - Through the combination of urban and consumption-based perspectives of authenticity, and an autoethnographic methodology, this chapter offers a different insight into the ways identification with, and attachment to, a neighbourhood can develop through consumption experiences.

Preparing library staff for research support services at QUT

INTRODUCTION: Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Library is partnering with High Performance Computing (HPC) services and the Division of Research and Commercialisation to develop and deliver a range of integrated research support services and systems designed to enhance the research capabilities of the University. Existing and developing research support services include - support for publishing strategies including open access, bibliographic citation and ranking services, research data management, use of online collaboration tools, online survey tools, quantitative and qualitative data analysis, content management and storage solutions. In order to deliver timely and effective research referral and support services, it is imperative that library staff maintain their awareness of, and develop expertise in new eResearch methods and technologies. ---------- METHODS: In 2009/10 QUT Library initiated an online survey for support staff and researchers and a series of focus groups for researchers aimed at gaining a better understanding of current and future eresearch practices and skills. These would better inform the development of a research skills training program and the development of new research support services. The Library and HPC also implemented a program of seminars and workshops designed to introduce key library staff to a broad range of eresearch concepts and technologies. Feedback was obtained after each training session. A number of new services were implemented throughout 2009 and 2010. ---------- RESULTS: Key findings of the survey and focus groups are related to the development of the staff development program. Feedback from program attendees is provided and evaluated. The staff development program is assessed in terms of its success to support the implementation of new research support services. --------- CONCLUSIONS QUT Library has embarked on an ambitious awareness and skills development program to assist Library staff transition a period of rapid change and broadening scope for the Library. Successes and challenges of the program are discussed. A number of recommendations are made in retrospect and also looking forward to the future training needs of Library staff to support the University’s future research goals.

Digital storytelling around the world

‘Digital storytelling’ is a workshop-based practice in which ‘ordinary’ people are taught to use digital media to create short audio-video stories, usually about their own lives. The idea is that this puts the universal human delight in narrative and self expression into the hands of everyone in the digital age; and potentially brings individual experience, ideas, creativity and imagination to the attention of the whole world. It gives a voice to the myriad tales of everyday life as experienced by ordinary people in their own terms. Despite its use of the latest technologies, its purpose is simple and human.

Globalization, suburbanization, and the creative workforce : Findings from Australian suburban communities

This paper considers the changing relationship between economic prosperity and Australian suburbs, noting that what has been termed “the first suburban nation” in experiencing an intensification of suburban growth in the 2000s, in the context of economic globalization. The paper reports on a three-year Australian Research Council funded project into “Creative Suburbia”, identifying the significant percentage of the creative industries workforce who live in suburban areas. Drawing on case studies from suburbs in the Australian cities of Brisbane and Melbourne, it notes the contrasts between the experience of these workers, who are generally positive towards suburban life, and the underlying assumptions of “creative cities” policy discourse that such workers prefer to be concentrated in high density inner urban creative clusters.

Advertising & Promotion : An Integrated Marketing Communications Approach, 2nd Edition [Book Review]

Advertising & Promotion’s second edition maintains a sharp and updated focus on the advertising industry, providing interesting ideas for both students and advertising professionals. Not only does the author demonstrate how agencies, businesses and organisations research, create and monitor particular campaigns, but also the extent to which advertising texts are themselves embedded in everyday contemporary culture. For me one of the strengths of the book is how the research brings together the managerial side of the industry, its sociology and political dynamics, with the cultural and ethical implications of advertising consumption.

Reading nineteenth century schoolbooks online : user behavior in a digitized special collection

Special collections, because of the issues associated with conservation and use, a feature they share with archives, tend to be the most digitized areas in libraries. The Nineteenth Century Schoolbooks collection is a collection of 9000 rarely held nineteenth-century schoolbooks that were painstakingly collected over a lifetime of work by Prof. John A. Nietz, and donated to the Hillman Library at the University of Pittsburgh in 1958, which has since grown to 15,000. About 140 of these texts are completely digitized and showcased in a publicly accessible website through the University of Pittsburgh’s Library, along with a searchable bibliography of the entire collection, which expanded the awareness of this collection and its user base to beyond the academic community. The URL for the website is http://digital.library.pitt.edu/nietz/. The collection is a rich resource for researchers studying the intellectual, educational, and textbook publishing history of the United States. In this study, we examined several existing records collected by the Digital Research Library at the University of Pittsburgh in order to determine the identity and searching behaviors of the users of this collection. Some of the records examined include: 1) The results of a 3-month long user survey, 2) User access statistics including search queries for a period of one year, a year after the digitized collection became publicly available in 2001, and 3) E-mail input received by the website over 4 years from 2000-2004. The results of the study demonstrate the differences in online retrieval strategies used by academic researchers and historians, archivists, avocationists, and the general public, and the importance of facilitating the discovery of digitized special collections through the use of electronic finding aids and an interactive interface with detailed metadata.

Extending Alexander’s ecological dominance-social competition (EDSC) evolutional model

Alexander’s Ecological Dominance and Social Competition (EDSC) model currently provides the most comprehensive overview of human traits in the development of a theory of human evolution and sociality (Alexander, 1990; Finn, Geary & Ward, 2005; Irons, 2005). His model provides a basis for explaining the evolution of human socio-cognitive abilities. Our paper examines the extension of Alexander’s model to incorporate the human trait of information behavior in synergy with ecological dominance and social competition as a human socio-cognitive competence. This paper discusses the various interdisciplinary perspectives exploring how evolution has shaped information behavior and why information behavior is emerging as an important human socio-cognitive competence. This paper outlines these issues, including the extension of Spink and Currier’s (2006a,b) evolution of information behavior model towards a more integrated understanding of how information behaviors have evolved (Spink & Cole, 2006).

Optimization problems for controlled mechanical systems : bridging the gap between theory and application

Mechanical control systems have become a part of our everyday life. Systems such as automobiles, robot manipulators, mobile robots, satellites, buildings with active vibration controllers and air conditioning systems, make life easier and safer, as well as help us explore the world we live in and exploit it’s available resources. In this chapter, we examine a specific example of a mechanical control system; the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). Our contribution to the advancement of AUV research is in the area of guidance and control. We present innovative techniques to design and implement control strategies that consider the optimization of time and/or energy consumption. Recent advances in robotics, control theory, portable energy sources and automation increase our ability to create more intelligent robots, and allows us to conduct more explorations by use of autonomous vehicles. This facilitates access to higher risk areas, longer time underwater, and more efficient exploration as compared to human occupied vehicles. The use of underwater vehicles is expanding in every area of ocean science. Such vehicles are used by oceanographers, archaeologists, geologists, ocean engineers, and many others. These vehicles are designed to be agile, versatile and robust, and thus, their usage has gone from novelty to necessity for any ocean expedition.

Once Upon a Misconception : Mark Juddery's Busted [A Review]

Forget Disney's timeless tales of rags-to-riches. Princesses are the most overrated public figures of all time. Apparently. Cinderella, after all, was 'a calculating, sinister go-getter' who murdered her step-mother at the instruction of a jealous governess (88). Sleeping Beauty was raped as she slept, woken not by the wet kiss of a handsome prince, but the kick and punch of twins stirring in her belly. Over the centuries, only the pea-detecting princess has remained herself: hedonistic, melodramatic and 'still perhaps the most pampered, precious wimp in the history of fairy tales' (88). There are, however, shards of truth to be salvaged from the fractured lives of these glassy-eyed women. After all, even Princess Mary worked in real estate.

Listening in to others : in between noise and silence

Since the launch of the ‘Clean Delhi, Green Delhi’ campaign in 2003, slums have become a significant social and political issue in India’s capital city. Through this campaign, the state, in collaboration with Delhi’s middle class through the ‘Bhagidari system’ (literally translated as ‘participatory system’), aims to transform Delhi into a ‘world-class city’ that offers a sanitised, aesthetically appealing urban experience to its citizens and Western visitors. In 2007, Delhi won the bid to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games; since then, this agenda has acquired an urgent, almost violent, impetus to transform Delhi into an environmentally friendly, aesthetically appealing and ‘truly international city’. Slums and slum-dwellers, with their ‘filth, dirt, and noise’, have no place in this imagined city. The violence inflicted upon slum-dwellers, including the denial of their judicial rights, is justified on these accounts. In addition, the juridical discourse since 2000 has ‘re-problematised slums as ‘nuisance’. The rising antagonism of the middle-classes against the poor, supported by the state’s ambition to have a ‘world-class city’, has allowed a new rhetoric to situate the slums in the city. These representations articulate slums as homogenised spaces of experience and identity. The ‘illegal’ status of slum-dwellers, as encroachers upon public space, is stretched to involve ‘social, cultural, and moral’ decadence and depravity. This thesis is an ethnographic exploration of everyday life in a prominent slum settlement in Delhi. It sensually examines the social, cultural and political materiality of slums, and the relationship of slums with the middle class. In doing so, it highlights the politics of sensorial ordering of slums as ‘filthy, dirty, and noisy’ by the middle classes to calcify their position as ‘others’ in order to further segregate, exclude and discriminate the slums. The ethnographic experience in the slums, however, highlights a complex sensorial ordering and politics of its own. Not only are the interactions between diverse communities in slums highly restricted and sensually ordained, but the middle class is identified as a sensual ‘other’, and its sensual practices prohibited. This is significant in two ways. First, it highlights the multiplicity of social, cultural experience and engagement in the slums, thereby challenging its homogenised representation. Second, the ethnographic exploration allowed me to frame a distinct sense of self amongst the slums, which is denied in mainstream discourses, and allowed me to identify the slums’ own ’others’, middle class being one of them. This thesis highlights sound – its production, performances and articulations – as an act with social, cultural, and political implications and manifestations. ‘Noise’ can be understood as a political construct to identify ‘others’ – and both slum-dwellers and the middle classes identify different sonic practices as noise to situate the ‘other’ sonically. It is within this context that this thesis frames the position of Listener and Hearer, which corresponds to their social-political positions. These positions can be, and are, resisted and circumvented through sonic practices. For instance, amplification tactics in the Karimnagar slums, which are understood as ‘uncultured, callous activities to just create more noise’ by the slums’ middle-class neighbours, also serve definite purposes in shaping and navigating the space through the slums’ soundscapes, asserting a presence that is otherwise denied. Such tactics allow the residents to define their sonic territories and scope of sonic performances; they are significant in terms of exerting one’s position, territory and identity, and they are very important in subverting hierarchies. The residents of the Karimnagar slums have to negotiate many social, cultural, moral and political prejudices in their everyday lives. Their identity is constantly under scrutiny and threat. However, the sonic cultures and practices in the Karimnagar slums allow their residents to exert a definite sonic presence – which the middle class has to hear. The articulation of noise and silence is an act manifesting, referencing and resisting social, cultural, and political power and hierarchies.

Pleasure Consuming Medicine : The Queer Politics of Drugs By Kane Race [Review]

The queer studies field works to deconstruct dominant western discourses which cast gay men as hedonistic partygoers. Concurrently it examines the real social ramifications for some gay men for whom partying, illegal drugs and casual sex is an everyday reality. Another reality of gay male culture is HIV/AIDS and the legal prescribed medicines which accompany these conditions. Pleasure Consuming Medicine: The Queer Politics of Drugs explores these realities and the discourses surrounding them. Exploring the embodiments of illegal and prescription drug users, this book problematises the binary between prescription medicine use, where drug use is configured as a matter of consumer choice, and 'illicit' drug use which is heavily policed and condemned. Returning to the gay community it reviews community approaches to safe sex and drug use, and individual practices, to demonstrate alternative approaches to condemning drug usage.