Estimates of sex- and age-class-specific survival probabilities for a southern Great Barrier Reef green sea turtle population

Sex- and age-class-specific survival probabilities of a southern Great Barrier Reef green sea turtle population were estimated using a capture - mark - recapture (CMR) study and a Cormack - Jolly - Seber (CJS) modelling approach. The CMR history profiles for 954 individual turtles tagged over a 9-year period ( 1984 - 1992) were classified into three age classes ( adult, subadult, juvenile) based on somatic growth and reproductive traits. Reduced-parameter CJS models, accounting for constant survival and time-specific recapture, fitted best for all age classes. There were no significant sex-specific differences in either survival or recapture probabilities for any age class. Mean annual adult survival was estimated at 0.9482 (95% CI: 0.92 - 0.98) and was significantly higher than survival for either subadults or juveniles. Mean annual subadult survival was 0.8474 ( 95% CI: 0.79 - 0.91), which was not significantly different from mean annual juvenile survival estimated at 0.8804 ( 95% CI: 0.84 - 0.93). The time-specific adult recapture probabilities were a function of sampling effort but this was not the case for either juveniles or subadults. The sampling effort effect was accounted for explicitly in the estimation of adult survival and recapture probabilities. These are the first comprehensive sex- and age-class-specific survival and recapture probability estimates for a green sea turtle population derived from a long-term CMR program.

Attitudes towards the sexuality of adults with an intellectual disability: parents, support staff, and a community sample

Attitudes toward the sexuality of adults with intellectual disability were assessed in parents and carers of adults with intellectual disability and in a community sample. An instrument that contained items relating to eight aspects of sexuality (sexual feelings, sex education, masturbation, personal relationships, sexual intercourse, sterilisation, marriage, and parenthood) was developed and found to have good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Age was associated with attitudes, with those aged 60 and above holding more conservative attitudes. Parents and staff differed in their attitudes, with parents holding more conservative attitudes. This difference was the product of age differences between the groups; nevertheless it may produce some confusion for adults with intellectual disability unless it is addressed appropriately. Both parent and staff groups were less positive about parenthood than about other aspects of sexuality, however the community group did not differ in their views when attitudes towards parenthood were compared with the remaining items Of the scale.

Same-sex attracted youths: Suicide and related factors

Same-sex attracted youths comprise 10 percent to 11 percent of the secondary school population although not all of those who experience same-sex attraction will adopt a gay, lesbian, transgender or transsexual lifestyle. Most, if not all, will experience homophobia in one or more of its forms. Many of these young people will cope well with the heterocentric attitudes and prejudices prevalent in secondary schools and the wider community and make the transition into adulthood having learned how to mask their sexual preferences or develop effective coping mechanisms to deal with homophobia. Some will succumb to the pressures they experience and seek less ideal solutions that include drug use and promiscuity. Some will take their own lives. This article draws attention to the complications of same-sex attraction and argues for a school and community response that recognises and appreciates the positive contributions that diversity of sexual preference brings to any community.

The media, marketing, and single sex schooling

The Australian media's interest in education, as in many Anglophone countries, is frequently dominated by concerns about boys in schools. In 2002, in a country region of the Australian State of Queensland, this concern was evident in a debate on the merits of single sex schooling that took place in a small local newspaper. The debate was fuelled by the inclusion in this newspaper of an advertising brochure for an elite private girls' school. The advertisement utilized the current concerns about boys in schools to advocate the benefits of girls' only schools. Drawing on research that suggests that boys are a problem in school, and utilising a peculiar mix of liberal feminism alongside a neo-liberal class politics, it implicitly denigrated the education provided by government co-educational schools. The local government high and primary school principals, incensed at this advertisement, contacted the paper to refute many of its claims and assumptions and to assert the benefits, to both boys and girls, of their particular schools. A letters to the editor debate then followed an article representing these government school principals' views. These letters were from two private school principals. This country newspaper thus became a medium through which various school principals engaged with the current boys' debate, and research associated with it, in order to market their schools. This paper examines this particular newspaper debate and argues that, in the absence of nuanced, research based, and thoughtful policy responses to gender issues, many school policies on gender are being shaped through and by the media in ways that elide the complexities of the issues involved.

Interrogating single-sex classes as a strategy for addressing boys' educational and social needs

This paper explores the policy of single-sex classes that is currently being adopted in some schools as a strategy for addressing boys' educational and social needs. It draws on research in one Australian government, coeducational primary school to examine teachers' and students' experiences of this strategy. Interviews with the principal, male and female teachers responsible for teaching the single-sex classes and the students involved in these classes are used to illustrate the impact and effect of the strategy on pedagogical practices in this particular school. The data are used to raise critical questions about the impact and effects of teachers' pedagogical practices in light of the current literature and research about single-sex classes. In this case study, it was found that teachers had a tendency to modify their pedagogical practices and the curriculum to suit stereotypical constructions about boys' and girls' supposed oppositional orientations to learning. It is concluded that teacher knowledges and assumptions about gender play an important role in the execution of their pedagogies in the single-sex classroom.