Sex-differences in reasons for non-participation at recruitment : Geelong Osteoporosis Study

Background : Understanding reasons for non-participation in health studies can help guide recruitment strategies and inform researchers about potential sources of bias in their study sample. Whilst there is a paucity of literature regarding this issue, it remains highly plausible that men and women may have varied reasons for declining an invitation to participate in research. We aimed to investigate sex-differences in the reasons for non-participation at baseline of the Geelong Osteoporosis Study (GOS).

Methods : The GOS, a prospective cohort study, randomly recruited men and women aged 20 years and over from a region in south-eastern Australia using Commonwealth electoral rolls (2001–06 and 1993–97, respectively). Reasons for non-participation (n=1,200) were documented during the two recruitment periods. We used the Pearson’s chi squared test to explore differences in the reasons for non-participation between men and women.

Results : Non-participation in the male cohort was greater than in the female cohort (32.9% vs. 22.9%; p<0.001). Overall, there were sex-differences in the reasons provided for non-participation (p<0.001); apparent differences related to time constraints (men 26.3% vs. women 10.4%), frailty/inability to cope with or understand the study (men 18.7% vs. women 30.6%), and reluctance over medical testing (men 1.1% vs women 9.9%). No sex-differences were observed for non-participation related to personal reason/disinterest, and language- or travel-related reasons.

Conclusions : Improving participation rates in epidemiological studies may require different recruitment strategies for men and women in order to address sex-specific concerns about participating in research.

The Volcanic Series

A major solo exhibition of paintings (25) by Liza McCosh. Inspired by the volcanic topography of the South West Victorian landscape.  The artwork is abstracted in nature and worked in the media of acrylicand oil glaze on canvas.

Six million in Melbourne or a network of sustainable midi-cities? A thought experiment

By 2050, it is projected that Melbourne will have a population of between 5.6 and 6.4 million (DPCD, 2012), an increase of nearly 50% above its current level. Despite Melbourne's status as the world's most liveable city, a recent survey found that Australians in general found smaller cities are better places to live and bring up families (Perkins, 2013). The Grattan Institute's report entitled "The Cities We Need" was "an invitation to a conversation" about our future cities (Kelly, 2010:5). One idea not canvassed in the report was that of decentralization to accommodate Melbourne's projected growth. In its discussion paper, "Let's Talk about the Future", the Victorian State Government proposes that Melbourne become a 'polycentric city' linked to its regional cities (DPCD, 2012). While growth in the present regional cities is acknowledged, the possibility that these and other new regional cities could absorb the future population projected for Melbourne is not considered, nor that these regional cities could be transformed into 'sustainable cities'. This paper explores the idea that a network of smaller 'midi-cities, based on the sustainable city concept of Sweden, might provide a better alternative to concentrated growth in one city. Fifteen new cities of 150,000 would be required to absorb the projected extra 2.3 million Victorian residents. The paper analyses the energy, food, water and land requirements of a typical sustainable city. The new cities would require approximately 12% of the State's land area for food and energy supply, as well as the built environment.

Practically and productively analysing Course Experience Questionnaire student comment data

Australia national survey of graduates from 1993 onward. In addition to quantitative items, the CEQ also includes an invitation to respondents to write open-ended comments on the best aspects (BA) of their university course experience and those most needing improvement (NI). These responses provide a rich source additional information that can help in understanding what students had in mind when agreeing or disagreeing with the CEQ response items. Based on more than 160,000 comments from students graduating from 14 Australian universities over the period 2001-2004, Scott (2006) developed a five domain model (Outcomes, Staff, Course design, Assessment and Support) for the classification of CEQ comments, as well as a software package (CEQuery) to automate the analysis of CEQ BA and NI comment data. While computer automated comment analysis is convenient, there are a number of known limitations to this approach, and where the number of student comments is not large, manual coding/classification is a viable, and arguably superior, approach.

Beckett and Bion: The (Im)patient voice in psychotherapy and literature

This book focuses on Samuel Beckett’s psychoanalytic psychotherapy with W. R. Bion as a central aspect both of Beckett’s and Bion’s radical transformations of literature and psychoanalysis. The recent publication of Beckett’s correspondence during the period of his psychotherapy with Bion provides a starting place for an imaginative reconstruction of this psychotherapy, culminating with Bion’s famous invitation to his patient to dinner and a lecture by C.G. Jung. Following from the course of this psychotherapy, Miller and Souter trace the development of Beckett’s radical use of clinical psychoanalytic method in his writing, suggesting the development within his characters of a literary-analytic working through of transference to an idealized auditor known by various names, apparently based on Bion. Miller and Souter link this pursuit to Beckett’s breakthrough from prose to drama, as the psychology of projective identification is transformed to physical enactment. They also locate Bion’s memory and re-working of his clinical contact with Beckett, who figures as the 'patient zero' of Bion’s pioneering postmodern psychoanalytic clinical theories.

Some reflections on Pawson’s science of evaluation: A realist manifesto

This article examines the evolution of Ray Pawson’s realist theory of evaluation, with a particular focus on his most recent book, Science of Evaluation: A Realist Manifesto. It is not a substitute for reading the original text. Reviews always say less about a book than the book in question. The goal is to provide a broader context for interpretation and an invitation to consider critically the practical import of Pawson’s grand ambitions for a new evaluation science. Like previous writings, this latest call-to-arms will appeal to some quarters of the evaluation community and dismay others. Regardless, evaluators should not remain indifferent. Pawson presents a vigorous, if at times irreverent, argument for advancing evaluation as a realist enterprise. Science of Evaluation deserves to be read and discussed widely.

Preparing health professionals to work in diabetes education and care: a situation analysis

Worldwide, the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases places enormous expectations of and responsibility on health systems. Preparing the health workforce to adequately respond to these increasing demands is a challenge of critical importance. The aim of this study was to provide an overview of how health professionals (HPs) are prepared to work in diabetes care and education. A one shot cross-sectional study was undertaken to collect the data using self-completed anonymous on-line questionnaires. The invitation to complete the questionnaire was sent to more than 3745 HPs. One thousand one hundred and sixteen responses were collected, 68% were from highincome countries and 32% from middle- and low-income countries (LMIC). Most HPs developed their knowledge and skills through work experience and self-study: very few attended a formal education program as part of their training. Thirty-six percent of LMIC respondents did not have a credential/certification in diabetes and 72% reported their organizations support them to learn about diabetes education/care. Moreover, 80% referred to the International Diabetes Federation publications when making clinical decisions or planning diabetes care. Results provide insight into how HPs are educationally prepared to work in diabetes education and care and could serve as a foundation for future research. These findings emphasize the emerging necessity to develop certified/credentialing programs for HPs, especially in LMIC.

Response rates in Australian market research

RICA commissioned Deakin University to “establish whether response rates are in decline in the Australian market research industry and to identify, as far as possible, the reasons for these declines if they exist. This is likely to involve a review of previous research, a literature review and collection of data on response rates provided on a confidential basis and with the assistance of AMSRO to facilitate data provision.”

Attempts were made to contact all listed market research companies in Australia, including all major internet panel companies. While industry co-operation was not high with the study, sufficient data was provided to depict current response rates and to show how they had declined over time. Because of the low contactability issues, this Report proposes the use of better methods to compute the reliability of survey estimates by taking account of past survey results.

The literature review revealed a wealth of recent studies, with the main emphasis being on studies of telephone and internet surveys. This review of the research produced 34 evidence-based guidelines for social researchers. While some of these reflect current practice, the emergence of the internet as the main survey method raises a number of disclosure and sampling issues. Esomar (2012) has produced 28 issues to be raised with providers, which sets the basis for good industry practice. This suggests an opportunity for the industry to adopt these standards as its own and to conduct training courses for major clients and suppliers. There are many panel providers, some of whom are not AMSRO members. AMSRO may need to examine what role it can play in mandating or encouraging adherence to these standards as a way of promoting the industry.

Talks with key industry people, as well as the literature, have revealed the importance of blended surveys, where multiple contact and response mechanisms are used. Particularly where an internet panel is used as one source, this poses representativeness and weighting issues which are difficult to resolve. The Report recommends that where blended survey methods are used, measures be taken to measure contactability in the other contact media, along with more sophisticated weighting schemes. The industry should examine its training courses to ensure that industry expertise keeps pace with these developments.
Summary of Results

The results focus on two main collection methods – the telephone and the internet. As far as the telephone is concerned response rates have been in a gradual decline the last decade. This outcome is hard to detect because the data show considerable fluctuations from one survey wave to the next. Among cold-calling surveys, telephone response rates are typically below 10%, for a range of topics and survey types. Co-operation rates, (the ratio of obtained interviews to refusals) are typically below 0.2 (that is below one interview to five refusals). Telephone interviews with clients have a higher response rate – typically above 20% with co-operation rates above 1.0. It would appear that some topics, such as financial services, may induce a lower level of co-operation. Government sponsored surveys have higher response rates, at times over 50%, but even here a sharp decline in response rates over time for one long running monitor was observed. Co-operation rates were also higher in government sponsored surveys.

One long data series from a telephone omnibus suggested that the “Do Not Call Register” which began in May, 2007 had some positive effects for the industry. Initially there was a spike in both response rates and co-operation. Although this was relatively short-lived, response rates thereafter declined more slowly and co-operation rates were somewhat higher and remained stable. These conclusions should be regarded as tentative as more data series would really be necessary to see if similar trends occurred elsewhere.

As far as the internet is concerned, panel response rates are around the 20% mark and appear to be relatively stable over the last few years. In this case, the gross response rate is the number of interviews divided by the number of invitations sent. As the number of invitations may be a function of the need to fill a survey quickly, it should be considered a gross indicator of response. In order to capture this phenomenon, a further measure has been devised, termed the “attempt rate” which measures the percentage of people who attempt to participate once sent the invitation. The available data suggests that it is relatively stable. However, it is also somewhat susceptible to the time the survey was left open. Finally, a co-operation rate was also calculated. It measures the ratio of completed to terminated interviews, typically at least five interviews to each termination, but often much higher. This measure is not directly comparable with the co-operation rate in telephone surveys because it cannot take account of the number of eligible people on the panel who open the invitation, see the company doing the survey or its length and decide not to take the survey. For internet client studies, response rates were typically somewhat higher than shown for the panels, but there was marked variability.

There was only one study provided of intercept interviews. It showed response rates of over 60% and co-operation rates of nearly 2 interviews per refusal. A strength and a weakness of intercept interviewing is the ability to be selective in who is asked to participate. As for mail, one government sponsored mail survey from 2010 is reported, with a response rate over 50%. The previous review contains more data, as mail appears to be infrequently used within the industry for commercial surveys.

While surveys remain a major and highly effective tool for the industry and its clients, issues with contactability and co-operation mean that even closer attention is needed to survey design, sampling, weighting and analysis than was previously the case.

Forest of gestures : video installation and performance work

Invitation to contribute to Alexander Harrisions' program 'What's Coming' resulted in 'Forest of Gestures' a 3 channel video projection and installation with a live feed component

Something like an emergency

‘Something like an emergency’, a sonic poem recorded on CD, investigates the hunger of writing as a desire, not for a return of the dead, but for a breakthrough of impasses in language, both in love and in the writer’s (frustrated) translation of vision. Proceeding from Bachelard’s phenomenological observation that the poetic image puts language in a state of emergence, this work argues, instead, that poetry puts language in a state of emergency. Deleuze and Guattari’s idea of music as a deterriorialization of the refrain; a rhythmic pattern which marks out a territory, is invoked in both the music performance and in the words. The writing uses a ‘matting’ (rhizomatic) effect in its verse fragments which echo and refract others. Reverberation is also explored in the piano and its sonic processing which provides elements of dissonance and consonance, refracting dialogues in the text. Voice and music sometimes argue, sometimes agree, and sometimes are indistinguishable. However, this dialectic is further disturbed: at times the piano and voice seem to pay no attention to each other, taking off on their own ‘lines of flight’, in subversion of ‘collaboration’. In its use of recorded improvisational techniques this work also challenges the ‘superiority’ of live improvisation.
It was first performed at Double Dialogues conference, ‘The Hunger Artist: Food and the Arts’, Toronto, 2010. The text and accompanying discursive article form a book chapter in 2012 Food and Appetites: The Hunger Artist and the Arts, Ann McCulloch and Pavlina Radia(eds). It has been broadcast on RRR, 3CR radios and is released on CD and Youtube. By invitation it was performed at the Midsumma Festival, 2014.

Neil Taylor’s experimental animation

This paper explores from a phenomenological perspective the work of Australian Experimental Animator Neil Taylor (1945-), works situated between animation, performance and sculpture. Taylor’s animated scribbling repetitively and automatically inscribe the surfaces of flipbooks or note pads (Short Lives (1980-90)) and cash register rolls (Roll Film 1990 and Copy Copy 1998) often enhanced by hand-made ‘machines’ designed to facilitate and shape this idiosyncratic activity. Taylor’s work is informed by his successful wire-based sculptural practice and his 20 years experience of teaching animation to tertiary students and 8 years previously in the Australian Technical School system (a system that has since been dismantled but for which these animations remain as an aesthetic trace). His work can be generally situated inside an avant-garde project ‘that continues to explore the physical properties of film and the nature of perceptual transactions which take place between viewer and film.’ (John Hanhardt, 1976: 44) This is performative research into the minutiae of the moving image and its ability to register body gesture. Hanhardt, John G. (1976) The Medium Viewed: The American Avant-Garde Film. A History of American Avant-Garde Cinema. New York, American federation of the Arts.

Patterns of care in adult medulloblastoma: results of an international online survey

The literature on medulloblastoma in adults is generally limited to case reports and retrospective series, and there is no accepted standard of care. The Cooperative Trials Group for Neuro-Oncology (COGNO) sought to determine the range and consistency of clinicians’ approaches to management as a basis for future trials. We aimed to identify current treatment strategies for adult medulloblastoma through an online survey launched at the 2012 Society of Neuro-Oncology meeting and by email invitation. Clinicians who had treated at least one adult patient with medulloblastoma, primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET), or pineoblastoma in the preceding year were asked about their most recent patient and invited to discuss their approach to a typical clinical scenario. Between November 2012 and January 2013, 45 clinicians (11 medical oncologists, 8 radiation oncologists, 5 pediatric oncologists, and 21 others) from Australia (24), United States (3), Europe (4) and other countries (14) completed the survey. Responding clinicians had treated 54 cases in the past 12 months. The most common histological type was medulloblastoma (64 %), then PNET (20 %). Most patients were male (68 %), and had high-risk disease (65 %). Complete surgical resection in 56 and 32 % had molecular testing. Radiotherapy was predominantly cranio-spinal (92 %) and given mostly post-resection (80 %). Combination chemotherapy was more common than single-agent chemotherapy. The choice of chemotherapy varied considerably. There is substantial variation in the treatment of adult medulloblastoma, most pronounced in the choice of chemotherapeutic agents, highlighting the need for further collaborative research to guide evidence-based treatment strategies.

In the eye of the beholder? The unadulterated beautiful and the threatening grotesque in a selection of young adult science fiction narratives

This paper looks closely at the aesthetics of the bodies and landscapes in Monica Hughes' Invitation to the Game and M.T. Anderson's Feed – the flesh, the wires, and the pixels – to consider the complicated relationship between the often “unadulterated” beautiful and the “threatening” grotesque in these (and other) science fiction narratives that involve the hybridisation of the artificial and the organic.

Effectiveness, costs, and cost-effectiveness of recruitment strategies for a mammographic screening program to detect breast cancer

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Since effective and affordable recruitment methods are essential for the widespread implementation of mammographic screening for detection of breast cancer, we studied the effectiveness, the costs, and the cost-effectiveness of various recruitment strategies in the population targeted by a pilot Australian program that offered free mammography screening between 1988 and 1990. METHODS: We evaluated three public recruitment strategies--local newspaper articles, community promotion, and promotion to physicians--and five personal strategies--invitation letters with or without specified appointment times, either alone or with a follow-up letter, or telephone call to nonattenders. The effectiveness of public recruitment strategies was estimated from monthly attendance rates by Poisson regression analysis, while the probability of attendance in response to personal strategies was calculated using logistic regression analysis. Costs were determined by resource usage studies. The cost-effectiveness ratios for personal strategies were determined using decision analysis. RESULTS: The costs in 1988-1989 Australian dollars per woman recruited were $22 for local newspaper articles and $106 for community promotion. No detectable increase in attendance resulted from promotion to physicians. When the cost of reserving an appointment was considered, the most cost-effective personal recruitment strategy was an invitation letter without a specified appointment time, followed by a second letter to nonattenders. This strategy recruited 35.6% of women in the sample targeted and cost $10.52 per attendee. In comparison, the most effective personal recruitment strategy was a letter with a specified appointment time followed by a second letter to nonattenders, which recruited 44.1% of women at an average cost of $19.99 and a marginal cost of $59.71 per additional attendee. CONCLUSIONS: Personal recruitment strategies were more cost-effective than public strategies. The most cost-effective personal strategy was an invitation letter without a specified appointment time, followed by a second letter to nonattenders.

Football and war: Australia and Vietnam 1967–1972, a missing part of the national narrative

The idea of sending a soccer team into a major war zone might be regarded as the height of lunacy, but in mid-1967 the Australian government approved an invitation to the Australian Soccer Federation to take part in the National Day football tournament in Saigon in the midst of the Vietnam War. While this story is fairly widely known among the football community, it has little resonance beyond it and the young players who took part have received no formal recognition. Six of the team that won the competition, the first international trophy won by Australia, were part of the Socceroos squad that qualified for the World Cup in West Germany in 1974. Australian teams returned to Vietnam in 1970 and 1972 as part of the preparation for the successful qualification campaign and the team spirit forged in very difficult circumstances helped carry Rale Rasic's squad to the World Cup. This book retells the story and explains its absence from the national narrative about sport and relations with Asia.