Supervisors are central to work characteristics affecting nurse outcomes

Purpose: To examine the predictive capability of the demand-control-support (DCS) model, augmented by organizational justice variables, on attitudinal- and health-related outcomes for nurses caring for elderly patients.

Design: The study is based on a cross-sectional survey design and involved 168 nurses working with elderly patients in facilities of a medium to large Australian organization.

Method: Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire consisting of scales designed for measuring independent (e.g., demand, control, support, organizational justice) and dependent (e.g., job satisfaction, organizational commitment, wellbeing and psychological distress) variables. Multiple regression analyses were undertaken to identify significant predictors of the outcome variables.

Findings: The DCS model explains the largest amount of variance across both the attitudinal and health outcomes with 27% of job satisfaction and 49% of organizational commitment, and 33% of psychological distress and 35% of wellbeing, respectively. Additional variance was explained by the justice variables for job satisfaction (5%), organizational commitment (4%), and psychological distress (23%).

Conclusions: Using organizational justice variables to augment the DCS model was valuable in better understanding the work conditions experienced by nurses caring for elderly patients. Inclusion of curvilinear effects added clarity to the potentially artifactual nature of certain interaction variables.

Clinical Relevance: The results indicated practical implications for managers of nurses caring for elderly patients in terms of developing and maintaining levels of job control, support, and fairness, as well as monitoring levels of job demands. The results particularly show the importance of nurses' immediate supervisors.

Rethinking a learning environment strategy

I have committed a significant period of time (in my case five years) to the purpose development of learning environments, with the belief that it would improve the self-actualisation and self-motivation of students and teachers alike. I consider it important to record and measure performance as we progressed toward such an outcome. Education researchers and practitioners alike, in the higher (university/tertiary) education systems, are seeking among new challenges to engage students and teachers in learning (James, 2001). However, studies to date show a confusing landscape littered with a multiplicity of interpretations and terms, successes and failures. As the discipline leader of the Information Technology, Systems and Multimedia (ITSM) Discipline, Swinburne University of Technology, Lilydale, I found myself struggling with this paradigm. I also found myself being torn between what presents as pragmatic student learning behaviour and the learner-centred teaching ideal reflected in the Swinburne Lilydale mission statement. The research reported in this folio reflects my theory and practice as discipline leader of the ITSM Discipline and the resulting learning environment evolution during the period 1997/8 to 2003. The study adds to the material evidence of extant research through firstly, a meta analysis of the learning environment implemented by the ITSM Discipline as recorded in peer reviewed and published papers; and secondly, a content analysis of student learning approaches, conducted on data reported from a survey of ‘learning skills inventory’ originally conducted by the ITSM Discipline staff in 2002. In 1997 information and communication technologies (ICT) were beginning to provide plausible means for electronic distribution of learning materials on a flexible and repeatable basis, and to provide answers to the imperative of learning materials distribution relating to an ITSM Discipline new course to begin in 1998. A very short time frame of three months was available prior to teaching the course. The ITSM Discipline learning environment development was an evolutionary process I began in 1997/8 initially from the requirement to publish print-based learning guide materials for the new ITSM Discipline subjects. Learning materials and student-to-teacher reciprocal communication would then be delivered and distributed online as virtual learning guides and virtual lectures, over distance as well as maintaining classroom-based instruction design. Virtual here is used to describe the use of ICT and Internet-based approaches. No longer would it be necessary for students to attend classes simply to access lecture content, or fear missing out on vital information. Assumptions I made as discipline leader for the ITSM Discipline included, firstly, that learning should be an active enterprise for the students, teachers and society; secondly, that each student comes to a learning environment with different learning expectations, learning skills and learning styles; and thirdly, that the provision of a holistic learning environment would encourage students to be self-actualising and self-motivated. Considerable reading of research and publications, as outlined in this folio, supported the update of these assumptions relative to teaching and learning. ITSM Discipline staff were required to quickly and naturally change their teaching styles and communication of values to engage with the emergent ITSM Discipline learning environment and pedagogy, and each new teaching situation. From a student perspective such assumptions meant students needed to move from reliance upon teaching and prescriptive transmission of information to a self-motivated and more self-actualising and reflective set of strategies for learning. In constructing this folio, after the introductory chaperts, there are two distinct component parts; • firstly, a Descriptive Meta analysis (Chapter Three) that draws together several of my peer reviewed professional writings and observations that document the progression of the ITSM Discipline learning environment evolution during the period 1997/8 to 2003. As the learning environment designer and discipline leader, my observations and published papers provide insight into the considerations that are required when providing an active, flexible and multi-modal learning environment for students and teachers; and • secondly, a Dissertation (Chapter Four), as a content analysis of a learning skills inventory data collection, collected by the ITSM Discipline in the 2002 Swinburne Lilydale academic year, where students were encouraged to complete reflective journal entries via the ITSM Discipline virtual learning guide subject web-site. That data collection included all students in a majority of subjects supported by the ITSM Discipline for both semesters one and two 2002. The original purpose of the journal entries was to have students reflectively involved in assessing their learning skills and approaches to learning. Such perceptions were tested using a well-known metric, the ‘learning skills inventory’ (Knowles, 1975), augmented with a short reflective learning approach narrative. The journal entries were used by teaching staff originally and then made available to researchers as a desensitised data in 2003 for statistical and content analysis relative to student learning skills and approaches. The findings of my research support a view of the student and teacher enculturation as utilitarian, dependent and pragmatically self-motivated. This, I argue, shows little sign of abatement in the early part of the 21st Century. My observation suggests that this is also independent of the pedagogical and educational philosophy debate or practice as currently presented. As much as the self-actualising, self-motivated learning environment can be justified philosophically, the findings observed from this research, reported in this folio, cannot. Part of the reason for this originates from the debate by educational researchers as to the relative merits of liberal and vocational philosophies for education combined with the recent introduction of information and communication technologies, and commodification of higher education. Challenging students to be participative and active learners, as proposed by educationalists Meyers and Jones (1993), i.e. self-motivated and self-actualising learners, has proved to be problematic. This, I will argue, will require a change to a variable/s (not yet identified) of higher education enculturation on multiple fronts, by students, teachers and society in order to bridge the gap. This research indicates that tertiary educators and educational researchers should stop thinking simplistically of constructivist and/or technology-enabled approaches, students learning choices and teachers teaching choices. Based on my research I argue for a far more holistic set of explanations of student and staff expectations and behaviour, and therefore pedagogy that supports those expectations.

Importance of the contribution of Australians to the penetration of China by the China Inland Mission in the period 1888-1953, with particular reference to the work of Australian women missionaries

Australians, in the main, are unaware of the role which Australia played in the evangelization of China in the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. Most would never have heard of the China Inland Mission (CIM), the largest of the Protestant bodies which penetrated the Middle Kingdom, and few would know of the contribution that its Australian contingent, which consistently comprised about a tenth of the CIM's numbers, made towards the Christianization of that vast country. This thesis aims to raise the level of awareness in this area. Academic researchers have not totally neglected to examine the proselytization of China, and historians of the stature of Latourette have not let it escape their attention. However, most of the studies which have not merely fleetingly focused on the subject while viewing a larger canvas, have been North American, singling out the efforts of United States and Canadian bodies in introducing Christianity to the Chinese. Here, authors like Amerding, Bacon, Creighton, Gates, Hawkes, Ho, Ko, Mensendiek, Michell and Quale have left their mark. In the case of the present thesis, the outlook from which events played out in China are viewed is firmly based in Australia rather than North America. Earlier Australian research has been scarce, and is dominated by Loane and Dixon. Loane, evidently primarily working from Australasian Council minutes, mainly concentrates on the efforts of the CIM's Home Council, examining its endeavours decade by decade against a backdrop of contemporaneous events in China, and briefly referring to aspects of the lives of a cross-section of Australasian missionaries, without providing much idea about what they actually did in the field or what they achieved there. Because of its preoccupation with the Home Council, which never admitted women into its ranks, Loane's treatise is systemically biased towards men, though the more prominent of the women, like Mary Reed and Susie Garland, are given due recognition. The current thesis looks in detail at what Australians did in the field, the level of success they achieved, and at the particular contribution of Australian women towards the evangelization of China. Dixon took upon herself the formidable task of examining the endeavours of all missions in China which contained Australian missionaries. Because of the magnitude of her task, she could not focus to any great extent on particular missions, nor pursue in any detail the work of individual Australian missionaries. Like Loane, she was unable to explore what they actually did in the field or what they achieved there. Neither could she delve to any depth into the work of Australian women missionaries, though on the basis of the information she had accumulated, she drew the conclusion that Australian women had largely only brought about some unintended feminist consequences amongst Chinese women. This sweeping generalization failed to take into account the other very real social changes for Chinese women the Australian female missionaries quite purposely helped to bring about, and this thesis makes good that omission. This thesis studies aspects of the Australian missionary endeavour which both Loane and Dixon have neglected, thereby breaking new ground, and sets out to correct erroneous impressions which Dixon's dissertation has left on the historical record. One of these impressions concerned the longevity of the effect of the Australian effort in China. She had the View, writing in 1978, that the Chinese Church was moribund (a view shared by Varg and Lacy) , and that therefore the effects attributable to the endeavours of any nationality had proved fruitless, whereas the author is able to show, using modern-day sources, that the church has burgeoned in recent years thanks to earlier missionary endeavours and later neo-evangelistic efforts like Gospel radio, and now has a complement of perhaps 50 million adherents, making it second only to the United States in the size of its Protestant evangelical population. Another impression she left was that the Australian input into the evangelization of China can be largely dismissed because no totally Australian organization emerged, leaving the direction of Australia's effort in other hands. Contrary to that impression, the author shows that the Australian impact in China was significant and that Australians enjoyed more power than Dixon ever imagined. The author also shows that Australians were accepted as the equal of other nationalities in the CIM once they had acquired the necessary field expertise, a factor which doubtless also applied in respect of other missions with Australian components in China. Marchant has suggested that it is a fiction perpetuated by mission periodicals that Christianity spread and progressed in a determined manner in China. This thesis establishes that within the CIM's bailiwick, though there was some patchiness, Christianity progressed steadily and inexorably. One mission alone, the CIM, is concentrated upon, firstly in order to render the data manageable, secondly because it was the largest mission in China and had a sizeable Australian (including female) contingent, and thirdly because it exemplified many of the problems which would have been faced by missions in that country and their Australian components. The methodology employed is multifaceted. The written testimony of the missionaries themselves, contained in CIM periodicals, Field Bulletins, Monthly Notes, Annual Reports, autobiographies, personal files, diaries and letters is used to illustrate various aspects of the CIM's work in which Australians were engaged. This approach is augmented by other sources such as China and Australasian Home Council Minutes, missionary conference reports, Candidates' Books, biographies, and other selected material from archival holdings in Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, America and Canada. Statistics, especially ratio analyses and growth rate comparisons are used to demonstrate the relative success of different missions, missionaries and genders. Also employed are reminiscences of missionaries and descendants obtained by personal interview, and these are aggregated to provide some general conclusions. Data from these various sources have been synthesized to serve the central objective of demonstrating the importance of the contribution of Australians to the penetration of China by the CIM in the period 1888-1953 with particular reference to the work of Australian women missionaries.

Structural breaks and unit roots in Australian macroeconomic time series

We examine the unit root properties of 16 Australian macroeconomic time series using monthly data spanning the period 1960–2004. In addition to the standard Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test, we implement one- and two-break endogenous structural break ADF-type unit root tests as well as one- and two-break Lagrange multiplier (LM) unit root tests. While the ADF test provides relatively little evidence against the unit root null hypothesis, once we allow for structural breaks we are able to reject the unit root null for just under half of the variables at the 10% level or better.

Elevated dietary sodium intake exacerbates myocardial hypertrophy associated with cardiac-specific overproduction of angiotensin II

Introduction/hypothesis
Cardiac hypertrophy is an independent risk factor predictive of cardiovascular disease and is significantly associated with morbidity and mortality. The mechanism by which angiotensin II (Ang II) and dietary sodium exert additive effects on the development of cardiac hypertrophy is unclear. The goal of this study was to evaluate the hypothesis that, where there is a genetic predisposition to Ang II-dependent hypertrophy, there is also an increased susceptibility to sodium-induced hypertrophy mediated by AT₁-receptor expression.

Methods
Diets of low sodium (LS, 0.3% w:w) and high sodium (HS, 4.0% w:w) content were fed to adult (age 25 weeks) control wild-type mice (WT) and to weeks) control wild-type mice (WT) and to transgenic mice exhibiting cardiac specific overexpression of angiotensinogen (TG). At the conclusion of a 40-day dietary treatment period, cardiac tissue weights were compared and the relative expression levels of Ang II receptor subtypes (AT_1A and AT₂) were evaluated using RT-PCR.

Results
WT and TG mice fed HS and LS diets maintained comparable weight gains during the treatment period. The normalised heart weights of TG mice were elevated compared to WT, and the extent of the increase was greater for mice maintained on the HS diet treatments (WT 12% vs. TG 41% increase in cardiac weight index). While a similar pattern of growth was observed for ventricular tissues, the atrial weight parameters demonstrated an additional significant effect of dietary sodium intake on tissue weight, independent of animal genetic type. No differences in the relative (GAPDH normalised) expression levels of AT_1A- and AT₂-receptor mRNA were observed between diet or animal genetic groups.

Conclusion
This study demonstrates that, where there is a pre-existing genetic condition of Ang II-dependent cardiac hypertrophy, the pro-growth effect of elevated dietary sodium intake is selectively augmented. In TG and WT mice, this effect was evident with a relatively short dietary treatment intervention (40 days). Evaluation of the levels of Ang II receptor mRNA further demonstrated that this differential growth response was not associated with an altered relative expression of either AT_1A- or AT₂-receptor subtypes. The cellular mechanistic bases for this specific Ang II-dietary sodium interaction remain to be elucidated.

Acute signalling responses to intense endurance training commenced with low or normal muscle glycogen

We have previously demonstrated that well-trained subjects who completed a 3 week training programme in which selected high-intensity interval training (HIT) sessions were commenced with low muscle glycogen content increased the maximal activities of several oxidative enzymes that promote endurance adaptations to a greater extent than subjects who began all training sessions with normal glycogen levels. The aim of the present study was to investigate acute skeletal muscle signalling responses to a single bout of HIT commenced with low or normal muscle glycogen stores in an attempt to elucidate potential mechanism(s) that might underlie our previous observations. Six endurance-trained cyclists/triathletes performed a 100 min ride at ∼70% peak O₂ uptake (AT) on day 1 and HIT (8 × 5 min work bouts at maximal self-selected effort with 1 min rest) 24 h later (HIGH). Another six subjects, matched for fitness and training history, performed AT on day 1 then 1–2 h later, HIT (LOW). Muscle biopsies were taken before and after HIT. Muscle glycogen concentration was higher in HIGH versus LOW before the HIT (390 ± 28 versus 256 ± 67 μmol (g dry wt)⁻¹). After HIT, glycogen levels were reduced in both groups (P < 0.05) but HIGH was elevated compared with LOW (229 ± 29 versus 124 ± 41 μmol (g dry wt)−1; P < 0.05). Phosphorylation of 5'AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) increased after HIT, but the magnitude of increase was greater in LOW (P < 0.05). Despite the augmented AMPK response in LOW after HIT, selected downstream AMPK substrates were similar between groups. Phosphorylation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK) was unchanged for both groups before and after the HIT training sessions. We conclude that despite a greater activation AMPK phosphorylation when HIT was commenced with low compared with normal muscle glycogen availability, the localization and phosphorylation state of selected downstream targets of AMPK were similar in response to the two interventions.

Requirements for ICAM-1 immunogene therapy of lymphoma.

Intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) is a cell-surface glycoprotein capable of eliciting bidirectional signals that activate signalling pathways in leukocytes, endothelial, and smooth muscle cells. Gene transfer of xenogeneic ICAM-1 into EL-4 lymphomas causes complete tumor rejection; however, it is unknown whether the mechanism responsible involves the "foreignness" of the ICAM-1 transgene, bidirectional signalling events, ICAM-1-receptor interaction, or a combination of the latter. To begin to address this question, we constructed four different therapeutic expression vectors encoding full-length ICAM-1, and forms in which the N-terminal ligand-binding domains and cytoplasmic tail had been deleted. Mouse EL-4 tumors (0.5 cm in diameter), which actively suppress the immune response, were significantly inhibited in their growth following injection of expression plasmids encoding either full-length xenogenic (human) ICAM-1, or a functional cytoplasmic domain-deficient form that retains ligand-binding activity. Efficacy of ICAM-1-mediated antitumor immunity was significantly augmented by administration of the antivascular drug 5,6-dimethylxanthenone-4-acetic acid (DMXAA), which suppressed blood supply to the tumor, leading to enhanced leukocyte infiltration, and complete tumor eradication in a gene dosage and CD8(+) T cell and NK cell-dependent fashion. Generation of potent cytotoxic T cell (CTL)-mediated antitumor immunity was reflected by ICAM-1-facilitated apoptosis of tumor cells in situ. In contrast, nonfunctional ICAM-1 lacking the N-terminal ligand-binding Ig domain failed to generate antitumor immunity, even in the presence of DMXAA. These studies demonstrate that ICAM-1-stimulated antitumor immunity can overcome tumor-mediated immunosuppression, particularly when employed in combination with an attack on the tumor vasculature. The ligand-binding domain of ICAM-1 is essential for generating antitumor immunity, whereas the cytoplasmic domain and bidirectional activation of tumor signalling pathways are not essential.

Aid to conflict-affected countries : lessons for donors

The first section looks at the implications of conflict for aid effectiveness and selectivity. We argue that, while aid is generally effective in promoting growth and by implication reducing poverty, it is more effective in promoting growth in post-conflict countries. We then consider the implications of these findings for donor selectivity models and for assessment of donor performance in allocating development aid among recipient countries. We argue that, while further research on aid effectiveness in post-conflict scenarios is needed, existing selectivity models should be augmented with, inter alia, post-conflict variables, and donors should be evaluated on the basis, inter alia, of the share of their aid budgets allocated to countries experiencing post-conflict episodes. We also argue for aid delivered in the form of projects to countries with weak institutions in early post-conflict years. The second section focuses on policies for donors operating in conflict-affected countries. We set out five of the most important principles: (1) focus on broad-based recovery from war; (2) to achieve a broad-based recovery, get involved before the conflict ends; (3) focus on poverty, but avoid ‘wish lists’; (4) help to reduce insecurity so aid can contribute more effectively to growth and poverty reduction; and (5) in economic reform, focus on improving public expenditure management and revenue mobilisation. The third section concludes by emphasising the fact that there is no hard or fast dividing line between ‘war’ and ‘peace’ and that it may take many years for a society to become truly ‘post’-conflict’. Donors, therefore, need to prepare for the long haul.

Temporary protection and the refugee convention in Australia,Denmark, and Germany

This paper reports on a comparative study of temporary protection (TP) mechanisms in Australia and selected European jurisdictions. Specifically, it analyzes policy developments and trends in the use of TP mechanisms in Denmark, Germany, and Australia through a systematic examination of the evolution of “substitute protection” mechanisms; their implications for “effective protection” and their impacts on key stakeholders. The policy analyses are augmented by interviews and survey questionnaires with key NGO service providers in the three target jurisdictions. The paper argues that the traditional link between Refugee Convention protection and national territorial jurisdiction and responsibility is being undermined by extraterritorial processing and offshoring arrangements.

Exponential stabilization of neural networks with various activation functions and mixed time-varying delays

This paper presents some results on the global exponential stabilization for neural networks with various activation functions and time-varying continuously distributed delays. Based on augmented time-varying Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals, new delay-dependent conditions for the global exponential stabilization are obtained in terms of linear matrix inequalities. A numerical example is given to illustrate the feasibility of our results.

A new unit root test with two structural breaks in level and slope at unknown time

In this paper, we propose a new augmented Dickey–Fuller-type test for unit roots which accounts for
two structural breaks. We consider two different specifications: (a) two breaks in the level of a trending data series and (b) two breaks in the level and slope of a trending data series. The breaks whose time of occurrence is assumed to be unknown are modeled as innovational outliers and thus take effect gradually. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we showthat our proposed test has correct size, stable power, and identifies the structural breaks accurately.

Are business cycles stationary fluctuations around a deterministic trend? empirical evidence from 79 developing countries

There is a large literature that tests the univariate time series properties of the real output series following the seminal work of Nelson and Plosser (1982). Whether or not real output is characterized by a unit root process has important implications. A unit root in real output, for instance, is inconsistent with the notion that business cycles are stationary fluctuations around a deterministic trend. In this paper, we investigate the univariate time series properties of real output for 79 developing countries using the conventional augmented Dickey and Fuller (1979) unit root test, the Zivot and Andrews’ (1992) one structural break unit root test, and the Lumsdaine and Papell (1997) two structural breaks unit root test. Our main finding is that, for 40 countries, real output is stationary around a trend. This indicates that business cycles are stationary fluctuations around a deterministic trend for only 51% of the developing countries in our sample.

From site to text : Australian Aborigines and the origin of the family

Missions were not simply sites of modernity, they were also the source of key data for the modernist theories of human progress. The idea that so called “primitive peoples” provided a window to the origins of human institutions seemed axiomatic to nineteenth-century theorists of human society who sought evidence for these ideas from settlers, administrators and particularly missionaries. The 1870s and 1880s were the high point of missionary engagement with study-bound anthropologists, as questionnaires and letters were sent from the centres to the edges of empires. Missionary responses, augmented with settler and explorer observations, became the footnotes in early anthropological texts on “primitive” societies. These analyses were then mined for the foundation texts of the other social sciences in the late nineteenth century. Along with many other scholars, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels read the anthropology of the period and slotted the findings into their analyses of human society.

Good lives model applied to a forensic population

According to the good lives model (GLM) all human beings seek primary goods (i.e., activities or experiences that benefit them) and offending reflects attempts to pursue these goods in ways that are unacceptable to society and damaging to the individual and others. The aim of this article was to explore how the GLM can be developed for use with a forensic population, a heterogeneous group of individuals whose common feature is the interface of the criminal justice and mental health systems. The conceptual, clinical and philosophical implications of using the good lives model of forensic mental health (GLM-FM) are explored. Three case studies are used to illustrate the ways in which the enriched model can provide a holistic approach to conceptualizing offending that occurs in the context of mental illness and in guiding treatment planning. It is suggested that the augmented model provides a clinically flexible and ethically sound framework for formulating treatment issues for forensic patients.

The use of heuristics in valuation practice : implications in a changing market

Despite the existence of prescribed frameworks, valuation remains a cause of much controversy and variety of opinion. It does not matter whether procedures are undertaken in exactly the same way, the conclusion of ‘value’ will vary from valuer to valuer – sometimes considerably. This uncertainty within valuation is founded on property’s heterogeneous nature and the imperfect market that is the property market; in addition to the unpredictability of human behaviour in making judgements (French and Gabrielli 2004). Uncertainty, in valuation is found in the amalgam of locational, physical and legal characteristics and innumerable other forces which control and energise the property market (Whipple 1995). Particular irregular occurrences, or drastic changes in property markets, from either within market evolution or external forces, for example the creation of global financial markets, cause further uncertainty for valuers and provides challenges in identifying ‘market value’ in valuation practice. The praxis of valuation in a commercial sense navigates this complexity using a combination of algorithms and heuristics to identify the value of a property. The application of theoretical mathematical algorithms based on economic theory (Brown 1995), is augmented by valuers’ ability to apply appropriate adjustment based on their knowledge of the market, their ability to analyse, assess and compare the attributes of a property in comparison to its market, and their practical experience (Sliogeriene 2008). Despite the necessity of algorithms, the application of appropriate adjustments and assumptions are important in arriving at a value. This paper is a critical reflection on the basis of valuation practice as guided by standards, methods, and ethics (algorithms), and the use of heuristics in practice. This is important because changes within property markets challenge the inter-relationship between these two aspects of valuation practice. Through the authors’ industry experience and a review of previous research and statements of practice norms this paper provides an analysis of the ability of valuers to address market change in their valuation practices.