A cross-cultural study investigating body features associated with male adolescents' body dissatisfaction in Australia, China, and Malaysia

This study investigated how dissatisfaction with particular aspects of the body was associated with overall body dissatisfaction among male adolescents in Western and Asian cultures. One hundred and six Malaysian Malays, 55 Malaysian Chinese, 195 Chinese from China, and 45 non-Asian Australians aged 12 to 19 years completed a questionnaire assessing dissatisfaction with their overall body and dissatisfaction with varying aspects of their body. Dissatisfaction with the face, height, and hair was positively correlated with overall body dissatisfaction among Malaysian Malays after body mass index, age and dissatisfaction with body areas typically included in measures (weight/shape, upper, middle, and lower body, and muscles) had been controlled for. Dissatisfaction with the face was positively correlated with overall body dissatisfaction among Malaysian Chinese. These findings demonstrate the differences in body focus for males from different cultures and the importance of using assessment measures that address all possible areas of body focus.

Radiotherapy in the Barwon South Western Region: a rural perspective

Introduction: Cancer-related mortality rates are higher in rural areas compared with urban regions. Whether there are corresponding geographical variations in radiotherapy utilisation rates (RURs) is the subject of this study. Methods: RURs for the regional centre of Geelong and rural areas of the Barwon South Western Region were calculated using a population-based database (2009). Results: Lower RURs were observed for rural patients compared with the Geelong region for prostate cancer (15.7% vs 25.8%, P = 0.02), rectal cancer (32.8% vs 44.7%, P = 0.11), lymphoma (9.4% vs 26.2%, P = 0.05), and all cancers overall (25.6% vs 28.9%, P = 0.06). This lower rate was significant in men (rural, 19.9%; Geelong, 28.3%; P = 0.00) but not in women (rural, 33.6%; Geelong, 29.7%; P = 0.88). Time from diagnosis to radiotherapy was not significantly different for patients from the two regions. Tumour staging within the rural and Geelong regions was not significantly different for the major tumour streams of rectal, prostate and lung cancer (P = 0.61, P = 0.79, P = 0.43, respectively). A higher proportion of tumours were unstaged or unstageable in the rural region for lung (44% vs 18%, P < 0.01) and prostate (73% vs 57%, P < 0.01) cancer. Conclusion: Lower RURs were observed in our rural region. Differences found within tumour streams and in men suggest a complexity of relationships that will require further study.

Recovery pattern of brachiopods after the Permian-Triassic crisis in South China

In South China, the Changhsingian brachiopods are extraordinarily abundant and diverse, comprising 468 species in 144 genera. However, approximately 91% of brachiopod species were eliminated during the Permian-Triassic (P-Tr) mass extinction event. Brachiopods in the aftermath of the P-Tr mass extinction were extremely rare, with only one opportunistic taxon, Lingulida, occasionally found in the Griesbachian and Smithian at a high abundance. Species-diversity of articulated brachiopods in the early Griesbachian, late Griesbachian, Dienerian, and Smithian are 35, 3, 2, and 0, respectively. Although a few of Mesozoic-type species occurred in the Griesbachian, Dienerian and Smithian, a marked diversification of brachiopods occurred in the Spathian and early Anisian and was characterised by 9 and 17 Mesozoic-type species, respectively. The diversification of brachiopods in the Spathian and early Anisian coincides with the contemporaneous expansion of the refuge zone, suggesting that the improvement of marine environmental conditions (e.g., lethally hot temperature and anoxic seawater) played a key role in brachiopod recovery after the P-Tr mass extinction.

The contact hypothesis in urban china: the perspective of minority-status migrant workers

This study is the first to test Allport's (1954) contact hypothesis from the perspective of a minority group in China. Employing a sample of off-farm migrant workers in urban China, results indicate a positive effect on self-reported attitudes of intergroup friendship contact between migrant and local workers; and positive effects on self-reported behavioral interaction between migrants and urban locals of both intergroup friendship and intergroup nonfriendship contact. © 2011 Urban Affairs Association.

Hydraulic economy and logographic writing in ancient China: factor of topography

Chinese civilisation is characterised by two distinctive features – a strong centralised administration and the system of logographic writing. This paper investigates nature’s powerful impacts on human development, in terms of organisation and communication in ancient China. It argues that ancient China’s topography played a crucial role in the formation of ancient Chinese civilisation and its hydraulic economy pushed the state stronger than society, hence a strong centralised government emerged.

Burning books and burying scholars: on the policies of the short-lived Qin Dynasty in ancient China (221-207 BC)

In 221 BC, the battle-hardened warriors of the Qin state, the western frontier state and the most aggressive of the Warring States, subjugated the last of its rival states, thus establishing the Qin dynasty, with itscapital in Xianyang, near the modern Xi’an. The Qin dynasty is customarily regarded by Chinese and Western scholars as the beginning of a new age – the Chinese empire – that lasted until 1911 AD. The dynasty lasted only fifteen years. This study examines the main policies of the Qin dynasty and seeks to address the question what brought the quick downfall of the Qin rule. This paper takes the cultural and political contexts carefully into consideration, and argues that the Qin annexation of its rival states might be better understood as an end of an old era as much as a beginning of a new epoch.

Miscommunication in Australia-China relations: the Stern Hu Affair

This paper explores communication and miscommunication in international business relations by studying the case of former RIO Tinto executive Stern Hu who was prosecuted for stealing trade secrets and taking bribes in kickbacks from Chinese steel firms. Using newspaper articles about the case that were published in Australia, China and other countries via Internet in either Chinese or English from July 2009 to April 2010, a series of differences in the way the Chinese and Australian protagonists were framed both in terms of relevant facts and value judgments. Apart from various obvious stereotypes, more subtle differences in the perspectives of the two nations emerge in my reading of their presses regarding the nature of trust, the role of corporations, government and how morality and business intermesh in two culturally distinct systems. Using this case, this paper illustrates the nature and types of misunderstandings that emerge over time and across locations within each cultural setting.

Early Triassic disaster and opportunistic foraminifers in South China

Survival and recovery are important dynamic processes of biotic evolution during major geological transitions. Disaster and opportunistic taxa are two significant groups that dominate the ecosystem in the aftermath of mass extinction events. Disaster taxa appear immediately after such crises whilst opportunists pre-date the crisis but also bloom in the aftermath. This paper documents three disaster foraminiferal species and seven opportunistic foraminiferal species from Lower Triassic successions of South China. They are characterized by extreme high abundance and low diversity and occurred occasionally in Griesbachian, Smithian and Spathian strata. The characteristics (small size, simple morphology) and stratigraphic ranges of these groups suggest that r-selection is a commonly used strategy for survivors to cope with either harsh post-extinction conditions and/or environments lacking incumbents.

An experimental study of the effect of intergroup contact on attitudes in urban China

A large body of literature attests to the growing social divide between urban residents and rural–urban migrants in China’s cities. This study uses a randomised experiment to test the effect ofintergroup contact on attitudes between a group of urban adolescents and a group of rural–urbanmigrant adolescents. Results showed that intergroup contact in the form of a fun and cooperativepuzzle task significantly reduced negative attitudes toward the other group. Implications fordesegregated schooling and their broader societal implications in China are discussed.

The baby makes 3 plus project in the Great South Coast region: final report from the external evaluator, January 2016

This report presents the evaluation of the Baby Makes 3 Plus project in the Great South Coast region of Victoria. Baby Makes 3 Plus was one of 12 projects funded by the Department of Justice and Regulation in Victoria under initiative to support primary prevention and early intervention-focused partnership projects to address violence against women and children. The project provided the Baby Makes 3 relationship education program to new parents across the region, and conducted a variety of training to increase the skills of Great South Coast early years practitioners (the Plus component of the project). The three key objectives of the project were:• To increase the capacity of first time parents to build equal and respectful relationships in response to the lifestyle and relationship changes that follow the birth of a child.• To increase the capacity of health professionals and organisations to promote equal and respectful relationships during the transition to parenthood.• To building capacity to identify women at risk of experiencing family violence through a gender equity component of in-service training.

Sedimentology and ichnology of two lower Triassic sections in South China: implications for the biotic recovery following the end-Permian mass extinction

Biotic recovery following the end-Permian mass extinction was investigated using trace fossil and facies analysis of two Lower–Middle Triassic sections in South China. The Susong section (Lower Yangtze Sedimentary Province) comprises a range of carbonate and mudstone facies that record overall shallowing from offshore to intertidal settings. The Tianshengqiao section (Upper Yangtze Sedimentary Province) consists of mixed carbonate and siliciclastic facies deposited in shallow marine to offshore settings. Griesbachian to Dienerian ichnological records in both sections are characterized by low ichnodiversity, low ichnofabric indices (1–2) and low bedding plane bioturbation indices (1–2). Higher ichnofabric indices (3 and 4), corresponding to a dense population of diminutive ichnotaxon, in the Tianshengqiao section suggest opportunistic infaunal biotic activity during the earliest Triassic. Ichnological data from the Susong section show an increase in ichnodiversity during the late Smithian with 11 ichnogenera identified and increased ichnofabric indices of 4–5 and bedding plane bioturbation indices of 3–5. Although complex traces such as Rhizocorallium are present in Spathian-aged strata in this section, low ichnodiversity and ichnofabric indices and diminutive Planolites suggest a decline in recovery. In the Tianshengqiao section, ichnofabric indices are moderate to high (3–5) although only six ichnogenera are present and Planolites burrows are consistently small in Smithian and Spathian strata. Complex traces, such as large Rhizocorallium and Thalassinoides, and large Planolites, did not appear until the Anisian. Ichnological results from both sections record the response of organisms to unfavourable environmental conditions although the Susong section shows earlier recovery during the Smithian prior to latest Smithian–Spathian decline. This decline may have resulted from a resurgence of euxinic to anoxic marine environment in various regions of South China. Ichnological data from the Tianshengqiao section indicate protracted recovery throughout the Early Triassic as previously found elsewhere in South China. Comparison of the South China trace fossil records with global ichnological data show a diachronous pattern of recovery of trace makers and highlights the heterogeneous development of oxic facies on the marked variation in recovery rate.

From the private to the public : a pilgrimage of symbols and metaphors

The marks and imagery that visual artists use to form images often consist of, or incorporate, elements of a visual symbolic language. When the artist's personal set of symbols aligns with that of the society in which the artist works it would be anticipated that the works produced could be readily interpreted and appreciated by that audience or society.

Latest Guadalupian brachiopods from the Guadalupian/Lopingian boundary GSSP section at Penglaitan in Laibin, Guangxi, South China and implications for the timing of the pre-Lopingian crisis

A brachiopod fauna comprising nine species in eight genera from three closely spaced stratigraphic horizons of the same stratigraphic section is described for the first time from the Laibin Limestone in the uppermost part of the Maokou Formation in the Guadalupian/Lopingian (G/L) GSSP section at Penglaitan, Guangxi Autonomous Region, South China. The brachiopod assemblages are bracketed between two conodont zones: Jinogondolella xuanhanensis Zone below and Jinogondolella granti Zone above and, therefore, they can be safely assigned to the latest Capitanian in age. However, all but one of the nine brachiopod species from the Laibin Limestone carry strong early Lopingian (Wuchiapingian) aspect. Thus, the discovery of this brachiopod fauna not only suggests that some Lopingian brachiopod species had already appeared in the late Guadalupian (Capitanian); more importantly, it has also highlighted the fact that both the previously noted pre-Lopingian life crisis (or end-Guadalupian or Middle Permian mass extinction) and Lopingian recovery/radiation actually occurred in late Capitanian times, sometime before the G/L chronostratigraphic boundary. So far, the Penglaitan GSSP section provides the highest-resolution disappearance patterns of different fossil groups around the G/L boundary.

Are Chinese stock markets increasing integration with other markets in the greater China region and other major markets?

This paper investigates the cointegrating and long-term causal relationships between the Shanghai A and B-share market, and between these two markets and the Hong Kong, the Taiwanese, the Japanese and the US market of two sub periods between July 1993 and March 2007. On the basis of a new Granger non-causality test procedure developed by Toda-Yamamoto (1995) and Johansen’s (1988) cointegration test, my results suggest that a long-term equilibrium relationship measured by cointegration has been merged between
the Chinese A-share market and the other markets in greater China region as well as the US market during the post-crisis period which covers the period since Chinese A-share market was opened to the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) in 2002. I also found that the Shanghai A-share market uni-directionally Granger-causes the other regional markets after the Asian financial crisis, while the A-share market and Hong Kong H-share market have had a significant feedback relationship since then. However, I found no evidence there has been cointegrating relationship between Shanghai B-share market and any other market ever since the B-share market was opened to the local retail investors in 2001.