The Australia-United States alliance and the management of elite opinion

This thesis firstly demonstrates that support for the current Australia-United States alliance at the elite level primarily derives from the desire to sustain western control over regional and international affairs and extend Australia’s influence abroad. Secondly, it demonstrates the role of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue in sustaining alliance orthodoxy.

Personality disorders and physical comorbidities in adults from the United States: data from the national epidemiologic survey on alcohol and related conditions.

There is a paucity of research examining the relationship between personality disorders (PDs) and chronic physical comorbidities. Consequently, we investigated associations between individual PDs and PD Clusters, and various common disease groups [cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, arthritis and gastrointestinal disease (GI)] in a nationally representative survey of adults from the United States.

Rates of student-reported antisocial behavior, school suspensions, and arrests in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States

Background: Few methodologically rigorous international comparisons of student-reported antisocial behavior have been conducted. This paper examines whether there are differences in the frequency of both antisocial behavior and societal responses to antisocial behavior in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States. These 2 states were chosen due to their similarities on sociodemographic characteristics and their differences in policy frameworks around problem behavior including antisocial behavior and substance use.

Methods: State representative samples of students (N = 5769) in school grades 5, 7, and 9 in Victoria and Washington State completed a modified version of the Communities That Care self-report survey of behavior and societal responses to behavior. Chi-square analyses compared frequencies of antisocial behavior, school suspensions, and police arrests in the 2 states. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted for each outcome measure to examine the effect of state, controlling for sample design, clustering of students within schools, age, socioeconomic status, and urbanicity.

Results: Few state differences in student-reported antisocial behavior were found, although frequencies varied across behavior type and grade level. Differences in societal responses were observed across grade levels with grade 5 Washington students reporting higher rates of school suspension. Older Washington students reported more arrests.

Conclusions: Rates of student antisocial behavior appear similar in these 2 states in Australia and the United States. However, youth in the United States relative to Australia may experience greater societal consequences for problem behavior. Further research is required to examine the impact of these consequences on subsequent behavior.

Modifiable determinants of youth violence in Australia and the United States : a longitudinal study

Youth violence is a global problem. Few studies have examined whrther the prevalence or predictors of youth violence are similar in comparable Western countries like Australia and the United States (US). In the current article, analyses are conducted using two waves of data collected as part of a longitudinal study of adolescent development in approximately 4,000 students aged 12 to 16 years in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, US. Students completed a self-report survey of problem behaviours including violent behaviour, as well as risk and protective factors across five domains (individual, family, peer, school, community). Compared to Washington State, rates of attacking or beating another over the past 12 months were lower in Victoria for females in the first survey and higher for Victorian males in the follow-up survey. Preliminary analyses did not show state-specific predictors of violent behaviour. In the final multivariate analyses of the combined Washington State and Victorian samples, protective factors were being female and student emotion control. Risk factors were prior violent behaviour, family conflict, association with violent peers, community disorganisation, community norms favourable to drug use, school suspensions and arrests. Given the similarity of influential factors in North America and Australia, application of US early intervention and prevention programs may be warranted, with some tailoring to the Australian context.

Glonacalling doctorates?: The international and global connectedness of Australian PhD graduates

Simon Marginson and Gary Rhoades coined the term ‘glonacal’ the express the interconnectedness of global, national and local social relations, especially in terms educational systems and experiences. This paper presents some selected data from a recent ARC Discovery Project entitled Research capacity-building: the development of the Australian PhD programs in national and emerging global contexts. Some of selected data show the extent Australian PhD theses have addressed topics in South and East Asia as an illustration of how research capacity-building may be created in/for Australia through topics which address problems or ideas located in other (in this case East and South Asia) national and local contexts. Other data relate to the international movements of—particularly astronomy and chemistry—PhD graduates out of Australia, some of whom return to Australia. The paper discusses these movements in terms of PhD culture being ‘glonacal’ in nature from its programs and postdoctoral relations.

Medulloblastoma Down Under 2013 : a report from the third annual meeting of the International Medulloblastoma Working Group.

Medulloblastoma is curable in approximately 70% of patients. Over the past decade, progress in improving survival using conventional therapies has stalled, resulting in reduced quality of life due to treatment-related side effects, which are a major concern in survivors. The vast amount of genomic and molecular data generated over the last 5-10 years encourages optimism that improved risk stratification and new molecular targets will improve outcomes. It is now clear that medulloblastoma is not a single-disease entity, but instead consists of at least four distinct molecular subgroups: WNT/Wingless, Sonic Hedgehog, Group 3, and Group 4. The Medulloblastoma Down Under 2013 meeting, which convened at Bunker Bay, Australia, brought together 50 leading clinicians and scientists. The 2-day agenda included focused sessions on pathology and molecular stratification, genomics and mouse models, high-throughput drug screening, and clinical trial design. The meeting established a global action plan to translate novel biologic insights and drug targeting into treatment regimens to improve outcomes. A consensus was reached in several key areas, with the most important being that a novel classification scheme for medulloblastoma based on the four molecular subgroups, as well as histopathologic features, should be presented for consideration in the upcoming fifth edition of the World Health Organization's classification of tumours of the central nervous system. Three other notable areas of agreement were as follows: (1) to establish a central repository of annotated mouse models that are readily accessible and freely available to the international research community; (2) to institute common eligibility criteria between the Children's Oncology Group and the International Society of Paediatric Oncology Europe and initiate joint or parallel clinical trials; (3) to share preliminary high-throughput screening data across discovery labs to hasten the development of novel therapeutics. Medulloblastoma Down Under 2013 was an effective forum for meaningful discussion, which resulted in enhancing international collaborative clinical and translational research of this rare disease. This template could be applied to other fields to devise global action plans addressing all aspects of a disease, from improved disease classification, treatment stratification, and drug targeting to superior treatment regimens to be assessed in cooperative international clinical trials.