Children's liking and wanting of snack products : influence of shape and flavour

Background : Children's food choices are guided by their preferences. However, these preferences may change due to repeated exposure.

Methods : This study investigated children's (n = 242, 7–12 yrs-old) liking and wanting for snacks over 3 weeks of daily consumption. The snacks differed in size (small vs large) or flavour (sweet vs sweet-sour). Two conditions were designed: 1) a monotonous group in which children continuously consumed the same snack across the 3 weeks, and 2) a free choice group in which children were allowed to freely choose amongst 3 different flavours of the snack each day during 3 weeks.

Results : Shape influenced long-term liking, i.e. small shaped snacks remained stable in liking over repeated consumption, whereas large shaped snacks with the same flavour decreased in liking. Mean wanting ratings for all snack products decreased over 3 weeks daily consumption. Flavour did not significantly influence liking and wanting over time. The ability to freely choose amongst different flavours tended to decrease children's liking (p < 0.1) and wanting (p < 0.001) for these products. Changes in liking rather than initial liking was the best predictor of snack choice during the intervention.

Conclusion : Wanting rather than liking was most affected by repeated daily consumption of snack foods over three weeks. In order to increase the likelihood that children will repeatedly eat a food product, smaller sized healthy snacks are preferred to larger sized snacks. Future research should focus on stabilizing wanting over repeated consumption.

The effect of sugar-free versus sugar-sweetened beverages on satiety, liking and wanting: an 18 month randomized double-blind trial in children

BACKGROUND: Substituting sugar-free for sugar-sweetened beverages reduces weight gain. A possible explanation is that sugar-containing and sugar-free beverages cause the same degree of satiety. However, this has not been tested in long-term trials.

METHODS: We randomized 203 children aged 7-11 years to receive 250 mL per day of an artificially sweetened sugar-free beverage or a similarly looking and tasting sugar-sweetened beverage. We measured satiety on a 5-point scale by questionnaire at 0, 6, 12 and 18 months. We calculated the change in satiety from before intake to 1 minute after intake and 15 minutes after intake. We then calculated the odds ratio that satiety increased by 1 point in the sugar-group versus the sugar-free group. We also investigated how much the children liked and wanted the beverages.

RESULTS: 146 children or 72% completed the study. We found no statistically significant difference in satiety between the sugar-free and sugar-sweetened group; the adjusted odds ratio for a 1 point increase in satiety in the sugar group versus the sugar-free group was 0.77 at 1 minute (95% confidence interval, 0.46 to 1.29), and 1.44 at 15 minutes after intake (95% CI, 0.86 to 2.40). The sugar-group liked and wanted their beverage slightly more than the sugar-free group, adjusted odds ratio 1.63 (95% CI 1.05 to 2.54) and 1.65 (95% CI 1.07 to 2.55), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: Sugar-sweetened and sugar-free beverages produced similar satiety. Therefore when children are given sugar-free instead of sugar-containing drinks they might not make up the missing calories from other sources. This may explain our previous observation that children in the sugar-free group accumulated less body fat than those in the sugar group.

Body image ideal among males and females: sociocultural influences and focus on different body parts

Past research has obtained mixed findings in relation to gender differences and other factors that shape ideal body image. The current study was designed to investigate these differences further, using a digital body image program to assess body image individually. As expected, females desired a body that was smaller than their current size, whereas males were split between wanting a smaller and larger body. The perceived messages from peers and parents were consistent with the individual's ideal image. Gender differences were also found with ratings of attractiveness and effectiveness. Females rated messages from peers and parents as more important than did males. For both males and females, opposite sex peers were the most important influences, and parents the least important.

Corporate citizenship in Australia : some ups, some downs

Issues of corporate citizenship and corporate social responsibility, and more recently triple-bottom-line thinking, have been gradually climbing higher on the agenda of corporate Australia in the last couple of years. This paper reports on the results of a major survey of corporate citizenship of the top corporates in Australia recently completed by the Corporate Citizenship Research Unit, Deakin University. The most significant finding was that, while there is a great deal of understanding of, and aspirations towards, effective corporate citizenship in corporate Australia, there is a general lack of fit between wanting to do it and actually doing it so that it is seen to be core business.

The right to convert exploration licences to mining leases in Australia: a proposed national uniform model

In this article, the authors raise an important proposal for reform to Australia's mining legislation: a nationally-consistent model providing exploration licence holders with a legislative right to be granted a mining lease. This proposed national model will be designed to reflect the present Western Australian system - Western Australia being the only jurisdiction to provide exploration licence holders with the express right to be granted a mining lease on application. The authors believe that the Western Australian system should provide the basis for a national legislative model, given that it is designed to balance appropriately the interests of companies wanting a right to mine to recoup the costs involved in exploring for minerals, and the interests of the public in ensuring that exploration and mining is conducted
reasonably.

RE Patrick & the rights and responsibilities of sperm donor fathers in Australian family law

In the matter of Re Patrick, Guest J of the Family Court of Australia held that a sperm donor, known to the lesbian mother of the child, had a right under Australian law to regular contact with the child to the extent that this was in the child's best interests. However, his Honour also held that due to the way in which particular provisions of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) are drafted, a sperm donor cannot be regarded as the "parent" of the child, and accordingly called for legislative reform to recognise the rights of known sperm donors wanting involvement with the child. In this article, the authors will first explore the facts and decision in Re Patrick, and then outline a proposal to amend the Family Law Act 1975 so that sperm donors can apply for an order to be a 'parent' under the Act.

Body image dissatisfaction among males across the lifespan- a review of past literature

Objective: Most past research has focused on body dissatisfaction among females. This paper provides a review and evaluation of studies that have examined body dissatisfaction among males. Body dissatisfaction in males has been associated with poor psychological adjustment, eating disorders, steroid use, exercise dependence, as well as other health behaviors. It is therefore important to understand the level of body dissatisfaction, as well as the factors that are related to this construct. Method: The review is divided into three sections: body dissatisfaction among children, adolescents and adults. Within each section, levels of body dissatisfaction are examined, as well as the research that relates to sociocultural influences on body dissatisfaction. Difficulties in drawing valid conclusions from the data due to methodological problems are highlighted. Results: From the current data, it would appear that there are strong similarities in the levels of body dissatisfaction of male and female children, with most children demonstrating high levels of body satisfaction. During adolescence, boys are about equally divided between wanting to lose weight and increasing weight, but there are few studies that have examined a desire for increased muscle size. In adulthood, men evidence a stronger desire to lose weight as they get older. Conclusion: Overall, past studies have primarily focused on questions that are relevant to females, and there is a need to conduct studies that evaluate areas of body dissatisfaction that have greater relevance for males. This will then allow a better understanding of the relationship between body dissatisfaction and psychological and behavioral problems experienced by males at all stages of the lifespan.

Family law in Australia: re Patrick and the matter of Child A

In Re Patrick, Guest J of the Family Court of Australia dealt with the issue of whether a gay sperm donor, known to the lesbian mother of the child, had a right under Australian law to regular contact with the child. Justice Guest held that the sperm donor was allowed contact with the child to the extent that this was in the child's best interests. His Honour did, however, find that due to the way in which particular provisions of Australia's Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) are drafted, a sperm donor cannot be regarded as the 'parent' of the child, and accordingly called for legislative reform to recognise the rights of known sperm donors wanting involvement with the child. In this article, we discuss the matter of Re Patrick, comparing it with the strikingly similar matter of Pursuer Against Defender in the Case of Child A, decided recently by Sheriff Laura Duncan in the Glasgow Sheriff Court. We will then outline a proposal to amend the Family Law Act 1975 so that sperm donors can apply for an order to be a 'parent' for the purposes of the law, and therefore have the same rights and responsibilities as any other parent. In response to the tragic ending to the matter of Re Patrick, we conclude by stressing the need for an educational programme to be established, so that lesbian women who are considering parenthood may do so in the knowledge that the sperm donor does have the status of 'father', and in some jurisdictions 'parent', rather than merely being a 'donor'.

Attaching unit costs to Australia`s national survey of mental health and wellbeing

Background: In mental health, policy-makers and planners are increasingly being asked to set priorities. This means that health economists, health services researchers and clinical investigators are being called upon to work together to define and measure costs. Typically, these researchers take available service utilisation data and convert them to costs, using a range of assumptions. There are inefficiencies, as individual groups of researchers frequently repeat essentially similar exercises in achieving this end. There are clearly areas where shared or common investment in the development of statistical software syntax, analytical frameworks and other resources could maximise the use of data.

Aims of the Study: This paper reports on an Australian project in which we calculated unit costs for mental health admissions and community encounters. In reporting on these calculations, our purpose is to make the data and the resources associated with them publicly available to researchers interested in conducting economic analyses, and allow them to copy, distribute and modify them, providing that all copies and modifications are available under the same terms and conditions (i.e., in accordance with the `Copyleft' principle). Within this context, the objectives of the paper are to: (i) introduce the `Copyleft' principle; (ii) provide an overview of the methodology we employed to derive the unit costs; (iii) present the unit costs themselves; and (iv) examine the total and mean costs for a range of single and comorbid conditions, as an example of the kind of question that the unit cost data can be used to address.

Method: We took relevant data from the Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing (NSMHWB), and developed a set of unit costs for inpatient and community encounters. We then examined total and mean costs for a range of single and comorbid conditions.

Results: We present the unit costs for mental health admissions and mental health community contacts. Our example, which explored the association between comorbidity and total and mean costs, suggested that comorbidly occurring conditions cost more than conditions which occur on their own.

Discussion: Our unit costs, and the materials associated with them, have been published in a freely available form governed by a provision termed `Copyleft'. They provide a valuable resource for researchers wanting to explore economic questions in mental health.

Implications for Health Policies: Our unit costs provide an important resource to inform economic debate in mental health in Australia, particularly in the area of priority-setting. In the past, such debate has largely been based on opinion. Our unit costs provide the underpinning to strengthen the evidence-base of this debate.

Implications for Further Research: We would encourage other Australian researchers to make use of our unit costs in order to foster comparability across studies. We would also encourage Australian and international researchers to adopt the `Copyleft' principle in equivalent circumstances. Furthermore, we suggest that the provision of `Copyleft'-contingent funding to support the development of enabling resources for researchers should be considered in the planning of future large-scale collaborative survey work, both in Australia and overseas.

Faking it for real

Jean Baudrillard suggests that the supremacy of the simulacra is a modern development, reality a construction of the U.S. His argument, given the U.S. penchant for breaking and remaking the world in its own image (it is, in the language of Baudrillard, both iconoclast and iconolater), is strong. However, writers, artists, and philosophers have been pondering the reign of illusion for millennia. Plato described the world as a place of simulations that left us wanting. For Shakespeare, the world was a stage of fools; the play was that of an idiot. Goya presented the world as a dream of reason that gave birth to the monsters he painted. Borges (like Shakespeare and also perhaps Goya and Plato) was obsessed with what he refers to in "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" as the "atrocious or banal" idea that reality, as we know it (which is, of course, the only perspective of it that we can have), is fake. The three books under review here, Ian Miller's Faking It, Penny Cousineau-Levine's Faking Death: Canadian Art Photography and the Canadian Imagination, and Paul Matthew St Pierre's A Portrait of the Artist as Australian: L'Oeuvre bizarre de Barry Humphries, can be considered additions to the oeuvre fascinated and troubled by what Borges calls the "phantasmagorias" of our world

Towards ending the silence: working women as carers of children with chronic illness/disability

This research presents stories from Australian women who work and care for a child with a significant chronic illness or disability. The paper considers the theory of Silencing the Self (Jack, 1991) in relation to the reported experiences and behaviours of these women. We report three themes of Caring and Working: "Otherness", "Doing it All" - but "Wanting to Live a Normal Life". As in Jack's study, these women engaged in silencing of the self. However, we also observed other people contributing to their silence and, unlike the respondents in Jack's study, many of these women fought the silence and did not accept that their unhappy situations should continue. They sought a life where silencing may not have been necessary.

Retirement planning and expectations of Australian babyboomers

The "babyboomer" generation, those who were born between 1946 and 1965, account for over 30% of the population in Australia, and it is no surprise that the government is concerned about the financial implications for future healthcare costs. While many babyboomers are more financially secure than previous generations have been on account of compulsory superannuation contributions made over the past 15 years, there are still some who are financially vulnerable and expect to rely on government pensions and welfare assistance. Changes to family structures and job security also mean that those who are less financially secure will need social support. Using an ecological framework model , we explored the retirement expectations and experiences of some Australian babyboomers through focus groups and individual interviews to identify key issues and their plans to address these issues. Four main themes are reported in this paper: retirement attitudes and expectations, finances, health, and food. The results suggested that for many persons retirement equated freedom. Little future planning was undertaken for retirement other than contributing to superannuation schemes, and expectations were reported in general terms, such as wanting to remain independent and healthy and to have time to socialize and travel.

Preparing construction project managers to document professional growth

Deakin University’s School of Architecture and Building is renowned for producing graduates who possess relevant attributes that make them job ready for the building and construction industry. Graduate destination surveys indicate that in the last eight (8) years, 100% of all Infrastructure Logistics (Construction and Facility Management) course graduates found relevant employment. This success is a direct result of a curriculum that is responsive to industry needs alongside educational methodology that focuses on excellent teaching and research while seeking new ways of developing and delivering courses.

The Infrastructure Logistics course prepares graduates to successfully compete in today’s global job market, and allows them to showcase relevant knowledge and skills that are critical in seeking and sustaining employment. Traditionally, tailored resumes served this purpose; however, in many professional fields, professional portfolios are now becoming a more desirable way of providing a summary of relevant attributes alongside evidence of professional abilities.

Sustaining employment, appraisals, and applying for a promotion are often subject to adequate evidence of professional standards and growth. Professional bodies require records of contribution to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) schemes; and accrediting organisations require professionals applying for professional registration to provide documented evidence of their relevant experience and abilities. The Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM 2007) requires candidates wanting to become Registered Project Managers (RegPM) to demonstrate their current work-based experience and competencies.

This paper reports on a teaching strategy adopted in the Project Management (PM) stream, offered as part of Infrastructure Logistic courses. The teaching strategy is based on a combination of constructivism theory of learning, problem and project based learning, and active learning. The strategy requires systematic reflection and conscious creation of documented evidence of PM attributes and competences in the form of a portfolio.

Preliminary results of action research monitoring the effectiveness of systematic reflection indicate that students respond very positively to the idea of professional journals and professional portfolios. Preliminary results also indicate that students accept reflection and conscious documentation of their achievements as an integral part of their study and future practice.