Comparative sexuality of conspecific stream-side and stream-rock mosses

The sexuality of conspecific stream-rock and stream-side bryophytes at Cement Creek in the Yarra Ranges National Park, Victoria, Australia was examined in terms of sex ratios and sporophyte production. Generally, stream-side colonies had higher numbers of stems, inflorescences and gametangia than their stream-rock counterparts. A higher number of stream-side than stream-rock species produced sporophytes although Cyathophorum bulbosum (Hedw.) Mull.Hai. produced more sporophytes on stream-rocks than in the stream-side habitat. Sex ratios generally showed a female bias with regard to stem numbers and number of inflorescences.

It's not only rock and roll: rockumentary, direct cinema and performative display

The documentary form commonly referred to as rockumentary has become, since its inception in the early 1960s, a staple of American direct cinema. In keeping with its associations with observational direct cinema, rockumentary emphasizes showing over telling; that is, rockumentary privileges the visual capacities of documentary over patterns of exposition. While the ‘documentary display’ of rockumentary is comparable to certain features of  the early ‘cinema of attractions’ it exceeds such features in its focus on  performance. Typically, an emphasis within documentary theory on unmediated and unreconstructed access to the real as the basis of documentary film has not admitted a place for notions of performance before the camera. Rockumentary, with its relentless foregrounding of the performing body and the performance of musicians, revises this  understanding. This essay examines rockumentary within the context of direct cinema as a mode centred on a documentary performative display as it operates within selected works from the 1960s to the present. The film theorist Brian Winston has claimed that ‘[d]irect cinema made the rock performance/tour movie into the most popular and commercially viable documentary form thus far.’ The inverse of this assessment may be closer to the mark: the rockumentary turned direct cinema into a commercially and widely available form, one which the rockumentary has at times returned to and superseded in its scopic attention to performative display.

Rock strength : a control of shore platform elevation

This study determined whether a previous laboratory finding relating platform elevation to rock strength could be verified when tested in the field. Testing took place along the Otway coast in southeastern Australia. Fourteen platforms were profiled using a total station while rock strength tests were performed with a type L Schmidt hammer. Results established that higher mean platform elevation correlated with increased rock strength (r = 0.661, p < 0.05). This confirmed that a relation exists between elevation and rock strength when tested in the field. This finding has implications for the interpretation of shore platforms and marine terrace elevations in relation to sea level.

Between a rock and a hard place: exploring the conflict between respecting the privacy of patients and informing their carers

Background: A patient's right to privacy is considered fundamental to medical care, with physicians assuming the role of guardian of the clinical information which is conveyed to the patient. However, as a patient's health declines, physicians are often challenged by the need to protect patient privacy while addressing the expectations of the patient's carers, who seek medical information to provide appropriate care at home.

Aims: This study sought to explore the expectations of patients, their carers and physicians regarding the communication of clinical information to carers.

Methods: Surveys were distributed in outpatient clinics at a metropolitan quaternary hospital, with responses from 102 patients and carers, as well as 219 medical staff.

Results: The expectations of patients and carers differed from those of medical staff. Physicians typically believed discussions with carers should begin following the patient's permission and at the patient's request. Patients and carers, however, believed information should be automatically offered or provided when questioned. Further, carers generally felt information updates should occur regularly and routinely, whereas physicians indicated updates should occur with prompting either by a major clinical change or in response to a carer's concern.

Conclusion: Physicians should be aware that the expectations of patients and carers regarding information communication to carers may not match their own. Meanwhile, patients and carers should be made aware of the constraints upon physicians and should be encouraged to convey their preferences for information sharing. These tasks could be facilitated by the development of a prompt sheet to assist the clinical encounter.

Australian rock coasts : review and prospects

Studies of Australian rock coasts (except carbonate reefs) are reviewed and considered in view of recent process and morphological studies. The unique nature of the Australian coast, its geographical distribution and relative stability mean that it is a productive environment in which to research fundamental questions concerning rock coasts. Future research directions are identified, specifically in the areas of processes, morphology and modelling.