Patterns of change and stability in the gender division of household labour in Australia, 1986-1997

Recent research in Australia and overseas has suggested that we are witnessing a convergence of men's and women's time on domestic labour activities. But there is disagreement about whether this is due to women reducing their time on housework or men increasing their time on housework. This article addresses these issues using national survey data collected in Australia in 1986, 1993 and 1997. The results show some changes in the proportional responsibilities of men and women in the home with men reporting a greater share of traditional indoor activities. But overall both men and women are spending less time on housework. In particular, women's time on housework has declined by six hours per week since 1986. Hence, while the gender gap between men's and women's involvement in the home is getting smaller, it is not the result of men increasing their share of the load, but is due to the large decline in women's time spent on domestic labour. There is also evidence of change in the relationship. between paid and unpaid work for women. Women's hours of,paid labour had a greater impact on their involvement in domestic labour in 1997 compared to a decade earlier. The article concludes that women's increased labour force involvement in combination with changing patterns and styles, of consumption is leading to some changes in the gender-division:of household labour, but not in the direction anticipated by earlier commentators on the domestic division of labour.

Symptom development on two wild, perennial grasses infected by Peronosclerospora species (Family Peronosporaceae: the downy-mildew fungi)

The reproductive structures of the downy-mildew fungi, Peronosclerospora noblei and Peronosclerospora eriochloae, develop only on chlorotic leaves of tall, vegetative tillers of the perennial grasses Sorghum leiocladum (wild sorghum) and Eriochloa pseudoacrotricha (early spring grass), respectively. They are never found on the leaves of flowering tillers, even when tillers of both types grow from the same tussock. The development of symptoms on infected tillers of both hosts and the morphological and anatomical changes to host tissues on infected tillers are detailed.

Pamidronate results in symptom control of hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy in cystic fibrosis

Hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy (HPOA) may complicate the advanced lung disease that is associated with cystic fibrosis, resulting in severe joint pain and early-morning stiffness. Symptoms are usually controlled with the administration of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, physiotherapy, and, on occasions, oral corticosteroids. I This report describes a case of refractory HPOA with complete remission following the administration of IV pamidronate, which is a potent inhibitor of osteoclastic bone resorption. Symptom relief resulted for up to 3 months, but repeated courses of pamidronate have been required to maintain symptom control.

Testing the relationship between morphological and molecular rates of change along phylogenies

Molecular evolution has been considered to be essentially a stochastic process, little influenced by the pace of phenotypic change. This assumption was challenged by a study that demonstrated an association between rates of morphological and molecular change estimated for total-evidence phylogenies, a finding that led some researchers to challenge molecular date estimates of major evolutionary radiations. Here we show that Omland's (1997) result is probably due to methodological bias, particularly phylogenetic nonindependence, rather than being indicative of an underlying evolutionary phenomenon. We apply three new methods specifically designed to overcome phylogenetic bias to 13 published phylogenetic datasets for vertebrate taxa, each of which includes both morphological characters and DNA sequence data. We find no evidence of an association between rates of molecular and morphological rates of change.

Lead stimulus modality change and the attentional modulation of the acoustic and electrical blink reflex

Two experiments investigated the effects of the sensory modality of the lead and of the blink-eliciting stimulus during lead stimulus modality change on blink modulation at lead intervals of 2500 and 3500 ins. Participants were presented with acoustic, visual, or tactile change stimuli after habituation training with lead stimuli from the same or a different sensory modality. In Experiment 1, latency and magnitude of the acoustic blink were facilitated during a change to acoustic or visual lead stimuli, but not during a change to tactile lead stimuli. After habituation to acoustic lead stimuli, blink magnitude was smaller during tactile change stimuli than during habituation stimuli. The latter finding was replicated in Experiment 2 in which blink was elicited by electrical stimulation of the trigeminal nerve. The consistency of the findings across different combinations of lead stimulus and blink-eliciting stimulus modalities does not support a modality-specific account of attentional blink modulation. Rather, blink modulation during generalized orienting reflects modality non-specific processes, although modulation may not always be found during tactile lead stimuli. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Working memory correlates of three symptom clusters in schizophrenia

This study was designed to examine whether discrete working memory deficits underlie positive, negative and disorganised symptoms of schizophrenia. Symptom dimension ratings were assigned to 52 outpatients with schizophrenia (ICD-10 criteria), using items drawn from the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Linear regression and correlational analyses were conducted to examine whether symptom dimension scores were related to performance on several tests of working memory function. Severity of negative symptoms correlated with reduced production of words during a verbal fluency task, impaired ability to hold letter and number sequences on-line and manipulate them Simultaneously, reduced performance during a dual task, and compromised visuospatial working memory under distraction-free conditions. Severity of disorganisation symptoms correlated with impaired visuospatial working memory under conditions of distraction, failure of inhibition during a verbal fluency task, perseverative responding on a test of set-shifting ability, and impaired ability to judge the veracity of simple declarative statements. Severity of positive symptoms was uncorrelated with performance on any of the measures examined. The present study provides evidence that the positive, negative and disorganised symptom dimensions of the PANSS constitute independent clusters, associated with unique patterns of working memory impairment. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Diversity and change in Australia's rangelands: a post-productivist transition with a difference?

Australia's rangelands are experiencing a post-productivist transition at a tempo comparable to Western Europe's, but in contexts that ensure marked divergence in impulses, actors, processes and outcomes. In Australia's most marginal lands, a flimsy mode of pastoral occupance is being displaced by renewed indigenous occupance, conservation and tourism, with significant changes in land ownership, property rights, investment sources and power relations, but also with structural problems arising from fugitive income streams. The sharp delineation between structurally coherent commodity-oriented regions and emerging amenity-oriented regions can provisionally be mapped at a national scale. A comparison of Australia with Western Europe indicates that three distinct but interconnected driving forces are propelling the rural transition, namely: agricultural overcapacity; the emergence of amenity-oriented uses; and changing societal values.

Crisis, change, and institutions in forest management: the Wet Tropics of northeastern Australia

This paper tests the four-phase heuristic model of change in resource management regimes developed by Gunderson et al. (1995. In: Barriers and Bridges to the Renewal of Ecosystems and Institutions. Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 489-533) by applying it to a case analysis of rainforest management in northeastern Australia. The model suggests that resource management regimes change in four phases: (i) crisis caused by external factors, (ii) a search for alternative management solutions, (iii) creation of a new management regime, and (iv) bureaucratic implementation of the new arrangements. The history of human use arid management of the tropical forests of this region is described and applied to this model. The ensuing analysis demonstrates that: (i) resource management tends to be characterized by a series of distinct eras; (ii) changes to management regimes are precipitated by crisis; and (iii) change is externally generated. The paper concludes by arguing that this theoretical perspective oil institutional change in resource management systems has wider utility. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Should we debrief and counsel people who have had psychological shock?

Design: Randomised controlled trial of psychological debriefing. Setting: A British teaching hospital (the Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford). Patients: 66 men and 40 women, aged 17–69 years, admitted to hospital after a motor vehicle accident. Most had been the driver of a car. Median admission duration was four days for the 52 control patients and eight days for the 54 who underwent the intervention. Interventions: A debriefing of about one hour on Day 2 of admission, encouraging patients to describe the accident and express their emotions, followed by a cognitive appraisal which included describing common reactions to traumatic experiences and suggesting a range of people who might be able to assist in the future, including the patient's general practitioner. 91 patients were assessed at four months and 61 were assessed at three years. Control patients had no debriefing or counselling. Main outcome measures: Impact of Event Scale (IES, which focuses on intrusive thoughts and avoidance of similar situations to the event); Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI, a measure of 53 symptoms); and other questions related to physical pain and functional activities. Main results: At four months there was still considerable psychological morbidity among the patients who were followed up. There was a significant difference (P < 0.05) in changes of IES between the 42 who received the intervention, in whom it increased from 15 (standard deviation [SD], 15) to 16 (SD, 15), and the 49 controls, in whom it fell from 15 (SD, 12) to 13 (SD, 14). Similarly, two subscales of the BSI score changed significantly between the intervention group, among whom it deteriorated from 0.5 (SD, 0.5) to 0.6 (SD, 0.8), and the control s, in whom it hardly changed from 0.4 (SD, 0.3) to 0.4 (SD, 0.4). Among the 61 patients followed for three years, the 30 randomised to receive the intervention were significantly worse, by self-report, both psychologically and physically. Their mean IES score deteriorated from a baseline of 15 (SD, 14) to 16 (SD, 18). In comparison, scores for the 31 control patients improved from 16 (SD, 12) to 13 (SD, 17). The difference in change was significant (P < 0.05). Among all patients with high initial scores, these decreased among the controls but not among those receiving the intervention. Conclusion: Psychological counselling should only be used in the context of trials rather than routine care.