Rail incident investigator training: Is there support for a standardised Australasian training framework?

Background: Historically rail organisations have been operating in silos and devising their own training agendas. However with the harmonisation of the Australian workplace health and safety legislation and the appointment of a national rail safety regulator in 2013, rail incident investigator experts are exploring the possibility of developing a unified approach to investigator training. Objectives: The Australian CRC for Rail Innovation commissioned a training needs analysis to identify if common training needs existed between organisations and to assess support for the development of a national competency framework for rail incident investigations. Method: Fifty-two industry experts were consulted to explore the possibility of the development of a standardised training framework. These experts were sourced from within 19 Australasian organisations, comprising Rail Operators and Regulators in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and New Zealand. Results: Although some competency requirements appear to be organisation specific, the vast majority of reported training requirements were generic across the Australasian rail operators and regulators. Industry experts consistently reported strong support for the development of a national training framework. Significance: The identification of both generic training requirements across organisations and strong support for standardised training indicates that the rail industry is receptive to the development of a structured training framework. The development of an Australasian learning framework could: increase efficiency in course development and reduce costs; establish recognised career pathways; and facilitate consistency with regards to investigator training.

Mineralogy of chondritic porous aggregates : current status

Chondritic porous aggregates (CPA's) belong to an important subset of small particles (usually between 5 and 50 micrometers) collected from the stratosphere by high flying aircraft. These aggregates are approximately chondritic in elemental abundance and are composed of many thousands of small­er, submicrometer particles. CPA particles have been the subject of intensive study during the past few years [1-3] and there is strong evidence that they are a new class of extraterrestrial material not represented in the meteorite collection [3,4]. However, CPA's may be related to carbonaceous chondrites and in fact, both may be part of a continuum of primitive extraterrestrial materials [5]. The importance of CPA's stems from suggestions that they are very primitive solar system material possibly derived from early formed proto­ planets, chondritic parent bodies, or comets [3, 6]. To better understand the origin and evolution of these particles, we have attempted to summarize all of the mineralogical data on identified CPA's published since about 1976.

Development and interrater reliability testing of a telephone interview training programme for Australian nurse interviewers

Summary Background The final phase of a three phase study analysing the implementation and impact of the nurse practitioner role in Australia (the Australian Nurse Practitioner Project or AUSPRAC) was undertaken in 2009, requiring nurse telephone interviewers to gather information about health outcomes directly from patients and their treating nurse practitioners. A team of several registered nurses was recruited and trained as telephone interviewers. The aim of this paper is to report on development and evaluation of the training process for telephone interviewers. Methods The training process involved planning the content and methods to be used in the training session; delivering the session; testing skills and understanding of interviewers post-training; collecting and analysing data to determine the degree to which the training process was successful in meeting objectives and post-training follow-up. All aspects of the training process were informed by established educational principles. Results Interrater reliability between interviewers was high for well-validated sections of the survey instrument resulting in 100% agreement between interviewers. Other sections with unvalidated questions showed lower agreement (between 75% and 90%). Overall the agreement between interviewers was 92%. Each interviewer was also measured against a specifically developed master script or gold standard and for this each interviewer achieved a percentage of correct answers of 94.7% or better. This equated to a Kappa value of 0.92 or better. Conclusion The telephone interviewer training process was very effective and achieved high interrater reliability. We argue that the high reliability was due to the use of well validated instruments and the carefully planned programme based on established educational principles. There is limited published literature on how to successfully operationalise educational principles and tailor them for specific research studies; this report addresses this knowledge gap.

Incident investigation training needs for the Australasian rail industry

A core component for the prevention of re-occurring incidents within the rail industry is rail safety investigations. Within the current Australasian rail industry, the nature of incident investigations varies considerably between organisations. As it stands, most of the investigations are conducted by the various State Rail Operators and Regulators, with the more major investigations in Australia being conducted or overseen by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB). Because of the varying nature of these investigations, the current training methods for rail incident investigators also vary widely. While there are several commonly accepted training courses available to investigators in Australasia, none appear to offer the breadth of development needed for a comprehensive pathway. Furthermore, it appears that no single training course covers the entire breadth of competencies required by the industry. These courses range in duration between a few days to several years, and some were run in-house while others are run by external consultants or registered training organisations. Through consultations with rail operators and regulators in Australasia, this paper will identify capabilities required for rail incident investigation and explore the current training options available for rail incident investigators.

Nutritional status and dietary intake of acute care patients : results from the Nutrition Care Day Survey 2010

Background & aims: One aim of the Australasian Nutrition Care Day Survey was to determine the nutritional status and dietary intake of acute care hospital patients. Methods: Dietitians from 56 hospitals in Australia and New Zealand completed a 24-h survey of nutritional status and dietary intake of adult hospitalised patients. Nutritional risk was evaluated using the Malnutrition Screening Tool. Participants ‘at risk’ underwent nutritional assessment using Subjective Global Assessment. Based on the International Classification of Diseases (Australian modification), participants were also deemed malnourished if their body mass index was <18.5 kg/m2. Dietitians recorded participants’ dietary intake at each main meal and snacks as 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% of that offered. Results: 3122 patients (mean age: 64.6 ± 18 years) participated in the study. Forty-one percent of the participants were “at risk” of malnutrition. Overall malnutrition prevalence was 32%. Fifty-five percent of malnourished participants and 35% of well-nourished participants consumed ≤50% of the food during the 24-h audit. “Not hungry” was the most common reason for not consuming everything offered during the audit. Conclusion: Malnutrition and sub-optimal food intake is prevalent in acute care patients across hospitals in Australia and New Zealand and warrants appropriate interventions.

Successful outcomes in vocational education and training courses : how pedagogy and expectations influence achievement

This paper reports on a four year Australian Research Council funded Linkage Project titled Skilling Indigenous Queensland, conducted in regional areas of Queensland, Australia from 2009 to 2013. The project sought to investigate vocational education, training (VET) and teaching, Indigenous learners’ needs, employer cultural and expectations and community culture and expectations to identify best practice in numeracy teaching for Indigenous VET learners. Specifically it focused on ways to enhance the teaching and learning of courses and the associated mathematics in such courses to benefit learners and increase their future opportunities of employment. To date thirty-nine teachers/trainers/teacher aides and two hundred and thirty-one students consented to participate in the project. Nine VET courses were nominated to be the focus on the study. This paper focuses on questionnaire and interview responses from four trainers, two teacher aides and six students. In recent years a considerable amount of funding has been allocated to increasing Indigenous Peoples’ participation in education and employment. This increased funding is predicated on the assumption that it will make a difference and contribute to closing the education gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians (Council of Australia Governments, 2009). The central tenet is that access to education for Indigenous People will create substantial social and economic benefits for regional and remote Indigenous People. The project’s aim is to address some of the issues associated with the gap. To achieve the aims, the project adopted a mixed methods design aimed at benefitting research participants and included: participatory collaborative action research (Kemmis & McTaggart, 1988) and, community research (Smith, 1999). Participatory collaborative action research refers to a is a “collective, self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own social and educational practices” (Kemmis et al., 1988, p. 5). Community research is described as an approach that “conveys a much more intimate, human and self-defined space” (p. 127). Community research relies on and validates the community’s own definitions. As the project is informed by the social at a community level, it is described as “community action research or emancipatory research” (Smith, 1999, p. 127). It seeks to demonstrate benefit to the community, making positive differences in the lives of Indigenous People and communities. The data collection techniques included survey questionnaires, video recording of teaching and learning processes, teacher reflective video analysis of teaching, observations, semi-structured interviews and student numeracy testing. As a result of these processes, the findings indicate that VET course teachers work hard to adopt contextualising strategies to their teaching, however this process is not always straight forward because of the perceptions of how mathematics has been taught and learned historically. Further teachers, trainers and students have high expectations of one another with the view to successful outcomes from the courses.

The influence of neighbourhood disadvantage on smoking cessation and its contribution to inequalities in smoking status

Introduction and aims: Individual smokers from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to quit, which contributes to widening inequalities in smoking. Residents of disadvantaged neighbourhoods are more likely to smoke, and neighbourhood inequalities in smoking may also be widening because of neighbourhood differences in rates of cessation. This study examined the association between neighbourhood disadvantage and smoking cessation and its relationship with neighbourhood inequalities in smoking. Design and methods: A multilevel longitudinal study of mid-aged (40-67 years) residents (n=6915) of Brisbane, Australia, who lived in the same neighbourhoods (n=200) in 2007 and 2009. Neighbourhood inequalities in cessation and smoking were analysed using multilevel logistic regression and Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation. Results: After adjustment for individual-level socioeconomic factors, the probability of quitting smoking between 2007 and 2009 was lower for residents of disadvantaged neighbourhoods (9.0%-12.8%) than their counterparts in more advantaged neighbourhoods (20.7%-22.5%). These inequalities in cessation manifested in widening inequalities in smoking: in 2007 the between-neighbourhood variance in rates of smoking was 0.242 (p≤0.001) and in 2009 it was 0.260 (p≤0.001). In 2007, residents of the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods were 88% (OR 1.88, 95% CrI 1.41-2.49) more likely to smoke than residents in the least disadvantaged neighbourhoods: the corresponding difference in 2009 was 98% (OR 1.98 95% CrI 1.48-2.66). Conclusion: Fundamentally, social and economic inequalities at the neighbourhood and individual-levels cause smoking and cessation inequalities. Reducing these inequalities will require comprehensive, well-funded, and targeted tobacco control efforts and equity based policies that address the social and economic determinants of smoking.

Private health insurance status and utilisation of dental services in Australia

This article focuses on the relationship between private insurance status and dental service utilisation in Australia using data between 1995 and 2001. This article employs joint maximum likelihood to estimate models of time since last dental visit treating private ancillary health insurance (PAHI) as endogenous. The sensitivity of results to the choice between two different but related types of instrumental variables is examined. We find robust evidence in both 1995 and 2001 that individuals with a PAHI policy make significantly more frequent dental consultations relative to those without such coverage. A comparison of the 1995 and 2001 results, however, suggests that there has been an increasing role of PAHI in terms of the frequency of dental consultations over time. This seems intuitive given the trends in the price of unsubsidised private dental consultations. In terms of policy, our results suggest that while government measures to increase private health insurance coverage in Australia has been successful to a significant degree, it may have come at some cost in terms of socio-economic inequality as the privately insured are provided much better access to care and financial protection.

Inflammation, hepatic enzymes and resistance training in individuals with metabolic risk factors

AIMS: Increases in inflammatory markers, hepatic enzymes and physical inactivity are associated with the development of the metabolic syndrome (MetS). We examined whether inflammatory markers and hepatic enzymes are correlated with traditional risk factors for MetS and studied the effects of resistance training (RT) on these emerging risk factors in individuals with a high number of metabolic risk factors (HiMF, 2.9 +/- 0.8) and those with a low number of metabolic risk factors (LoMF, 0.5 +/- 0.5). METHODS: Twenty-eight men and 27 women aged 50.8 +/- 6.5 years (mean +/- sd) participated in the study. Participants were randomized to four groups, HiMF training (HiMFT), HiMF control (HiMFC), LoMF training (LoMFT) and LoMF control (LoMFC). Before and after 10 weeks of RT [3 days/week, seven exercises, three sets with intensity gradually increased from 40-50% of one repetition maximum (1RM) to 75-85% of 1RM], blood samples were obtained for the measurement of pro-inflammatory cytokines, C-reactive protein (CRP), gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT). RESULTS: At baseline, HiMF had higher interleukin-6 (33.9%), CRP (57.1%), GGT (45.2%) and ALT (40.6%) levels, compared with LoMF (all P < 0.05). CRP, GGT and ALT correlated with the number of risk factors (r = 0.48, 0.51 and 0.57, respectively, all P < 0.01) and with other anthropometric and clinical measures (r range from 0.26 to 0.60, P < 0.05). RT did not significantly alter inflammatory markers or hepatic enzymes (all P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: HiMF was associated with increased inflammatory markers and hepatic enzyme concentrations. RT did not reduce inflammatory markers and hepatic enzymes in individuals with HiMF.

Video-based training combined with flotation tank recovery does not improve three-point shooting in basketball

Video-based training combined with flotation tank recovery may provide an additional stimulus for improving shooting in basketball. A pre-post controlled trial was conducted to assess the effectiveness of a 3 wk intervention combining video-based training and flotation tank recovery on three-point shooting performance in elite female basketball players. Players were assigned to an experimental (n=10) and control group (n=9). A 3 wk intervention consisted of 2 x 30 min float sessions a week which included 10 min of video-based training footage, followed by a 3 wk retention phase. A total of 100 three-point shots were taken from 5 designated positions on the court at each week to assess three-point shooting performance. There was no clear difference in the mean change in the number of successful three-point shots between the groups (-3%; ±18%, mean; ±90% confidence limits). Video-based training combined with flotation recovery had little effect on three-point shooting performance.

ICT in vocational education and training: a view of information and communication technology in vocational education in New Zealand

This report looks at opportunities in relation to what is either already available or starting to take off in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). ICT focuses on the entire system of information, communication, processes and knowledge within an organisation. It focuses on how technology can be implemented to serve the information and communication needs of people and organisations. An ICT system involves a combination of work practices, information, people and a range of technologies and applications organised to make the business or organisation fully functional and efficient, and to accomplish goals in an organisation. Our focus is on vocational, workbased education in New Zealand. It is not about eLearning, although we briefly touch on the topic. We provide a background on vocational education in New Zealand, cover what we consider to be key trends impacting workbased, vocational education and training (VET), and offer practical suggestions for leveraging better value from ICT initiatives across the main activities of an Industry Training Organisation (ITO). We use a learning value chain approach to demonstrate the main functions ITOs engage in and also use this approach as the basis for developing and prioritising an ICT strategy. Much of what we consider in this report is applicable to the wider tertiary education sector as it relates to life-long learning. We consider ICT as an enabler that: a) connects education businesses (all types including tertiary education institutions) to learners, their career decisions and their learning, and as well, b) enables those same businesses to run more efficiently. We suggest that these two sets of activities are considered as interconnected parts of the same education or training business ICT strategy.

Have we misinterpreted the study of Hoogerheide et al. (1971)?

In 1971, Rempt et al. reported peripheral refraction patterns (skiagrams) along the horizontal visual field in 442 people. Later in the same year, Hoogerheide et al. used skiagrams in combination with medical records to relate skiagrams in emmetropes and hyperopes to progression of myopia in young adults. The two articles have spurred interest in peripheral refraction in the past decade. We challenge the understanding that their articles provide evidence that the peripheral refraction pattern along the horizontal visual field is predictive of whether or not a person develops myopia. First, although it has been generally assumed that the skiagrams were measured before the changes in refraction were monitored, Hoogerheide et al. did not state that this was the case. Second, if the skiagrams were obtained at an initial examination and given the likely rates of recruitment and successful completion of training, the study must have taken place during a period of 10 to 15 years; it is much more likely that Hoogerheide et al. measured the skiagrams in a shorter period. Third, despite there being many more emmetropes and hyperopes in the Rempt et al. article than there are in the Hoogerheide et al. article, the number of people in two types of “at risk” skiagrams is greater in the latter; this is consistent with the central refraction status being reported from an earlier time by Hoogerheide et al. than by Rempt et al. In summary, we believe that the skiagrams reported by Hoogerheide et al. were taken at a later examination, after myopia did or did not occur, and that the refraction data from the initial examination were retrieved from the medical archives. Thus, this work does not provide evidence that peripheral refraction pattern is indicative of the likely development of myopia.

Prediction of age at menopause from assessment of ovarian reserve may be improved by using body mass index and smoking status

Objective: Menopause is the consequence of exhaustion of the ovarian follicular pool. AMH, an indirect hormonal marker of ovarian reserve, has been recently proposed as a predictor for age at menopause. Since BMI and smoking status are relevant independent factors associated with age at menopause we evaluated whether a model including all three of these variables could improve AMH-based prediction of age at menopause. Methods: In the present cohort study, participants were 375 eumenorrheic women aged 19–44 years and a sample of 2,635 Italian menopausal women. AMH values were obtained from the eumenorrheic women. Results: Regression analysis of the AMH data showed that a quadratic function of age provided a good description of these data plotted on a logarithmic scale, with a distribution of residual deviates that was not normal but showed significant leftskewness. Under the hypothesis that menopause can be predicted by AMH dropping below a critical threshold, a model predicting menopausal age was constructed from the AMH regression model and applied to the data on menopause. With the AMH threshold dependent on the covariates BMI and smoking status, the effects of these covariates were shown to be highly significant. Conclusions: In the present study we confirmed the good level of conformity between the distributions of observed and AMH-predicted ages at menopause, and showed that using BMI and smoking status as additional variables improves AMH-based prediction of age at menopause.

The moral status of babies

In their controversial paper 'After-birth abortion', Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva argue that there is no rational basis for allowing abortion but prohibiting infanticide ('after-birth abortion'). We ought in all consistency either to allow both or prohibit both. This paper rejects their claim, arguing that much-neglected considerations in philosophical discussions of this issue are capable of explaining why we currently permit abortion in some cases, while prohibiting infanticide.