Seeking inclusion : views from ‘vulnerable’ communities about reporting by the Australian news media

This conference paper reports on the findings of the 'Vulnerability and the News Media’ project about news reporting on communities that are commonly regarded as ‘vulnerable’ by virtue of their issues or circumstances. The project focuses on news reporting of Indigenous and ethnically diverse communities, as well as people affected by mental health issues, people with disabilities, and survivors of crime and traumatic events. Numerous educational initiatives have tried to improve the quality of media reports about these communities and their issues. Despite this, the project’s research with stakeholders from those communities has found that they continue to raise the same concerns that have been expressed about the news media since the 1970s. In focus group research, stakeholders from these communities expressed concern about their continuing under-representation or omission from the news media. They felt that voices, experiences, perspectives and issues from their communities rarely appeared, or if they did appear, it was in limited contexts – often in circumstances that portrayed them as vulnerable or disruptive. They also pointed to ongoing media misrepresentation, such as stereotyping, inappropriate framing, and over-reliance on ‘usual suspects’ to talk about their communities. A common theme that they voiced was their need for greater inclusiveness in the media. Participants wished that journalists would better represent the diversity of life experiences and perspectives within their communities. Stakeholders also wanted an increased in representation of their political frameworks, such as stories about the difficulties they encountered in dealing with social and bureaucratic systems, and their understandings of causes and potential solutions for issues affecting their communities.

A qualitative exploration of drivers of eating habits in young Australian men

Australian men’s health status is poor, with a lower life expectancy than women and higher chronic disease risk due in part to poorer dietary habits. Previous studies and sociological theories have: - linked gender norms around food and masculine ideals to men’s eating patterns; and - aligned these forms of masculinity with certain occupations. This study sought to explore the drivers of young, Australian men’s diets, the link to ideas of masculinity and occupation groups to assist in the development of strategies to support healthier eating habits in this population.

Making space for knowledge generation and place for knowledge communities : an analysis of the Australian practice

In the era of global knowledge economy, urban regions—seeking to increase their competitive edge, become destinations for talent and investment, and provide prosperity and quality of life to their inhabitants—have little chance achieving their development goals without forming effective knowledge-based urban development strategies. This paper aims to shed light on the planning and development processes of the knowledge-based urban development phenomenon with respect to the construction of knowledge community precincts aimed at making space for knowledge generation and place for knowledge communities. Following to a thorough review of the literature on knowledge-based urban development and strategic asset-based planning, the paper undertakes policy and best practice analyses to learn from the planning and development processes of internationally renowned knowledge community precincts—from Copenhagen, Eindhoven and Singapore. In the light of the analyses findings, this paper scrutinises major Australian knowledge community precinct initiatives—from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane—to better understand the dynamics of national practices, and benchmark them against the international best practice cases. The paper concludes with a discussion on the study findings and recommendations for successfully establishing space and place for both knowledge economy and society in Australian cities.

End-of-life care in the intensive care setting : a descriptive exploratory qualitative study of nurses' beliefs and practices

Background: End-of-life care is a significant component of work in intensive care. Limited research has been undertaken on the provision of end-of-life care by nurses in the intensive care setting. The purpose of this study was to explore the end-of-life care beliefs and practices of intensive care nurses. Methods: A descriptive exploratory qualitative research approach was used to invite a convenience sample of five intensive care nurses from one hospital to participate in a semi-structured interview. Interview transcripts were analysed using an inductive coding approach. Findings: Three major categories emerged from analysis of the interviews: beliefs about end-of-life care, end-of-life care in the intensive care context and facilitating end-of-life care. The first two categories incorporated factors contributing to the end-of-life care experiences and practices of intensive care nurses. The third category captured the nurses’ end-of-life care practices. Conclusions: Despite the uncertainty and ambiguity surrounding end-of-life care in this practice context, the intensive care setting presents unique opportunities for nurses to facilitate positive end-of-life experiences and nurses valued their participation in the provision of end-of-life care. Care of the family was at the core of nurses’ end-of-life care work and nurses play a pivotal role in supporting the patient and their family to have positive and meaningful experiences at the end-of-life.Variation in personal beliefs and organisational support may influence nurses’ experiences and the care provided to patients and their families. Strategies to promote an organisational culture supportive of quality end-of-life care practices, and to mentor and support nurses in the provision of this care are needed.

Predictors of sexually transmitted infection in Australian women : evidence from the Australian longitudinal study on women’s health

This longitudinal study examined characteristics of women diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections (STI) for the first time in their later 20s and early 30s. Participants were 6,840 women (born 1973–1978) from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. Women aged 18–23 years were surveyed in 1996 (S1), 2000 (S2), 2003 (S3), and 2006 (S4). There were 269 women reporting an STI for the first time at S3 or S4. Using two multivariable logistic regression analyses (examining 18 predictor variables), these 269 women were compared (1) with 306 women who reported an STI at S2 and (2) with 5,214 women who never reported an STI across the four surveys. Women who reported an STI for the first time at S3 or S4 were less likely to have been pregnant or had a recent Pap smear compared to women reporting an STI at S2.Women reporting a first STI at S3 or S4 were less likely to have been pregnant or had a recent Pap smear compared to women reporting an STI at S2. Women were more likely to report an STI for the first time at S3 or S4 compared to women not reporting an STI at any survey if they were younger, unpartnered, had a higher number of sexual partners, had never been pregnant, were recently divorced or separated, and reported poorer access to Women’s Health or Family Planning Centres at S2. These findings demonstrate the value of longitudinal studies of sexual health over the life course beyond adolescence.

Life cycle of the eel

Poem

Spinning a sustainable yarn: assessing the claims of Australian companies’ eco-initiatives

In Australia, few fashion brands have intervened in the design of their products or the systems around their product to tackle environmental pollution and waste. Instead, support of charities (whether social or environmental) has become conflated with sustainability in the eyes of the public.However, three established Australian brands recently put forward initiatives which explicitly tackle the pre-consumer or post-consumer waste associated with their products. In 2011, Billabong, one of the largest surfwear companies in the world, developed a collection of board shorts made from recycled bottles that are also recyclable at end of life. The initiative has been promoted in partnership with Bob Marley’s son Rohan Marley, and the graphics of the board shorts reference the Rastafarian colours and make use of Marley’s song lyrics. In this way, the company has tapped into an aspect of surf culture linked to environmental activism, in which the natural world is venerated. Two mid-market initiatives, by Metalicus and Country Road, each have a social outcome that arguably aligns to the values of their middle-class consumer base. Metalicus is spear-heading a campaign for Australian garment manufacturers to donate their pre consumer waste – fabric off-cuts – to charity Open Family Australia to be manufactured into quilts for the homeless. Country Road has partnered with the Australian Red Cross to implement a recycling scheme in which consumers donate their old Country Road garments in exchange for a Country Road gift voucher. Both strategies, while tackling waste, tell an altruistic story in which the disadvantaged can benefit from the consumption habits of the middle-class. To varying degrees, the initiative chosen by each company feeds into the stories they tell about themselves and about the consumers who purchase their clothing. However, how can we assess the impact of these schemes on waste management in real terms, or indeed the worth of each scheme in the wider context of the fashion system? This paper will assess the claims made by the companies and analyse their efficacy, suggesting that a more nuanced assessment of green claims is required, in which ‘green’ comes in many tonal variations.

Bushfire responsive design : real life responses to energy ratings, bushfire standards and biodiverse sites.

Many of the more extreme bushfire prone landscapes in Australia are located in colder climate regions. For such sites, the National Construction Code regulates that houses satisfy both the Australian Standard for Bushfire (AS 3959:2009) and achieve a 6 Star energy rating. When combined these requirements present a considerable challenge to the construction of affordable housing - a problem which is often exacerbated by the complex topography of bushifre prone landscapes. Dr Weir presents a series of case studies from his architetcural practice which highlight the need for further design-led research into affordable housing - a ground up holistic approach to design which recolciles energy performance, human behaviourm, bushland conservation and bushfire safety.

Using a pharmacokinetic model to interpret biomonitoring data of PBDEs in the Australian population

From human biomonitoring data that are increasingly collected in the United States, Australia, and in other countries from large-scale field studies, we obtain snap-shots of concentration levels of various persistent organic pollutants (POPs) within a cross section of the population at different times. Not only can we observe the trends within this population with time, but we can also gain information going beyond the obvious time trends. By combining the biomonitoring data with pharmacokinetic modeling, we can re-construct the time-variant exposure to individual POPs, determine their intrinsic elimination half-lives in the human body, and predict future levels of POPs in the population. Different approaches have been employed to extract information from human biomonitoring data. Pharmacokinetic (PK) models were combined with longitudinal data1, with single2 or multiple3 average concentrations of a cross-sectional data (CSD), or finally with multiple CSD with or without empirical exposure data4. In the latter study, for the first time, the authors based their modeling outputs on two sets of CSD and empirical exposure data, which made it possible that their model outputs were further constrained due to the extensive body of empirical measurements. Here we use a PK model to analyze recent levels of PBDE concentrations measured in the Australian population. In this study, we are able to base our model results on four sets5-7 of CSD; we focus on two PBDE congeners that have been shown3,5,8-9 to differ in intake rates and half-lives with BDE-47 being associated with high intake rates and a short half-life and BDE-153 with lower intake rates and a longer half-life. By fitting the model to PBDE levels measured in different age groups in different years, we determine the level of intake of BDE-47 and BDE-153, as well as the half-lives of these two chemicals in the Australian population.

Comprehensive evaluation of DNA barcoding for the molecular species identification of forensically important Australian Sarcophagidae (Diptera)

Carrion-breeding Sarcophagidae (Diptera) can be used to estimate the post-mortem interval (PMI) in forensic cases. Difficulties with accurate morphological identifications at any life stage and a lack of documented thermobiological profiles have limited their current usefulness of these flies. The molecular-based approach of DNA barcoding, which utilises a 648-bp fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene, was previously evaluated in a pilot study for the discrimination between 16 Australian sarcophagids. The current study comprehensively evaluated DNA barcoding on a larger taxon set of 588 adult Australian sarcophagids. A total of 39 of the 84 known Australian species were represented by 580 specimens, which includes 92% of potentially forensically important species. A further eight specimens could not be reliably identified, but included as six unidentifable taxa. A neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree was generated and nucleotide sequence divergences were calculated using the Kimura-two-parameter distance model. All species except Sarcophaga (Fergusonimyia) bancroftorum, known for high morphological variability, were resolved as reciprocally monophyletic (99.2% of cases), with most having bootstrap support of 100. Excluding S. bancroftorum, the mean intraspecific and interspecific variation ranged from 0.00-1.12% and 2.81-11.23%, respectively, allowing for species discrimination. DNA barcoding was therefore validated as a suitable method for the molecular identification of the Australian Sarcophagidae, which will aid in the implementation of this fauna in forensic entomology.

Preliminary evaluation of a primary care intervention for cry-fuss behaviours in the first 3-4 months of life (‘The Possums Approach’) : effects on cry-fuss behaviours and maternal mood

Problem crying in the first few months of life is both common and complex, arising out of multiple interacting and co-evolving factors. Parents whose babies cry and fuss a lot receive conflicting advice as they seek help from multiple health providers and emergency departments, and may be admitted into tertiary residential services. Conflicting advice is costly, and arises out of discipline-specific interpretations of evidence. An integrated, interdisciplinary primary care intervention (‘The Possums Approach’) for cry-fuss problems in the first months of life was developed from available peer-reviewed evidence. This study reports on preliminary evaluation of delivery of the intervention. A total of 20 mothers who had crying babies under 16 weeks of age (average age 6.15 weeks) completed questionnaires, including the Crying Patterns Questionnaire and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, before and 3-4 weeks after their first consultation with trained primary care practitioners. Preliminary evaluation is promising. The Crying Patterns Questionnaire showed a significant decrease in crying and fussing duration, by 1 h in the evening (P = 0.001) and 30 min at night (P = 0.009). The median total amount of crying and fussing in a 24-h period was reduced from 6.12 to 3 h. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale showed a significant improvement in depressive symptoms, with the median score decreasing from 11 to 6 (P = 0.005). These findings are corroborated by an analysis of results for the subset of 16 participants whose babies were under 12 weeks of age (average age 4.71 weeks). These preliminary results demonstrate significantly decreased infant crying in the evening and during the night and improved maternal mood, validating an innovative interdisciplinary clinical intervention for cry-fuss problems in the first few months of life. This intervention, delivered by trained health professionals, has the potential to mitigate the costly problem of health professionals giving discipline-specific and conflicting advice post-birth.

Alter/Asians : Asian-Australian Identities in Art, Media and Popular Culture

Exploration of how Australia and Asia are intertwined in everyday culture, and in the imagined worlds of Australians of all backgrounds. Investigates Asian cultural production of art, literature, media and performance that embody Asian social and cultural experiences. Includes endnotes, bibliography and index. Ang and Chalmers work in the School of Cultural Studies at University of Western Sydney. Law and Thomas are Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellows at Australian National University and the Research Centre in Inter-communal Studies respectively.

Injuries leading to hospitalisation in the first year of life : analysis by trimester of age using coded data and textual description

Objective: To describe unintentional injuries to children aged less than one year, using coded and textual information, in three-month age bands to reflect their development over the year. Methods: Data from the Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit was used. The Unit collects demographic, clinical and circumstantial details about injured persons presenting to selected emergency departments across the State. Only injuries coded as unintentional in children admitted to hospital were included for this analysis. Results: After editing, 1,082 children remained for analysis, 24 with transport-related injuries. Falls were the most common injury, but becoming proportionately less over the year, whereas burns and scalds and foreign body injuries increased. The proportion of injuries due to contact with persons or objects varied little, but poisonings were relatively more common in the first and fourth three-month periods. Descriptions indicated that family members were somehow causally involved in 16% of injuries. Our findings are in qualitative agreement with comparable previous studies. Conclusion: The pattern of injuries varies over the first year of life and is clearly linked to the child's increasing mobility. Implications: Injury patterns in the first year of life should be reported over shorter intervals. Preventive measures for young children need to be designed with their rapidly changing developmental stage in mind, using a variety of strategies, one of which could be opportunistic developmentally specific education of parents. Injuries in young children are of abiding concern given their immediate health and emotional effects, and potential for long-term adverse sequelae. In Australia, in the financial year 2006/07, 2,869 children less than 12 months of age were admitted to hospital for an unintentional injury, a rate of 10.6 per 1,000, representing a considerable economic and social burden. Given that many of these injuries are preventable, this is particularly concerning. Most epidemiologic studies analyse data in five-year age bands, so children less than five years of age are examined as a group. This study includes only those children younger than one year of age to identify injury detail lost in analyses of the larger group, as we hypothesised that the injury pattern varied with the developmental stage of the child. The authors of several North American studies have commented that in dealing with injuries in pre-school children, broad age groupings are inadequate to do justice to the rapid developmental changes in infancy and early childhood, and have in consequence analysed injuries in shorter intervals. To our knowledge, no similar analysis of Australian infant injuries has been published to date. This paper describes injury in children less than 12 months of age using data from the Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit (QISU).

Protection of structural systems and mechanisms from catastrophic and life-threatening failure caused by unforeseeable events

Structural framing systems and mechanisms designed for normal use rarely possess adequate robustness to withstand the effects of large impacts, blasts and extreme earthquakes that have been experienced in recent times. Robustness is the property of systems that enables them to survive unforeseen or unusual circumstances (Knoll & Vogel, 2009). Queensland University of Technology with industry collaboration is engaged in a program of research that commenced 15 years ago to study the impact of such unforeseeable phenomena and investigate methods of improving robustness and safety with protective mechanisms embedded or designed in structural systems. This paper highlights some of the research pertaining to seismic protection of building structures, rollover protective structures and effects of vehicular impact and blast on key elements in structures that could propagate catastrophic and disproportionate collapse.

The determinants of demand for private health insurance under Medicare

Since the introduction of Medicare in 1984, the proportion of the Australian population with private health insurance has declined considerably. Insurance for health care consumption is compulsory for the public health sector but optional for the private health sector. In this paper, we explore a number of important issues in the demand for private health insurance in Australia. The socio-economic variables which influence demand are examined using a binary logic model. A number of simulations are performed to highlight the influence and relative importance of various characteristics such as age, income, health status and geographical location on demand. A number of important policy issues in the private health insurance market are highlighted. First, evidence is provided of adverse selection in the private health insurance pool, second, the notion of the wealthy uninsured is refuted, and finally it is confirmed that there are significant interstate differences in the demand for private health insurance.