Supporting transition to law school and student well-being : the role of professional legal identity

The empirically established decline in law student well being during the first year of law school is a red-flagged imprimatur for first year curriculum change. This article suggests that by engaging law students with the concept of a positive professional identity, student engagement and intrinsic motivation will increase because they are working towards a career goal that has meaning and purpose. Law school is a time of professional transformation and the legal academy can take steps to ensure that this transformation is inculcated with positive messages. Literature from the fields of law and psychology is analysed in this article, to explain how a positive conception of the legal profession (and a student’s future role within it) can increase a student’s psychological well-being – at law school and beyond.

Valuing student and community voices in the university : action research as a framework for community service-learning

The Community Service-learning Lab (the Lab) was initiated as a university-wide service-learning experience at an Australian university. The Lab engages students, academics, and key community organisations in interdisciplinary action research projects to support student learning and to explore complex and ongoing problems nominated by the community partners. The current study uses feedback from the first offering of the Lab and focuses on exploring student experiences of the service learning project using an action research framework. Student reflections on this experience have revealed some positive outcomes of the Lab such as an appreciation for positive and strengths-based change. These outcomes are corroborated by collected reflections from community partners and academics. The students also identified challenges balancing the requirements for assessment and their goals to serve the community partner’s needs. This feedback has provided vital information for the academic team, highlighting the difficulties in balancing the agenda of the academic framework and the desire to give students authentic experiences.

Transition to law school and law student well-being : The importance of professional legal identity

The empirically established decline in law student well-being during the first year of law school is a red-flagged imprimatur for first year curriculum change. This article suggests that by engaging law students with the concept of a positive professional identity, student engagement and intrinsic motivation will increase because they are working towards a career goal that has meaning and purpose. Law school is a time of professional transformation and the legal academy can take steps to ensure that this transformation is inculcated with positive messages. Literature from the fields of law and psychology is analysed in this article, to explain how a positive conception of the legal profession (and a student’s future role within it) can increase a student’s psychological well-being – at law school and beyond.

Legal Regulation of Corporate Social Responsibility : A Meta-Regulation Approach of Law for Raising CSR in a Weak Economy

"Even though Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a widely accepted concept promoted by different stakeholders, business corporations' internal strategies, known as corporate self-regulation in most of the weak economies, respond poorly to this responsibility. Major laws relating to corporate regulation and responsibilities of these economies do not possess adequate ongoing influence to insist on corporate self-regulation to create a socially responsible corporate culture. This book describes how the laws relating to CSR could contribute to the inclusion of CSR principles at the core of the corporate self-regulation of these economies in general, without being intrusive in normal business practice. It formulates a meta-regulation approach to law, particularly by converging patterns of private ordering and state control in contemporary corporate law from the perspective of a weak economy. It proposes that this approach is suitable for alleviating regulators' limited access to information and expertise, inherent limitations of prescriptive rules, ensuring corporate commitment, and enhance the self-regulatory capacity of companies. This book describes various meta-regulation strategies for laws to link social values to economic incentives and disincentives, and to indirectly influence companies to incorporate CSR principles at the core of their self-regulation strategies. It investigates this phenomenon using Bangladesh as a case study."--publisher website

Using participatory action research for heart self care amongst indigenous patients

This paper describes the initial phases of the Fluid Watchers Pacific Rim project: a participatory action research project that involves developing and trialling an iPad app to provide monitoring and self-care for Indigenous Australians with heart failure. The development phase involved working with health experts, an IT team and Indigenous heart-failure patients through three cycles of development and critical reflection. This was followed by a small pilot study to examine the app’s effectiveness. In this paper, the researchers explain why IT-supported health education can be successful in decreasing re-hospitalisation and improving self-management skills. They describe the steps they took to ensure community participation and ownership of the project and present the findings of their pilot study. This pilot project suggests that an iPad app may be a practical and successful way to provide health-care support for Indigenous Australian heart-failure patients.

Implementation and removal of an affirmative-action quota : the impact on task assignment and workers’ skill acquisition

Both the United States and Canada have federal legislation that attempts to address employment inequities across specific target groups. The US has a long tradition of affirmative action, dating back to President Kennedy’s 1961 Executive Order; Canada enacted its Employment Equity Act in 1986. Employment Equity/Affirmative Action policy has attracted significant controversy, with high profile court cases and the repeal of state/provincial legislation. Coate and Loury (1993) examine the theoretical impact of introducing affirmative action. Unfortunately the theoretical impact of affirmative action is ambiguous. The current paper employs a laboratory experiment to shed empirical light on this theoretical ambiguity.

Justifications and limits in the politically motivated lawbreaking of environmental activist groups

In recent events, notions of political protest, civil disobedience, extremism, and criminal action have become increasingly blurred. The London Riots, the Occupy movement, and the actions of hacking group Anonymous have all sparked heated debate about the limits of legitimate protest, and the distinction between an acceptable action and a criminal offence. Long before these events, environmental activists were challenging convention in protest actions, with several groups engaging in politically motivated law-breaking. The emergence of the term ‘eco-tage’ (the sabotage of equipment in order to protect the environment) signifies the important place environmental activists hold in challenging the traditional boundaries between illegal action and legitimate protest. Many of these groups establish their own boundaries of legitimacy, with some justifying their actions on the basis of civil disobedience or extensional self-defence. This paper examines the statements of environmental activist organisations that have engaged in politically motivated law breaking. It identifies the parameters that these groups set on their illegal actions, as well as the justifications that they provide, with a view to determining where these actions fit in the vast grey area between legal protest and violent extremism.

Competency and capacity : the legal and medical interface

Balancing the competing interests of autonomy and protection of individuals is an escalating challenge confronting an ageing Australian society. Legal and medical professionals are increasingly being asked to determine whether individuals are legally competent/capable to make their own testamentary and substitute decision-making, that is financial and/or personal/health care, decisions. No consistent and transparent competency/capacity assessment paradigm currently exists in Australia. Consequently, assessments are currently being undertaken on an ad hoc basis which is concerning as Australia’s population ages and issues of competency/capacity increase. The absence of nationally accepted competency/capacity assessment guidelines and supporting principles results in legal and medical professionals involved with competency/capacity assessment implementing individual processes tailored to their own abilities. Legal and medical approaches differ both between and within the professions. The terminology used also varies. The legal practitioner is concerned with whether the individual has the legal ability to make the decision. A medical practitioner assesses fluctuations in physical and mental abilities. The problem is that the terms competency and capacity are used interchangeably resulting in confusion about what is actually being assessed. The terminological and methodological differences subsequently create miscommunication and misunderstanding between the professions. Consequently, it is not necessarily a simple solution for a legal professional to seek the opinion of a medical practitioner when assessing testamentary and/or substitute decision-making competency/capacity. This research investigates the effects of the current inadequate testamentary and substitute decision-making assessment paradigm and whether there is a more satisfactory approach. This exploration is undertaken within a framework of therapeutic jurisprudence which promotes principles fundamentally important in this context. Empirical research has been undertaken to first, explore the effects of the current process with practising legal and medical professionals; and second, to determine whether miscommunication and misunderstanding actually exist between the professions such that it gives rise to a tense relationship which is not conducive to satisfactory competency/capacity assessments. The necessity of reviewing the adequacy of the existing competency/capacity assessment methodology in the testamentary and substitute decision-making domain will be demonstrated and recommendations for the development of a suitable process made.

Identifying important success factors in new venture creation

This paper seeks to uncover the factors that lead to a successful entrepreneurial experience and or venture. Findings of interest in this paper include: • A venture’s initial aspirations are a double edged sword. Ambition may lead to improved performance by striving to reach harder goals. Harder goals are more difficult therefore this may lead to some dissatisfaction, and possibly abandonment of the venture. • Venture legitimacy is important to establish where possible. Firms that formalize their legal form are more successful, as are those set up a shop-front in order to makes sales. • Increased use of technology and higher levels of novelty does not guarantee success early on. Firms of this nature have longer processes, and attempting to create brand new markets is difficult to achieve. At the same time developing your own technology and securing this intellectual property is important for success. • Having goals to work towards and business planning may be useful, but only if the plan is actively revised. Just having a business plan does not matter. Business plans are more useful as a thinking tool than as a blueprint for action. It is the process of thinking through while reviewing the plan that provides the benefit, not following its instruction to the letter.

Shortfalls in malnutrition coding : a mandate for action

The International Classification of Diseases, Version 10, Australian modification (ICD-10- AM) is commonly used to classify diseases in hospital patients. ICD-10-AM defines malnutrition as “BMI < 18.5 kg/m2 or unintentional weight loss of ≥ 5% with evidence of suboptimal intake resulting in subcutaneous fat loss and/or muscle wasting”. The Australasian Nutrition Care Day Survey (ANCDS) is the most comprehensive survey to evaluate malnutrition prevalence in acute care patients from Australian and New Zealand hospitals1. This study determined if malnourished participants were assigned malnutritionrelated codes as per ICD-10-AM. The ANCDS recruited acute care patients from 56 hospitals. Hospital-based dietitians evaluated participants’ nutritional status using BMI and Subjective Global Assessment (SGA). In keeping with the ICD-10-AM definition, malnutrition was defined as BMI <18.5kg/m2, SGA-B (moderately malnourished) or SGA-C (severely malnourished). After three months, in this prospective cohort study, hospitals’ health information/medical records department provided coding results for malnourished participants. Although malnutrition was prevalent in 32% (n= 993) of the cohort (N= 3122), a significantly small number were coded for malnutrition (n= 162, 16%, p<0.001). In 21 hospitals, none of the malnourished participants were coded. This is the largest study to provide a snapshot of malnutrition-coding in Australian and New Zealand hospitals. Findings highlight gaps in malnutrition documentation and/or subsequent coding, which could potentially result in significant loss of casemix-related revenue for hospitals. Dietitians must lead the way in developing structured processes for malnutrition identification, documentation and coding.

The function and mechanisms of action of ghrelin and obestatin in ovarian cancer

In this study, we have demonstrated that the preproghrelin derived hormones, ghrelin and obestatin, may play a role in ovarian cancer. Ghrelin and obestatin stimulated an increase in cell migration in ovarian cancer cell lines and may play a role in cancer progression. Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death among gynaecological cancers and is the sixth most common cause of cancer-related deaths in women in developed countries. As ovarian cancer is difficult to diagnose at a low tumour grade, two thirds of ovarian cancers are not diagnosed until the late stages of cancer development resulting in a poor prognosis for the patient. As a result, current treatment methods are limited and not ideal. There is an urgent need for improved diagnostic markers, as well better therapeutic approaches and adjunctive therapies for this disease. Ghrelin has a number of important physiological effects, including roles in appetite regulation and the stimulation of growth hormone release. It is also involved in regulating the immune, cardiovascular and reproductive systems and regulates sleep, memory and anxiety, and energy metabolism. Over the last decade, the ghrelin axis, (which includes the hormones ghrelin and obestatin and their receptors), has been implicated in the pathogenesis of many human diseases and it may t may also play an important role in the development of cancer. Ghrelin is a 28 amino acid peptide hormone that exists in two forms. Acyl ghrelin (usually referred to as ghrelin), has a unique n-octanoic acid post-translational modification (which is catalysed by ghrelin O-acyltransferase, GOAT), and desacyl ghrelin, which is a non-octanoylated form. Octanoylated ghrelin acts through the growth hormone secretagogue receptor type 1a (GHSR1a). GHSR1b, an alternatively spliced isoform of GHSR, is C-terminally truncated and does not bind ghrelin. Ghrelin has been implicated in the pathophysiology of a number of diseases Obestatin is a 23 amino acid, C-terminally amidated peptide which is derived from preproghrelin. Although GPR39 was originally thought to be the obestatin receptor this has been disproven, and its receptor remains unknown. Obestatin may have as diverse range of roles as ghrelin. Obestatin improves memory, inhibits thirst and anxiety, increases pancreatic juice secretion and has cardioprotective effects. Obestatin also has been shown to regulate cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis in some cell types. Prior to this study, little was known regarding the functions and mechanisms of action ghrelin and obestatin in ovarian cancer. In this study it was demonstrated that the full length ghrelin, GHSR1b and GOAT mRNA transcripts were expressed in all of the ovarian-derived cell lines examined (SKOV3, OV-MZ-6 and hOSE 17.1), however, these cell lines did not express GHSR1a. Ovarian cancer tissue of varying stages and normal ovarian tissue expressed the coding region for ghrelin, obestatin, and GOAT, but not GHSR1a, or GHSR1b. No correlations between cancer grade and the level of expression of these transcripts were observed. This study demonstrated for the first time that both ghrelin and obestatin increase cell migration in ovarian cancer cell lines. Treatment with ghrelin (for 72 hours) significantly increased cell migration in the SKOV3 and OV-MZ-6 ovarian cancer cell lines. Ghrelin (100 nM) stimulated cell migration in the SKOV3 (2.64 +/- 1.08 fold, p <0.05) and OV-MZ-6 (1.65 +/- 0.31 fold, p <0.05) ovarian cancer cell lines, but not in the representative normal cell line hOSE 17.1. This increase in migration was not accompanied by an increase in cell invasion through Matrigel. In contrast to other cancer types, ghrelin had no effect on proliferation. Ghrelin treatment (10nM) significantly decreased attachment of the SKOV3 ovarian cancer cell line to collagen IV (24.7 +/- 10.0 %, p <0.05), however, there were no changes in attachment to the other extracellular matrix molecules (ECM) tested (fibronectin, vitronectin and collagen I), and there were no changes in attachment to any of the ECM molecules in the OV-MZ-6 or hOSE 17.1 cell lines. It is, therefore, unclear if ghrelin plays a role in cell attachment in ovarian cancer. As ghrelin has previously been demonstrated to signal through the ERK1/2 pathway in cancer, we investigated ERK1/2 signalling in ovarian cancer cell lines. In the SKOV3 ovarian cancer cell line, a reduction in ERK1/2 phosphorylation (0.58 fold +/- 0.23, p <0.05) in response to 100 nM ghrelin treatment was observed, while no significant change in ERK1/2 signalling was seen in the OV-MZ-6 cell line with treatment. This suggests that this pathway is unlikely to be involved in mediating the increased migration seen in the ovarian cancer cell lines with ghrelin treatment. In this study ovarian cancer tissue of varying stages and normal ovarian tissue expressed the coding region for obestatin, however, no correlation between cancer grade and level of obestatin transcript expression was observed. In the ovarian-derived cell lines studied (SKOV3, OV-MZ-6 and hOSE 17.1) it was demonstrated that the full length preproghrelin mRNA transcripts were expressed in all cell lines, suggesting they have the ability to produce mature obestatin. This is the first study to demonstrate that obestatin stimulates cell migration and cell invasion. Obestatin induced a significant increase in migration in the SKOV3 ovarian cancer cell line with 10 nM (2.80 +/- 0.52 fold, p <0.05) and 100 nM treatments (3.12 +/- 0.68 fold, p <0.05) and in the OV-MZ-6 cancer cell line with 10 nM (2.04 +/- 0.10 fold, p <0.01) and 100 nM treatments (2.00 +/- 0.37 fold, p <0.05). Obestatin treatment did no affect cell migration in the hOSE 17.1normal ovarian epithelial cell line. Obestatin treatment (100 nM) also stimulated a significant increase in cell invasion in the OV-MZ-6 ovarian cancer cell line (1.45 fold +/- 0.13, p <0.05) and in the hOSE17.1 normal ovarian cell line cells (1.40 fold +/- 0.04 and 1.55 fold +/- 0.05 respectively, p <0.01) with 10 nM and 100 nM treatments. Obestatin treatment did not stimulate cell invasion in the SKOV3 ovarian cancer cell line. This lack of obestatin-stimulated invasion in the SKOV3 cell line may be a cell line specific result. In this study, obestatin did not stimulate cell proliferation in the ovarian cell lines and it has previously been shown to have no effect on cell proliferation in the BON-1 pancreatic neuroendocrine and GC rat somatotroph tumour cell lines. In contrast, obestatin has been shown to affect cell proliferation in gastric and thyroid cancer cell lines, and in some normal cell lines. Obestatin also had no effect on attachment of any of the cell lines to any of the ECM components tested (fibronectin, vitronectin, collagen I and collagen IV). The mechanism of action of obestatin was investigated further using a two dimensional-difference in gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) proteomic approach. After treatment with obestating (0, 10 and 100 nM), SKOV3 ovarian cancer and hOSE 17.1 normal ovarian cell lines were collected and 2D-DIGE analysis and mass spectrometry were performed to identify proteins that were differentially expressed in response to treatment. Twenty-six differentially expressed proteins were identified and analysed using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA). This linked 16 of these proteins in a network. The analysis suggested that the ERK1/2 MAPK pathway was a major mediator of obestatin action. ERK1/2 has previously been shown to be associated with obestatin-stimulated cell proliferation and with the anti-apoptotic effects of obestatin. Activation of the ERK1/2 signalling pathway by obestatin was, therefore, investigated in the SKOV3 and OV-MZ-6 ovarian cancer cell lines using anti-active antibodies and Western immunoblots. Obestatin treatment significantly decreased ERK1/2 phosphorylation at higher obestatin concentrations in both the SKOV3 (100 nM and 1000 nM) and OV-MZ-6 (1000 nM) cell lines compared to the untreated controls. Currently, very little is known about obestatin signalling in cancer. This thesis has demonstrated for the first time that the ghrelin axis may play a role in ovarian cancer migration. Ghrelin and obestatin increased cell migration in ovarian cancer cell lines, indicating that they may be a useful target for therapies that reduce ovarian cancer progression. Further studies investigating the role of the ghrelin axis using in vivo ovarian cancer metastasis models are warranted.

Motivation during videogame play : analysing player experience in terms of cognitive action

This paper describes a method for analysing videogames based on game activities. It examines the impact of these activities on the player experience. The research approach applies heuristic checklists that deconstruct games in terms of cognitive processes that players engage in during gameplay (e.g., addressing goals, interpreting feedback). For this study we examined three puzzle games, Portal 2, I-Fluid and Braid. The Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS) survey is used to measure player experience following gameplay. Cognitive action provided within games is examined in light of reported player experiences to determine the extent to which these activities influence players’ feelings of competence, autonomy, intuitive control and presence. Findings indicate that the positive experiences are directly influenced by game activity design. Our study also demonstrates the value of expert review in deconstructing gameplay activity as a means of providing direction for game design that enhances the player experience.

Do drinking and riding mix? Effects of legal doses of alcohol on balance ability in experienced motorcyclists

The appropriateness of applying drink driving legislation to motorcycle riding has been questioned as there may be fundamental differences in the effects of alcohol on these two activities. For example, while the distribution of blood alcohol content (BAC) levels among fatally injured male drivers compared to riders is similar, a greater proportion of motorcycle fatalities involve levels in the lower (0 to .10% BAC) range. Several psychomotor and higher-order cognitive skills underpinning riding performance appear to be significantly influenced by low levels of alcohol. For example, at low levels (.02 to .046% BAC), riders show significant increases in reaction time to hazardous stimuli, inattention to the riding task, performance errors such as leaving the roadway and a reduced ability to complete a timed course. It has been suggested that alcohol may redirect riders’ focus from higher-order cognitive skills to more physical skills such as maintaining balance. As part of a research program to investigate the potential benefits of introducing a zero, or reduced, BAC for all riders in Queensland regardless of their licence status, the effects of low doses of alcohol on balance ability were investigated in a laboratory setting. The static balance of ten experienced riders was measured while they performed either no secondary task, a visual search task, or a cognitive (arithmetic) task following the administration of alcohol (0; 0.02, and 0.05% BAC). Subjective ratings of intoxication and balance impairment increased in a dose-dependent manner; however, objective measures of static balance were negatively affected only at the .05% BAC dose. Performance on a concurrent secondary visual search task, but not a purely cognitive (arithmetic) task, improved postural stability across all BAC levels. Finally, the .05% BAC dose was associated with impaired performance on the cognitive (arithmetic) task, but not the visual search task, when participants were balancing, but neither task was impaired by alcohol when participants were standing on the floor. Implications for road safety and future ‘drink riding’ policy considerations are discussed.

A simplified approach for calculating the moments of action for linear reaction-diffusion equations

The mean action time is the mean of a probability density function that can be interpreted as a critical time, which is a finite estimate of the time taken for the transient solution of a reaction-diffusion equation to effectively reach steady state. For high-variance distributions, the mean action time under-approximates the critical time since it neglects to account for the spread about the mean. We can improve our estimate of the critical time by calculating the higher moments of the probability density function, called the moments of action, which provide additional information regarding the spread about the mean. Existing methods for calculating the nth moment of action require the solution of n nonhomogeneous boundary value problems which can be difficult and tedious to solve exactly. Here we present a simplified approach using Laplace transforms which allows us to calculate the nth moment of action without solving this family of boundary value problems and also without solving for the transient solution of the underlying reaction-diffusion problem. We demonstrate the generality of our method by calculating exact expressions for the moments of action for three problems from the biophysics literature. While the first problem we consider can be solved using existing methods, the second problem, which is readily solved using our approach, is intractable using previous techniques. The third problem illustrates how the Laplace transform approach can be used to study coupled linear reaction-diffusion equations.