Early childhood science education : do Australian publishing trends represent world publishing trends?

A literature search of both Australian early childhood journals and Australian science education journals provides a compelling picture of science education in Australian early childhood in the recent past and the previous 40 years. Whilst a previous review of the literature found that there were concerns over the early childhood educators' confidence in teaching science, particularly physical sciences, current research indicates that this problem is still prevalent. The historical perspective also found that there was a distinctive approach evolving in early childhood science education, however further research into the place of science in the cognitive domain of early childhood was required. The more recent literature search found that as an area of investigation, early childhood science is still a neglected research area and there is still much scope for the development of theories and analysis of early childhood science education. The literature search was undertaken scanning for titles which included science education and early childhood in several Australian early childhood journals and Australian science education journals, although it is acknowledged that some articles may have been sent to international journals.

The cost-effectiveness of universal newborn screening for bilateral permanent congenital hearing impairment : systematic review

Objective - Universal newborn hearing screening for bilateral permanent congenital hearing impairment is standard practice in many developed economies, but until there is clear evidence of cost-effectiveness, it remains a controversial use of limited health care resources. We conducted a formal systematic review of studies of newborn hearing screening that considered both costs and outcomes to produce a summary of the available evidence and to determine whether there was a need for further research.

Methods - A search was conducted of medical and nursing databases and gray literature websites by the use of multiple keywords. The titles and abstracts of studies were examined for preliminary inclusion if reference was made to newborn hearing screening, and to both costs and outcomes. Studies of potential relevance were independently assessed by 2 health economists for final inclusion in the review. Studies that met inclusion criteria were appraised by the use of existing guidelines for observational studies, economic evaluations and decision analytic models, and reported in a narrative literature review.

Results - There were 22 distinct observational or modeled evaluations of which only 2 clearly compared universal newborn hearing screening to risk factor screening for bilateral permanent congenital hearing impairment. Of these, the single evaluation that examined long-term costs and outcomes found that universal newborn hearing screening could be cost-saving if early intervention led to a substantial reduction in future treatment costs and productivity losses.

Conclusions - There are only a small number of economic evaluations that have examined the long-term cost-effectiveness of universal newborn hearing screening. This is partly attributable to ongoing uncertainty about the benefits gained from the early detection and treatment of bilateral permanent congenital hearing impairment. There is a clear need for further research on long-term costs and outcomes to establish the cost-effectiveness of universal newborn hearing screening in relation to other approaches to screening, and to establish whether it is a good long term investment.

Poems insist on their own terms

Review of poetry titles: The Red Sea: New and Selected Poems by Stephen Edgar and Open Sesame by Michael Farrell

Targeting the mitochondrial electron transport chain in autism, a systematic review and synthesis of a novel therapeutic approach

Autism is a complex developmental disorder with an unknown etiology and without any curative treatment. The mitochondrial electron transfer chains play a major role in the production of ATP, and the generation and management of reactive oxidative stress (ROS). This paper is a systematic review of the role of the mitochondrial electron transport chain in autism, and a consequent hypothesis for treating autism is synthesized.

An electronic search with pre-specified inclusion criteria was conducted in order to retrieve all the published articles about the mitochondrial electron transport chain in autism. The two databases of PUBMED and Google Scholar were searched.

Robotics to enable older adults to remain living at home

Given the rapidly ageing population, interest is growing in robots to enable older people to remain living at home. We conducted a systematic review and critical evaluation of the scientific literature, from 1990 to the present, on the use of robots in aged care. The key research questions were as follows: (1) what is the range of robotic devices available to enable older people to remain mobile, independent, and safe? and, (2) what is the evidence demonstrating that robotic devices are effective in enabling independent living in community dwelling older people? Following database searches for relevant literature an initial yield of 161 articles was obtained. Titles and abstracts of articles were then reviewed by 2 independent people to determine suitability for inclusion. Forty-two articles met the criteria for question 1. Of these, 4 articles met the criteria for question 2. Results showed that robotics is currently available to assist older healthy people and people with disabilities to remain independent and to monitor their safety and social connectedness. Most studies were conducted in laboratories and hospital clinics. Currently limited evidence demonstrates that robots can be used to enable people to remain living at home, although this is an emerging smart technology that is rapidly evolving.

Views in Australia

Lithographs have the following titles: Agnes River, Corner Inlet, Gipps Land -- West side of Mt Arapiles -- Mitchell River -- Mt. Munda from St. Hubert, Yering -- McAlister Valley, Gipps Land -- Wentworth River

A realist review of interventions and strategies to promote evidence-informed healthcare: a focus on change agency

Background
Change agency in its various forms is one intervention aimed at improving the effectiveness of the uptake of evidence. Facilitators, knowledge brokers and opinion leaders are examples of change agency strategies used to promote knowledge utilization. This review adopts a realist approach and addresses the following question: What change agency characteristics work, for whom do they work, in what circumstances and why?

Methods
The literature reviewed spanned the period 1997-2007. Change agency was operationalized as roles that are aimed at effecting successful change in individuals and organizations. A theoretical framework, developed through stakeholder consultation formed the basis for a search for relevant literature. Team members, working in sub groups, independently themed the data and developed chains of inference to form a series of hypotheses regarding change agency and the role of change agency in knowledge use.

Results
24, 478 electronic references were initially returned from search strategies. Preliminary screening of the article titles reduced the list of potentially relevant papers to 196. A review of full document versions of potentially relevant papers resulted in a final list of 52 papers. The findings add to the knowledge of change agency as they raise issues pertaining to how change agents’ function, how individual change agent characteristics effect evidence-informed health care, the influence of interaction between the change agent and the setting and the overall effect of change agency on knowledge utilization. Particular issues are raised such as how accessibility of the change agent, their cultural compatibility and their attitude mediate overall effectiveness. Findings also indicate the importance of promoting reflection on practice and role modeling. The findings of this study are limited by the complexity and diversity of the change agency literature, poor indexing of literature and a lack of theory-driven approaches.

Conclusion
This is the first realist review of change agency. Though effectiveness evidence is weak, change agent roles are evolving, as is the literature, which requires more detailed description of interventions, outcomes measures, the context, intensity, and levels at which interventions are implemented in order to understand how change agent interventions effect evidence-informed health care.

Renal access coordinators' impact on hemodialysis patient outcomes and associated service delivery: a systematic review

Background
Renal access coordinators contribute specifically to dialysis access care for people with chronic and end stage renal disease. Since the introduction of renal access coordinators into Australia in the early 2000s, there have been anecdotal examples of associated improvements in patient outcomes and service delivery; however scant published quantitative evidence exists. Thus, the impact of the implementation of renal access coordinators has not undergone a rigorous review to date.

Objective
The objective of this systematic review was to critically appraise and synthesize the best available evidence related to the impact of renal access coordinators on dialysis patient outcomes and associated service delivery.

INCLUSION CRITERIA

Types of participants
This review considered studies that included renal access coordinators (noting variations of the titles) and adult hemodialysis patients (aged 18 years and over).

Types of intervention(s)
This review considered studies that evaluated the effectiveness of the renal access coordinator. This role typically consists of clinical and administration duties such as providing pre dialysis access coordination, access surveillance patient education and nurse education.

Types of studies
The types of studies considered within this review included experimental and epidemiological study designs. Thus randomized controlled trials (RCT), non-randomized controlled trials, and quasi-experimental, before and after studies, prospective and retrospective cohort studies were considered as were case control studies, analytical cross sectional studies and descriptive cross sectional studies.

Types of outcomes
Patient outcomes considered included: days to first vascular access complication (such as stenosis or thrombosis) and/or primary intervention (such as angioplasty or surgical intervention); percentage of central line insertions (negative); rate of arteriovenous fistula (AVF)/arteriovenous graft (AVG)/central venous catheter (CVC) at start of dialysis (incidence); prevalent rate of AVF/AVG/CVC; time to occlusion of AVF and time from referral to surgery. Service outcomes included: knowledge/up skilling of renal nurses; cannulation skills, ultrasound skills, knowledge of anatomy and physiology and other access related knowledge.

Search strategy
The search strategy aimed to locate published and unpublished studies, utilizing a three-step searching approach. Studies published in English from 1990 to October 2013 were considered for inclusion in this review.

Methodological quality
The studies were assessed by two independent reviewers using the appropriate standardized critical appraisal instruments from the Joanna Briggs Institute.

Data collection
Data were extracted from papers included in the review using the standardised data extraction tool from the Joanna Briggs Institute, namely JBI Meta-Analysis of Statistics Assessment and Review Instrument (JBI-MAStARI).

Data synthesis
This review aimed to conduct meta-analyses of the findings: however, because of the limitations of the data found, this was not possible and so the findings are presented in a narrative format.

Results
Five studies were identified for inclusion in the review. No RCTs were found, therefore four of the five studies were pre-post intervention cohort studies and one was a prospective quality assurance report. Data were heterogeneous and thus did not allow for meta-analysis. All studies included multidisciplinary teams with variable emphasis on the renal access coordinator role. The pre post intervention cohort studies measured incident and/or prevalent AVF, AVG and CVC rates in the hemodialysis population and the quality assurance report measured the difference in patency rates between AVF and AVG. All discussed the role of central coordination as a contributor to the success of vascular access care.

Conclusions
This review found insufficient data to make firm conclusions about the impact that renal access coordinators have on patient outcomes. The results of this review suggest an association between renal access coordinators and improved patient outcomes. These improved patient outcomes were apparent in an increase in incident and prevalent AVFs, and a decrease in the incidence and prevalence of CVCs. Both associations are correlated with a reduction in infection rates, length of hospital stay and healthcare costs.

Recombinant human growth hormone for the treatment of growth disorders in children: a systematic review and economic evaluation

Recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) is licensed for short stature associated with growth hormone deficiency (GHD), Turner syndrome (TS), Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), chronic renal insufficiency (CRI), short stature homeobox-containing gene deficiency (SHOX-D) and being born small for gestational age (SGA). To assess the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of rhGH compared with treatment strategies without rhGH for children with GHD, TS, PWS, CRI, SHOX-D and those born SGA. The systematic review used a priori methods. Key databases were searched (e.g. MEDLINE, EMBASE, NHS Economic Evaluation Database and eight others) for relevant studies from their inception to June 2009. A decision-analytical model was developed to determine cost-effectiveness in the UK. Two reviewers assessed titles and abstracts of studies identified by the search strategy, obtained the full text of relevant papers, and screened them against inclusion criteria. Data from included studies were extracted by one reviewer and checked by a second. Quality of included studies was assessed using standard criteria, applied by one reviewer and checked by a second. Clinical effectiveness studies were synthesised through a narrative review. Twenty-eight randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in 34 publications were included in the systematic review. GHD: Children in the rhGH group grew 2.7 cm/year faster than untreated children and had a statistically significantly higher height standard deviation score (HtSDS) after 1 year: -2.3 ± 0.45 versus -2.8 ± 0.45. TS: In one study, treated girls grew 9.3 cm more than untreated girls. In a study of younger children, the difference was 7.6 cm after 2 years. HtSDS values were statistically significantly higher in treated girls. PWS: Infants receiving rhGH for 1 year grew significantly taller (6.2 cm more) than those untreated. Two studies reported a statistically significant difference in HtSDS in favour of rhGH. CRI: rhGH-treated children in a 1-year study grew an average of 3.6 cm more than untreated children. HtSDS was statistically significantly higher in treated children in two studies. SGA: Criteria were amended to include children of 3+ years with no catch-up growth, with no reference to mid-parental height. Only one of the RCTs used the licensed dose; the others used higher doses. Adult height (AH) was approximately 4 cm higher in rhGH-treated patients in the one study to report this outcome, and AH-gain SDS was also statistically significantly higher in this group. Mean HtSDS was higher in treated than untreated patients in four other studies (significant in two). SHOX-D: After 2 years' treatment, children were approximately 6 cm taller than the control group and HtSDS was statistically significantly higher in treated children. The incremental cost per quality adjusted life-year (QALY) estimates of rhGH compared with no treatment were: 23,196 pounds for GHD, 39,460 pounds for TS, 135,311 pounds for PWS, 39,273 pounds for CRI, 33,079 pounds for SGA and 40,531 pounds for SHOX-D. The probability of treatment of each of the conditions being cost-effective at 30,000 pounds was: 95% for GHD, 19% for TS, 1% for PWS, 16% for CRI, 38% for SGA and 15% for SHOX-D.

The clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of bariatric (weight loss) surgery for obesity: a systematic review and economic evaluation

To assess the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of bariatric surgery for obesity. Seventeen electronic databases were searched [MEDLINE; EMBASE; PreMedline In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations; The Cochrane Library including the Cochrane Systematic Reviews Database, Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, DARE, NHS EED and HTA databases; Web of Knowledge Science Citation Index (SCI); Web of Knowledge ISI Proceedings; PsycInfo; CRD databases; BIOSIS; and databases listing ongoing clinical trials] from inception to August 2008. Bibliographies of related papers were assessed and experts were contacted to identify additional published and unpublished references. Two reviewers independently screened titles and abstracts for eligibility. Inclusion criteria were applied to the full text using a standard form. Interventions investigated were open and laparoscopic bariatric surgical procedures in widespread current use compared with one another and with non-surgical interventions. Population comprised adult patients with body mass index (BMI) > or = 30 and young obese people. Main outcomes were at least one of the following after at least 12 months follow-up: measures of weight change; quality of life (QoL); perioperative and postoperative mortality and morbidity; change in obesity-related comorbidities; cost-effectiveness. Studies eligible for inclusion in the systematic review for comparisons of Surgery versus Surgery were RCTs. For comparisons of Surgery versus Non-surgical procedures eligible studies were RCTs, controlled clinical trials and prospective cohort studies (with a control cohort). Studies eligible for inclusion in the systematic review of cost-effectiveness were full cost-effectiveness analyses, cost-utility analyses, cost-benefit analyses and cost-consequence analyses. One reviewer performed data extraction, which was checked by two reviewers independently. Two reviewers independently applied quality assessment criteria and differences in opinion were resolved at each stage. Studies were synthesised through a narrative review with full tabulation of the results of all included studies. In the economic model the analysis was developed for three patient populations, those with BMI > or = 40; BMI > or = 30 and < 40 with Type 2 diabetes at baseline; and BMI > or = 30 and < 35. Models were applied with assumptions on costs and comorbidity.

Effect of changes to the school food environment on eating behaviours and/or body weight in children: a systematic review

Previous school obesity-prevention reviews have included multi-component interventions. Here, we aimed to review the evidence for the effect of isolated food environment interventions on both eating behaviours (including food purchasing) and/or body weight. Five electronic databases were searched (last updated 30 November 2013). Of the 1,002 unique papers identified, 55 reported on school food environment changes, based on a review of titles and abstracts. Thirty-seven further papers were excluded, for not meeting the inclusion criteria. The final selection consisted of 18 papers (14 United States, 4 United Kingdom). Two studies had a body mass index (BMI) outcome, 14 assessed purchasing or eating behaviours and two studies assessed both weight and behaviour. Seventeen of 18 papers reported a positive outcome on either BMI (or change in BMI) or the healthfulness of food sold or consumed. Two studies were rated as strong quality and 11 as weak. Only three studies included a control group. A school environment supportive of healthy eating is essential to combat heavy marketing of unhealthy food. Modification of the school food environment (including high-level policy changes at state or national level) can have a positive impact on eating behaviours. A need exists, however, for further high-quality studies.

The new law of torts: case book

The New Law of Torts Case Book is a collection of edited cases, designed as a companion to The New Law of Torts textbook. It provides students with access to a carefully selected range of case extracts of seminal judgements that have created and shaped the modern law of torts, provides examples of judicial reasoning and illustrates approaches to doctrines that govern the interpretation and construction of statutes. Cases extracted in this volume allow the readers to form their own opinions and perspectives on themes and issues presented in the textbook. New to this edition Expanded collection of case extracts that mirror the table of contents of principles text. Recent key cases that have been added include: Wallace v Cam [2013] HCA19 – relates to remoteness of damage and causation and proof of breach Strong v Woolworths [2012] HCA 5; 246 CLR 182 – relates to Breach of Duty of Care and Causation and Proof of Breach Levy v Watt and Anor [2014] VSCA 60 – relates to Torts of Intentional Interference with Goods and Personal Property and Defences to Intentional Torts

Australian criminal law in the common law jurisdictions : cases and materials

 Australian Criminal Law in the Common Law Jurisdictions is a clear and comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals of criminal law. Updated throughout to reflect recent cases and legislation, the fourth edition combines clear case extracts with incisive author commentary and discussion.