Gender and entrepreneurial performance : testing a holistic framework

The aim of this study was to test a holistic framework for assessing new venture performance outcomes that incorporates the impact of gender on internal resource availability (human, financial and social capital) and how, in turn, this impacts: the entrepreneurs’ goals; the investment (both money and time) they make in their new ventures; and the performance outcomes of those ventures. Our results indicate that a majority of the paths examined (using structural equation modeling) are significant and in the expected direction. For example: an entrepreneur’s human capital (comprising management work experience, start-up experience and industry experience) is significantly related to her/his growth goal (in terms of employee numbers); the entrepreneur’s growth goal is positively related to the time invested in the new venture; and the time invested in the new venture is positively related to new venture outcomes.

The influence of families on early adolescent school connectedness : evidence that this association varies with adolescent involvement in peer drinking networks

School connectedness is central to the long term well-being of adolescents, and high quality parent-child relationships facilitate school connectedness. This study examined the extent to which family relationship quality is associated with the school connectedness of pre- and early teenagers, and how this association varies with adolescent involvement in peer drinking networks. The sample consisted of 7,372 10-14 year olds recruited from 231 schools in 30 Australian communities. Participants completed the Communities that Care youth survey. A multi-level model of school connectedness was used, with a random term for school-level variation. Key independent variables included family relationship quality, peer drinking networks, and school grade. Control variables included child gender, sensation seeking, depression, child alcohol use, parent education, and language spoken at home. For grade 6 students, the association of family relationship quality and school connectedness was lower when peer drinking networks were present, and this effect was nonsignificant for older (grade 8) students. Post hoc analyses indicated that the effect for family relationship quality on school connectedness was nonsignificant when adolescents in grade 6 reported that the majority of friends consumed alcohol. The results point to the importance of familyschool partnerships in early intervention and prevention.

A contextual analysis of secondary home economic teachers' agency in a time of mandatory curriculum change

This qualitative research explored secondary Home Economics teachers' perceptions of their teacher agency to influence classroom, department and school level curriculum decision making. Teachers responded to curriculum change with proactive, reactive and/or passive agency. Findings indicated that teachers' perceptions of their classroom agency remained high. However, agency decreased at department and school levels. Recent changes in schools as a result of the Australian Curriculum; NAPLAN and Queensland Studies Authority have resulted in changes that have been detrimental to teacher agency. Agency was enacted differently depending on whether change was teacher initiated or mandated by authority.

Regulating supply-chains to address the occupational health and safety problems associated with precarious employment: The case of home-based clothing workers in Australia

Over the past 20 years the labour market, workforce and work organisation of most if not all industrialised countries have been significantly refashioned by the increased use of more flexible work arrangements, variously labelled as precarious employment or contingent work. There is now a substantial and growing body of international evidence that many of these arrangements are associated with a significant deterioration in occupational health and safety (OHS), using a range of measures such as injury rates, disease, hazard exposures and work-related stress. Moreover, there is an emerging body of evidence that these arrangements pose particular problems for conventional regulatory regimes. Recognition of these problems has aroused the concern of policy makers - especially in Europe, North America and Australia - and a number of responses have been adopted in terms of modifying legislation, producing new guidance material and codes of practice and revised enforcement practices. This article describes one such in itiative in Australia with regard to home-based clothing workers. The regulatory strategy developed in one Australian jurisdiction (and now being ‘exported’ into others) seeks to counter this process via contractual tracking mechanisms to follow the work, tie in liability and shift overarching legal responsibility to the top of the supply chain. The process also entails the integration of minimum standards relating to wages, hours and working conditions; OHS and access to workers’ compensation. While home-based clothing manufacture represents a very old type of ‘flexible’ work arrangement, it is one that regulators have found especially difficult to address. Further, the elaborate multi-tiered subcont racting and diffuse work locations found in this industry are also characteristic of newer forms of contingent work in other industries (such as some telework) and the regulatory challenges they pose (such as the tendency of elaborate supply chains to attenuate and fracture statutory responsibilities, at least in terms of the attitudes and behaviour of those involved).

Informal caring networks for people at end of life: Building social capital in Australian communities

The care of a person living at home near the end of their life is predominantly provided by family carers with the support of health services such as palliative care. In addition, informal caring networks also contribute at times to the support to the dying person and their carer. In this way, these networks can promote social capital in the communities from which they are drawn. This social approach to end of life care enhances community capacity to provide support to those dying at home and their carers. This article examines relevant published literature to explore the conceptual foundations of informal caring networks, examining the place of social capital and community development in the provision of end of life care at home, particularly in the Australian context.

Real-time price based home energy management scheduler

With the recent development of advanced metering infrastructure, real-time pricing (RTP) scheme is anticipated to be introduced in future retail electricity market. This paper proposes an algorithm for a home energy management scheduler (HEMS) to reduce the cost of energy consumption using RTP. The proposed algorithm works in three subsequent phases namely real-time monitoring (RTM), stochastic scheduling (STS) and real-time control (RTC). In RTM phase, characteristics of available controllable appliances are monitored in real-time and stored in HEMS. In STS phase, HEMS computes an optimal policy using stochastic dynamic programming (SDP) to select a set of appliances to be controlled with an objective of the total cost of energy consumption in a house. Finally, in RTC phase, HEMS initiates the control of the selected appliances. The proposed HEMS is unique as it intrinsically considers uncertainties in RTP and power consumption pattern of various appliances. In RTM phase, appliances are categorized according to their characteristics to ease the control process, thereby minimizing the number of control commands issued by HEMS. Simulation results validate the proposed method for HEMS.

A pilot trial of mobile, patient-performed teledermoscopy

BACKGROUND Early detection by skin self-examination (SSE) could improve outcomes from melanoma. Mobile teledermoscopy may aid this process. OBJECTIVES To establish clinical accuracy of SSE plus mobile teledermoscopy compared to clinical skin examination (CSE) and test whether providing people with detailed SSE instructions improves accuracy. METHODS Men and women 50-64 years (n=58) performed SSE plus mobile teledermoscopy in their homes between May and November 2013 and were given technical instructions plus detailed SSE instructions (intervention) or technical instructions only (control). Within three months, they underwent a CSE. Outcome measures included: a) body sites examined, lesions photographed, and missed; b) sensitivityof SSE plus mobile teledermoscopy compared to in-person CSE using either patients or lesions as denominator, and; c) concordance of telediagnosis with CSE. RESULTS: 49 of 58 randomised participants completed the study, and submitted 309 lesions to the teledermatologist (156 intervention; 153 control group). Intervention group participants were more likely to submit lesions from their legs compared to control (p=0.03), no other differences between groups in number or site of missed lesions.11 participants (22%) did not photograph 14 pigmented lesions the dermatologist considered worthwhile photographing or requiring clinical monitoring. Sensitivity of SSE plus mobile teledermoscopy was 81.8% (95% confidence interval 64.5-93.0) using the patient as the denominator and 41.9 (27.6-56.2) using the lesion as denominator.-There was substantial agreement between telediagnosis and CSE (Kappa =0.90) accounting for differential diagnoses. CONCLUSIONS SSE plus mobile teledermoscopy is promising for surveillance of particular lesions even without provision of detailed SSE instructions, but in the format tested in this study, consumers may overlook lesions and send many non-pigmented lesions. This investigation demonstrates that high quality dermoscopic images can be taken by patients at home and for those sent, telediagnosis is highly accurate.

Institutionalization

During the 18th and 19th centuries, prostitution came to be understood as a potentially disruptive element in the management of society. New forms of social control developed that sought to transform the souls of prostitutes to better control their bodies. Institutions for managing prostitutes, such as Magdalen Homes and lock hospitals, were introduced or increased in number throughout the British Empire, North America, and Western Europe. Often these institutions had as their stated objective the physical purification and moral reform of prostitutes, appearing to make a dramatic break with earlier methods of social control that had relied on practices of physical punishment and spatial segregation. Emergent institutions for the social control of prostitutes used a regimen of religious training, hard labor, and medical expertise. The objective of the Magdalen Home was not to punish sin but to absolve it, while the function of the lock hospital was not simply to confine the ill, but to confine the ill to "cure" them. The role of these institutions was not only symbolic, mirroring in some way the operation of earlier forms of social control, but was also practical and transformative. The mass institutionalization of prostitutes that occurred during the 18th and 19th centuries produced and emphasized sexual, class, and gender boundaries, grounded in the broad distinction between "pure" and "impure" women. Because of its association with sin, prostitution before the 18th century had been constructed as a religious problem relating to salvation and penitence. Throughout Western Europe during the Middle Ages, prostitutes, like the medieval leper and the Jew, were subject to restrictions designed to distinguish and isolate them from other members of their communities. The repression of prostitution during the Middle Ages was neither systematic nor highly organized, although it reinforced the image of the prostitute as sinful "other".

Telecommunications Impacts on the Structure and Organisation of Male Sex Work

(Sub)Urban Sexscapes brings together a collection of theoretically-informed and empirically rich case studies highlighting the contemporary and historical geographies and regulation of the commercial sex industry. Contributions in this edited volume examine the spatial and regulatory contours of the sex industry from a range of disciplinary perspectives—urban planning, urban geography, urban sociology, and, cultural and media studies—and geographical contexts—Australia, the UK, US and North Africa. In overall terms, (Sub)urban Sexscapes highlights the mainstreaming of commercial sex premises—sex shops, brothels, strip clubs and queer spaces—and products—sex toys, erotic literature and pornography—now being commonplace in night time economy spaces, the high street, suburban shopping centres and the home. In addition, the aesthetics of commercial and alternative sexual practices—BDSM and pornography—permeate the (sub)urban landscape via billboards, newspapers and magazines, television, music videos and the Internet. The role of sex, sexuality and commercialized sex, in contributing to the general character of our cities cannot be ignored. In short, there is a need for policy-makers to be realistic about the historical, contemporary and future presence of the sex industry. Ultimately, the regulation of the sex industry should be informed by evidence as opposed to moral panics.

Observing privacy, modesty and hospitality in the home domain : three case studies of Muslim homes in Brisbane, Australia

A home embodies a sensorial space that is layered with personal memories and traces of history. The success of a home in providing a strong sense of place depends on various factors such as geographical location, climatic conditions, and occupants’ world-views and perceptions. This paper explores Muslims’ perceptions of privacy, modesty and hospitality within their homes through their lived experiences. This case study focuses on three Muslim families living in Australian designed homes within the same suburb of Brisbane, Australia. The study provides prefatory insight into the ways in which these families perform their daily activities and entertain their guests without jeopardizing their privacy needs. The study examines the significance of modesty in the design of Muslim homes as a means by which family members are able to achieve optimum privacy while simultaneously extending hospitality to guests inside and outside their homes. The findings of this study provide opportunities too, for expanding research into culturally adaptable housing systems to help meet the changing needs of Australian multicultural society.

Which mothers receive a postpartum home visit in Queensland, Australia? A cross-sectional retrospective study

Objective While home visiting in the early postpartum period appears to have increased, there are limited data defining which women receive a visit and none that include Queensland. We aimed to investigate patterns of postpartum home visiting in the public and private sectors in Queensland. Methods Data were collected via a retrospective cross-sectional survey of women birthing in Queensland between 1st February and 31st May 2010 at 4 months postpartum (N = 6948). Logistic regression was used to assess associations between receiving a home visit and sociodemographic, clinical and hospital variables. Analyses were stratified by public and private birthing sector because of significant differences between sectors. Results Public sector women were more likely to receive a visit from a nurse or midwife (from the hospital or child health sector) within 10 days of hospital discharge (67.2%) than private sector women (7.2%). Length of hospital stay was associated with home visiting in both sectors. Some vulnerable sub-populations in both sectors were more likely to be visited, while others were not. Conclusions Home visiting in Queensland varies markedly between the public and private sector and is less common in some vulnerable populations. Further consideration to improving the equity of community postpartum care in Queensland is needed.