A 5 year review of information requests to QISU

The Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit (QISU) has been collecting and analysing injury data in Queensland since 1988. QISU data is collected from participating emergency departments (EDs) in urban, rural and remote areas of Queensland. Using this data, QISU produces several injury bulletins per year on selected topics, providing a picture of Queensland injury, and setting this in the context of relevant local, national and international research and policy. These bulletins are used by numerous government and non-government groups to inform injury prevention and practice throughout the state. QISU bulletins are also used by local and state media to inform the general public of injury risk and prevention strategies. In addition to producing the bulletins, QISU regularly responds to requests for information from a variety of sources. These requests often require additional analysis of QISU data to tailor the response to the needs of the end user. This edition of the bulletin reviews 5 years of information requests to QISU.

Tip-over injuries in children under 5 years of age in Queensland 1999-2008

Furniture and appliance related injuries in children under 5 years of age accounts for an estimated 180 emergency presentations annually in Queensland. Injuries occur when children push or pull items over, climb and fall off furniture, or climb and tip the item over. Children under 2 years of age tend to injure themselves by pulling items over onto themselves Children over 2 years of age are more likely to be injured after climbing the item and either falling off or tipping the item over onto themselves. Tip over injuries (where the item falls over and injures the child) in children under 5 years of age account for an estimated 115 emergency presentations annually in Queensland. The item most commonly associated with a tip over injury is a television (with or without the cabinet) Prevention requires better design and selection of furniture with inherent stability coupled with mechanisms to install or fix less stable items

Pram and stroller related injury in Queensland children under 5 years of age

An estimated 200 Queensland children under 5 years of age are injured every year in incidents involving prams or strollers. The majority of injuries are due to falls from or falls with the pram or stroller Nineteen children were identified as having been caught in the pram or stroller mechanism (13 sustained finger injuries). Stairs and escalators were a factor in nearly 10 percent of pram or stroller fall injuries, with children being tipped out of the pram or stroller, or rolling down the stairs in the device. Roll away injuries accounted for eight percent of all pram or stroller fall injuries (some also involving stairs) Roll away injuries could be prevented by a default brake system similar to airport trolleys. Pram or stroller failure was identified in 2% of injuries

Can risk management boost the supply of affordable housing development and management?

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the risk management process conducted by some private and not-for-profit affordable housing providers in South East Queensland, and draw conclusions about the relationship between risk assessments/responses and past experiences.----- Design/methodology/approach: In-depth interviews of selected non-government housing providers have been conducted to facilitate an understanding of their approach to risk assessment in developing and in managing affordable housing projects. Qualitative data are analysed using thematic analysis to find emerging themes suggested by interview participants.----- Findings: The paper finds that informal risk management process is used as part of normal business process in accordance with industry standards. Many interviewees agree that the recognition of financial risk and the fear of community rejection of such housing projects have restrained them from committing to such investment projects. The levels of acceptance of risk are not always consistent across housing providers which create opportunities to conduct multi-stakeholder partnership to reduce overall risk.----- Research limitations/implications: The paper has implications for developers or investors who seek to include affordable housing as part of their portfolio. However, data collected in the study are a cross-section of interviews that will not include the impact on recent tax incentives offers by the Australian Commonwealth Government.----- Practical implications: The study suggests that implementing improvements to the risk mitigation and management framework may assist in promoting the supply of affordable housing by non-government providers.----- Originality/value: The focus of the study is the interaction between partnerships and risk management in development and management of affordable rental housing.

An evaluation of viability of public private partnerships in social infrastructure procurement projects in Queensland, Australia

Public private partnerships (PPP) have been widely used as a method for public infrastructure project delivery not only locally and internationally, however the adoption of PPPs in social infrastructure procurement has still been very limited. The objective of this paper is to investigate the potential of implementation of current PPP framework in social affordable housing projects in South East Queensland. Data were collected from 22 interviewees with rich experiences in the industry. The findings of this study show that affordable housing investment have been considered by the industry practitioners as a risky business in comparison to other private rental housing investment. The main determents of the adoption of PPPs in social infrastructure project are the tenant-related factors, such as the inability of paying rent and the inability of caring the property. The study also suggests the importance of seeking strategic partnership with community-based organisation that has experiences in managing similar tenants’ profiles. Current PPP guideline is also viewed as inappropriate for the affordable housing projects, but the principle of VFM framework and risk allocation in PPPs still be applied to the affordable housing projects. This study helps to understand the viability of PPP in social housing procurement projects, and point out the importance of developing guideline for multi-stakeholder partnership and the expansion of the current VFM and PPPs guidelines.

Authentic assessment of work integrated learning

The paper examines how poster presentations can be used to authentically assess student learning during internships. While poster presentations are commonly used for assessment in the sciences, they are an innovative approach to assessment in the humanities. It is argued that posters are one way that universities can overcome the substantial challenges of assessing work integrated learning. The paper evaluates the use of poster presentations for assessment in two internship units at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT)]. The first is a unit in the Faculty of Business where students majoring in advertising, marketing and public relations are placed in a variety of organisations. The second unit is a law unit where students complete placements in government legal offices. The two units adopt different approaches to the poster assessment; the unit in the Faculty of Business is non-graded and the poster assessment task requires students to reflect on their learning during the internship. The law unit is graded and requires students to present on a research topic that relates to their internship. In both units the posters were presented during a poster showcase which was attended by students, workplace supervisors and members of faculty. The paper evaluates the benefits of poster presentations for students, workplace supervisors and faculty and concludes that posters can effectively and authentically assess various learning outcomes in internships in different disciplines.

Prehistoric hand stencils at Fern Cave, North Queensland (Australia): environmental and chronological implications of Raman spectroscopy and FT-IR imaging results

Raman spectroscopy and FT-IR imaging analyses of cave wall pigment samples from north Queensland (Australia) indicate that some hand stencils were undertaken during a dry environmental phase indicating late Holocene age. Other, earlier painting episodes also took place during dry environmental periods of the terminal Pleistocene and/or early Holocene. These results represent a rare opportunity to attain chronological information for rock art in conditions where insufficient carbon is present for radiocarbon dating.

Factors related to the presentation of thin and thick nodular melanoma from a population-based cancer registry in Queensland Australia

Purpose: Worldwide, the incidence of thick melanoma has not declined, and the nodular melanoma (NM) subtype accounts for nearly 40% of newly-diagnosed thick melanoma. To assess differences between patients with thin (≤2.00 mm) and thick (≥2.01 mm) nodular melanoma, we evaluated factors such as demographics, melanoma detection patterns, tumor visibility, and physician screening for NM alone and compared clinical presentation and anatomic location of NM with superficial spreading melanoma (SSM). Methods We utilized data from a large population-based study of Queensland (Australia) residents diagnosed with melanoma. Queensland residents aged 20 to 75 years with histologically confirmed first primary invasive cutaneous melanoma were eligible for the study, and all questionnaires were conducted by telephone (response rate 77.9%). Results During this four-year period, 369 patients with nodular melanoma were interviewed, of whom 56.7% were diagnosed with tumors ≤ 2.00 mm. Men, older individuals, and those who had not been screened by a physician in the past three years were more likely to have nodular tumors of greater thickness. Thickest nodular melanoma (4 mm+) was also most common in persons who had not been screened by a doctor within the past three years (OR 3.75; 95% CI 1.47-9.59). Forty-six percent of patients with thin nodular melanoma (≤ 2.00 mm) reported a change in color, compared with 64% of patients with thin SSM and 26% of patients with thick nodular melanoma (>2.00 mm). Conclusion Awareness of factors related to earlier detection of potentially fatal nodular melanomas, including the benefits of a physician examination, should be useful in enhancing public and professional education strategies. Particular awareness of clinical warning signs associated with thin nodular melanoma should allow for more prompt diagnosis and treatment of this subtype.

Metabolic syndrome and serum carotenoids : findings of a cross-sectional study in Queensland, Australia

Several components of the metabolic syndrome, particularly diabetes and cardiovascular disease, are known to be oxidative stress-related conditions and there is research to suggest that antioxidant nutrients may play a protective role in these conditions. Carotenoids are compounds derived primarily from plants and several have been shown to be potent antioxidant nutrients. The aim of this study was to examine the associations between metabolic syndrome status and major serum carotenoids in adult Australians. Data on the presence of the metabolic syndrome, based on International Diabetes Federation 2005 criteria, were collected from 1523 adults aged 25 years and over in six randomly selected urban centers in Queensland, Australia, using a cross-sectional study design. Weight, height, BMI, waist circumference, blood pressure, fasting and 2-hour blood glucose and lipids were determined, as well as five serum carotenoids. Mean serum alpha-carotene, beta-carotene and the sum of the five carotenoid concentrations were significantly lower (p<0.05) in persons with the metabolic syndrome (after adjusting for age, sex, education, BMI status, alcohol intake, smoking, physical activity status and vitamin/mineral use) than persons without the syndrome. Alpha, beta and total carotenoids also decreased significantly (p<0.05) with increased number of components of the metabolic syndrome, after adjusting for these confounders. These differences were significant among former smokers and non-smokers, but not in current smokers. Low concentrations of serum alpha-carotene, beta-carotene and the sum of five carotenoids appear to be associated with metabolic syndrome status. Additional research, particularly longitudinal studies, may help to determine if these associations are causally related to the metabolic syndrome, or are a result of the pathologies of the syndrome.

Preliminary spatiotemporal analysis of the association between socio-environmental factors and suicide

Background: The seasonality of suicide has long been recognised. However, little is known about the relative importance of socio-environmental factors in the occurrence of suicide in different geographical areas. This study examined the association of climate, socioeconomic and demographic factors with suicide in Queensland, Australia, using a spatiotemporal approach. Methods: Seasonal data on suicide, demographic variables and socioeconomic indexes for areas in each Local Government Area (LGA) between 1999 and 2003 were acquired from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Climate data were supplied by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. A multivariable generalized estimating equation model was used to examine the impact of socio-environmental factors on suicide. Results: The preliminary data analyses show that far north Queensland had the highest suicide incidence (e.g., Cook and Mornington Shires), while the south-western areas had the lowest incidence (e.g., Barcoo and Bauhinia Shires) in all the seasons. Maximum temperature, unemployment rate, the proportion of Indigenous population and the proportion of population with low individual income were statistically significantly and positively associated with suicide. There were weaker but not significant associations for other variables. Conclusions: Maximum temperature, the proportion of Indigenous population and unemployment rate appeared to be major determinants of suicide at a LGA level in Queensland.

Building an Australasian Commons : Creative Commons case studies vol. 1

A collection of 60 case studies of the use of Creative Commons licensing in different sectors, including: music, social activism, film, visual arts, collecting, government, publishing and education.

Prevalence and determinants of sunburn in Queensland

Issue addressed: Australia records the highest incidence of skin cancer in the world. In response to this public education campaigns have incorporated messages about reducing sun exposure and avoiding sunburn. This study sought to describe the prevalence of and factors associated with sunburn in Queensland residents. Methods: The Queensland Cancer Risk Study was a population-based, cross-sectional survey of 9,298 respondents conducted via computer-assisted telephone interview during 2004. Sunburn prevalence and its association with sociodemographics and skin cancer risk variables were examined. Results: More than two-thirds (70.4%) of respondents reported at least one episode of sunburn in the past 12 months, and one in ten respondents reported at least one episode of sever sunburn in the past 12 months. Experiences of sunburn on two or more occasions were reported more frequently by males than females (57.6% versus 46.5%, p < 0.001), and by nearly two-thirds (65.8%) of those aged 20-39 years compared to 48.0% of 40-59 year olds, and 26.7% of 60-75 year olds (p < 0.001). Episodes of sunburn were strongly associated with being male (OR=2.20 95%CI 1.84-2.63) and being aged 20 to 39 years compared to 60 to 75 years (OR=9.79, 95%CI=7.66-12.50). Conclusions: Sunburn remains highly prevalent among Queensland residents particularly among men and in the younger age groups. So what? More effective strategies and methods may be required to extend the influence of health promotion campaigns.

Validating the IS-Impact Model At Queensland University Of Technology (QUT): Part A

The overall research aims to develop a standardised instrument to measure the impacts resulting from contemporary Information Systems (IS). The research adopts the IS-Impact measurement model, introduced by Gable et al, (2008), as its theoretical foundation, and applies the extension strategy described by Berthon et al. (2002); extending both theory and the context, where the new context is the Human Resource (HR) system. The research will be conducted in two phases, the exploratory phase and the specification phase. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of the exploratory phase. 134 respondents from a major Australian University were involved in this phase. The findings have supported most of the existing IS-Impact model’s credibility. However, some textual data may suggest new measures for the IS-Impact model, while the low response rate or the averting of some may suggest the elimination of some measures from the model.

Microbial risk from rainwater tanks in South East Queensland

Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) analysis was used to quantify the risk of infection associated with the exposure to pathogens from potable and non-potable uses of roof-harvested rainwater in South East Queensland (SEQ). A total of 84 rainwater samples were analysed for the presence of faecal indicators (using culture based methods) and zoonotic bacterial and protozoan pathogens using binary and quantitative PCR (qPCR). The concentrations of Salmonella invA, and Giardia lamblia β-giradin genes ranged from 65-380 genomic units/1000 mL and 9-57 genomic units/1000 mL of water, respectively. After converting gene copies to cell/cyst number, the risk of infection from G. lamblia and Salmonella spp. associated with the use of rainwater for bi-weekly garden hosing was calculated to be below the threshold value of 1 extra infection per 10,000 persons per year. However, the estimated risk of infection from drinking the rainwater daily was 44-250 (for G. lamblia) and 85-520 (for Salmonella spp.) infections per 10,000 persons per year. Since this health risk seems higher than that expected from the reported incidences of gastroenteritis, the assumptions used to estimate these infection risks are critically discussed. Nevertheless, it would seem prudent to disinfect rainwater for potable use.