The impact of completing a drink driving rehabilitation program on future drinking : the clients’ perspective

The paper explores the role and focus of drink driving rehabilitation programs. It is particularly concerned with whether programs that specifically focus on reducing driving after drinking also have a positive effect on clients’ levels of drinking. A sample of volunteering clients was recruited while they were participating in the Australian “Under the Limit” program and they were followed up at least three months post completion. Response rates were very low and the sample is assumed to reflect the views and outcomes of persons who felt positive about the program. Clients reported large and meaningful reductions in their drinking and in their drink driving. They also reported important moves towards action and change in their drinking habits. The findings deserve to be followed up given the fact that drink driving programs are generally of much shorter duration than alcohol focussed interventions. There is a need for further research in this area and for developing more effective recruitment strategies.

Impact of urban traffic and climate change on water quality from road runoff

Urban traffic and climate change are two phenomena that have the potential to degrade urban water quality by influencing the build-up and wash-off of pollutants, respectively. However, limited knowledge has made it difficult to establish any link between pollutant buildup and wash-off under such dynamic conditions. In order to safeguard urban water quality, adaptive water quality mitigation measures are required. In this research, pollutant build-up and wash-off have been investigated from a dynamic point of view which incorporated the impacts of changed urban traffic as well as changes in the rainfall characteristics induced by climate change. The study has developed a dynamic object classification system and thereby, conceptualised the study of pollutant build-up and wash-off under future changes in urban traffic and rainfall characteristics. This study has also characterised the buildup and wash-off processes of traffic generated heavy metals, volatile, semi-volatile and non-volatile hydrocarbons under dynamic conditions which enables the development of adaptive mitigation measures for water quality. Additionally, predictive frameworks for the build-up and wash-off of some pollutants have also been developed.

Influence of physical and chemical properties of solids on heavy metal adsorption

Partition of heavy metals between particulate and dissolve fraction of stormwater primarily depends on the adsorption characteristics of solids particles. Moreover, the bioavailability of heavy metals is also influenced by the adsorption behaviour of solids. However, due to the lack of fundamental knowledge in relation to the heavy metals adsorption processes of road deposited solids, the effectiveness of stormwater management strategies can be limited. The research study focused on the investigation of the physical and chemical parameters of solids on urban road surfaces and, more specifically, on heavy metal adsorption to solids. Due to the complex nature of heavy metal interaction with solids, a substantial database was generated through a series of field investigations and laboratory experiments. The study sites for the build-up pollutant sample collection were selected from four urbanised suburbs located in a major river catchment. Sixteen road sites were selected from these suburbs and represented typical industrial, commercial and residential land uses. Build-up pollutants were collected using a wet and dry vacuum collection technique which was specially designed to improve fine particle collection. Roadside soil samples were also collected from each suburb for comparison with the road surface solids. The collected build-up solids samples were separated into four particle size ranges and tested for a range of physical and chemical parameters. The solids build-up on road surfaces contained a high fraction (70%) of particles smaller than 150ìm, which are favourable for heavy metal adsorption. These solids particles predominantly consist of soil derived minerals which included quartz, albite, microcline, muscovite and chlorite. Additionally, a high percentage of amorphous content was also identified in road deposited solids. In comparing the mineralogical data of surrounding soil and road deposited solids, it was found that about 30% of the solids consisted of particles generated from traffic related activities on road surfaces. Significant difference in mineralogical composition was noted in different particle sizes of build-up solids. Fine solids particles (<150ìm) consisted of a clayey matrix and high amorphous content (in the region of 40%) while coarse particles (>150ìm) consisted of a sandy matrix at all study sites, with about 60% quartz content. Due to these differences in mineralogical components, particles larger than and smaller than 150ìm had significant differences in their specific surface area (SSA) and effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC). These parameters, in turn, exert a significant influence on heavy metal adsorption. Consequently, heavy metal content in >150ìm particles was lower than in the case of fine particles. The particle size range <75ìm had the highest heavy metal content, corresponding with its high clay forming minerals, high organic matter and low quartz content which increased the SSA, ECEC and the presence of Fe, Al and Mn oxides. The clay forming minerals, high organic matter and Fe, Al and Mn oxides create distinct groups of charge sites on solids surfaces and exhibit different adsorption mechanisms and bond strength, between heavy metal elements and charge sites. Therefore, the predominance of these factors in different particle sizes leads to different heavy metal adsorption characteristics. Heavy metals show preference for association with clay forming minerals in fine solids particles, whilst in coarse particles heavy metals preferentially associate with organic matter. Although heavy metal adsorption to amorphous material is very low, the heavy metals embedded in traffic related materials have a potential impact on stormwater quality.Adsorption of heavy metals is not confined to an individual type of charge site in solids, whereas specific heavy metal elements show preference for adsorption to several different types of charge sites in solids. This is attributed to the dearth of preferred binding sites and the inability to reach the preferred binding sites due to competition between different heavy metal species. This confirms that heavy metal adsorption is significantly influenced by the physical and chemical parameters of solids that lead to a heterogeneity of surface charge sites. The research study highlighted the importance of removal of solids particles from stormwater runoff before they enter into receiving waters to reduce the potential risk posed by the bioavailability of heavy metals. The bioavailability of heavy metals not only results from the easily mobile fraction bound to the solids particles, but can also occur as a result of the dissolution of other forms of bonds by chemical changes in stormwater or microbial activity. Due to the diversity in the composition of the different particle sizes of solids and the characteristics and amount of charge sites on the particle surfaces, investigations using bulk solids are not adequate to gain an understanding of the heavy metal adsorption processes of solids particles. Therefore, the investigation of different particle size ranges is recommended for enhancing stormwater quality management practices.

Big, bigger, best? The impact of reforms on the not-for-profit sector in Queensland

Organisations within the not-for-profit sector provide services to individuals and groups that government and for-profit organisations cannot or will not consider. The not-for-profit sector has come to be a vibrant and rich agglomeration of services and programs that operate under a myriad of philosophical stances, service orientation, client groupings and operational capacities. In Australia these organisations and services are providing social support and service assistance to many people in the community; often targeting their assistance to the most difficult of clients. Initially, in undertaking this role, the not-for-profit sector received limited sponsorship from government. Over time governments assumed greater responsibility in the form of service grants to particular groups: ‘the worthy poor’. More recently, they have entered into contractual service agreements with the not-for-profit sector, which specify the nature of the outcomes to be achieved and, to a degree, the way in which the services will be provided. A consequence of this growing shift to a more marketised model of service contracting, often offered-up under the label of enhanced collaborative practice, has been increased competitiveness between agencies that had previously worked well together (Keast and Brown, 2006). Another trend emerging from the market approach is the entrance of for-profit providers. These larger organisations have higher levels of organisational capacity with considerable organisational slack to allow them to adopt new service roles. Shaped almost as ‘shadow governments’ they appear to be a strong preference for governments looking for greater accountability of outcomes and an easier way to control the interaction with the conventional not-for-profit sector. The question is will governments’ apparent preference for larger organisational arrangements lead to the demise of the vibrancy of the not-for-profit sector and impact on service provision to those people who fall outside of the remit of the new service providers? To address this issue, this paper uses information gleaned from a state-wide survey of not-for-profit organisations in Queensland, Australia which included organisational size, operational scope, funding arrangements and governance/management approaches. Supplementing this information is qualitative data derived from 17 focus groups and 120 interviews conducted over ten years of study of this sector. The findings contribute to greater understanding of the practice and theory of the future provision of social services.

'My grandchild has a disability' : impact on grandparenting identity, roles and relationships

Being a grandparent is an important and valued role for many older adults, who often have strong views about the type of grandparent they will be and what they will teach their grandchild. When their grandchild has a disability, grandparents may have to significantly adjust their expectations and interactions. This research explores if and how having a grandchild with a disability influences grandparents’ sense of identity and enactment of the grandparent role. Using qualitative purposive sampling, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 grandparents of children with an intellectual and/or physical disability residing in Brisbane, Australia. A thematic analysis identified three key themes characterising grandparent’s views: formation of grandparenting identity, styles of grandparenting, and role enactment. The results highlight the critical role of grandparents when a child has a disability, illustrating that the grandparenting experience and role enactment may be universal with only the context and delivery varying.

Formation mechanisms of secondary organic aerosols in relation to laser printer emissions

Due to their large surface area, complex chemical composition and high alveolar deposition rate, ultrafine particles (UFPs) (< 0.1 ìm) pose a significant risk to human health and their toxicological effects have been acknowledged by the World Health Organisation. Since people spend most of their time indoors, there is a growing concern about the UFPs present in some indoor environments. Recent studies have shown that office machines, in particular laser printers, are a significant indoor source of UFPs. The majority of printer-generated UFPs are organic carbon and it is unlikely that these particles are emitted directly from the printer or its supplies (such as paper and toner powder). Thus, it was hypothesised that these UFPs are secondary organic aerosols (SOA). Considering the widespread use of printers and human exposure to these particles, understanding the processes involved in particle formation is of critical importance. However, few studies have investigated the nature (e.g. volatility, hygroscopicity, composition, size distribution and mixing state) and formation mechanisms of these particles. In order to address this gap in scientific knowledge, a comprehensive study including state-of-art instrumental methods was conducted to characterise the real-time emissions from modern commercial laser printers, including particles, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and ozone (O3). The morphology, elemental composition, volatility and hygroscopicity of generated particles were also examined. The large set of experimental results was analysed and interpreted to provide insight into: (1) Emissions profiles of laser printers: The results showed that UFPs dominated the number concentrations of generated particles, with a quasi unimodal size distribution observed for all tests. These particles were volatile, non-hygroscopic and mixed both externally and internally. Particle microanalysis indicated that semi-volatile organic compounds occupied the dominant fraction of these particles, with only trace quantities of particles containing Ca and Fe. Furthermore, almost all laser printers tested in this study emitted measurable concentrations of VOCs and O3. A positive correlation between submicron particles and O3 concentrations, as well as a contrasting negative correlation between submicron particles and total VOC concentrations were observed during printing for all tests. These results proved that UFPs generated from laser printers are mainly SOAs. (2) Sources and precursors of generated particles: In order to identify the possible particle sources, particle formation potentials of both the printer components (e.g. fuser roller and lubricant oil) and supplies (e.g. paper and toner powder) were investigated using furnace tests. The VOCs emitted during the experiments were sampled and identified to provide information about particle precursors. The results suggested that all of the tested materials had the potential to generate particles upon heating. Nine unsaturated VOCs were identified from the emissions produced by paper and toner, which may contribute to the formation of UFPs through oxidation reactions with ozone. (3) Factors influencing the particle emission: The factors influencing particle emissions were also investigated by comparing two popular laser printers, one showing particle emissions three orders of magnitude higher than the other. The effects of toner coverage, printing history, type of paper and toner, and working temperature of the fuser roller on particle number emissions were examined. The results showed that the temperature of the fuser roller was a key factor driving the emission of particles. Based on the results for 30 different types of laser printers, a systematic positive correlation was observed between temperature and particle number emissions for printers that used the same heating technology and had a similar structure and fuser material. It was also found that temperature fluctuations were associated with intense bursts of particles and therefore, they may have impact on the particle emissions. Furthermore, the results indicated that the type of paper and toner powder contributed to particle emissions, while no apparent relationship was observed between toner coverage and levels of submicron particles. (4) Mechanisms of SOA formation, growth and ageing: The overall hypothesis that UFPs are formed by reactions with the VOCs and O3 emitted from laser printers was examined. The results proved this hypothesis and suggested that O3 may also play a role in particle ageing. In addition, knowledge about the mixing state of generated particles was utilised to explore the detailed processes of particle formation for different printing scenarios, including warm-up, normal printing, and printing without toner. The results indicated that polymerisation may have occurred on the surface of the generated particles to produce thermoplastic polymers, which may account for the expandable characteristics of some particles. Furthermore, toner and other particle residues on the idling belt from previous print jobs were a very clear contributing factor in the formation of laser printer-emitted particles. In summary, this study not only improves scientific understanding of the nature of printer-generated particles, but also provides significant insight into the formation and ageing mechanisms of SOAs in the indoor environment. The outcomes will also be beneficial to governments, industry and individuals.

Impact of a data warehouse model for improved decision-making process in healthcare

The health system is one sector dealing with a deluge of complex data. Many healthcare organisations struggle to utilise these volumes of health data effectively and efficiently. Also, there are many healthcare organisations, which still have stand-alone systems, not integrated for management of information and decision-making. This shows, there is a need for an effective system to capture, collate and distribute this health data. Therefore, implementing the data warehouse concept in healthcare is potentially one of the solutions to integrate health data. Data warehousing has been used to support business intelligence and decision-making in many other sectors such as the engineering, defence and retail sectors. The research problem that is going to be addressed is, "how can data warehousing assist the decision-making process in healthcare". To address this problem the researcher has narrowed an investigation focusing on a cardiac surgery unit. This research used the cardiac surgery unit at the Prince Charles Hospital (TPCH) as the case study. The cardiac surgery unit at TPCH uses a stand-alone database of patient clinical data, which supports clinical audit, service management and research functions. However, much of the time, the interaction between the cardiac surgery unit information system with other units is minimal. There is a limited and basic two-way interaction with other clinical and administrative databases at TPCH which support decision-making processes. The aims of this research are to investigate what decision-making issues are faced by the healthcare professionals with the current information systems and how decision-making might be improved within this healthcare setting by implementing an aligned data warehouse model or models. As a part of the research the researcher will propose and develop a suitable data warehouse prototype based on the cardiac surgery unit needs and integrating the Intensive Care Unit database, Clinical Costing unit database (Transition II) and Quality and Safety unit database [electronic discharge summary (e-DS)]. The goal is to improve the current decision-making processes. The main objectives of this research are to improve access to integrated clinical and financial data, providing potentially better information for decision-making for both improved from the questionnaire and by referring to the literature, the results indicate a centralised data warehouse model for the cardiac surgery unit at this stage. A centralised data warehouse model addresses current needs and can also be upgraded to an enterprise wide warehouse model or federated data warehouse model as discussed in the many consulted publications. The data warehouse prototype was able to be developed using SAS enterprise data integration studio 4.2 and the data was analysed using SAS enterprise edition 4.3. In the final stage, the data warehouse prototype was evaluated by collecting feedback from the end users. This was achieved by using output created from the data warehouse prototype as examples of the data desired and possible in a data warehouse environment. According to the feedback collected from the end users, implementation of a data warehouse was seen to be a useful tool to inform management options, provide a more complete representation of factors related to a decision scenario and potentially reduce information product development time. However, there are many constraints exist in this research. For example the technical issues such as data incompatibilities, integration of the cardiac surgery database and e-DS database servers and also, Queensland Health information restrictions (Queensland Health information related policies, patient data confidentiality and ethics requirements), limited availability of support from IT technical staff and time restrictions. These factors have influenced the process for the warehouse model development, necessitating an incremental approach. This highlights the presence of many practical barriers to data warehousing and integration at the clinical service level. Limitations included the use of a small convenience sample of survey respondents, and a single site case report study design. As mentioned previously, the proposed data warehouse is a prototype and was developed using only four database repositories. Despite this constraint, the research demonstrates that by implementing a data warehouse at the service level, decision-making is supported and data quality issues related to access and availability can be reduced, providing many benefits. Output reports produced from the data warehouse prototype demonstrated usefulness for the improvement of decision-making in the management of clinical services, and quality and safety monitoring for better clinical care. However, in the future, the centralised model selected can be upgraded to an enterprise wide architecture by integrating with additional hospital units’ databases.

The impact of regulatory reforms on the earnings forecasting behaviour of IPO firms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to jointly assess the impact of regulatory reform for corporate fundraising in Australia (CLERP Act 1999) and the relaxation of ASX admission rules in 1999, on the accuracy of management earnings forecasts in initial public offer (IPO) prospectuses. The relaxation of ASX listing rules permitted a new category of new economy firms (commitments test entities (CTEs))to list without a prior history of profitability, while the CLERP Act (introduced in 2000) was accompanied by tighter disclosure obligations and stronger enforcement action by the corporate regulator (ASIC). Design/methodology/approach – All IPO earnings forecasts in prospectuses lodged between 1998 and 2003 are examined to assess the pre- and post-CLERP Act impact. Based on active ASIC enforcement action in the post-reform period, IPO firms are hypothesised to provide more accurate forecasts, particularly CTE firms, which are less likely to have a reasonable basis for forecasting. Research models are developed to empirically test the impact of the reforms on CTE and non-CTE IPO firms. Findings – The new regulatory environment has had a positive impact on management forecasting behaviour. In the post-CLERP Act period, the accuracy of prospectus forecasts and their revisions significantly improved and, as expected, the results are primarily driven by CTE firms. However, the majority of prospectus forecasts continue to be materially inaccurate. Originality/value – The results highlight the need to control for both the changing nature of listed firms and the level of enforcement action when examining responses to regulatory changes to corporate fundraising activities.

The impact of high stakes testing: the Australian story

High stakes testing in Australia was introduced in 2008 by way of the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). Currently, every year all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are assessed on the same days using national tests in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation) and Numeracy. In 2010 the NAPLAN results were published on the Federal Government MySchool website. The impact of these high stakes tests on jurisdictions, school principals, parents and students is considered in this article. We draw on reported observations from the Australian Primary Principals Association during 2009–10 testing periods across the country and published Australian research on the impact of high stakes literacy and numeracy testing. We also examine alternative approaches that include the use of assessment evidence for learning improvement purposes and for accountability purposes. In considering alternatives to the current large-scale testing approach we draw on key insights from research on teacher judgement, achievement standards and social moderation in the context of national curriculum and assessment reform in support of the suggested directions forward.

The impact of infrastructure charges on new housing costs : an international comparison

Sourcing funding for the provision of new urban infrastructure has been a policy dilemma for governments around the world for decades. This is particularly relevant in high growth areas where new services are required to support swelling populations. Existing communities resist the introduction of new taxes to fund such infrastructure, hence the introduction of charges to the developer has flourished. The Australian infrastructure funding policy dilemmas are reflective of similar matters to some extent in the United Kingdom, and to a greater extent the United States of America. In these countries, infrastructure cost recovery policies have been in place since the 1940’s and 1970’s respectively. There is an extensive body of theoretical and empirical literature that discusses the passing on (to home buyers) or passing back (to the englobo land seller) of these increased infrastructure charges, and the corresponding impact on housing cost and supply. The purpose of this research is to examine the international evidence that suggests infrastructure charges contribute to increased house prices as well as reduced land supply. The paper concludes that whilst the theoretical work is largely consistent, the empirical research to date is inconclusive and further research is required into these impacts in Australia.

Sequential Monte Carlo for Bayesian sequentially designed experiments for discrete data

In this paper we present a sequential Monte Carlo algorithm for Bayesian sequential experimental design applied to generalised non-linear models for discrete data. The approach is computationally convenient in that the information of newly observed data can be incorporated through a simple re-weighting step. We also consider a flexible parametric model for the stimulus-response relationship together with a newly developed hybrid design utility that can produce more robust estimates of the target stimulus in the presence of substantial model and parameter uncertainty. The algorithm is applied to hypothetical clinical trial or bioassay scenarios. In the discussion, potential generalisations of the algorithm are suggested to possibly extend its applicability to a wide variety of scenarios