A cultural assessment of family dispute resolution: Findings about access, retention and outcomes from the evaluation of a Family Relationship Centre

The cultural appropriateness of human service processes is a major factor in determining the effectiveness of their delivery. Sensitivity to issues of culture is particularly critical in dealing with family disputes, which are generally highly emotive and require difficult decisions to be made regarding children, material assets and ongoing relationships. In this article we draw on findings from an evaluation of the Family Relationship Centre at Broadmeadows (FRCB) to offer some insights into and suggestions about managing cultural matters in the current practice of family dispute resolution (FDR) in Australia. The brief for the original research was to evaluate the cultural appropriateness of FDR services offered to culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities living within the FRCB’s catchment area, specifically members of the Lebanese, Turkish and Iraqi communities. The conclusions of the evaluations were substantially positive. The work of the Centre was found to illustrate many aspects of best practice but also raised questions worthy of future exploration. The current article reports on issues of access, retention and outcomes obtained by CALD clients at various stages of the FRCB service.

A cultural assessment of family dispute resolution: Findings about cultural appropriateness from the evaluation of a family relationship centre

The cultural appropriateness of human service processes is a major factor in determining the effectiveness of their delivery. Sensitivity to issues of culture is particularly critical in dealing with family disputes, which are generally highly emotive and require difficult decisions to be made regarding children, material assets and ongoing relationships. In this article we draw on findings from an evaluation of the Family Relationship Centre at Broadmeadows (FRCB) to offer some insights into and suggestions about managing cultural matters in the current practice of family dispute resolution (FDR) in Australia. The brief for the original research was to evaluate the cultural appropriateness of FDR services offered to culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities living within the FRCB’s catchment area, specifically members of the Lebanese, Turkish and Iraqi communities. The conclusions of the evaluations were substantially positive. The work of the Centre was found to illustrate many aspects of best practice but also raised questions worthy of future exploration. The current article reports on overall cultural appropriateness, particularly identifying barriers which may inhibit access and how acculturation may play a role in reducing perception of barriers. An earlier article reported on access, retention and outcomes for these CALD groups (Akin Ojelabi et al., 2011).

Student performance in field education placements: The findings of a 6-year Australian study of admissions data

This article reports on a 6-year study that examined the association between pre-admission variables and field placement performance in an Australian bachelor of social work program (N=463). Very few of the pre-admission variables were found to be significantly associated with performance. These findings and the role of the admissions process are discussed. In addition to the usual academic criteria, the authors urge schools to include a focus on nonacademic criteria during the admissions process and the ongoing educational program.

Coherent quasiparticle approximation cQPA and nonlocal coherence

We show that the dynamical Wigner functions for noninteracting fermions and bosons can have complex singularity structures with a number of new solutions accompanying the usual mass-shell dispersion relations. These new shell solutions are shown to encode the information of the quantum coherence between particles and antiparticles, left and right moving chiral states and/or between different flavour states. Analogously to the usual derivation of the Boltzmann equation, we impose this extended phase space structure on the full interacting theory. This extension of the quasiparticle approximation gives rise to a self-consistent equation of motion for a density matrix that combines the quantum mechanical coherence evolution with a well defined collision integral giving rise to decoherence. Several applications of the method are given, for example to the coherent particle production, electroweak baryogenesis and study of decoherence and thermalization.

A Study of Practical Biological Phantoms with Simple Instrumentation for Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT)

16-electrode phantoms are developed and studied with a simple instrumentation developed for Electrical Impedance Tomography. An analog instrumentation is developed with a sinusoidal current generator and signal conditioner circuit. Current generator is developed withmodified Howland constant current source fed by a voltage controlled oscillator and the signal conditioner circuit consisting of an instrumentation amplifier and a narrow band pass filter. Electronic hardware is connected to the electrodes through a DIP switch based multiplexer module. Phantoms with different electrode size and position are developed and the EIT forward problem is studied using the forward solver. A low frequency low magnitude sinusoidal current is injected to the surface electrodes surrounding the phantom boundary and the differential potential is measured by a digital multimeter. Comparing measured potential with the simulated data it is intended to reduce the measurement error and an optimum phantom geometry is suggested. Result shows that the common mode electrode reduces the common mode error of the EIT electronics and reduces the error potential in the measured data. Differential potential is reduced up to 67 mV at the voltage electrode pair opposite to the current electrodes. Offset potential is measured and subtracted from the measured data for further correction. It is noticed that the potential data pattern depends on the electrode width and the optimum electrode width is suggested. It is also observed that measured potential becomes acceptable with a 20 mm solution column above and below the electrode array level.

Sense of Coherence : Determinants and consequences

ABSTRACT Sense of coherence (SOC) is a core concept within Antonovsky s salutogenic theory and is argued to be a psychological determinant of health. The present social-epidemiological study explores the associations between a wide range of generalized resistance resources of SOC among Finnish- and Swedish-speaking women and men with a view to gaining deeper insight into its developmental circumstances and determinants. Secondly, a five-year follow-up study was conducted in order to assess the stability of SOC in difficult life events. Finally the role and effect of SOC in the intentions to retire early was investigated in a prospective study. The above studies were based on two data sets: the Finnish 'Survey on Living Conditions' (ELO-94) conducted in 1994 by means of personal face-to-face interviews (N=6506), and a prospective postal survey of the 15-year Health and Social Support (HeSSup) study for which the baseline data was collected in 1998 (N=25 898) and the follow-up in 2003. The present study reveals that the level of SOC in adulthood is strongly dependent on close and successful social relationships during both childhood and adulthood, and that there is a strong association with qualitative work features. Not having a partner as well as being unable to use one s skills at work proved to threaten men s SOC in particular, whereas a lack of social support did the same for women. Otherwise, the association with generalized resistance resources turned out to be quite similar in both genders. Swedish-speaking Finns appear to have a slightly stronger SOC due to the better psycho-emotional circumstances in the childhood home and work circumstances in adulthood, in other words higher levels of generalized resistance resources compared to Finnish speakers. These language group differences did not concern any social-life factors included in the present study. The results of the five-year follow-up study suggest that SOC is not stable, and that the level clearly decreases after a negative life event. Even a strong SOC decreased during the follow-up period and, furthermore, was no more stable than a mediocre or weak SOC. There seems to be a clear and independent association with the intentions to retire early among both men and women following full adjustment. Swedish speakers appear to be less inclined to retire early than Finnish speakers. In the light of the present study, it seems that SOC is determined not only by socio-economic factors but also by close and successful social relationships during both childhood and adulthood. This applied to both genders and language groups. Interventions aimed at promoting the health of the disadvantaged should therefore focus on families with children, and extend later also to other than socio-economic spheres of life. SOC theory could also be applied in efforts to inhibit early retirement: management practices aimed at providing employees with a work environment and tasks that are comprehensible, manageable and meaningful could potentially decrease the intentions to retire early.

Oral health and menopause

Hormone therapy (HT) is widely used to relieve climacteric symptoms in order to increase the well-being of the women. The benefits as well as side-effects of HT are well documented. The principal menopausal oral symptoms are dry mouth (DM) and sensation of painful mouth (PM) due to various causes. Profile studies have indicated that HT users are more health-conscious than non-users. The hypothesis of the present study was that there are differences in oral health between woman using HT and those not using HT. A questionnaire study of 3173 women of menopausal age (50-58 years old) was done to investigate the prevalence of self-assessed sensations of PM and DM. Of those women participating in the questionnaire study, a random sample of 400 (200 using, 200 not using HT) was examined clinically in a 2-year follow-up study. Oral status was recorded according to WHO methods using DMFT and CPITN indices. The saliva flows were measured, salivary total protein, albumin and immunoglobulin concentrations and selected periodontal micro-organisms were analysed, and panoramic tomography of the jaws was taken. The patients filled in a structured questionnaire on their systemic health, medication and health habits. According to our questionnaire study there was no significant difference in the occurrence of self- assessed PM or DM between the HT users and non-users. According to logistic regression analyses, climacteric complaints significantly correlated with the occurrence of PM (p=0.000) and DM (p=0.000) irrespective of the use of HT, indicating that PM and DM are associated with climacteric symptoms in general. There was no difference between the groups in DMFT index values at follow up. The number of filled teeth (FT) showed a significant (p<0.05) increase in the HT group at follow-up. Periodontitis was diagnosed in 79% of HT users at baseline and in 71% at the follow-up. The values for non-HT users were 80% vs. 76%, respectively (Ns.). The mean numbers of ≥ 6 mm deep periodontal pockets were 0.9 ± 1.7 at baseline vs. 1.1 ± 2.1 two years later in the HT group, and 1.0 ± 1.7 vs. 1.2 ± 1.9, respectively, in the non-HT group. In a large Finnish national health survey, the prevalence of peridontitis of women of this age group was lower, but the prevalence of severe periodontitis seemed to be higher than in our study. Salivary albumin, IgG and IgM concentrations decreased in the HT group during the 2-year follow up (p<0.05), possibly indicating an improvement in epithelial integrity. No difference was found in any other salivary parameters or in the prevalence of the periodontal bacteria between or within the groups. In conclusion, the present findings showed that 50 to 58 year old women living in Helsinki have fairly good oral and dental health. The occurrence of PM and DM seemed to be associated with climacteric symptoms in general, and the use of HT did not affect the oral symptoms studied.

Effect of disorder on the exponent in the coherence region in high temperature superconductors

Effect of disorder on the electrical resistance near the superconducting transition temperature in the paracoherence region of high temperature YBa2CU3O7-delta (YBCO) thin film superconductor is reported. For this, c-axis oriented YBa2Cu3O7-delta thin films having superconducting transition width varying between 0.27 K and 6 K were deposited using laser ablation and high pressure oxygen sputtering techniques. Disorder in these films was further created by using 100 MeV oxygen and 200 MeV silver ions with varying fluences. It is observed that the critical exponent in the paracoherence region for films with high transition temperature and small transition width is in agreement with the theoretically predicted value (gamma = 1.33) and is not affected by disorder, while for films with lower transition temperature and larger transition width the value of exponent is much larger as compared to that theoretically predicted and it varies from sample to sample and usually changes with disorder induced by radiation. This difference in the behaviour of the exponent has been explained on the basis of differences in the strength of weak links and the transition between temperatures T. and T, is interpreted as a percolation like transition with disorder. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Rotation sensitivity of Lau fringes: an analysis based on coherence theory

An analysis based on coherence theory is presented, which explains the experimentally observed rotation sensitivity of the contrast of Lau fringes obtained under spatially incoherent illumination.

Image reconstruction by inhomogeneous diffusion for positron emission tomography

In positron emission tomography (PET), image reconstruction is a demanding problem. Since, PET image reconstruction is an ill-posed inverse problem, new methodologies need to be developed. Although previous studies show that incorporation of spatial and median priors improves the image quality, the image artifacts such as over-smoothing and streaking are evident in the reconstructed image. In this work, we use a simple, yet powerful technique to tackle the PET image reconstruction problem. Proposed technique is based on the integration of Bayesian approach with that of finite impulse response (FIR) filter. A FIR filter is designed whose coefficients are determined based on the surface diffusion model. The resulting reconstructed image is iteratively filtered and fed back to obtain the new estimate. Experiments are performed on a simulated PET system. The results show that the proposed approach is better than recently proposed MRP algorithm in terms of image quality and normalized mean square error.

Coherence factors in excitonic insulators

Results of a theoretical study on ultrasonic attenuation and NMR relaxation in excitonic insulators are reported. The transition rates derived have anomalous temperature dependence owing to the occurrence of coherence factors analogous to the case of superconductors. It is found that these coherence factors are characteristically different for the interband and the intraband scattering processes. It is suggested that experimental observation of these temperature-dependent coherence factors may help identify the existence of an excitonic phase.

Length-independent voltage fluctuations in small conductors

The mean-squared voltage fluctuation of a disordered conductor of lengthL smaller than the phase coherence lengthL ϕ, is independent of the distance between the probes. We obtain this result using the voltage additivity and the known results for the conductance fluctuation. Our results complement the recent theoretical and experimental findings.

Role of spatial coherence on the rotation sensitivity of Lau fringes: an experimental study

A simple technique involving the use of a rotating and a stationary diffuser has been developed to vary the spatial coherence of light from a He-Ne laser. Using this technique an experimental investigation of the dependence of rotation sensitivity of Lau fringes on the spatial coherence of the illuminating wavefield has been carried out. It is observed that (i) the rotation sensitivity of Lau fringes varies in a well-defined manner as a function of the spatial coherence of the light used; (ii) the extremely good rotation sensitivity of Lau fringes can be used to great advantage (compared to the conventional double slit method) in the measurement of the spatial coherence of a wavefield; (iii) Lau fringes are formed at various levels of spatial coherence and as such it appears that the Lau effect need not be associated with an incoherent optical field

On the fundamentals of coherence theory

In the thesis I study various quantum coherence phenomena and create some of the foundations for a systematic coherence theory. So far, the approach to quantum coherence in science has been purely phenomenological. In my thesis I try to answer the question what quantum coherence is and how it should be approached within the framework of physics, the metatheory of physics and the terminology related to them. It is worth noticing that quantum coherence is a conserved quantity that can be exactly defined. I propose a way to define quantum coherence mathematically from the density matrix of the system. Degenerate quantum gases, i.e., Bose condensates and ultracold Fermi systems, form a good laboratory to study coherence, since their entropy is small and coherence is large, and thus they possess strong coherence phenomena. Concerning coherence phenomena in degenerate quantum gases, I concentrate in my thesis mainly on collective association from atoms to molecules, Rabi oscillations and decoherence. It appears that collective association and oscillations do not depend on the spin-statistics of particles. Moreover, I study the logical features of decoherence in closed systems via a simple spin-model. I argue that decoherence is a valid concept also in systems with a possibility to experience recoherence, i.e., Poincaré recurrences. Metatheoretically this is a remarkable result, since it justifies quantum cosmology: to study the whole universe (i.e., physical reality) purely quantum physically is meaningful and valid science, in which decoherence explains why the quantum physical universe appears to cosmologists and other scientists very classical-like. The study of the logical structure of closed systems also reveals that complex enough closed (physical) systems obey a principle that is similar to Gödel's incompleteness theorem of logic. According to the theorem it is impossible to describe completely a closed system within the system, and the inside and outside descriptions of the system can be remarkably different. Via understanding this feature it may be possible to comprehend coarse-graining better and to define uniquely the mutual entanglement of quantum systems.

Approximation of Internal Refractive Index Variation Improves Image Guided Diffuse Optical Tomography of Breast

Effective usage of image guidance by incorporating the refractive index (RI) variation in computational modeling of light propagation in tissue is investigated to assess its impact on optical-property estimation. With the aid of realistic patient breast three-dimensional models, the variation in RI for different regions of tissue under investigation is shown to influence the estimation of optical properties in image-guided diffuse optical tomography (IG-DOT) using numerical simulations. It is also shown that by assuming identical RI for all regions of tissue would lead to erroneous estimation of optical properties. The a priori knowledge of the RI for the segmented regions of tissue in IG-DOT, which is difficult to obtain for the in vivo cases, leads to more accurate estimates of optical properties. Even inclusion of approximated RI values, obtained from the literature, for the regions of tissue resulted in better estimates of optical properties, with values comparable to that of having the correct knowledge of RI for different regions of tissue.