Can we text you? A qualitative exploration of young unemployed job-seekers’ attitudes to receiving resilience-building SMS messages

A significant minority of young job-seekers remain unemployed for many months, and are at risk of developing depression. Both empirical studies and theoretical models suggest that cognitive, behavioural and social isolation factors interact to increase this risk. Thus, interventions that reduce or prevent depression in young unemployed job-seekers by boosting their resilience are required. Mobile phones may be an effective medium to deliver resilience-boosting support to young unemployed people by using SMS messages to interrupt the feedback loop of depression and social isolation. Three focus groups were conducted to explore young unemployed job-seekers’ attitudes to receiving and requesting regular SMS messages that would help them to feel supported and motivated while job-seeking. Participants reacted favourably to this proposal, and thought that it would be useful to continue to receive and request SMS messages for a few months after commencing employment as well.

Whole-body cryotherapy : empirical evidence and theoretical perspectives

Whole-body cryotherapy (WBC) involves short exposures to air temperatures below –100°C. WBC is increasingly accessible to athletes, and is purported to enhance recovery after exercise and facilitate rehabilitation postinjury. Our objective was to review the efficacy and effectiveness of WBC using empirical evidence from controlled trials. We found ten relevant reports; the majority were based on small numbers of active athletes aged less than 35 years. Although WBC produces a large temperature gradient for tissue cooling, the relatively poor thermal conductivity of air prevents significant subcutaneous and core body cooling. There is weak evidence from controlled studies that WBC enhances antioxidant capacity and parasympathetic reactivation, and alters inflammatory pathways relevant to sports recovery. A series of small randomized studies found WBC offers improvements in subjective recovery and muscle soreness following metabolic or mechanical overload, but little benefit towards functional recovery. There is evidence from one study only that WBC may assist rehabilitation for adhesive capsulitis of the shoulder. There were no adverse events associated with WBC; however, studies did not seem to undertake active surveillance of predefined adverse events. Until further research is available, athletes should remain cognizant that less expensive modes of cryotherapy, such as local ice-pack application or cold-water immersion, offer comparable physiological and clinical effects to WBC.

Key-private proxy re-encryption under LWE

Proxy re-encryption (PRE) is a highly useful cryptographic primitive whereby Alice and Bob can endow a proxy with the capacity to change ciphertext recipients from Alice to Bob, without the proxy itself being able to decrypt, thereby providing delegation of decryption authority. Key-private PRE (KP-PRE) specifies an additional level of confidentiality, requiring pseudo-random proxy keys that leak no information on the identity of the delegators and delegatees. In this paper, we propose a CPA-secure PK-PRE scheme in the standard model (which we then transform into a CCA-secure scheme in the random oracle model). Both schemes enjoy highly desirable properties such as uni-directionality and multi-hop delegation. Unlike (the few) prior constructions of PRE and KP-PRE that typically rely on bilinear maps under ad hoc assumptions, security of our construction is based on the hardness of the standard Learning-With-Errors (LWE) problem, itself reducible from worst-case lattice hard problems that are conjectured immune to quantum cryptanalysis, or “post-quantum”. Of independent interest, we further examine the practical hardness of the LWE assumption, using Kannan’s exhaustive search algorithm coupling with pruning techniques. This leads to state-of-the-art parameters not only for our scheme, but also for a number of other primitives based on LWE published the literature.

Nutritional influences over the life course on lean body mass of individuals in developing countries

The double burden of childhood undernutrition and adult-onset adiposity in transitioning societies poses a significant public health challenge. The development of suboptimal lean body mass (LBM) could partly explain the link between these two forms of malnutrition. This review examines the evidence on both the role of nutrition in “developmental programming” of LBM and the nutritional influences that affect LBM throughout the life course. Studies from developing countries assessing the relationship of early nutrition with later LBM provide important insights. Overall, the evidence is consistent in suggesting a positive association of early nutritional status (indicated by birth weight and growth during first 2 years) with LBM in later life. Evidence on the impact of maternal nutritional supplementation during pregnancy on later LBM is inconsistent. In addition, the role of nutrients (protein, zinc, calcium, vitamin D) that can affect LBM throughout the life course is described. Promoting optimal intakes of these important nutrients throughout the life course is important for reducing childhood undernutrition as well as for improving the LBM of adults.

Reflexive Dwelling: The body as representation of wall

In a play-within-a-play, the Mechanicals' production within William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the character Snout announces his transformation to play the character of Wall. Snout's portrayal of Wall is both comical and menacing as he represents the forces that separate the lovers Pyramus and Thisbe. Wall becomes a subject in a manner no different from the lovers that he separates; his influence on their situation is brought to life. The unbecoming nature of walls to demarcate, separate, intimidate, influence and control is a relationship most can relate to in their experiences with architecture. It is in these moments that architecture leaps from the sphere of object into the realm of subject; where we might be involved in some intense struggle with the placement of a wall, the wall that might separate us from a lover, justice, freedom, power or privacy. This study investigates how this struggle is portrayed through the human body as representation of walls in performance.

Public sector project delay : the Malaysian perspective and the way forward

Construction delay has been a protracted problem for the Malaysian construction industry. Recent report showed that 80% of public sector projects are behind schedule. This underachieving time performance has led to many problems including public complaints, loss of reputation and revenue for the government and a slump in the industry’s GDP contribution. Research in the area of project delay has mushroomed worldwide with attempts to place mitigation plans, but delay remains a global phenomenon. There is now an urgent need for revolutionizing construction practices and past research, backed up with few successful cases suggests that Supply Chain Management (SCM) could prove beneficial to reduce or eliminate delays in construction. SCM which originated from the automotive manufacturing industry promotes a more collaborative approach to construction management and has recently gained attention of the construction industry. However every country, including Malaysia, would certainly have disparities of their own compared to others being it from the cultural point of view, nature of problems, locality or improvements needed. Therefore, this paper will present part of a Ph.D. research which aims at illustrating the Malaysian construction industry experts’ perception of the Malaysian public sector project delay, provide insight into these dilemmas, highlights the problems with current practices, its effects and the improvements needed. Subsequently, this paper would propose ratification to the problems using SCM. A semi-structured interview has been conducted to practitioners with at least 20 years’ experience in the industry. The findings showed that Malaysia may be unique compared to other countries and that by considering a number of additional factors, SCM could prove beneficial to increase efficiency of the Malaysian public sector projects.

Body and forgetting

Body and Forgetting is a powerful dance performance that brings together the work of choreographer Liz Roche and film maker Alan Gilsenan, with a live score by Denis Roche. Inspired by the writings of Milan Kundera, Liz Roche Company's remarkable dancers find their way through delicately woven circumstances of disappearance, loss, relationship and hope. Their attempts to hold fast to memories and objects of meaning is at the heart of this work. The live performers move in dialogue with filmed versions of their dancing selves. They re-write their histories, make better endings to their stories, say what they regret not having said. These filmed reflections or versions of themselves, by offering a mirror, ultimately bring the performers back to themselves, richer from the experience.

The body in grief : death investigations, objections to autopsy, and the religious and cultural 'other'

Sudden, violent and otherwise unexplained deaths are investigated in most western jurisdictions through a Coronial or medico-legal process. A crucial element of such an investigation is the legislative requirement to remove the body for autopsy and other medical interventions, processes which can disrupt traditional religious and cultural grieving practices. While recent legislative changes in an increasing number of jurisdictions allow families to raise objections based on religious and cultural grounds, such concerns can be over-ruled, often exacerbating the trauma and grief of families. Based on funded research which interviews a range of Coronial staff in one Australian jurisdiction, this paper explores the disjuncture between medico-legal discourses, which position the body as corpse, and the rise of more ‘therapeutic’ discourses which recognise the family’s wishes to reposition the body as beloved and lamented.

Bits and bumps : gender, comedy and the body.

This paper examines some of the ways in which gender impacts upon contemporary physical comedy. According to the late Christopher Hitchens (2007, 2), women are too concerned with the seriousness of their reproductive responsibility to make good comedy; as slapstick film director Mack Sennett (in Dale, 2000, 92) maintained: “No joke about a mother ever got a laugh”. This article proposes a method of understanding what happens to the body in the comic moment, then draws upon Kristeva’s notion of abjection to help understand how gender inflects the creation of physical comedy.

The Black-tailed Antechinus, Antechinus arktos sp. nov.: a new species of carnivorous marsupial from montane regions of the Tweed Volcano caldera, eastern Australia

We describe a new species of dasyurid marsupial within the genus Antechinus that was previously known as a northern outlier of Dusky Antechinus (A. swainsonii). The Black-tailed Antechinus, Antechinus arktos sp. nov., is known only from areas of high altitude and high rainfall on the Tweed Volcano caldera of far south-east Queensland and north-east New South Wales, Australia. Antechinus arktos formerly sheltered under the taxonomic umbrella of A. swainsonii mimetes, the widespread mainland form of Dusky Antechinus. With the benefit of genetic hindsight, some striking morphological differences are herein resolved: A. s. mimetes is more uniformly deep brown-black to grizzled grey-brown from head to rump, with brownish (clove brown—raw umber) hair on the upper surface of the hindfoot and tail, whereas A. arktos is more vibrantly coloured, with a marked change from greyish-brown head to orange-brown rump, fuscous black on the upper surface of the hindfoot and dense, short fur on the evenly black tail. Further, A. arktos has marked orange-brown fur on the upper and lower eyelid, cheek and in front of the ear and very long guard hairs all over the body; these characters are more subtle in A. s. mimetes. There are striking genetic differences between the two species: at mtDNA, A. s. mimetes from north-east New South Wales is 10% divergent to A. arktos from its type locality at Springbrook NP, Queensland. In contrast, the Ebor A. s. mimetes clades closely with conspecifics from ACT and Victoria. A. arktos skulls are strikingly different to all subspecies of A. swainsonii. A. arktos are markedly larger than A. s. mimetes and A. s. swainsonii (Tasmania) for a range of craniodental measures. Antechinus arktos were historically found at a few proximate mountainous sites in south-east Queensland, and have only recently been recorded from or near the type locality. Even there, the species is likely in low abundance. The Black-tailed Antechinus has plausibly been detrimentally affected by climate change in recent decades, and will be at further risk with increasing warming trends.

Genome analysis reveals insights into physiology and longevity of the Brandt’s bat Myotis brandtii

Bats account for one-fifth of mammalian species, are the only mammals with powered flight, and are among the few animals that echolocate. The insect-eating Brandt’s bat (Myotis brandtii) is the longest-lived bat species known to date (lifespan exceeds 40 years) and, at 4–8 g adult body weight, is the most extreme mammal with regard to disparity between body mass and longevity. Here we report sequencing and analysis of the Brandt’s bat genome and transcriptome, which suggest adaptations consistent with echolocation and hibernation, as well as altered metabolism, reproduction and visual function. Unique sequence changes in growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor 1 receptors are also observed. The data suggest that an altered growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor 1 axis, which may be common to other long-lived bat species, together with adaptations such as hibernation and low reproductive rate, contribute to the exceptional lifespan of the Brandt’s bat.

The potential of XML technology as an answer to the data interchange problems of the construction industry

The complex supply chain relations of the construction industry, coupled with the substantial amount of information to be shared on a regular basis between the parties involved, make the traditional paper-based data interchange methods inefficient, error prone and expensive. The successful information technology (IT) applications that enable seamless data interchange, such as the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) systems, have generally failed to be successfully implemented in the construction industry. An alternative emerging technology, Extensible Markup Language (XML), and its applicability to streamline business processes and to improve data interchange methods within the construction industry are analysed, as is the EDI technology to identify the strategic advantages that XML technology provides to overcome the barriers to implementation. In addition, the successful implementation of XML-based automated data interchange platforms for a large organization, and the proposed benefits thereof, are presented as a case study.

Quantitative genetic parameters for body traits at different ages in a cultured stock of giant freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) selected for fast growth

The aim of the current study was to estimate heritabilities and correlations for body traits at different ages (Weeks 10 and 18 after stocking) in a giant freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) population selected for fast growth rate in Vietnam. The dataset consisted of 4650 body records (2432 and 2218 records collected at Weeks 10 and 18, respectively) in the full pedigree comprising a total of 18 387 records. Variance and covariance components were estimated using restricted maximum likelihood fitting a multi-trait animal model. Estimates of heritability for body traits (bodyweight, body length, cephalothorax length, abdominal length, cephalothorax width and abdominal width) were moderate and ranged from 0.06 to 0.11 and from 0.11 to 0.22 at Weeks 10 and 18, respectively. Body-trait heritabilities estimated at Week 10 were not significantly lower than at Week 18. Genetic correlations between body traits within age and genetic correlations for body traits between ages were generally high. Our results suggested that selection for high growth rate in GFP can be undertaken successfully before full market size has been reached.

A sub‒domain smoothed Galerkin method for solid mechanics problems

A sub‒domain smoothed Galerkin method is proposed to integrate the advantages of mesh‒free Galerkin method and FEM. Arbitrarily shaped sub‒domains are predefined in problems domain with mesh‒free nodes. In each sub‒domain, based on mesh‒free Galerkin weak formulation, the local discrete equation can be obtained by using the moving Kriging interpolation, which is similar to the discretization of the high‒order finite elements. Strain smoothing technique is subsequently applied to the nodal integration of sub‒domain by dividing the sub‒domain into several smoothing cells. Moreover, condensation of DOF can also be introduced into the local discrete equations to improve the computational efficiency. The global governing equations of present method are obtained on the basis of the scheme of FEM by assembling all local discrete equations of the sub‒domains. The mesh‒free properties of Galerkin method are retained in each sub‒domain. Several 2D elastic problems have been solved on the basis of this newly proposed method to validate its computational performance. These numerical examples proved that the newly proposed sub‒domain smoothed Galerkin method is a robust technique to solve solid mechanics problems based on its characteristics of high computational efficiency, good accuracy, and convergence.

Working with Behavioural and Emotional Problems in Young People

This chapter outlines specific issues relating to behavioural and emotional problems in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. It describes the most common disorders and their consequences, and how young Aboriginal people are at higher risk for developing such problems than other young Australians. The chapter also discusses the importance of psychosocial, cultural and environmental issues that need to be recognised in assessing and treating Aboriginal young people with behavioural and emotional problems. Issues concerning the delivery of both universal and culturally responsive prevention and intervention programs to address social and emotional wellbeing and mental health are discussed and possible interventions to enhance student engagement at school are provided. Finally, a range of mental health services for Aboriginal families which offer a culturally responsive approach to mental health treatment are listed.