Seasonal Variation in Measured Solar Ultraviolet Radiation Exposure of Adults in Subtropical Australia

Generating accurate population-specific public health messages regarding sun protection requires knowledge about seasonal variation in sun exposure in different environments. To address this issue for a subtropical area of Australia, we used polysulphone badges to measure UVR for the township of Nambour (26° latitude) and personal UVR exposure among Nambour residents who were taking part in a skin cancer prevention trial. Badges were worn by participants for two winter and two summer days. The ambient UVR was approximately three times as high in summer as in winter. However, participants received more than twice the proportion of available UVR in winter as in summer (6.5%vs 2.7%, P < 0.05), resulting in an average ratio of summer to winter personal UVR exposure of 1.35. The average absolute difference in daily dose between summer and winter was only one-seventh of a minimal erythemal dose. Extrapolating from our data, we estimate that ca. 42% of the total exposure received in the 6 months of winter (June–August) and summer (December–February) is received during the three winter months. Our data show that in Queensland a substantial proportion of people’s annual UVR dose is obtained in winter, underscoring the need for dissemination of sun protection messages throughout the year in subtropical and tropical climates.

Work-related road safety as a conduit for community road safety

The aim of this paper is to review the potential of work-related road safety as a conduit for community road safety based on research and practical experience. It covers the opportunity to target young people, family and community members through the workplace as part of a holistic approach to occupational road safety informed by the Haddon Matrix. Detailed case studies are presented based on British Telecom and Wolseley, which have both committed to community-based initiatives as part of their long-term, ongoing work-related road safety programs. Although no detailed community-based collision outcomes are available, the paper concludes that work-related road safety can be a conduit for community road safety and can provide an opportunity for researchers, policy makers and practitioners.

Labour rights as human rights : workers' safety at work in Australian-based supply chains

The increase of buyer-driven supply chains, outsourcing and other forms of non-traditional employment has resulted in challenges for labour market regulation. One business model which has created substantial regulatory challenges is supply chains. The supply chain model involves retailers purchasing products from brand corporations who then outsource the manufacturing of the work to traders who contract with factories or outworkers who actually manufacture the clothing and textiles. This business model results in time and cost pressures being pushed down the supply chain which has resulted in sweatshops where workers systematically have their labour rights violated. Literally millions of workers work in dangerous workplaces where thousands are killed or permanently disabled every year. This thesis has analysed possible regulatory responses to provide workers a right to safety and health in supply chains which provide products for Australian retailers. This thesis will use a human rights standard to determine whether Australia is discharging its human rights obligations in its approach to combating domestic and foreign labour abuses. It is beyond this thesis to analyse Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) laws in every jurisdiction. Accordingly, this thesis will focus upon Australian domestic laws and laws in one of Australia’s major trading partners, the Peoples’ Republic of China (China). It is hypothesised that Australia is currently breaching its human rights obligations through failing to adequately regulate employees’ safety at work in Australian-based supply chains. To prove this hypothesis, this thesis will adopt a three- phase approach to analysing Australia’s regulatory responses. Phase 1 will identify the standard by which Australia’s regulatory approach to employees’ health and safety in supply chains can be judged. This phase will focus on analysing how workers’ rights to safety as a human right imposes a moral obligation on Australia to take reasonablely practicable steps regulate Australian-based supply chains. This will form a human rights standard against which Australia’s conduct can be judged. Phase 2 focuses upon the current regulatory environment. If existing regulatory vehicles adequately protect the health and safety of employees, then Australia will have discharged its obligations through simply maintaining the status quo. Australia currently regulates OHS through a combination of ‘hard law’ and ‘soft law’ regulatory vehicles. The first part of phase 2 analyses the effectiveness of traditional OHS laws in Australia and in China. The final part of phase 2 then analyses the effectiveness of the major soft law vehicle ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ (CSR). The fact that employees are working in unsafe working conditions does not mean Australia is breaching its human rights obligations. Australia is only required to take reasonably practicable steps to ensure human rights are realized. Phase 3 identifies four regulatory vehicles to determine whether they would assist Australia in discharging its human rights obligations. Phase 3 then analyses whether Australia could unilaterally introduce supply chain regulation to regulate domestic and extraterritorial supply chains. Phase 3 also analyses three public international law regulatory vehicles. This chapter considers the ability of the United Nations Global Compact, the ILO’s Better Factory Project and a bilateral agreement to improve the detection and enforcement of workers’ right to safety and health.

Tendering ethics : a study of collusive tendering from a marketing perspective

This thesis provides a behavioural perspective to the problem of collusive tendering in the construction market by examining the decision making factors of individuals potentially involved in such agreements using marketing ethics theory and techniques. The findings of a cross disciplinary literature review were synthesised into a model of factors theoretically expected to determine the individual's behavioural intent towards a set of collusive tendering agreements and the means of reaching them. The factors were grouped as internal cognitive (the individuals' value systems) and affective (demographic and psychographic characteristics) as well as external environmental (legal, industrial and organisational codes and norms) and situational (company, market and economic conditions). The model was tested using empirical data collected through a questionnaire survey of estimators employed in the largest Australian construction firms. All forms of explicit collusive tendering agreements were considered as having a prohibitive moral content by the majority of respondents who also clearly differentiated between agreements and discussions of contract terms (which they found to be a moral concern but not prohibitive) or of prices. The comparisons between those of the respondents that would never participate in a collusive agreement and the potential offenders clearly showed two distinctly different groups. The law abiding estimators are less reliant on situational factors, happier and more comfortable in their work environments and they live according to personal value and belief systems. The potential offenders on the other hand are mistrustful of colleagues, feel their values are not respected, put company priorities above principles and none of them is religious or a member of a professional body. The research results indicate that Australian estimators are, overall law abiding and principled and accept the existing codification of collusion as morally defensible and binding. Professional bodies' and organisational codes of conduct as well as personal value and belief systems that guide one's own conduct appear to be deterrents to collusive tendering intent and so are moral comfort and work satisfaction. These observations are potential indicators of areas where intervention and behaviour modification can increase individuals' resistance to collusion.

An examination of communication across cultures in news media and at informal/personal levels : with concentration on relations among two South East Asian countries and Australia and those two countries and Germany

In the age of globalisation dominated by mass communication, the flow of information contributes to a big extent to the worldviews of its "global citizens". From this point of view the mass media can be seen as one of the most salient sources of cross-cultural communication. This study investigates mass communication across cultures, focusing on South East Asia (Malaysia and Singapore), Australia and Germany. The centre of attention is the Western media coverage of South East Asia and vice versa. In this context a content analysis of newspapers of the three regions has been conducted. In addition, working practices and conditions of Western foreign correspondents in South East Asia have been examined. Apart from the investigation of inter-cultural media coverage, another focus of attention will be the examination of two levels of communication: The business level, concentrating on issues like e.g. the Asian business etiquette; and the private level, looking into the transition to a different culture from the perspective of Australian and German expatriates. Apart from investigating mass communication across cultures and to provide a written analysis of the findings, a series of radio documentaries in English and in German has been produced. They cover the following issues: Foreign correspondents in South East Asia, the expatriate-lifestyle of Australians and Germans in South East Asia, business etiquette in Asia, student exchange Germany-Asia, image and prejudices East-West and Tourism.

An ecology of centre-based child care

The studies in the thesis were derived from a program of research focused on centre-based child care in Australia. The studies constituted an ecological analysis as they examined proximal and distal factors which have the potential to affect children's developmental opportunities (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). The project was conducted in thirty-two child care centres located in south-east Queensland. Participants in the research included staff members at the centres, families using the centres and their children. The first study described the personal and professional characteristics of one hundred and forty-four child care workers, as well as their job satisfaction and job commitment. Factors impinging on the stability of care afforded to children were examined, specifically child care workers' intentions to leave their current position and actual staff turnover at a twelve month follow-up. This is an ecosystem analysis (Bronfenbrenner & Crouter, 1983), as it examined the world of work for carers; a setting not directly involving the developing child, but which has implications for children's experiences. Staff job satisfaction was focused on working with children and other adults, including parents and colleagues. Involvement with children was reported as being the most rewarding aspect of the work. This intrinsic satisfaction was enough to sustain caregivers' efforts to maintain their employment in child care programs. It was found that, while improving working conditions may help to reduce turnover, it is likely that moderate turnover rates will remain as child care staff work in relatively small centres and they leave in order to improve career prospects. Departure from a child care job appeared to be as much about improving career opportunities or changing personal circumstances, as it was about poor wages and working conditions. In the second study, factors that influence maternal satisfaction with child care arrangements were examined. The focus included examination of the nature and qualities of parental interaction with staff. This was a mesosystem analysis (Bronfenbrenner & Crouter, 1983), as it considered the links between family and child care settings. Two hundred and twenty-two questionnaires were returned from mothers whose children were enrolled in the participating centres. It was found that maternal satisfaction with child care encompassed the domains of child-centred and parent-centred satisfaction. The nature and range of responses in the quantitative and qualitative data indicated that these parents were genuinely satisfied with their children's care. In the prediction of maternal satisfaction with child care, single parents, mothers with high role satisfaction, and mothers who were satisfied with the frequency of staff contact and degree of supportive communication had higher levels of satisfaction with their child care arrangements. The third study described the structural and process variations within child care programs and examined program differences for compliance with regulations and differences by profit status of the centre, as a microsystem analysis (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Observations were made in eighty-three programs which served children from two to five years. The results of the study affirmed beliefs that nonprofit centres are superior in the quality of care provided, although this was not to a level which meant that the care in for-profit centres was inadequate. Regulation of structural features of child care programs, per se, did not guarantee higher quality child care as measured by global or process indicators. The final study represented an integration of a range of influences in child care and family settings which may impact on development. Features of child care programs which predict children's social and cognitive development, while taking into account child and family characteristics, were identified. Results were consistent with other research findings which show that child and family characteristics and child care quality predict children's development. Child care quality was more important to the prediction of social development, while family factors appeared to be more predictive of cognitive/language development. An influential variable predictive of development was the period of time which the child had been in the centre. This highlighted the importance of the stability of child care arrangements. Child care quality features which had most influence were global ratings of the qualities of the program environment. However, results need to be interpreted cautiously as the explained variance in the predictive models developed was low. The results of these studies are discussed in terms of the implications for practice and future research. Considerations for an expanded view of ecological approaches to child care research are outlined. Issues discussed include the need to generate child care research which is relevant to social policy development, the implications of market driven policies for child care services, professionalism and professionalisation of child care work, and the need to reconceptualise child care research when the goal is to develop greater theoretical understanding about child care environments and developmental processes.