Technology, normalisation and male sex work

Technological change, particularly the growth of the Internet and smart phones, has increased the visibility of male escorts, expanded their client base and diversified the range of venues in which male sex work can take place. Specifically, the Internet has relocated some forms of male sex work away from the street and thereby increased market reach, visibility and access and the scope of sex work advertising. Using the online profiles of 257 male sex workers drawn from six of the largest websites advertising male sexual services in Australia, the role of the Internet in facilitating the normalisation of male sex work is discussed. Specifically we examine how engagement with the sex industry has been reconstituted in term of better informed consumer-seller decisions for both clients and sex workers. Rather than being seen as a ‘deviant’ activity, understood in terms of pathology or criminal activity, male sex work is increasingly presented as an everyday commodity in the market place. In this context, the management of risks associated with sex work has shifted from formalised social control to more informal practices conducted among online communities of clients and sex workers. We discuss the implications for health, legal and welfare responses within an empowerment paradigm.

Large Scale Simulations of Hippocampal-Neocortical Interactions in a Parallel Version of Genesis

A hippocampal-CA3 memory model was constructed with PGENESIS, a recently developed version of GENESIS that allows for distributed processing of a neural network simulation. A number of neural models of the human memory system have identified the CA3 region of the hippocampus as storing the declarative memory trace. However, computational models designed to assess the viability of the putative mechanisms of storage and retrieval have generally been too abstract to allow comparison with empirical data. Recent experimental evidence has shown that selective knock-out of NMDA receptors in the CA1 of mice leads to reduced stability of firing specificity in place cells. Here a similar reduction of stability of input specificity is demonstrated in a biologically plausible neural network model of the CA3 region, under conditions of Hebbian synaptic plasticity versus an absence of plasticity. The CA3 region is also commonly associated with seizure activity. Further simulations of the same model tested the response to continuously repeating versus randomized nonrepeating input patterns. Each paradigm delivered input of equal intensity and duration. Non-repeating input patterns elicited a greater pyramidal cell spike count. This suggests that repetitive versus non-repeating neocortical inpus has a quantitatively different effect on the hippocampus. This may be relevant to the production of independent epileptogenic zones and the process of encoding new memories.

Research on conceptual modelling : less known knowns and more unknown unknowns, please

In this invited paper I describe some personal views on the research field of conceptual modelling. I argue that the field has become entrenched in some “bad habits” that usually emerge in evolved paradigms and that we need to proactively pursue a dual research strategy incorporating new and different avenues that lead us to novel and impactful research contexts of conceptual modelling. I provide a framework that can guide this exploration and finish with some recommendations about how conceptual modelling research programs could proceed.

Dance teaching and learning in context : activating the head, heart and hands

Traditionally, the art of teaching dance has largely been a skill transferred from teacher to student. This master-apprentice paradigm encourages the passing on of technical and artistic traditions associated with the various genres of dance. Whilst this approach supports the passing of the flame of the art form from generation to generation, it has, in part, limited the teaching pedagogy that informs dance as an art form. The future of dance teaching is reliant on teachers’ engagement with the further development of inquiry learning and reflective practice skills within the dance studio. This paper charts one component of a reflective pedagogy, Head, Heart, Hands (Pstalozzi as cited in Rud 2006), developed as a result of an action research project, within a suite of three units across a three-year undergraduate teacher-training course for school, community and studio dance teachers.

Re-examining habitual residence as the sole connecting factor in Hague Convention child abduction cases

This article critiques the usefulness of habitual residence as the sole connecting factor in Hague Convention child abduction cases. This is achieved by examining the quality of this jurisdiction in light of changes in the gender dynamics underpinning international parental child abduction and the transnational family phenomenon. Arguably, the child’s habitual residence as a home environment of the nature anticipated by the Convention’s drafters is an increasingly outdated construct. This is due to an increase in both the number of abducting primary-carer mothers, and their families’ growing mobility. Judicial determinations of habitual residence made during Conven- tion return proceedings are entrenched in the state-centric paradigm. This paradigm is becoming increasingly incompatible with the lives of families which experience international parental child abduction.

Social interaction and the role of empathy in information and knowledge management

This article provides a general review of the literature on the nature and role of empathy in social interaction for information professionals working in a variety of information and knowledge environments. Relational agency theory (Edwards, 2005) is used asa framework to re-conceptualize education for empathic social interaction between information professionals and their clients. Past, present and future issues relevant to empathic interaction in information and knowledge management are discussed in the context of three shifts identified from the literature: (a) the continued increase in communication channels, both physical and virtual, for reference, information and re-search services, (b) the transition from the information age to the conceptual age and(c) the growing need for understanding of the affective paradigm in the information and knowledge professions. Findings from the literature review on the relationships between empathy and information behavior, social networking, knowledge management and information and knowledge services are presented. Findings are discussed in relation to the development of guidelines for the affective education and training of information and knowledge professionals and the potential use of virtual learning software such as Second Life in developing empathic communication skills

The effect of autonomy transparency in human-robot interactions : a preliminary study on operator cognitive workload and situation awareness in multiple heterogeneous UAV management

The autonomous capabilities in collaborative unmanned aircraft systems are growing rapidly. Without appropriate transparency, the effectiveness of the future multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) management paradigm will be significantly limited by the human agent’s cognitive abilities; where the operator’s CognitiveWorkload (CW) and Situation Awareness (SA) will present as disproportionate. This proposes a challenge in evaluating the impact of robot autonomous capability feedback, allowing the human agent greater transparency into the robot’s autonomous status - in a supervisory role. This paper presents; the motivation, aim, related works, experiment theory, methodology, results and discussions, and the future work succeeding this preliminary study. The results in this paper illustrates that, with a greater transparency of a UAV’s autonomous capability, an overall improvement in the subjects’ cognitive abilities was evident, that is, with a confidence of 95%, the test subjects’ mean CW was demonstrated to have a statistically significant reduction, while their mean SA was demonstrated to have a significant increase.

Cultural safety, diversity and the servicer user and carer movement in mental health research

This study will be of interest to anyone concerned with a critical appraisal of mental health service users’ and carers’ participation in research collaboration and with the potential of the postcolonial paradigm of cultural safety to contribute to the service user research (SUR) movement. The history and nature of the mental health field and its relationship to colonial processes provokes a consideration of whether cultural safety could focus attention on diversity, power imbalance, cultural dominance and structural inequality, identified as barriers and tensions in SUR. We consider these issues in the context of state-driven approaches towards SUR in planning and evaluation and the concurrent rise of the SUR movement in the UK and Australia, societies with an intimate involvement in processes of colonisation. We consider the principles and motivations underlying cultural safety and SUR in the context of the policy agenda informing SUR. We conclude that while both cultural safety and SUR are underpinned by social constructionism constituting similarities in principles and intent, cultural safety has additional dimensions. Hence, we call on researchers to use the explicitly political and self-reflective process of cultural safety to think about and address issues of diversity, power and social justice in research collaboration.

Epigenetic modelling

The field of epigenetics looks at changes in the chromosomal structure that affect gene expression without altering DNA sequence. A large-scale modelling project to better understand these mechanisms is gaining momentum. Early advances in genetics led to the all-genetic paradigm: phenotype (an organism's characteristics/behaviour) is determined by genotype (its genetic make-up). This was later amended and expressed by the well-known formula P = G + E, encompassing the notion that the visible characteristics of a living organism (the phenotype, P) is a combination of hereditary genetic factors (the genotype, G) and environmental factors (E). However, this method fails to explain why in diseases such as schizophrenia we still observe differences between identical twins. Furthermore, the identification of environmental factors (such as smoking and air quality for lung cancer) is relatively rare. The formula also fails to explain cell differentiation from a single fertilized cell. In the wake of early work by Waddington, more recent results have emphasized that the expression of the genotype can be altered without any change in the DNA sequence. This phenomenon has been tagged as epigenetics. To form the chromosome, DNA strands roll over nucleosomes, which are a cluster of nine proteins (histones), as detailed in Figure 1. Epigenetic mechanisms involve inherited alterations in these two structures, eg through attachment of a functional group to the amino acids (methyl, acetyl and phosphate). These 'stable alterations' arise during development and cell proliferation and persist through cell division. While information within the genetic material is not changed, instructions for its assembly and interpretation may be. Modelling this new paradigm, P = G + E + EpiG, is the object of our study.

In silico biology : making the most of parallel computing

Biological systems are typically complex and adaptive, involving large numbers of entities, or organisms, and many-layered interactions between these. System behaviour evolves over time, and typically benefits from previous experience by retaining memory of previous events. Given the dynamic nature of these phenomena, it is non-trivial to provide a comprehensive description of complex adaptive systems and, in particular, to define the importance and contribution of low-level unsupervised interactions to the overall evolution process. In this chapter, the authors focus on the application of the agent-based paradigm in the context of the immune response to HIV. Explicit implementation of lymph nodes and the associated lymph network, including lymphatic chain structure, is a key objective, and requires parallelisation of the model. Steps taken towards an optimal communication strategy are detailed.

From bio-inspired computing to e-Biology

Several algorithms and techniques widely used in Computer Science have been adapted from, or inspired by, known biological phenomena. This is a consequence of the multidisciplinary background of most early computer scientists. The field has now matured, and permits development of tools and collaborative frameworks which play a vital role in advancing current biomedical research. In this paper, we briefly present examples of the former, and elaborate upon two of the latter, applied to immunological modelling and as a new paradigm in gene expression.

The effect of feedback from pupil to teacher on assessment for leaning and visible learning: An ethnographic case study in a community school in England and the outcome in a state high school in Queensland, Australia

This study shows that there is positive regulatory effect of feedback from pupils to teachers on Assessment for Learning (AfL), classroom proactiveness, and on visible and progressive learning but not on behaviour. This research finding further articulates feedback from pupil to teacher as a paradigm shift from the classical paradigm of feedback from teacher to pupil. Here, the emphasis is geared towards pupils understanding of objectives built from previous knowledge. These are then feedback onto the teachers by the pupils in the form of discrete loops of cues and questions, where they are with their learning. This therefore enables them to move to the next level of understanding, and thus acquired independence, which in turn is reflected by their success in both formative and summative assessments. This study therefore shows that when feedback from pupil to teacher is used in combination with teacher to pupil feedback, AfL is ameliorated and hence, visible and accelerated learning occurs in a gender, nor subject non-dependent manner.

Dynamics of nitrogen and suspended solids removal in experimental stormwater biofilters under intermittent wetting and drying

This research study comprehensively analyses the dynamics of nitrogen and suspended solids removal in stormwater biofilters. The study focuses on pollutant removal during an event with time, rather than the conventional event-mean analysis. Antecedent dry days (number of days in between rainfall) during which biofilters remain dry and the inflow concentration of pollutants were two other important variables analysed in this study. The research outcome highlights the significance of dry-phase processes and the process of stabilization on filter performance and sets a paradigm shift from the current approach towards an innovative way of performance analysis of biofilters.

Theorizing why in digital learning: Opening frontiers for inquiry and innovation with technology

Asking why is an important foundation of inquiry and fundamental to the development of reasoning skills and learning. Despite this, and despite the relentless and often disruptive nature of innovations in information and communications technology (ICT), sophisticated tools that directly support this basic act of learning appear to be undeveloped, not yet recognized, or in the very early stages of development. Why is this so? To this question, there is no single factual answer. In response, however, plausible explanations and further questions arise, and such responses are shown to be typical consequences of why-questioning. A range of contemporary scenarios are presented to highlight the problem. Consideration of the various inputs into the evolution of digital learning is introduced to provide historical context and this serves to situate further discussion regarding innovation that supports inquiry-based learning. This theme is further contextualized by narratives on openness in education, in which openness is also shown to be an evolving construct. Explanatory and descriptive contents are differentiated in order to scope out the kinds of digital tools that might support inquiry instigated by why-questioning and which move beyond the search paradigm. Probing why from a linguistic perspective reveals versatile and ambiguous semantics. The why dimension—asking, learning, knowing, understanding, and explaining why—is introduced as a construct that highlights challenges and opportunities for ICT innovation. By linking reflective practice and dialogue with cognitive engagement, this chapter points to specific frontiers for the design and development of digital learning tools, frontiers in which inquiry may find new openings for support.

Systematic constellations of neurons are activated in lateral amygdala following Pavlovian fear conditioning

How memory is organized within neural networks is a fundamental question in neuroscience. We used Pavlovian fear conditioning to study the discrete organization patterns of neurons activated in an associative memory paradigm. In Pavlovian fear conditioning a neutral stimulus, such as an auditory tone, is temporally paired with an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US), such as a foot shock...