Response to the apology : Queenslanders reflect : a State Library of Queensland project

On the 13th February 2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made an apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples on behalf of the Australian Parliament. The State Library of Queensland (SLQ) with assistance from Queensland University of Technology and Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, has captured responses to this historic event. ‘Responses to the 2008 Apology’ is a collection of digital stories created as part of this research initiative. Until recently, digital storytelling has not generally been treated as a necessary addition to the research collections of Australian libraries. However, libraries increasingly aim to promote new literacies and active audiences as they seek innovative ways to encourage life-long learning by their users, and digital storytelling is one methodology that can contribute to these goals. The State Library of Queensland is the only Australian State Library to have undertaken a major role in the collection of digital stories. They currently lead the way with their Queensland Stories digital storytelling program. This presentation will report findings and outcomes from this research project.

A story worth telling : putting oral history and digital collections online in cultural institutions

Digital platforms in cultural institutions offer exciting opportunities for oral history and digital storytelling that can augment and enrich traditional collections. The way in which cultural institutions allow access to the public is changing dramatically, prompting substantial expansions of their oral history and digital story holdings. In Queensland, Australia, public libraries and museums are becoming innovative hubs of a wide assortment of collections that represent a cross-section of community groups and organisations through the integration of oral history and digital storytelling. The State Library of Queensland (SLQ) features digital stories online to encourage users to explore what the institution has in the catalogue through their website. Now SLQ also offers oral history interviews online, to introduce users to oral history and other components of their collections,- such as photographs and documents to current, as well as new users. This includes the various departments, Indigenous centres and regional libraries affiliated with SLQ statewide, who are often unable to access the materials held within, or even full information about, the collections available within the institution. There has been a growing demand for resources and services that help to satisfy community enthusiasm and promote engagement. Demand increases as public access to affordable digital media technologies increases, and as community or marginalised groups become interested in do it yourself (DIY) history; and SLQ encourages this. This paper draws on the oral history and digital story-based research undertaken by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) for the State Library of Queensland including: the Apology Collection: The Prime Minister’s apology to Australia’s Indigenous Stolen Generation; Five Senses: regional Queensland artists; Gay history of Brisbane; and The Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame.

Oral fingolimod for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis

Background: Most people with multiple sclerosis have the relapsing-remitting type. Objective/methods: The objective was to evaluate two clinical trials of fingolimod in relapsing multiple sclerosis. Results: FREEDOMS (FTY720 Research Evaluation Effects of Daily Oral therapy in Multiple Sclerosis), a Phase III placebo-controlled trial, showed that fingolimod (0.5 or 1.25 mg) reduced the relapse rate and disability in multiple sclerosis, compared to placebo. Fingolimod (0.5 or 1.25 mg) has been compared to interferon β-1a in a Phase III clinical trial (TRANSFORMS; Trial Assessing Injectable Interferon versus FTY720 Oral in Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis) and shown to be more efficacious than interferon β-1a in reducing relapse rates. However, fingolimod did increase the risk of infections and skin cancers. Conclusions: Only the lower dose of fingolimod (0.5 mg), which possibly has less toxicity, should be considered for prevention of relapses in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.

Fictionalising oral history : narrative analysis, voice and identity

Details of a project which fictionalises the oral history of the life of the author's polio-afflicted grandmother Beth Bevan and her experiences at a home for children with disabilities are presented. The speech and language patterns recognised in the first person narration are described, as also the sense of voice and identity communicated through the oral history.

Deterring drug drivers : a study into the initial impact of oral random roadside drug testing in Queensland

Objective: The global implementation of oral random roadside drug testing is relatively limited, and correspondingly, the literature that focuses on the effectiveness of this intervention is scant. This study aims to provide a preliminary indication of the impact of roadside drug testing in Queensland. Methods: A sample of Queensland motorists’ (N= 922) completed a self-report questionnaire to investigate their drug driving behaviour, as well as examine the perceived affect of legal sanctions (certainty, severity and swiftness) and knowledge of the countermeasure on their subsequent offending behaviour. Results: Analysis of the collected data revealed that approximately 20% of participants reported drug driving at least once in the last six months. Overall, there was considerable variability in respondent’s perceptions regarding the certainty, severity and swiftness of legal sanctions associated with the testing regime and a considerable proportion remained unaware of testing practices. In regards to predicting those who intended to drug driving again in the future, perceptions of apprehension certainty, more specifically low certainty of apprehension, were significantly associated with self-reported intentions to offend. Additionally, self-reported recent drug driving activity and frequent drug consumption were also identified as significant predictors, which indicates that in the current context, past behaviour is a prominent predictor of future behaviour. To a lesser extent, awareness of testing practices was a significant predictor of intending not to drug drive in the future. Conclusion: The results indicate that drug driving is relatively prevalent on Queensland roads, and a number of factors may influence such behaviour. Additionally, while the roadside testing initiative is beginning to have a deterrent impact, its success will likely be linked with targeted intelligence-led implementation in order to increase apprehension levels as well as the general deterrent effect.

Modular transactional memory

Software transactional memory has the potential to greatly simplify development of concurrent software, by supporting safe composition of concurrent shared-state abstractions. However, STM semantics are defined in terms of low-level reads and writes on individual memory locations, so implementations are unable to take advantage of the properties of user-defined abstractions. Consequently, the performance of transactions over some structures can be disappointing. ----- ----- We present Modular Transactional Memory, our framework which allows programmers to extend STM with concurrency control algorithms tailored to the data structures they use in concurrent programs. We describe our implementation in Concurrent Haskell, and two example structures: a finite map which allows concurrent transactions to operate on disjoint sets of keys, and a non-deterministic channel which supports concurrent sources and sinks. ----- ----- Our approach is based on previous work by others on boosted and open-nested transactions, with one significant development: transactions are given types which denote the concurrency control algorithms they employ. Typed transactions offer a higher level of assurance for programmers reusing transactional code, and allow more flexible abstract concurrency control.

Negative mood, implicit alcohol-related memory, and alcohol use in young adults: The moderating effect of alcohol expectancy

Objective Alcohol-related implicit (preconscious) cognitive processes are established and unique predictors of alcohol use, but most research in this area has focused on alcohol-related implicit cognition and anxiety. This study extends this work into the area of depressed mood by testing a cognitive model that combines traditional explicit (conscious and considered) beliefs, implicit alcohol-related memory associations (AMAs), and self-reported drinking behavior. Method Using a sample of 106 university students, depressed mood was manipulated using a musical mood induction procedure immediately prior to completion of implicit then explicit alcohol-related cognition measures. A bootstrapped two-group (weak/strong expectancies of negative affect and tension reduction) structural equation model was used to examine how mood changes and alcohol-related memory associations varied across groups. Results Expectancies of negative affect moderated the association of depressed mood and AMAs, but there was no such association for tension reduction expectancy. Conclusion Subtle mood changes may unconsciously trigger alcohol-related memories in vulnerable individuals. Results have implications for addressing subtle fluctuations in depressed mood among young adults at risk of alcohol problems.

Technology, memory and experience : virtual reality, motion capture and early modern theatre

This paper investigates virtual reality representations of performance in London’s late sixteenth-century Rose Theatre, a venue that, by means of current technology, can once again challenge perceptions of space, performance, and memory. The VR model of The Rose becomes a Camillo device in that it represents a virtual recreation of this venue in as much detail as possible and attempts to recover graphic demonstrations of the trace memories of the performance modes of the day. The VR model is based on accurate archeological and theatre historical records and is easy to navigate. The introduction of human figures onto The Rose’s stage via motion capture allows us to explore the relationships between space, actor and environment. The combination of venue and actors facilitates a new way of thinking about how the work of early modern playwrights can be stored and recalled. This virtual theatre is thus activated to intersect productively with contemporary studies in performance; as such, our paper provides a perspective on and embodiment of the relation between technology, memory and experience. It is, at its simplest, a useful archiving project for theatrical history, but it is directly relevant to contemporary performance practice as well. Further, it reflects upon how technology and ‘re-enactments’ of sorts mediate the way in which knowledge and experience are transferred, and even what may be considered ‘knowledge.’ Our work provides opportunities to begin addressing what such intermedial confrontations might produce for ‘remembering, experiencing, thinking and imagining.’ We contend that these confrontations will enhance live theatre performance rather than impeding or disrupting contemporary performance practice. This paper intersects with the CFP’s ‘Performing Memory’ and ‘Memory Lab’ themes. Our presentation (which includes a demonstration of the VR model and the motion capture it requires) takes the form of two closely linked papers that share a single abstract. The two papers will be given by two people, one of whom will be physically present in Utrecht, the other participating via Skype.

An obsession with storytelling : conducting oral history interviews for creative writing

Anna Hirsch and Clare Dixon (2008, 190) state that creative writers’ ‘obsession with storytelling…might serve as an interdisciplinary tool for evaluating oral histories.’ This paper enters a dialogue with Hirsch and Dixon’s statement by documenting an interview methodology for a practice-led PhD project, The Artful Life Story: Oral History and Fiction, which investigates the fictionalising of oral history. ----- ----- Alistair Thomson (2007, 62) notes the interdisciplinary nature of oral history scholarship from the 1980s onwards. As a result, oral histories are being used and understood in a variety of arts-based settings. In such contexts, oral histories are not valued so much for their factual content but as sources that are at once dynamic, emotionally authentic and open to a multiplicity of interpretations. How can creative writers design and conduct interviews that reflect this emphasis? ----- ----- The paper briefly maps the growing trend of using oral histories in fiction and ethnographic novels, in order to establish the need to design interviews for arts-based contexts. I describe how I initially designed the interviews to suit the aims of my practice. Once in the field, however, I found that my original methods did not account for my experiences. I conclude with the resulting reflection and understanding that emerged from these problematic encounters, focusing on the technique of steered monologue (Scagliola 2010), sometimes referred to as the Biographic Narrative Interpretative Method (Wengraf 2001, Jones 2006).

Correlation of the expression of human kallikrein-related peptidases 4 and 7 with the prognosis in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Background Very few articles have been written about the expression of kallikreins (KLK4 and KLK7) in oral cancers. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine and report on their prognostic potential. Methods Eighty archival blocks of primary oral cancers were sectioned and stained for KLK4 and KLK7 by immunohistochemistry. The percentage and the intensity of malignant keratinocyte staining were correlated with patient survival using Cox regression analysis. Results Both kallikreins were expressed strongly in the majority of tumor cells in 68 of 80 cases: these were mostly moderately or poorly differentiated neoplasms. Staining was particularly intense at the infiltrating front. Patients with intense staining had significantly shorter overall survival (p < .05). Conclusion This is the first observation on the patient survival influenced by kallikrein expression in oral carcinoma. The findings are consistent with those for carcinomas at other sites, in particular the prostate and ovary. KLK4 and/or KLK7 immunohistochemistry seems to have diagnostic and prognostic potential in this disease.

Oral intake and serum levels of ascorbic acid in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis patients

Oral intake of ascorbic acid is essential for optimum health in human beings. Continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients have an increased need for ascorbic acid, because of increased loss through dialysate, reduced intake owing to nausea and loss of appetite, and increased oxidative stress. However, optimum intake is still controversial. We studied 50 clinically stable patients to determine the relationship between oral ascorbic acid intake and serum ascorbic acid (SAA) level. Total oral intake ranged from 28 mg daily to 412 mg daily. Only one patient had an oral intake of ascorbic acid below 60 mg per day. The SAA levels ranged from 1 mg/L to 36.17 mg/L. Although a strong correlation existed between intake and SAA (p < 0.001, R2 = 0.47), the variation in SAA at any given intake level was wide. Of the studied patients, 62% had an SAA < 8.7 mg/L, 40% had an SAA < 5.1 mg/L (below the level in a healthy population), and 12% had a level below 2 mg/L (scorbutic). None of the patients demonstrated clinical manifestations of scurvy. Our results show that, in CAPD patients, ascorbic acid deficiency can be reliably detected only with SAA measurements, and oral intake may influence SAA level. To maintain ascorbic acid in the normal range for healthy adults, daily oral intake needs to be increased above the U.S. recommended dietary allowance to 80-140 mg.

Ceremony and cybrary : Digital libraries and the dialectic of place and space

This article examines social, cultural and technological change in the systems and economies of educational information management. Since the Sumerians first collected, organized and supervised administrative and religious records some six millennia ago, libraries have been key physical depositories and cultural signifiers in the production and mediation of social capital and power through education. To date, the textual, archival and discursive practices perpetuating libraries have remained exempt from inquiry. My aim here is to remedy this hiatus by making the library itself the terrain and object of critical analysis and investigation. The paper argues that in the three dominant communications eras—namely, oral, print and digital cultures—society’s centres of knowledge and learning have resided in the ceremony, the library and the cybrary respectively. In a broad-brush historical grid, each of these key educational institutions—the ceremony in oral culture, the library in print culture and the cybrary in digital culture—are mapped against social, cultural and technological orders pertaining to their era. Following a description of these shifts in society’s collective cultural memory, the paper then examines the question of what the development of global information systems and economies mean for schools and libraries of today, and for teachers and learners as knowledge consumers and producers?