Post-disaster reconstruction: a statistical overview of the barriers for community participation in Afghanistan

When a community already torn by an event such as a prolonged war, is then hit by a natural disaster, the negative impact of this subsequent disaster in the longer term can be extremely devastating. Natural disasters further damage already destabilised and demoralised communities, making it much harder for them to be resilient and recover. Communities often face enormous challenges during the immediate recovery and the subsequent long term reconstruction periods, mainly due to the lack of a viable community involvement process. In post-war settings, affected communities, including those internally displaced, are often conceived as being completely disabled and are hardly ever consulted when reconstruction projects are being instigated. This lack of community involvement often leads to poor project planning, decreased community support, and an unsustainable completed project. The impact of war, coupled with the tensions created by the uninhabitable and poor housing provision, often hinders the affected residents from integrating permanently into their home communities. This paper outlines a number of fundamental factors that act as barriers to community participation related to natural disasters in post-war settings. The paper is based on a statistical analysis of, and findings from, a questionnaire survey administered in early 2012 in Afghanistan.

Smart coordination of energy storage units (ESUs) for voltage and loading management in distribution networks

This paper proposes a distributed control approach to coordinate multiple energy storage units (ESUs) to avoid violation of voltage and thermal constraints, which are some of the main power quality challenges for future distribution networks. ESUs usually are connected to a network through voltage source converters. In this paper, both ESU converters active and reactive power are used to deal with the above mentioned power quality issues. ESUs' reactive power is proposed to be used for voltage support, while the active power is to be utilized in managing network loading. Two typical distribution networks are used to apply the proposed method, and the simulated results are illustrated in this paper to show the effectiveness of this approach.

Improving power quality in low-voltage networks containing distributed energy resources

Severe power quality problems can arise when a large number of single-phase distributed energy resources (DERs) are connected to a low-voltage power distribution system. Due to the random location and size of DERs, it may so happen that a particular phase generates excess power than its load demand. In such an event, the excess power will be fed back to the distribution substation and will eventually find its way to the transmission network, causing undesirable voltage-current unbalance. As a solution to this problem, the article proposes the use of a distribution static compensator (DSTATCOM), which regulates voltage at the point of common coupling (PCC), thereby ensuring balanced current flow from and to the distribution substation. Additionally, this device can also support the distribution network in the absence of the utility connection, making the distribution system work as a microgrid. The proposals are validated through extensive digital computer simulation studies using PSCADTM

“Yarning” as a method for community-based health research with indigenous women : the indigenous women's wellness research program

This project explores yarning as a methodology for understanding health and wellness from an indigenous woman's perspective. Previous research exploring indigenous Australian women's perspectives have used traditional Western methodologies and have often been felt by the women themselves to be inappropriate and ineffective in gathering information and promoting discussion. This research arose from the indigenous women themselves, and resulted in the exploration of using yarning as a methodology. Yarning is a conversational process that involves the sharing of stories and the development of knowledge. It prioritizes indigenous ways of communicating, in that it is culturally prescribed, cooperative, and respectful. The authors identify different types of yarning that are relevant throughout their research, and explain two types of yarning—family yarning and cross-cultural yarning—which have not been previously identified in research literature. This project found that yarning as a research method is appropriate for community-based health research with indigenous Australian women. This may be an important finding for health professionals and researchers to consider when working and researching with indigenous women from other countries.

Addressing Public and Private Issues in a Virtual Ethnography Study of an Open Online Community: a Reflective Paper

This paper discusses the ethical consequences of employing virtual ethnography to observe human behaviour in open online communities. In this paper, we discuss the nature of the online community being studied as well as the lessons learned from both literature and also the ethical clearance application process undertaken by the research team. A key finding was that despite the community being open to the public, generally community members expected the research team to employ strategies similar to those required when dealing with a private community.

A study of postdiagnosis breast cancer concerns for women living in rural and remote Queensland. Part II : support issues

This paper presents the recent findings from a study on the postdiagnosis support needs of women with breast cancer living in rural and remote Queensland. The findings presented in this discussion focus on support needs from the perspective of the women experiencing breast cancer as well as health service providers. The tyranny of distance imposes unique hardships, such as separation from family and friends, during a time of great vulnerability for treatment, the need to travel long distances for support and follow-up services, and extra financial burdens, which can combine to cause strains on the marital relationship and family cohesion. Positive indications are, however, that the rural communities operate on strong, informal networks of support. This network of family, friends and community can, and does, play an active role in the provision of emotional and practical support.

Constructions of children's needs in informal kinship care in rural China

Kinship care is the oldest form of alternative child care in the world. Recent years have witnessed a significant increase in the number of children being placed in kinship care across Western countries. However, in contrast to rapid knowledge advances about formal kinship care, far less is known about the needs of children in informal kinship care, especially in Asian contexts. This thesis and the study upon which it is formed sought to redress this knowledge gap. Qualitative approach was adopted to explore social constructions of children in informal kinship care in rural China. Parents in China seeking work in cities have left behind around 58 million rural children, mostly with relatives and without the involvement of the state. The present study examined caregivers’ and school personnel’s understandings of these school-age children’s needs through semi-structured interviews with 23 kin caregivers and five school personnel in Shijiapu Town, Jilin Province, China. The central question that guided the whole study is: What are the needs of children in informal kinship care in rural Jilin Province, China? Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to categorise and interpret the qualitative data. Based on participants’ constructions, this study developed a need model with eight themes. They are: (1) emotional needs and mental health, (2) relationships, (3) empowerment and agency, (4) safety, (5) education, (6) basic care, (7) physical health, and (8) personal development. These needs are grounded in the Chinese context, and therefore a good understanding of Chinese culture is essential to address them. The first four needs particularly capture children’s separations from their parents, and the rest are more general, and can be applied to most Chinese children. To meet the most important need for children left behind, namely education, these caregivers determined that others needs sometimes have to be compromised. Children left behind are a vulnerable group in contemporary rural China, and their diverse needs are attended to by several groups. This study found that as children’s closest kin while their parents are away, caregivers play a vital role in salving the children’s emotional loss. Caregivers’ love and familial obligations strongly motivate them to care for these children, and sensitivity to social stigma makes them strive to show their love and care to compensate for perceived differences between these children and their peers. Caregivers’ efforts to make children happy, however, were sometimes criticised by some school personnel, who see this as spoiling. The conflicting viewpoint between caregivers and school personnel indicate their different roles and perceptions in children’s lives, and the latter influence these children in a more authoritative way. Informal kinship care has several advantages of addressing children’s needs, especially their needs for emotional bonds with family. Community-based kin networks provide children with both emotional and material support. However, these advantages sometimes are restricted by caregivers’ child rearing capacity. Having developed a model of the needs of children left behind in China, this study suggests that caregivers, school personnel and government social services work in harmony to be child-centred and meet these children’s diverse needs. The unmet needs of children left behind mainly result from unbalanced development between urban and rural China, therefore, it is imperative to enhance state policies and programs that improve wellbeing for this growing part of China’s people.

The Large Allen Cognitive Level Screen as an indicator for medication adherence among adults accessing community mental health services

Background: Medication remains the cornerstone treatment for mental illness. Cognition is one of the strongest predictors of non-adherence. The aim of this preliminary investigation was to examine the association between the Large Allen Cognitive Level Screen (LACLS) and medication adherence among a small sample of mental health service users to determine whether the LACLS has potential as a screening tool for capacity to manage medication regimens. Method: Demographic and clinical information was collected from a small sample of people who had recently accessed community mental health services. Participants then completed the LACLS and the Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS) at a single time point. The strength of association between the LACLS and MARS was examined using Spearman rank-order correlation. Results: A strong positive correlation between the LACLS and medication adherence (r = 0.71, p = 0.01) was evident. No participants reported the use of medication aids despite evidence of impaired cognitive functioning. Conclusion: This investigation has provided the first empirical evidence indicating that the LACLS may have utility as a screening instrument for capacity to manage medication adherence among this population. While promising, this finding should be interpreted with caveats given its preliminary nature.

Impacts of plug-in electric vehicles on distribution networks

As a good solution to the shortage and environmental unfriendliness of fossil fuels, plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) attract much interests of the public. To investigate the problems caused by the integration of numerous PEVs, a lot of research work has been done on the grid impacts of PEVs in aspects including thermal loading, voltage regulation, transformer loss of life, unbalance, losses, and harmonic distortion levels. This paper surveys the-state-of-the-art of the research in this area and outline three possible measures for a power grid company to make full use of PEVs.

A semi-supervised graph-based algorithm for detecting outliers in online-social-networks

In this paper, we propose a semi-supervised approach of anomaly detection in Online Social Networks. The social network is modeled as a graph and its features are extracted to detect anomaly. A clustering algorithm is then used to group users based on these features and fuzzy logic is applied to assign degree of anomalous behavior to the users of these clusters. Empirical analysis shows effectiveness of this method.

Building the computer mediated distance learning community: Issues and observations drawn from teaching and learning

This paper discusses computer mediated distance learning on a Master's level course in the UK and student perceptions of this as a quality learning environment.

Surveillance Town: Social inclusion-exclusion through surveillance, ‘the dignity of work’ and income management

This paper discusses the situation of welfare claimants, constructed as faulty citizens and flawed welfare subjects at the receiving end of complex and multi-layered, private and public, forms of monitoring and surveillance aimed at securing socially responsible, consuming and compliant behaviours. In Australia as in many other western countries, the rise of neoliberal economic regimes with their harsh and often repressive treatment of welfare claimants operates in tandem with a growing arsenal of CCTV and assorted urban governance measures (Monahan 2008, Maki 2011). The capacity for all forms of surveillance to intensify social inequalities through the lens of CCTV and other modes and methods of electronic monitoring is amply demonstrated in the surveillance studies literature, raising fundamental questions around issues of social justice, equity and the expenditure of societal resources (Norris and Armstrong 1999, Lyon 1994, 2001, Loader 1996).

Second international workshop on theory and applications of process visualization

The representation of business process models has been a continuing research topic for many years now. However, many process model representations have not developed beyond minimally interactive 2D icon-based representations of directed graphs and networks, with little or no annotation for information overlays. In addition, very few of these representations have undergone a thorough analysis or design process with reference to psychological theories on data and process visualization. This dearth of visualization research, we believe, has led to problems with BPM uptake in some organizations, as the representations can be difficult for stakeholders to understand, and thus remains an open research question for the BPM community. In addition, business analysts and process modeling experts themselves need visual representations that are able to assist with key BPM life cycle tasks in the process of generating optimal solutions. With the rise of desktop computers and commodity mobile devices capable of supporting rich interactive 3D environments, we believe that much of the research performed in computer human interaction, virtual reality, games and interactive entertainment have much potential in areas of BPM; to engage, provide insight, and to promote collaboration amongst analysts and stakeholders alike. We believe this is a timely topic, with research emerging in a number of places around the globe, relevant to this workshop. This is the second TAProViz workshop being run at BPM. The intention this year is to consolidate on the results of last year's successful workshop by further developing this important topic, identifying the key research topics of interest to the BPM visualization community.

Inventory procedures for smallholder and community woodlots in the Philippines : methods, initial findings and insights

This paper details the processes and challenges involved in collecting inventory data from smallholder and community woodlots on Leyte Island, Philippines. Over the period from 2005 through to 2012, 253 woodlots at 170 sites were sampled as part of a large multidisciplinary project, resulting in a substantial timber inventory database. The inventory was undertaken to provide information for three separate but interrelated studies, namely (1) tree growth, performance and timber availability from private smallholder woodlots on Leyte Island; (2) tree growth and performance of mixed-species plantings of native species; and (3) the assessment of reforestation outcomes from various forms of reforestation. A common procedure for establishing plots within each site was developed and applied in each study, although the basis of site selection varied. A two-stage probability proportion to size sampling framework was developed to select smallholder woodlots for inclusion in the inventory. In contrast, community-based forestry woodlots were selected using stratified random sampling. Challenges encountered in undertaking the inventory were mostly associated with the need to consult widely before the commencement of the inventory and problems in identifying woodlots for inclusion. Most smallholder woodlots were only capable of producing merchantable volumes of less than 44 % of the site potential due to a lack of appropriate silviculture. There was a clear bimodal distribution of proportion that the woodlots comprised of the total smallholding area. This bimodality reflects two major motivations for smallholders to establish woodlots, namely timber production and to secure land tenure.

Brokering evaluations of partnerships in Australian community arts : responding to entrepreneurial tendencies

This article examines motivations and methods for external evaluators in taking on a brokerage relationship between artists, arts managers and governments (national and local) during an appraisal process of community arts events. The argument is situated in our experience evaluating the Creating Queensland programme, a multifaceted community arts programme presented as part of the one of Australia’s largest arts events the Brisbane Festival, in 2009 and 2010. We use this case to identify a number of principles and processes that may assist in establishing an effective evaluation process – defined, for us, as a process in which partners representing different elements of the community arts project can share information in a learning network, or an innovation network, that embraces the idea of continuous improvement. We explain that we, as consultants, are not necessarily the only participants in the evaluation process in a position to broker the decision making about what to research and report on. We argue that empowering each of the delivery partners to act as brokers, using the principles, protocols and processes to negotiate what should be researched, when, how and how it should be shared, is something each delivery partner can do. This can help create a common understanding that can reduce anxieties about using warts-and-all evaluation data to learn, grow and improve in the arts. It can, as a result, be beneficial both for the participating partners and the community arts sector as a whole.