What's in your tool box?

This is a professional practice paper for Psychology practitioners to reflect on their skills and therapeutic practices. A Master- practitioner model or Artizan - apprentice analogy is used to understand the development of a practicing psychologist from his/her "salad days" (when we are green [Shakespeare- Anthony and Cleopatra]) to our Autumn years in the profession.

Aligning sustainability and the Torrens register : challenges and recommendations for reform

‘Sustainability’ is a policy mantra of modern governments particularly in relation to natural resources. The traditional connection between land ownership and access to natural resources, such as forestry, flora, fauna, minerals, water and energy, has given rise to an unprecedented number of restrictions and obligations on land owners in their use of the land and resources. The growing numbers of statutory exceptions and restrictions on rights of ownership and use of a fee simple holder presents serious challenges for the utility of the Torrens register, which was originally designed to record private interests in land or affecting title to land. Advocates proposing uniform Torrens legislation should give consideration to an alignment of government policies emphasising sustainability as a core requirement of effective land use and management, and the core Torrens concepts of indefeasibility and security of title. This article examines the challenges for a uniform Torrens system created by increases statutory regulation of land ownership and makes recommendations about how an effective alignment of sustainability objectives and Torrens principles may be achieved.

The Corio Oval tribe: Geelong Football Club in colonial times

Geelong, Victoria’s second city, has an AFL football club whose culture and identity is closely tied to the city itself. An analysis of its playing group for the colonial period demonstrates that this local tribalism began early. As football became professionalised towards the end of the nineteenth century, country Victoria lost power in relative terms to metropolitan Melbourne: for example, Ballarat’s three main clubs lost their senior status. But Geelong, with its one remaining senior club, prospered and was admitted to the VFL ranks in 1897. The Geelong players were the sons and nephews of the Western District squattocracy and so had access to networks of power and influence. Many attended the prestigious Geelong Grammar School and the worthy Geelong College (in surprisingly equal numbers). They pursued careers both on the land and in professional roles, and maintained the social connections they had built through the club and other local institutions. Despite their elite standing, however, they continued to be regarded by the supporter base as an embodiment of the city and a defence against the city’s Melbourne critics that Geelong was a mere ‘sleepy hollow’.

Natural convection in a triangular enclosure due to non-uniform cooling on top

Natural convection in a triangular enclosure subject to non-uniformly cooling at the inclined surfaces and uniformly heating at the base is investigated numerically. The numerical simulations of the unsteady flows over a range of Rayleigh numbers and aspect ratios are carried out using Finite Volume Method. Since the upper surface is cooled and the bottom surface is heated, the air flow in the enclosure is potentially unstable to Rayleigh Benard instability. It is revealed that the transient flow development in the enclosure can be classified into three distinct stages; an early stage, a transitional stage and a steady stage. It is also found that the flow inside the enclosure strongly depends on the governing parameters; Rayleigh number and aspect ratio. The asymmetric behaviour of the flow about the geometric centre line is discussed in detailed. The heat transfer through the roof and the ceiling as a form of Nusselt number is also reported in this study.

Throwing out the baby (boomers) with the bathwater : corporate sagacity or business blunder

This paper will focus on the group of people who were born between 1946 and 1962 immediately after the Second World War when servicemen and women returned from the forces and started families. They have been named the baby boomers because of their numbers. In Australia it is estimated that there are four million baby boomers who are approaching retirement age. The paper raises the question of whether the attitudes we have about older workers need to change and mature. Evidence for questioning entrenched myths about older staff in the work force will be discussed.

Cryotherapy and joint position sense in healthy participants: a systematic review

Objective: To (1) search the English-language literature for original research addressing the effect of cryotherapy on joint position sense (JPS) and (2) make recommendations regarding how soon healthy athletes can safely return to participation after cryotherapy. Data Sources: We performed an exhaustive search for original research using the AMED, CINAHL, MEDLINE, and SportDiscus databases from 1973 to 2009 to gather information on cryotherapy and JPS. Key words used were cryotherapy and proprioception, cryotherapy and joint position sense, cryotherapy, and proprioception. Study Selection: The inclusion criteria were (1) the literature was written in English, (2) participants were human, (3) an outcome measure included JPS, (4) participants were healthy, and (5) participants were tested immediately after a cryotherapy application to a joint. Data Extraction: The means and SDs of the JPS outcome measures were extracted and used to estimate the effect size (Cohen d) and associated 95% confidence intervals for comparisons of JPS before and after a cryotherapy treatment. The numbers, ages, and sexes of participants in all 7 selected studies were also extracted. Data Synthesis: The JPS was assessed in 3 joints: ankle (n 5 2), knee (n 5 3), and shoulder (n 5 2). The average effect size for the 7 included studies was modest, with effect sizes ranging from 20.08 to 1.17, with a positive number representing an increase in JPS error. The average methodologic score of the included studies was 5.4/10 (range, 5–6) on the Physiotherapy Evidence Database scale. Conclusions: Limited and equivocal evidence is available to address the effect of cryotherapy on proprioception in the form of JPS. Until further evidence is provided, clinicians should be cautious when returning individuals to tasks requiring components of proprioceptive input immediately after a cryotherapy treatment.

Re-constructing Asianness in Australia : Yumi Umiumare, Owen Leong, and the remobilisation of monstrosity

In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, Australia’s relationship with its Asian neighbours has been the subject of ongoing aesthetic, cultural and political contestations. As Alison Richards has noted, Australia’s colonial legacy, its Asia-Pacific location, and its ‘white’ self-perception have always made Australia’s relations with Asia fraught. In the latter part of the twentieth century, the paradoxes inherent in Australia’s relationships with and within the Asian region became a dominant theme in debates about nation, nationhood and identity, and prompted a shift in the construction of ‘Asianness’ on Australian stages. On the one hand, anxiety about the multicultural policy of the 1970s and 1980s, and then Prime Minister Paul Keating’s push for greater economic, cultural and artistic exchange with Asia via policies such as the Creative Nation Cultural Policy (1994), saw large numbers of Australians latch on to the reactionary, racist politics of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party. As Jacqueline Lo has argued, in this period Asian-Australians were frequently represented as an unassimilable Other, a threat to Australia’s ‘white’ identity, and to individual Australians’ jobs and opportunities. On the other hand, during the same period, a desire to counter the racism in Australian culture, and develop a ‘voice’ that would distinguish Australian cultural products from European theatrical traditions, combined with the new opportunities for cross-cultural exchange that came with the Creative Nation Cultural Policy to produce what Helen Gilbert and Jacqueline Lo have characterised as an Asian turn in Australian theatre...

'Nothing exists for one cause' : putting biology back into evolution

The opening phrase of the title is from Charles Darwin’s notebooks (Schweber 1977). It is a double reminder, firstly that mainstream evolutionary theory is not just about describing nature but is particularly looking for mechanisms or ‘causes’, and secondly, that there will usually be several causes affecting any particular outcome. The second part of the title is our concern at the almost universal rejection of the idea that biological mechanisms are sufficient for macroevolutionary changes, thus rejecting a cornerstone of Darwinian evolutionary theory. Our primary aim here is to consider ways of making it easier to develop and to test hypotheses about evolution. Formalizing hypotheses can help generate tests. In an absolute sense, some of the discussion by scientists about evolution is little better than the lack of reasoning used by those advocating intelligent design. Our discussion here is in a Popperian framework where science is defined by that area of study where it is possible, in principle, to find evidence against hypotheses – they are in principle falsifiable. However, with time, the boundaries of science keep expanding. In the past, some aspects of evolution were outside the current boundaries of falsifiable science, but increasingly new techniques and ideas are expanding the boundaries of science and it is appropriate to re-examine some topics. It often appears that over the last few decades there has been an increasingly strong assumption to look first (and only) for a physical cause. This decision is virtually never formally discussed, just an assumption is made that some physical factor ‘drives’ evolution. It is necessary to examine our assumptions much more carefully. What is meant by physical factors ‘driving’ evolution, or what is an ‘explosive radiation’. Our discussion focuses on two of the six mass extinctions, the fifth being events in the Late Cretaceous, and the sixth starting at least 50,000 years ago (and is ongoing). Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary; the rise of birds and mammals. We have had a long-term interest (Cooper and Penny 1997) in designing tests to help evaluate whether the processes of microevolution are sufficient to explain macroevolution. The real challenge is to formulate hypotheses in a testable way. For example the numbers of lineages of birds and mammals that survive from the Cretaceous to the present is one test. Our first estimate was 22 for birds, and current work is tending to increase this value. This still does not consider lineages that survived into the Tertiary, and then went extinct later. Our initial suggestion was probably too narrow in that it lumped four models from Penny and Phillips (2004) into one model. This reduction is too simplistic in that we need to know about survival and ecological and morphological divergences during the Late Cretaceous, and whether Crown groups of avian or mammalian orders may have existed back into the Cretaceous. More recently (Penny and Phillips 2004) we have formalized hypotheses about dinosaurs and pterosaurs, with the prediction that interactions between mammals (and groundfeeding birds) and dinosaurs would be most likely to affect the smallest dinosaurs, and similarly interactions between birds and pterosaurs would particularly affect the smaller pterosaurs. There is now evidence for both classes of interactions, with the smallest dinosaurs and pterosaurs declining first, as predicted. Thus, testable models are now possible. Mass extinction number six: human impacts. On a broad scale, there is a good correlation between time of human arrival, and increased extinctions (Hurles et al. 2003; Martin 2005; Figure 1). However, it is necessary to distinguish different time scales (Penny 2005) and on a finer scale there are still large numbers of possibilities. In Hurles et al. (2003) we mentioned habitat modification (including the use of Geogenes III July 2006 31 fire), introduced plants and animals (including kiore) in addition to direct predation (the ‘overkill’ hypothesis). We need also to consider prey switching that occurs in early human societies, as evidenced by the results of Wragg (1995) on the middens of different ages on Henderson Island in the Pitcairn group. In addition, the presence of human-wary or humanadapted animals will affect the distribution in the subfossil record. A better understanding of human impacts world-wide, in conjunction with pre-scientific knowledge will make it easier to discuss the issues by removing ‘blame’. While continued spontaneous generation was accepted universally, there was the expectation that animals continued to reappear. New Zealand is one of the very best locations in the world to study many of these issues. Apart from the marine fossil record, some human impact events are extremely recent and the remains less disrupted by time.

Sequential Fusion Using Correlated Decisions for Controlled Verification Errors

Fusion techniques have received considerable attention for achieving lower error rates with biometrics. A fused classifier architecture based on sequential integration of multi-instance and multi-sample fusion schemes allows controlled trade-off between false alarms and false rejects. Expressions for each type of error for the fused system have previously been derived for the case of statistically independent classifier decisions. It is shown in this paper that the performance of this architecture can be improved by modelling the correlation between classifier decisions. Correlation modelling also enables better tuning of fusion model parameters, ‘N’, the number of classifiers and ‘M’, the number of attempts/samples, and facilitates the determination of error bounds for false rejects and false accepts for each specific user. Error trade-off performance of the architecture is evaluated using HMM based speaker verification on utterances of individual digits. Results show that performance is improved for the case of favourable correlated decisions. The architecture investigated here is directly applicable to speaker verification from spoken digit strings such as credit card numbers in telephone or voice over internet protocol based applications. It is also applicable to other biometric modalities such as finger prints and handwriting samples.

Books, toys and tablets : playing and learning in the age of digital media

Introduction During a recent study of how parents source information about children‘s early learning, one of us made our first serious foray into a local store licensed to the global chain Toys'R' Us. While walking the aisles, closely observing layout, signage and stock, several things became obvious. Firstly, large numbers of toys were labeled'educational'. Secondly, many toys in that category were intended for children under the age of two years. These were further differentiated as intended for 'babies' or 'infants', and sub-categorized on packaging or shelving using even smaller age increments (e.g. 0-3 months, 12-18 months, and so on). Thirdly, many products were labeled as 'interactive' and 'learning' toys that promised to assist children‘s early learning and development. The activation of some of these toys relied on embedded computer chip technology and promised to 'connect' children with the home television, computer and the Internet. These products were hybrids between a toy and a platform for digital media interaction. Closer inspection of toy packaging and other promotional material suggested that industry had begun to invest heavily in developing highly differentiated children‘s markets for products that yoked together concepts of learning and development, the 'fun toy' that incorporates digital technology, and offline- and online participation. In this chapter we explore the growth of this contemporary cultural phenomenon that now connects books, toys and mobile digital media with children‘s play and learning.

Modelling port water collision risk using traffic conflicts

Navigational collisions are one of the major safety concerns for many seaports. Despite the extent of work recently done on collision risk analysis in port waters, little is known about the influencing factors of the risk. This paper develops a technique for modeling collision risks in port waterways in order to examine the associations between the risks and the geometric, traffic, and regulatory control characteristics of waterways. A binomial logistic model, which accounts for the correlations in the risks of a particular fairway at different time periods, is derived from traffic conflicts and calibrated for the Singapore port fairways. Estimation results show that the fairways attached to shoreline, traffic intersection and international fairway attribute higher risks, whereas those attached to confined water and local fairway possess lower risks. Higher risks are also found in the fairways featuring higher degree of bend, lower depth of water, higher numbers of cardinal and isolated danger marks, higher density of moving ships and lower operating speed. The risks are also found to be higher for night-time conditions.

Developing safer passengers through a school-based injury prevention program

Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death among young people. Fourteen percent of adolescents aged 13-14 report passenger-related injuries within three months. Intervention programs typically focus on young drivers and overlook passengers as potential protective influences. Graduated Driver Licensing restricts passenger numbers, and this study focuses on a complementary school-based intervention to increase passengers’ personal- and peer-protective behavior. The aim of this research was to assess the impact of the curriculum-based injury prevention program, Skills for Preventing Injury in Youth (SPIY), on passenger-related risk-taking and injuries, and intentions to intervene in friends’ risky road behavior. SPIY was implemented in Grade 8 Health classes and evaluated using survey and focus group data from 843 students across 10 Australian secondary schools. Intervention students reported less passenger-related risk-taking six months following the program. Their intention to protect friends from underage driving also increased. The results of this study show that a comprehensive, school-based program targeting individual and social changes can increase adolescent passenger safety.

Quality of work life and turnover intention in primary healthcare organisations : a cross-sectional study of registered nurses in Saudi Arabia

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to improve the retention of primary healthcare (PHC) nurses through exploring and assessing their quality of work life (QWL) and turnover intention. Design and methods: A cross-sectional survey design was used in this study. Data were collected using a questionnaire comprising four sections (Brooks’ survey of Quality of Nursing Work Life [QNWL], Anticipated Turnover Intention, open-ended questions and demographic characteristics). A convenience sample was recruited from 143 PHC centres in Jazan, Saudi Arabia. A response rate of 87% (n = 508/585) was achieved. The SPSS v17 for Windows and NVivo 8 were used for analysis purposes. Procedures and tests used in this study to analyse the quantitative data were descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, General Linear Model (GLM) univariate analysis, standard multiple regression, and hierarchical multiple regression. Qualitative data obtained from responses to the open-ended questions were analysed using the NVivo 8. Findings: Quantitative findings suggested that PHC nurses were dissatisfied with their work life. Respondents’ scores ranged between 45 and 218 (mean = 139.45), which is lower than the average total score on Brooks’ Survey (147). Major influencing factors were classified under four dimensions. First, work life/home life factors: unsuitable working hours, lack of facilities for nurses, inability to balance work with family needs and inadequacy of vacations’ policy. Second, work design factors: high workload, insufficient workforce numbers, lack of autonomy and undertaking many non-nursing tasks. Third, work context factors: management practices, lack of development opportunities, and inappropriate working environment in terms of the level of security, patient care supplies and unavailability of recreation room. Finally, work world factors: negative public image of nursing, and inadequate payment. More positively, nurses were notably satisfied with their co-workers. Conversely, 40.4% (n = 205) of the respondents indicated that they intended to leave their current employment. The relationships between QWL and demographic variables of gender, age, marital status, dependent children, dependent adults, nationality, ethnicity, nursing tenure, organisational tenure, positional tenure, and payment per month were significant (p < .05). The eta squared test for these demographics indicates a small to medium effect size of the variation in QWL scores. Using the GLM univariate analysis, education level was also significantly related to the QWL (p < .05). The relationships between turnover intention and demographic variables including gender, age, marital status, dependent children, education level, nursing tenure, organisational tenure, positional tenure, and payment per month were significant (p < .05). The eta squared test for these demographics indicates a small to moderate effect size of the variation in the turnover intention scores. Using the GLM univariate analysis, the dependent adults’ variable was also significantly related to turnover intention (p < .05). Turnover intention was significantly related to QWL. Using standard multiple regression, 26% of the variance in turnover intention was explained by the QWL F (4,491), 43.71, p < .001, with R² = .263. Further analysis using hierarchical multiple regression found that the total variance explained by the model as a whole (demographics and QWL) was 32.1%, F (17.433) = 12.04, p < .001. QWL explained an additional 19% of the variance in turnover intention, after controlling for demographic variables, R squared change =.19, F change (4, 433) = 30.190, p < .001. The work context variable makes the strongest unique contribution (-.387) to explain the turnover intention, followed by the work design dimension (-.112). The qualitative findings reaffirmed the quantitative findings in terms of QWL and turnover intention. However, the home life/work life and work world dimensions were of great important to both QWL and turnover intention. The qualitative findings revealed a number of new factors that were not included in the survey questionnaire. These included being away from family, lack of family support, social and cultural aspects, accommodation facilities, transportation, building and infrastructure of PHC, nature of work, job instability, privacy at work, patients and community, and distance between home and workplace. Conclusion: Creating and maintaining a healthy work life for PHC nurses is very important to improve their work satisfaction, reduce turnover, enhance productivity and improve nursing care outcomes. Improving these factors could lead to a higher QWL and increase retention rates and therefore reinforcing the stabilisation of the nursing workforce. Significance of the research: Many countries are examining strategies to attract and retain the health care workforce, particularly nurses. This study identified factors that influence the QWL of PHC nurses as well as their turnover intention. It also determined the significant relationship between QWL and turnover intention. In addition, the present study tested Brooks’ survey of QNWL on PHC nurses for the first time. The qualitative findings of this study revealed a number of new variables regarding QWL and turnover intention of PHC nurses. These variables could be used to improve current survey instruments or to develop new research surveys. The study findings could be also used to develop and appropriately implement plans to improve QWL. This may help to enhance the home and work environments of PHC nurses, improve individual and organisational performance, and increase nurses’ commitment. This study contributes to the existing body of research knowledge by presenting new data and findings from a different country and healthcare system. It is the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia, especially in the field of PHC. It has examined the relationship between QWL and turnover intention of PHC nurses for the first time using nursing instruments. The study also offers a fresh explanation (new framework) of the relationship between QWL and turnover intention among PHC nurses, which could be used or tested by researchers in other settings. Implications for further research: Review of the extant literature reveals little in-depth research on the PHC workforce, especially in terms of QWL and organisational turnover in developing countries. Further research is required to develop a QWL tool for PHC nurses, taking into consideration the findings of the current study along with the local culture. Moreover, the revised theoretical framework of the current study could be tested in further research in other regions, countries or healthcare systems in order to identify its ability to predict the level of PHC nurses’ QWL and their intention to leave. There is a need to conduct longitudinal research on PHC organisations to gain an in-depth understanding of the determents of and changes in QWL and turnover intention of PHC nurses at various points of time. An intervention study is required to improve QWL and retention among PHC nurses using the findings of the current study. This would help to assess the impact of such strategies on reducing turnover of PHC nurses. Focusing on the location of the current study, it would be valuable to conduct another study in five years’ time to examine the percentage of actual turnover among PHC nurses compared with the reported turnover intention in the current study. Further in-depth research would also be useful to assess the impact of the local culture on the perception of expatriate nurses towards their QWL and their turnover intention. A comparative study is required between PHC centres and hospitals as well as the public and private health sector agencies in terms of QWL and turnover intention of nursing personnel. Findings may differ from sector to sector according to variations in health systems, working environments and the case mix of patients.

Addressing quality teaching in hard to staff settings : the Exceptional Teachers for Disadvantaged Schools Project

This Exceptional Teachers for Disadvantaged Schools (ETDS) project sets out to design a new model of Australian teacher education responding to recent demands for quality education in low SES and disadvantaged schools. The project moves teacher education from the ‘missionary’ (Larabee, 2010) or deficit (Comber and Kamler 2004; Flessa, 2007) approaches, towards a focus on notions of quality and academic excellence. Rice (2008, p.1) argues for a need to place more of the “very best teachers into the most challenging schools”, yet the problem is not merely one of training more teachers, for disadvantaged schools already receive disproportionate numbers of beginning teachers (Connell, 1994; Vickers & Ferfolja, 2006). Rather, Grossman and Loeb (2010, p. 245) argue the problem centers on the common practice of “[p]lacing the least experienced teachers with the most needy students”. This paper reports on the first year trial of the project. The ETDS project is at present, the only mainstream Australian teacher education model that targets cohorts of academically high achieving pre-service teachers with the overt aim of preparing graduates of the program to teach in disadvantaged schools. At the end of its first year, the ETDS program graduated 20 new teachers, each of whom had over the previous 18 months engaged with a specialized curriculum and carefully monitored/scaffolded practicum placements in disadvantaged schools around Brisbane, Australia.

The parents at playgroup research report : engaging families in supported playgroups

The past decade has seen increasing numbers of government programs funded to support vulnerable families with young children. Supported playgroups are one important strategy in Australia’s current family policies that are provided in all states and territories (ARTD, 2008). National policies have increasingly invested in family support programs, such as supported playgroups. Despite known challenges in engaging vulnerable families in support programs, little is known about the capacity of supported playgroups to effectively engage families to achieve desired outcomes. This project explores family patterns of attendance in supported playgroups and examines the extent to which parental characteristics and experiences of the playgroup explain variations in engagement. The findings can inform the delivery of other family support programs...