Improvisation, process drama and dramatic art

This paper re-conceptualises the notion of improvisation as it has developed in schools since the 1960s. It outlines the theoretical case for naming the distinctive improvisational practice that has emerged in schools - namely Process Drama. The paper sketches seven characteristics of Process Drama and then outlines the case for seeing it as an emerging but robust form of dramatic art. It concludes by arguing that drama teachers, in developing process drama, have created a new form of both education and art.

Nangkha Nangdrik in the land of the Thunder Dragon : psychology, religion and the potential of mediation in the Kingdom of Bhutan

This article will consider the role that Alternative Dispute Resolution (‘Dham Kha Chen Ki Khendum’ or ‘Nangkha Nangdrik’) currently plays in resolving legal conflict in Bhutan. With a Constitution that has committed to the pursuit of Gross National Happiness, non-adversarial dispute resolution processes that promote continuing relationships and goodwill assume greater importance. One difficulty for Bhutan is that alternative dispute resolution procedures such as mediation (Dhum Drik) are being referred to in enactments of the Bhutanese National Council and National Assembly (bicameral parliament), without a shared understanding as to the characteristics and functionality of these procedures. This article will focus particularly on the current practice of mediation in Bhutan and investigate whether particular models of mediation are more suited to the Bhutanese context, given the particularities of Bhutanese culture, the search for gross national happiness, psychological understandings of happiness and the omnipresent influence of Mahayana Buddhism.

Urban, suburban, and rural variations in separation/divorce rape/sexual assault : results from the National Crime Victimization Survey

To date, no large study has looked at whether separation/divorce sexual assault varies across urban, suburban, and rural areas. The authors use 1992-2009 NCVS (National Crime Victimization Survey) data to estimate the percentage of separation/divorce sexual assault against women in urban, suburban, and rural communities. In addition, the authors identify and compare the relative risk of sexual assault victimization for women across areas. Findings indicate that a higher percentage of rural divorced/separated women were victims of rape/sexual assault than were urban divorced/separated women. In addition, rural separated women are victims of intimate rape/sexual assault at significantly higher rates than their suburban and urban counterparts.

The effects of lane-changing on the immediate follower : anticipation, relaxation, and change in driver characteristics

This paper investigates the effects of lane-changing in driver behavior by measuring (i) the induced transient behavior and (ii) the change in driver characteristics, i.e., changes in driver response time and minimum spacing. We find that the transition largely consists of a pre-insertion transition and a relaxation process. These two processes are different but can be reasonably captured with a single model. The findings also suggest that lane-changing induces a regressive effect on driver characteristics: a timid driver (characterized by larger response time and minimum spacing) tends to become less timid and an aggressive driver less aggressive. We offer an extension to Newell’s car-following model to describe this regressive effect and verify it using vehicle trajectory data.

Exeter short stems compared with standard length Exeter stems : experience from the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry

The standard Exeter stem has a length of 150mm with offsets 37.5mm to 56mm. Shorter stems of lengths 95mm, 115mm and 125mm with offsets 35.5mm or less are available for patients with smaller femurs. Concern has been raised regarding the behaviour of the smaller implants. This paper analysed data from the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry comparing survivorship of stems of offset 35.5mm or less with the standard stems of 37.5mm offset or greater. At seven years there was no significant difference in the Cumulative Percent Revision Rate in the short stems (3.4%, 95% CI 2.4-4.8%) compared with the standard length stems (3.5%, 95% CI 3.3-3.8%) despite its use in a greater proportion of potentially more difficult developmental dysplasia of the hip cases.

An analysis of construction productivity in Malaysia

The construction industry is an industry of major strategic importance. Its level of productivity has a significant effect on national economic growth. Productivity indicators are examined. The indicators consist of labour productivity, capital productivity, labour competitiveness, capital intensity and added value content of data, which are obtained from the published census/biannual surveys of the construction industry between the years 1999 and 2011 from the Department of Statistics of Malaysia. The results indicated that there is an improvement in the labour productivity, but the value-added content is declining. The civil engineering and special trades subsectors are more productive than the residential and non-residential subsectors in terms of labour productivity because machine-for-labour substitution is a more important process in those subsectors. The capital-intensive characteristics of civil engineering and special trade works enable these subsectors to achieve higher added value per labour cost but not the capital productivity. The added value per labour cost is lower in larger organizations despite higher capital productivity. However, the capital intensity is lower and unit labour cost is higher in the larger organizations.

Individual dose and exposure of Italian children to ultrafine particles

Time-activity patterns and the airborne pollutant concentrations encountered by children each day are an important determinant of individual exposure to airborne particles. This is demonstrated in this work by using hand-held devices to measure the real-time individual exposure of more than 100 children aged 8-11 years to particle number concentrations and average particle diameter, as well as alveolar and tracheobronchial deposited surface area concentration. A GPS-logger and activity diaries were also used to give explanation to the measurement results. Children were divided in three sample groups: two groups comprised of urban schools (school time from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm) with lunch and dinner at home, and the third group of a rural school with only dinner at home. The mean individual exposure to particle number concentration was found to differ between the three groups, ranging from 6.2×104 part. cm-3 for children attending one urban school to 1.6×104 part. cm-3 for the rural school. The corresponding daily alveolar deposited surface area dose varied from about 1.7×103 mm2 for urban schools to 6.0×102 mm2 for the rural school. For all of the children monitored, the lowest particle number concentrations are found during sleeping time and the highest were found during eating time. With regard to alveolar deposited surface area dose, a child's home was the major contributor (about 70%), with school contributing about 17% for urban schools and 27% for the rural school. An important contribution arises from the cooking/eating time spent at home, which accounted for approximately 20% of overall exposure, corresponding to more than 200 mm2. These activities represent the highest dose received per time unit, with very high values also encountered by children with a fireplace at home, as well as those that spend considerable time stuck in traffic jams.

National Institute for Clinical Studies Report for Phase 1, Evidence Uptake Network : Best Practice Community Care for Clients with Chronic Venous Leg Ulcers

Chronic leg ulcers cause significant pain, cost, decreased quality of life and morbidity for a considerable segment of the older population (Graham et al., 2003a). At any given time the prevalence of patients with open leg ulcers receiving treatment is between 0.11% - 0.18% (Briggs & Closs 2003). Chronic leg ulcers occur in approximately 1 - 2% of the over 60 population in the US, UK, Europe and Australia (Baker & Stacey 1994; Johnson 1995; Lees & Lambert 1992; Margolis et al. 2002). Considerable research has been undertaken to determine the best treatment practices that will aid in the management and the healing of these ulcers, and practical and effective strategies and techniques for healing venous leg ulcers have been trialled to demonstrate their beneficial effects (Nelson et al. 2004; Cullum et al. 2001)...

User participation in the categorisation of the State Library of Queensland digital image collections: characteristics, motivations and experiences

In 2010, the State Library of Queensland (SLQ) donated their out-of-copyright Queensland images to Wikimedia Commons. One direct effect of publishing the collections at Wikimedia Commons is the ability of general audiences to participate and help the library in processing the images in the collection. This paper will discuss a project that explored user participation in the categorisation of the State Library of Queensland digital image collections. The outcomes of this project can be used to gain a better understanding of user participation that lead to improving access to library digital collections. Two techniques for data collection were used: documents analysis and interview. Document analysis was performed on the Wikimedia Commons monthly reports. Meanwhile, interview was used as the main data collection technique in this research. The data collected from document analysis was used to help the researchers to devise appropriate questions for interviews. The interviews were undertaken with participants who were divided into two groups: SLQ staff members and Wikimedians (users who participate in Wikimedia). The two sets of data collected from participants were analysed independently and compared. This method was useful for the researchers to understand the differences between the experiences of categorisation from both the librarians’ and the users’ perspectives. This paper will provide a discussion on the preliminary findings that have emerged from each group participant. This research provides preliminary information about the extent of user participation in the categorisation of SLQ collections in Wikimedia Commons that can be used by SLQ and other interested libraries in describing their digital content by their categorisations to improve user access to the collection in the future.

Positive impacts of environmental characteristics on health and wellbeing in health-care facilities : a review

Well-designed indoor environments can support people’s health and welfare. In this literature review, we identify the environmental features that affect human health and wellbeing. Environmental characteristics found to influence health outcomes and/or wellbeing included: environmental safety; indoor air quality (e.g. odour and temperature); sound and noise; premises and interior design (e.g. construction materials, viewing nature and experiencing nature, windows versus no windows, light, colours, unit layout and placement of the furniture, the type of room, possibilities to control environmental elements, environmental complexity and sensory simulations, cleanliness, ergonomics and accessibility, ‛‛wayfinding’’); art, and music, among others. Indoor environments that incorporate healing elements can, for instance, reduce anxiety, lower blood pressure, lessen pain and shorten hospital stays.

The elemental composition and characteristics of indoor dust in Brisbane homes after the 2011 flood

Many Brisbane houses were affected by water inundation as a result of the flooding event which occurred in January 2011. The combination of waterlogged materials and large amounts of silt and organic debris in affected homes gave rise to a situation where exposures to airborne particles and dust could potentially be elevated. However, swift action to remove wet materials can help to reduce moisture and humidity in flooded houses, in an effort to improve indoor air quality in and around flooded areas. In order to gain an understanding of the effect of flooding on the concentration of inorganic elements in indoor dust, field measurements were carried out during 21 March and 3 May, 2011.

The WTO, the national security exception and climate change

Article XX has been a valuable instrument to justify exceptions from the anti-discrimination provisions of the GATT 1994. In general, this Article is considered by experts to be the most likely defence for any climate change mitigation measure in breach GATT 1994 obligations. That assumption is not in dispute here; rather, this article considers the requirements of the Article XX exceptions, but also explores the conditions of the National Security exception contained in Article XXI. Although it is possible that this exception could be used for climate change mitigation measures, this paper argues that it is unlikely that the National Security exception could be legitimately applied in these circumstances without member agreement to the contrary.

Scenes, quarters and clusters: The formation and governance of creative places in urban China

This paper presents a PhD program examining the formation and governance patterns of the social and spatial concentration of creative people and creative businesses in cities. It develops a typology for creative places, adding the terms ‘scene’ and ‘quarter’ to ‘clusters’, to fill in the literature gap of partial emphasis on the ‘creative clusters’ model as an organising mechanism for regional and urban policy. The framework is then applied to China, specifically to Hangzhou, a second-tier city in central eastern China that is ambitious to become a ‘national cultural and creative industries centre’. Drawing on in-depth interviews with initiators, managers and creative professionals from three cases selected respectively for scene, quarter and cluster, together with extensive documentary analysis, the paper investigates the composition of actors, characteristics of the locality and the diversity of activities of the three places. The findings demonstrate a convergence of the three terms. Furthermore, in China, planning and government intervention is the key to the governance of creative places; spontaneous development processes exist, but these need a more tolerant environment, a greater diversity of cultural forms and more time to develop. Moreover, the main business development model is still real estate based: this model needs to incorporate more mature business models and an enhanced IP protection system. Finally, the business strategies need to be combined with a self-management model for the creative class, and a collaborative governance mechanism with other stakeholders such as government, real estate developers and education providers.

Fertility and infertility : studies in reproductive epidemiology in Australia

Worldwide, there are few large-scale epidemiological studies on infertility. In Australia, population-based research on infertility is limited to a few small-scale studies. Therefore, the prevalence of infertility and unmet need for specialist medical advice and treatment cannot be estimated reliably. Women who have used assisted reproductive technologies (ART) are recorded in treatment registries. However, there are many infertile women who are excluded from these clinical populations because they neither seek advice nor use treatment. The thesis was based on a biopsychosocial model of health and used the methods of reproductive epidemiology to address the lack of national data on the prevalence of infertility in Australia. Firstly, numbers of births and pregnancy losses were investigated in two generations of women participating in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH). The ALSWH is a broad-ranging, longitudinal examination of biological, psychological and social factors that impact on women’s health and wellbeing. Women from three age cohorts were randomly sampled from the population using the universal public health insurance (i.e., Medicare) database and ALSWH participants were representative of the female population. However, the studies in the thesis only involved data from two cohorts. The younger cohort were born in 1973-78 and completed up to four mailed surveys between 1996 (when they were aged 18-23 years, n=14247) and 2006 (28-33 years, n=9145). The mid-aged cohort were born in 1946-51 and completed four mailed surveys between 1996 (when they were aged 45-50 years n=13715) and 2004 (53-58 years, n=10905). Compared to other studies that focus on outcomes of single pregnancies, these studies included all pregnancy outcomes by developing comprehensive reproductive histories for each woman. Pregnancy outcomes included birth, miscarriage, stillbirth, termination and ectopic pregnancy. Women in the youngest cohort (born in 1973-78) were only just reaching their peak childbearing years and many (44%) had yet to report their first pregnancy outcome. Women from the mid-aged cohort (born 1946-51) had completed their reproductive lives and 92% were able to report on their lifetime pregnancy outcomes. Pregnancy losses, especially miscarriage, were common for both generations of women. Secondly, the prevalence of infertility, seeking medical advice and using treatment was identified for these two generations of women. For the older generation, the lifetime prevalence of infertility and demand for treatment was investigated in the context of the specialist medical services which became available circa 1980. By this time, however, most of these older women had already been pregnant and completed their families. For women who experienced infertility (11%), their options for advice and treatment were limited and less than half (42%) had used any treatment. More recently for the younger generation of women, who were aged 28-33 years in 2006, specialist advice and treatment were extensively available. Among women who had tried to conceive or had been pregnant (n=5936), 17% had experienced infertility and the majority (72%) were able to access medical advice. However, after seeking advice only half of these infertile women had used treatment with fertility hormones or in vitro fertilisation (IVF). Overall for infertile women aged up to 33 years, only one-third had used these treatments. Thirdly, the barriers to accessing medical advice and using treatment for infertility were identified for women aged less than 34 years. Among a community sample of infertile women aged 28-33 years (ALSWH participants), self-reported depression was found to be a barrier to accessing medical advice. The characteristics of these infertile women in the community who had (n=121) or had not (n=110) used treatment were compared to infertile women aged 27-33 years (n=59) attending four fertility clinics. Compared to infertile women in the community, living in major cities and having private health insurance were associated with early use of treatment for infertility at specialist clinics by women aged <34 years. In contrast to most clinical studies of IVF, the final study reported in the thesis took into account repeated IVF cycles and the impact of women’s individual histories on IVF outcomes. Among 121 infertile women (aged 27-46 years) who had 286 IVF cycles, older age and prolonged use of the oral contraceptive pill were associated with fewer eggs collected. Further, women in particular occupations had lower proportions of eggs fertilised normally than women in other occupational groups. These studies form the first large-scale epidemiological examination of infertility in Australia. The finding that two-thirds of women with infertility had not used treatment indicates that there is an unmet need for specialist treatment in women aged less than 34 years. However, barriers to accessing treatment prevent women using ART at a younger age when there is a higher chance of pregnancy.

Health complaint commissions in Australia : time for a national approach to data collection

Health complaint statistics are important for identifying problems and bringing about improvements to health care provided by health service providers and to the wider health care system. This paper overviews complaints handling by the eight Australian state and territory health complaint entities, based on an analysis of data from their annual reports. The analysis shows considerable variation between jurisdictions in the ways complaint data are defined, collected and recorded. Complaints from the public are an important accountability mechanism and open a window on service quality. The lack of a national approach leads to fragmentation of complaint data and a lost opportunity to use national data to assist policy development and identify the main areas causing consumers to complain. We need a national approach to complaints data collection in order to better respond to patients’ concerns.