Assessment of first sexual intercourse in young women with a history of childhood sexual abuse

Women reporting childhood sexual abuse (CSA) that involved actual or attempted penetration may not identify this as their first sexual intercourse. Data were drawn from a population-based, prospective cohort study spanning adolescence to adulthood. CSA prior to age 16 and age of first sexual intercourse with a male were assessed retrospectively. More than half of women reporting CSA in the form of actual or penetrative abuse reported an age of first sexual intercourse at or beyond 16 years. Direct questioning about CSA is needed to accurately ascertain sexual history.

Data quality management in a business intelligence environment : from the lens of metadata

Business Intelligence is becoming more pervasive in many large and medium-sized organisations. Being a long term undertaking Business Intelligence raises many issues that an organisation has to deal with in order to improve its decision making processes. Data quality is one of the main issues exposed by Business Intelligence. Within the organisation data quality can affect attitudes to Business Intelligence itself, especially from the business users group. Comprehensive management of data quality is a crucial part of any Business Intelligence endeavour. It is important to address all types of data quality issues and come up with an all-in-one solution. We believe that extensive metadata infrastructure is the primary technical solution for management of data quality in Business Intelligence. Moreover, metadata has a more broad application for improving the Business Intelligence environment. Upon identifying the sources of data quality issues in Business Intelligence we propose a concept of data quality management by means of metadata framework and discuss the recommended solution.

On the edge of the desert : design and planning for Roxby Downs

The design and planning of settlements in arid Australia has long been wrought with difficulties because they are positioned in the extremes of environmental and social contexts. Historically many mining-related settlements in Western Australia (WA), South Australia (SA), Northern Territory (NT) and Queensland have struggled or failed in realising a quality design and plan, but also to sustain a robust and vibrant community who do not wish to escape to mainstream suburbia or simply operate as a fly-in fly-out employer commuter from this suburbia. Places like Mt Isa, Theodore, Moranbah, Broken Hill, Radium Hill, Leigh Creek, Roxby Downs, Paraburdoo, Shay Gap, Karratha are typical of these circumstances.

This paper reviews the design and planning origins of the villages at Olympic Dam, and critiques the future designs embedded in the Olympic Dam Expansion Environmental Impact Statement [EIS] (2009). These villages consist of Olympic dam village ( a fly-in fly-out dong-go containerised community accommodating some 500 workers) and Roxby Downs (a mixed Adelaide-template suburb with temporary village and caravan park insertions accommodation some 4,500 ‘permanent’ residents and some 200 fly-in fly-out ‘workers’). The scenario presented in the EIS is to demolish the former and establish a new village for some 10,000 workers, and expand Roxby Downs from 4,500 to near 20,000 although whether this later figure will occur is unclear but certainly the infrastructure and facilities have to be increased as well as increasing residential accommodation units).

‘The Snowtown we know and love’ : small newspapers and heinous crimes

This paper examines the role of small newspapers in Australia when bizarre and shocking crimes are committed locally. These crimes often attract intense media attention that casts a net of shame across entire townships through their representation as places of fascination and fear in the public imagination. We take a practice approach in the tradition of Pierre Bourdieu to explore the complex editorial considerations, news judgements and community responsibilities small newspapers must negotiate when covering these stories for local audiences. This study focuses on three towns in regional Australia that have been represented in metropolitan and international news media as ‘dead zones' after shocking crimes: Bowral in NSW, Snowtown in South Australia and Moe in Victoria.

Implementation of a quality care management system for patients with arthritis of the hip and knee

The Orthopaedic Unit of the Repatriation General Hospital (RGH) in Adelaide, South Australia has implemented a quality care management system for patients with arthritis of the hip and knee. The system not only optimises conservative management but ensures that joint replacement surgery is undertaken in an appropriate and timely manner. This new service model addresses identified barriers to service access and provides a comprehensive, coordinated strategy for patient management. Over 4 years the model has reduced waiting times for initial outpatient assessment from 8 to 3 months and surgery from 18 to 8 months, while decreasing length of stay from 6.3 to 5.3 days for hips and 5.8 to 5.3 days for knees. The service reforms have been accompanied by positive feedback from patients and referring general practitioners in relation to the improved coordination of care and enhanced efficiency in service delivery.

What is known about the topic? Several important initiatives both overseas and within Australia have contributed significantly to the development of this model of care. These include the UK National Health Service ‘18 weeks’ Project, the Western Canada Waiting List Project, the New Zealand priority criteria project, the Queensland Health Orthopaedic Physiotherapy Screening Clinic, and most importantly the Melbourne Health–University of Melbourne Orthopaedic Waiting List Project where a wide range of models were explored across Victorian hospitals from 2005 and the Multi-Attribute Prioritisation Tool (MAPT) was developed, validated and tested. This project became the Osteoarthritis Hip and Knee Service (OAHKS) and was operationalised in the Victorian healthcare system from 2012. These initiatives examined and addressed various aspects of management systems for patients with arthritis of the hip and knee in their particular setting.

What does this paper add? The development of this system is an extension of what is already known and is the first to encompass a comprehensive and coordinated strategy across all stages of the care management pathway for this patient group. Their management extends from the initial referral to development and implementation of a management plan, including surgery if assessed as necessary and organisation of long-term post operative follow up as required. By detailing the elements, key processes and measurable outcomes of the service redesign this paper provides a model for other institutions to implement a similar initiative.

What are the implications for practitioners? An important aspect of the design process was practitioner acceptance and engagement and the ability to improve their capacity to deliver services within an efficient and effective model. Intrinsic to the model’s development was assessment of practitioner satisfaction. Data obtained including practitioner surveys indicated an increased level of both satisfaction with the redesigned management service, and confidence in it to deliver its intended improvements.

Individual foraging site fidelity in lactating New Zealand fur seals : Continental shelf vs. oceanic habitats

Wide-ranging marine central place foragers often exhibit foraging site fidelity to oceanographic features over differing spatial scales (i.e., localized coastal upwellings and oceanic fronts). Few studies have tested how the degree of site fidelity to foraging areas varies in relation to the type of ocean features used. In order to determine how foraging site fidelity varied between continental shelf and oceanic foraging habitats, 31 lactating New Zealand fur seals (Arctocephalus australis forsteri1) were satellite tracked over consecutive foraging trips (14–108 d). Thirty-seven foraging trips were recorded from 11 females that foraged on the continental shelf, in a region associated with a coastal upwelling, while 65 foraging trips were recorded from 20 females that foraged in oceanic waters. There were no significant differences in the mean bearings (to maximum distance) of individual's consecutive foraging trips, suggesting individual fidelity to foraging areas. However, overlap in area and time spent in area varied considerably between continental shelf and oceanic foragers. Females that foraged on the continental shelf had significantly greater overlap in consecutive foraging trips when compared to females that foraged in oceanic waters (overlap in 5 × 5 km grid cells visited on consecutive trips 55.9%± 20.4% and 13.4%± 7.6%, respectively). Females that foraged on the continental shelf also spent significantly more time within the same grid cell than females that foraged in oceanic waters (maximum time spent in 5 × 5 km grid cells: 14%± 5% and 4%± 2%, respectively). This comparatively high foraging site fidelity may reflect the concentration of productivity associated with a coastal upwelling system, the Bonney Upwelling. Lower foraging site fidelity recorded by seals that foraged in oceanic waters implies a lower density/larger scale habitat, where prey are more dispersed or less predictable at fine scales, when compared to the continental shelf region.

A study of children’s musical preference: A data mining approach

Musical preference has long been a research interest in the field of music education, and studies consistently confirm the importance of musical preference in one’s musical learning experiences. However, only a limited number of studies have been focussed on the field of early childhood education (e.g., Hargreaves, North, & Tarrant, 2006; Roulston, 2006). Further, among these limited early childhood studies, few of them discuss children’s musical preference in both the East and the West. There is very limited literature (e.g., Faulkner et al., 2010; Szymanska, 2012) which explores the data by using a data mining approach. This study aims to bridge the research gaps by examining children’s musical preference in Hong Kong and in South Australia by applying a data mining technique – Self Organising Maps (SOM), which is a clustering method that groups similar data objects together. The application of SOM is new in the field of early childhood education and also in the study of children’s musical preference. This paper specifically aims to expand a previous study (Yim & Ebbeck, 2009) by conducting deeper investigations into the existing datasets, for the purpose of uncovering insights that have not been identified through data mining approach.