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Complex interventions, such as innovation platforms, pose challenges for evaluators. A variety of methodological approaches are often required to build a more complete and comprehensive understanding of how complex interventions work. In this paper, we outline and critically appraise a methodologically pluralist evaluation of an innovation platform to strengthen primary care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. In doing so, we aim to identify lessons learned from the approach taken and add to existing literature on implementing evaluations in complex settings, such as innovation platforms. The pluralist design used four evaluation approaches-developmental evaluation, principles-focused evaluation, network analysis, and framework analysis-with differing strengths and challenges. Taken together, the multiple evaluation approaches yielded a detailed description and nuanced understanding of the formation, functioning and outcomes of the innovation platform that would be difficult to achieve with any single evaluation method. While a methodologically pluralist design may place additional pressure on logistical and analytic resources available, it enables a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that underlie complex interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the impact of a major life event–death–on the physical, psychological and social well-being of the deceased’s close friends. We utilised data from a large longitudinal survey covering a period of 14 years (2002–2015) consisting a cohort of 26,515 individuals in Australia, of whom 9,586 had experienced the death of at least one close friend. This longitudinal cohort dataset comprises responses to the SF-36 (health related quality of life measure) and allowed for analysis of the short and longer-term impacts of bereavement. In order to manage the heterogeneity of the socio-demographics of respondents who did/not experience a death event, we use a new and robust approach known as the Entropy Balancing method to construct a set of weights applied to the bereaved group and the control group (the group that did not experience death). This approach enables us to match the two groups so that the distribution of socio-demographic variables between the two groups are balanced. These variables included gender, age, marital status, ethnicity, personality traits, religion, relative socio-economic disadvantage, economic resources, and education and occupation and where they resided. The data show, for the first time, a range of negative and enduring consequences experienced by people following the death of a close friend. Significant adverse physical and psychological well-being, poorer mental health and social functioning occur up to four years following bereavement. Bereaved females experienced a sharper fall in vitality, suffered greater deterioration in mental health, impaired emotional and social functioning than the male counterparts up to four years after the death. The data show that the level of social connectedness plays an important role in bereavement outcomes. Specifically, we found that less socially active respondents experienced a longer deterioration in physical and psychological health. Finally, we found evidence that the death of a close friend lowered the respondent’s satisfaction with their health. Since death of friends is a universal phenomenon, we conclude the paper by reflecting on the need to recognise the death of a close friend as a substantial experience, and to offer support and services to address this disenfranchised grief. Recognising bereaved friends as a group experiencing adverse outcomes can be used internationally to prompt health and psychological services to assist this specific group, noting that there may be substantial longevity to the negative sequelae of the death of a friend. Facilitating bereaved people’s support networks may be a fruitful approach to minimising these negative outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With more and more political candidates using social media for campaigning, researchers are looking at measuring the effectiveness of this medium. Most research, however, concentrates on the bare count of likes (or twitter mentions) in an attempt to correlate social media presence and winning. In this paper, we propose a novel method, Interaction Strength Plot (IntS) to measure the passive interactions between a candidate’s posts on Facebook and the users (liking the posts). Using this method on original Malaysian General Election (MGE13) and Australian Federal Elections (AFE13) Facebook Pages (FP) campaign data, we label an FP as performing well if both the posting frequency and the likes gathered are above average. Our method shows that over 60% of the MGE13 candidates and 85% of the AFE13 candidates studied in this paper had under-performing FP. Some of these FP owners would have been identified as popular based on bare count. Thus our performance chart is a vital step forward in measuring the effectiveness of online campaigning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual minority young people use licit and illicit substances at disproportionate levels. However, little is known about the perceptions of substance use among members of LGBT communities. This paper reports the results of a content analysis of 45 semi-structured interviews about substance use in LGBT communities with sexual minority young people (n = 31) and community stakeholders (n = 14). Results indicated both sexual minority youth and community stakeholders perceived the use and acceptance of substances to be higher in LGBT communities compared to the general population. Participants identified a range of characteristics potentially leading to higher levels of substance use including peer pressure, high exposure to substance use, and the high concentrations of licensed venues in LGBT communities. Marginalisation, discrimination and mental health were also perceived as important reasons for these disparities. Community stakeholders identified a range of potential interventions including legislation to address discrimination and substance use, increased services and activities, advertising in commercial LGBT venues and social media, and reinvigorating community cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid urbanisation and infrastructure development projects have increased infinite property regeneration and construction projects in the developed countries. This study aims to examine the current construction waste management literature, including key authors, university networks, and relevant information systems, considering four selected countries, including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This paper uses a set of novel metrics, query-based search, and social network analysis techniques for evaluating a dataset of 2337 papers published in a decade by authors from different countries investigating the topic of recycling and reuse of construction and demolition waste in order to identify prominent researchers, influential universities, collaboration practices, and research trends. The dataset of publications is collected from Scopus and analysed using a set of network analysis techniques and statistical analysis. An additional dataset of keywords was collected from the Twitter pages of engineering firms and other relevant industry organisations to assess any possible connection between industry interests and research trends. In order to present a solid analysis of the current investigations in the field, a scientometric analysis along with a rigor statistical method was adopted to carefully identify trends, detailed sub-topics, and the materials investigated in the literature. A probit regression model for testing differences between countries in recycling practices was utilised in the STATA environment. The findings show a set of network analysis and clusters that can help scholars to set their future studies based on the current advances and limitations identified in the literature. Within the dataset, 42% of publications referred to concrete waste, whilst only 2.2% included glass, 2.5% included brick, 4.3% included steel and none included wood, which shows the most common building materials have not been fully covered in the literature. Only 48 publications, or 7.4% of the dataset, originated from the three selected concrete-focused journals. It was also found that information systems appeared in the database lately; however, there is less discussion in the literature on how the integration of Geographic Information System (GIS), Buidling Information Model (BIM), 3D Printing and geo-spatial data analysis can help waste management in the field of construction. The bibliographic analysis of the selected cases shows that universities in Canada and the US exhibit more evidence of domestic collaboration and industry partnerships than universities in Australia and the UK. Additionally, there is evidence to suggest that publications with at least one industry co-author are more likely to address the issue of regulation. The outcome of this paper enables academics, engineers, and regulators to predict research trends, improve industry collaborations and utilise information systems and assign more research resources to address the identified gaps in the literature. • Developed a network of 1408 authors within the dataset and apply Total Publications metrics. • Examined the collaboration of 529 institutions within Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US. • Utilised a probit regression model for testing differences between countries in recycling practices. • Visualised an online GIS-based dashboard of landfills and recycling facilities using geo-spatial data. • Identified gaps in two different directions of material technology and management systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Materials and Methods: In this paper, we propose a theoretical model based upon previous studies about personal and social network dynamics of job performance. We provide empirical support for this model using real-world data within the context of the Australian radiology profession. An examination of radiologists’ professional network topology through structural-positional and relational dimensions and radiologists’ personal characteristics in terms of knowledge, experience and self-esteem is provided. Thirty one breast imaging radiologists completed a purpose designed questionnaire regarding their network characteristics and personal attributes. These radiologists also independently read a test set of 60 mammographic cases: 20 cases with cancer and 40 normal cases. A Jackknife free response operating characteristic (JAFROC) method was used to measure the performance of the radiologists’ in detecting breast cancers. Results: Correlational analyses showed that reader performance was positively correlated with the social network variables of degree centrality and effective size, but negatively correlated with constraint and hierarchy. For personal characteristics, the number of mammograms read per year and self-esteem (self-evaluation) positively correlated with reader performance. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that the combination of number of mammograms read per year and network’s effective size, hierarchy and tie strength was the best fitting model, explaining 63.4% of the variance in reader performance. The results from this study indicate the positive relationship between reading high volumes of cases by radiologists and expertise development, but also strongly emphasise the association between effective social/professional interactions and informal knowledge sharing with high performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]