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• Males tend to have higher levels of sensation seeking and engage in riskier driving. • Driver thrill seeking fully explains the relationship between gender and transient offending. • Driver thrill seeking partially explains the relationship between gender and fixed offending. Gender and sensation seeking are both key factors associated with risky driving and traffic offending by young people. However, there has been limited research exploring the way that gender and sensation seeking combined influence these behaviours. This paper investigates whether sensation seeking mediates the relationship between gender and traffic offending. Young drivers (n = 1,670) from Queensland and Victoria, Australia completed an online survey that included the Driver Thrill Seeking Scale and the Transient Offending and Fixed Offending sub-scales from the Behaviour of Young Novice Drivers Scale (BYNDS). The results indicate that sensation seeking fully mediates the relationship between gender and transient offending and partially mediates the relationship between fixed offending. This study highlights that sensation seeking is a key factor in explaining the relationship between gender and traffic offending which has important implications for the development of road safety interventions for teen drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an opportunity to reduce methane emissions from Australian, open pit, metallurgical coal (MC) mines and substantially reduce the carbon intensity of a high-value Australian export industry. MC is critical to the production of steel products and is essential to meet international urbanisation and energy system transformation goals. Initial research on this topic, outlined the application of subterranean barriers in coal mining towards the reduction of gas influx and whole-of-life coal mine methane (CMM) emissions in underground applications. Initially, the technology lacked economic viability for a majority of cases and especially after carbon pricing was eliminated in 2014. Today, with the imperative for the industry to reduce emissions, the technology becomes significant in its potential for emissions reduction for both underground and open-cut coal mines. The basis of barriers is similar to naturally occurring barriers (i.e., igneous intrusions or dikes) that have shown effective separation of drained and undrained mine works (as observed in adjoining mines in Central Queensland). Barriers have also been applied in the environmental, civil engineering and oil and gas industries, to manage or restrict subterranean flow patterns or contain contaminants. In this case, subterranean barriers are being implemented in conjunction with mine pre-drainage to reduce methane emissions from an open pit, MC mine. In addition, barriers can be used in underground mining operations.to improve mine pre-drainage and safety as well as reduce methane emissions. This paper describes the design, execution, and evaluation workflows and the relative importance of variables required for a barrier implementation in subterranean applications for open-cut and underground mining applications. This paper details the results of ongoing planning and modelling to implement and assess a barrier application for reducing gas migration from unmined in-seam or underground mine sections into open-cut MC mining operations. Finally, this paper builds on previous research and available technologies and is complementary to current pre-drainage for surface or underground mining operations. Barrier implementation in conjunction with the beneficial use of gas provides a working framework to reduce mine emissions toward necessary methane reductions by 2030. • Reducing methane emissions from open pit and underground metallurgical coal mines is required to reduce the carbon intensity of the industry. • The design, execution, evaluation, and verification steps for subterranean barrier placements in coal mines are presented. • Example models show the benefits of barrier placements in reducing overall emissions from open-cut and underground coal mines. • The technology is dependent on the permeability and anisotropy of the coals, and the process improves with additional and external drainage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers are busy people. How do we, as researchers, address the challenges of doing research with busy people—especially if we wish to enact ethical, more radical futures? How do we adhere to the pressures of fast-paced urban life when research, especially interviews, takes away people's time? This paper presents a novel method for doing research with busy people, combining the 'walking interview' method with a 'free listing technique.' The interviews were carried out with teachers at a north Queensland primary school in a rapidly urbanising neighbourhood, and formed part of a larger project exploring the barriers and opportunities of incorporating community gardens (as important green spaces) into schools. The method itself yielded important findings and this paper is a reflective analysis of how simple factors such as the weather, noise, and interruptions shaped 20 min of a teacher's day. We extend these ideas to explore how conditioned and situational temporalities, along with more-than-human influences, affect the knowledge produced in rapid walking interviews. Keeping track of these affections can yield important data relevant to the project. The research will be invaluable for other researchers struggling with ethical and other issues shaping access to stakeholders in a diverse range of urban environments. • The methodology presented in this paper is valuable for researchers facing ethical and access challenges in diverse urban settings • Counter-cities require radically different research • Temporalities, including conditioned and situational and non-human influences, shapes knowledge production during rapid walking interviews • Factors like weather, noise, and interruptions during interviews can significantly impact the research process and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infants and children diagnosed with a conductive hearing loss (CHL) are often referred for otolaryngology assessment. Although this is also a regular occurrence for infants diagnosed with a CHL through Universal Newborn Hearing Screening (UNHS), less is known about these infants and their outcomes. Using a cohort of infants diagnosed with CHL through UNHS and referred to otolaryngology, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between specific demographic or clinical characteristics and 1) triage category 2) middle ear diagnosis and intervention and, 3) service-related factors at otolaryngology. Retrospective analysis through clinical chart review was performed on all infants born between January 2014 and December 2017 who referred on UNHS, diagnosed with a CHL and referred to the Queensland Children's Hospital. Descriptive analysis and Chi squared analysis was conducted on data from 95 records. Analysis between all infants referred from UNHS and those who referred, diagnosed with CHL and then referred to otolaryngology suggest that bilateral referrals/medical exclusion, preterm and infants with ≥1 risk factors are more readily associated with referral to otolaryngology for CHL. Nearly all (92.86 %) infants who were referred to otolaryngology had a primary diagnosis of OM and most infants (89.66 %) received grommets as an intervention. The average age of first appointment at otolaryngology was 427 days, the average age of intervention was 579 days and the average occasions of service at otolaryngology was 6.72. This paper provides a snapshot into the journey and outcomes of infants referred from UNHS, diagnosed with CHL, and referred to otolaryngology. Further investigation in both general and UNHS populations is needed to better understand and apply these findings. • Bilat refer/med exclusion, preterm and infants with ≥1 risk factor are linked with otolaryngology referral. • 92.86 % of infants had a diagnosis of OM. • 89.66 % of infants received grommets as an intervention. • The average age of first appointment was 427 days, intervention was 579 and occasions of service was 6.72. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Recognition that carers' experience both affiliative and threat-based emotions in their relationships with birth parents; • Carers who share First Nations' cultural identities with parents find that these can provide a basis for affiliative emotional responses; • There is limited formal support for carers to manage the strong emotions, particularly threat-based emotions, that can complicate their relationships with birth parents; • We provide five recommendations for improving support for carers in building and sustaining relationships with birth parents and in realising their potential to support children's rights to family connections during the out-of-home care journey. Children in foster and kinship care have a right to relationships with their parents. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) asserts children's right to contact with their parents and families during periods of separation, except where this is proven not to be in the child's best interests. Foster and kinship carers can play a pivotal role in children's opportunities for, and experiences of, connection to parents and other family. Yet, the relationship between carers and parents is often characterised by ambivalence and tensions. Emerging research suggests that training and support to carers can help them to navigate their own and children's relationships with their families. However, such support is not routinely available, and the evidence-base for supporting carers to manage complex relationships with parents is not well-developed. In this paper, we report on a study with 113 foster and kinship carers in Queensland (Australia). We explore carers' perceptions of the emotional aspects of their relationships with parents. A novel feature of our study is our exploration of carers' perceptions of affiliative and threat-based emotions in their relationships with birth parents. We report that carers experience a wide spectrum of emotions in their relationships with parents, some of which strengthen these relationships while others create distance. We find also that carers receive little, if any, formal support in building relationships with parents and for supporting children's opportunities for, and experiences of family contact. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander carers report being unsupported in meeting their cultural obligations in developing relationships with children's parents and families. We discuss the implications for formal support to improve carers capacities to build and maintain their own, and children's, relationships with parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first 22 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, from March 2020 to December 2021, we witnessed a seismic change in the way in which work was undertaken given the restrictions implemented by government to curb the spread of the virus; most prominent has been the rise in working from home (WFH) as a more acceptable work location. In this paper, we explore preferences for and attitudes towards WFH in great detail, leveraging two waves of data to explore the remarkable and globally unique situation of three metro areas (Greater Sydney Metropolitan Area, South-East Queensland, and Melbourne) who despite entering lockdown at the same time in 2021, follow significantly different trajectories with respect to the severity and duration of the lockdowns. We find that irrespective of the degree of severity of the lockdown and the duration thereof, employee preferences for working from home, and importantly productivity, remained unchanged. Rather than diminishing the desire to WFH, evidence indicates that as periods of lockdown extend the desire to continue WFH only seems to intensify. While all workers express a preference to continue WFH in an unrestricted world, more often than they did prior to the pandemic, we further identify three broad segments of workers based primarily on how much of a balance they can strike between the benefits and challenges of WFH, which dictates how often they would like to WFH. Given that the desire to WFH more and the positive externalities of increased WFH, we argue that measures to support ongoing WFH are important to sustainable cities and the people who live in them, across several dimensions. • Three cities in Australia all initiated a lockdown at approximately the same time in 2021. • The lockdowns in each city followed different trajectories and durations. • Longer lockdowns result in greater desire to continue to WFH in the future. • Three segments of workers are revealed who wish to WFH to differing extents. • Potential implications of increased WFH for cities are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Most of the injured adults had either short-term, low-dose or no opioid use following their injury hospitalisation. • Longer durations and higher doses of opioids were seen for those with pre-injury opioid use, more readmissions and surgeries. • If dispensing occurred prior to injury, duration increased 10-fold and oral morphine equivalents doubled. • Approximately 45 % of adults with pre-injury opioid use remained at a higher dose than they were pre-injury. • A small but concerning number of adults were diagnosed or treated as drug dependant over the two-year post-injury follow-up period. Despite a focus of opioid-related research internationally, there is limited understanding of long-term opioid use in adults following injury. We analysed data from the 'Community Opioid Dispensing after Injury' data linkage study. This paper aims to describe the baseline characteristics of the injured cohort and report opioid dispensing patterns following injury-related hospitalisations. Retrospective cohort study of adults hospitalised after injury (ICD-10AM: S00-S99, T00-T75) in Queensland, Australia between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2015, prior to implementation of opioid stewardship programs. Data were person-linked between hospitalisation, community opioid dispensing and mortality collections. Data were extracted for 90-days prior to the index hospital admission, to establish opiate naivety, to 720 days after discharge. Median daily oral morphine equivalents (i.e., dose) were averaged for each 30-day interval. Cumulative duration of dispensing and dose were compared by demographic and clinical characteristics, stratified by drug dependency status. Of the 129,684 injured adults, 61.3 % had no opioids dispensed in the 2-year follow-up period. Adults having any opioids dispensed in the community (38.7 %) were more likely older, female, to have fracture injuries and injuries with a higher severity, compared to those with no opioids dispensed. Longer durations and higher doses of opioids were seen for those with pre-injury opioid use, more hospital readmissions and repeat surgeries, as well as those who died in the 2-year follow-up period. Median dispensing duration was 24-days with a median daily end dose of 13 oral morphine equivalents. If dispensing occurred prior to the injury, duration increased 10-fold and oral morphine equivalents doubled. Adults with a documented dependency prior to, or after, the injury had significantly longer durations of use and higher doses than the rest of the cohort receiving opioids. Approximately 7 % of the total cohort continued to be dispensed opioids at 2-years post injury. This is a novel population-level profile of opioid dispensing patterns following injury-related hospitalisation, described for the time period prior to the implementation of opioid stewardship programs and regulatory changes in Queensland. Detailed understanding of this pre-implementation period is critical for evaluating the impact of these changes moving forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• There are no comprehensive pre-post evaluations of bicycle passing distance rules. • The Queensland passing distance rule had high levels of awareness and compliance. • Countermeasure implementation sometimes precedes understanding of causation. • Countermeasure evaluations can generate data useful to understand crash causation. Close passes by motor vehicles endanger both the safety and comfort of bicycle riders. Governments in many countries have introduced laws requiring drivers to maintain at least a minimum distance between their vehicle and the cyclist they are passing, despite relatively poor understanding of the causes of bicycle overtaking crashes at the time. Queensland was the first state in Australia to introduce such a law, with a two-year trial commencing in April 2014. The data collected during the evaluation of the trial were later analysed to answer two main questions: "Under what circumstances do close passes occur?" and "Why do drivers pass too close?". The first question was largely approached by analysing the video observations of more than 18,000 riders (including 2,000 passing events) at 15 locations on Queensland roads and examining the infrastructure, traffic and road user characteristics that influenced passing distances. The second question was addressed in experimental studies which used the video observations as stimuli. This paper demonstrates how the political need for evaluation of a countermeasure can act as a stimulus for research funding that then allows data collection, analysis and better understanding of crash causation. Logically, introduction of a countermeasure should be based on a rigorous understanding of crash causation. But when this does not occur, evaluation may provide data that can be used to answer questions about crash causation – or at least pose new questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]