Search

Copyright of Physiotherapy Canada is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We explore the spatial layouts of mega-shelters and suggest better spatial planning strategies. A mega-shelter for refugees contains multiple functions, such as dormitory, dining, medical, kitchen, storage, and community areas. Post-disaster refugees often suffer from PTSD that affects their mental health and spatial cognitive ability. The spatial configuration of a mega-shelter can accelerate their recovery by providing an environment that not only satisfies the basic needs, but one that can improve their spatial cognitive ability and promote a sense of community in this new, albeit temporary, small society. Four mega-shelters in the U.S., Australia, and Japan were analyzed using space syntax methods, specifically axial line analysis and visibility graph analysis (VGA), as well as justified graph analysis. The comparative analysis shows that while specific spatial layouts are different, all shelters were designed from a manager's perspective. The movements of the refugees were sometimes unnecessarily exposed to supervision and control, and community areas were often found in locations with low accessibility. By incorporating strategies such as siting community space in areas with high global integration values and adopting transition areas, mega-shelters can create an environment that can enhance the refugees' will to recover and rebuild by promoting communications with neighbors and various community activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social mobility research mainly investigates directional change in socio-economic circumstance. This article contributes to the strand of social mobility research that examines subjective experiences of economic movement. It analyses social mobility as a set of relationally, temporally and spatially embedded social practices, subjectively experienced and interpreted. The interactive nexus between social and spatial mobility is a fruitful line of inquiry, and the experiences of international migrants are distinctly suited for developing this analysis. Drawing on a qualitative study of migrants' mobilities, both social and spatial, post-arrival in Australia, we argue that social mobility is experienced as sets of contingent social practices. These in/variably co-exist with aspirations for a sense of belonging and connectedness, a sense of security and other non-economic needs and desires and are also always adjusted over time. In addition, migrants' status as legal, cultural or social Others shapes the experience of social mobility in distinctive ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: It is important to detect children with difficulties distinguishing speech-in-noise early. Prompt identification may be assisted by an evoked potential. The aims of the present study were: 1) to evaluate the frequency-following response (FFR) as a measure of binaural processing and spatial listening and, 2) to investigate the relationship between the FFR and a behavioural measure of binaural processing and spatial listening. Design: A single group, repeated measures design. The FFR was recorded in two different spatial conditions and amplitudes compared to spatial listening ability. Study Sample: Thirty-two children (aged 6.0 to 13.1 years) with a range of spatial processing abilities as measured behaviourally using the Listening in Spatialised Noise Sentences test (LiSN-S). Results: FFR waveforms were elicited using speech-like stimuli in co-located and separated conditions. A significant (p≤0.005) spatial advantage effect was observed with larger amplitudes in the separated condition. No correlations were observed between FFR amplitude and LiSN-S results. Conclusions: The FFR shows promise as a measure of binaural processing and spatial listening, but could be measuring different processes to those measured by the LiSN-S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problematic anger is often the outward manifestation and expression of deeper mental health issues in young men with strong links to depression, aggression, and suicide. Few studies have explored adolescent anger and aggression from the perspective of adolescent males and even fewer studies focus specifically on a rural context. This research aimed to understand the role of anger and aggression from the perspective of Australian rural adolescent males. Mental health nurses can build upon this knowledge to promote more adaptive ways of coping with anger therefore identifying specific interventions for the prevention of violence and promotion of mental health in this cohort. One hundred and eighty‐seven rural adolescent males participated in focus groups that were conducted during their participation in the Rock and Water Program (RWP). Participants identified a number of factors they felt contributed to the aggression they both witnessed and experienced with eight themes emerging in response to the research questions. Four themes related to personological factors, that is racism, homophobia, family influences, and media influence. A further four themes related to situational factors, that is alcohol, territorialism, school context, and peer pressure. The study identified that racist and homophobic attitudes and beliefs were evident and clearly contributed to aggressive scripts as did family and media messages that normalized aggressive behaviour by way of endorsing stereotypical images of an aggressive masculinity. Situational factors such as alcohol use, territorialism, school context, and peer pressure were directly linked by participants to aggressive incidents embedded within their notions of masculinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young Australian Muslims living in Sydney have been influenced by the Cronulla riot. Online surveys (n: 76) and interviews (n: 10) reveal the impact on their engagement with the Sutherland region around Cronulla, detectable a decade after this event. The exclusionary intent of the rioters and their sympathisers was a racist form of spatial management that had both specific and general aims. The Australian news media contribute to the ethnic purification that was originally intended by the Cronulla riots. This reduces mobility among an ‘ethnic other’ in accessing spaces that have been portrayed as ‘racist’ – or, in the case of young Muslims, ‘Islamophobic’. Findings demonstrate the ongoing consequences of a wide-scale racist attack, like the Cronulla riot, on urban citizenship. Representations of the Cronulla riot are a repertoire of learning for young Sydney Muslims that rehearse what has been conceptualised as pedagogies of (un)belonging by Noble and Poynting [(2010). White Lines: The Intercultural Politics of Everyday Movement in Social Spaces.Journal of Intercultural Studies, 31, 489–505]. We have extended the application of this concept to a specific space and point to the means by which constructions of unbelonging are reinforced and made material. Processes of repetition and accumulations identified by Butler and Essed highlight how this enduring pedagogy of spatial unbelonging is maintained by media representations of places as Islamophobic. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential value of applying spatial science and technology to the issue of care integration across what are the often fragmented domains of health and social care provision. The issue of focus for this purpose is population ageing because it challenges existing information and practice silos. Better integration, the author proposes, needs to adopt a geographic approach to deal with the challenges that population ageing present to health and social care as they currently function in many countries.Design/methodology/approach The approach utilised here explores the role that could be played by enhancing spatial perspectives in care integration. Spatial and temporal strategies need to be coordinated to produce systems of integrated care that are needed to meet the needs of growing numbers of older people.Findings The author’s premise is that, with some rare exceptions, geographies of care are needed to address important shifts in demography such as population ageing and their epidemiological consequences. The rising intersection between the ageing and disability concepts illustrates how the fluid nature of health and social care client groups will challenge existing systems and their presuppositions. Health and medical geography offer a theoretical and practical response to some of these emerging problems.Research limitations/implications This is a brief conceptual piece in favour of integrating geographic concepts and methods in the context of changing demography and the social, economic and service implications of such changes. It is limited in scope and a more detailed explanation would be required for a proof of concept.Practical implications Practically we know that all human services vary across space as do both healthcare and related social services and supports. Issues of quality and safety are numerous in these policy domains generally, with aged care evidencing a growing number of problems and challenges. Being able to inquire on significant challenges in health and social care through a spatial lens has the potential to provide another, highly practical, kind of evidence in this field of work. This lens is, the author contends, very poorly integrated into either health or social care at present. However, doing so would have a variety of useful outcomes for monitoring and intervening on real problems in care integration. An example could be “frequent flyers” in emergency departments as has been done in Camden, New Jersey through patient mapping.Social implications The author’s position in this paper is that the challenges we face in providing integrated care to ageing and increasingly disabled (including both physical and cognitive impairments) populations will only grow in the face of variable governmental responses and increasingly complex funding and service provider arrangements. Without a geographical perspective and the concepts and tools of spatial science the author does not see an adequate response emerging. The shift to community-based care for many groups, including the aged, means that location will become more important rather than less so. This is a societal concern of major proportions and the very concept of integrated care requires of us a geographical perspective.Originality/value This is a short but, the author believes, conceptually rich piece with a variety of potential practical implications for health and social care service provision. Issues of equity, quality, safety and even basic access can only grow as population ageing progresses and various forms of chronic disease and disability continue to grow. Knowing where the most affected people and their social and service connections are located will support better integration. And better integration may resolve some of the financial and related resource problems that are already evident but which can only continue to increase. In this context, the author suggests that the integrated care of the future needs to be geographically informed to be effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2008 Christian Boer, a Dutch artist, developed a special font ("Dyslexie") to facilitate reading in children and adults with dyslexia. The font has received a lot of media attention worldwide (e.g., TheGuardian.com, Slate.com, TheAtlantic.com, USA Today, and io9.com). Interestingly, there is barely any empirical evidence for the efficacy of Dyslexie. This study aims to examine if Dyslexie is indeed more effective than a commonly used sans serif font (Arial) and, if so, whether this can be explained by its relatively large spacing settings. Participants were 39 low-progress readers who were learning to read in English. They were asked to read four different texts in four different font conditions that were all matched on letter display size (i.e., x-height), but differed in the degree to which they were matched for spacing settings. Results showed that low-progress readers performed better (i.e., read 7% more words per minute) in Dyslexie font than in standardly spaced Arial font. However, when within-word spacing and between-word spacing of Arial font was matched to that of Dyslexie font, the difference in reading speed was no longer significant. We concluded that the efficacy of Dyslexie font is not because of its specially designed letter shapes, but because of its particular spacing settings. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Music festivals have received relatively little research attention despite being key sites for alcohol and drug use among young people internationally. Research into music festivals and the social contexts of drug use more generally, has tended to focus on social and cultural processes without sufficient regard for the mediating role of space and spatial processes.Methods: Adopting a relational approach to space and the social, from Actor-Network Theory and human geography, I examine how socio-spatial relations are generated in campsites at multiple-day music festivals. The data are drawn from ethnographic observations at music festivals around Melbourne, Australia; interviews with 18-23 year olds; and participant-written diaries.Results: Through the analysis, the campsite is revealed as a space in process, the making of which is bound up in how drug use unfolds. Campsite relations mediate the formation of drug knowledge and norms, informal harm reduction practices, access to and exchange of drugs, and rest and recovery following drug use.Conclusions: Greater attendance to socio-spatial relations affords new insights regarding how festival spaces and their social effects are generated, and how they give rise to particular drug use practices. These findings also point to how festival harm reduction strategies might be enhanced through the promotion of enabling socio-spatial relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the role of social exclusion to measure and monitor disadvantage among children and adults in Australia. It states that the concept of social exclusion is one attempt at developing a richer and more multidimensional view of disadvantage, including child disadvantage. The correlation analysis infers that the Child Social Exclusion indexes are different from other indexes because it offers additional information on social exclusion risk.

Indigenous academic outcomes are in many ways negotiated at the interface between student spatialities—including their residential patterns and choices— and the mainstream school system. The current model of education delivery rewards regular attendance at well-resourced schools. Conversely, sporadic interactions with under-resourced schools generally produce poor educational outcomes. This paper draws on qualitative case-study research in Yamatji country, Western Australia, to present a grounded analysis of the mutually effectual relationship between the mainstream education system and Aboriginal spatiality. It begins with a discussion of how school location and standards influence Aboriginal migration and residence choices, and outlines the significant policy implications of this relationship. It then examines the impacts of Aboriginal itinerancy on student learning and school functionality, and critically evaluates a number of strategies for tackling student mobility in terms of their applicability and appropriateness to Indigenous contexts. The paper ultimately argues the need for researchers, policy- makers and educators to engage more intentionally with the spatial practices of Aboriginal students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Many commercially important fish species use coastal marine environments such as mangroves, tidal flats and seagrass beds as nurseries or breeding grounds. The ecological importance of spatially connected habitats to conservation is well established for terrestrial environments. However, few studies have applied spatial metrics, including measures of structural connectivity to marine environments. We examined the relationship between catch-per-unit-effort for commercially caught species and the spatial patterning of mapped benthic habitat types along the coast of Queensland, Australia in their dominant fisheries (trawl, line, net or pot fisheries). We quantified the composition and spatial configuration of seascapes and calculated coastline length, number of estuaries, river length and geographical latitude using 12 metrics within ninety 30-nautical-mile grid cells, which supported inshore fish catch data from 21 species groups. Multiple regression analysis and non-metric multidimensional scaling plots indicated that ecological linkages may exist between geomorphic coastal features and nearshore fisheries production for a number of species groups. Connectivity indices for mangroves, salt marsh and channels explained the largest proportion (30–70%), suggesting the importance of connected tidal wetlands for fisheries. Barramundi (Lates calcarifer) catch-per-unit-effort was best explained by the number of wetland patches, mangrove connectivity and wetland connectivity (r 2 =0.38, n =28). Catch-per-unit-effort for the Gulf of Carpentaria was highly correlated with wetland connectivity, the number of estuaries and seagrass patch density (r =0.57, n =29). The findings could guide the spatial design of marine protected area networks to maintain ecosystem services and avoid potential disruption to connectivity caused by habitat removal or modification. Application of the same approach to analyses of finer spatial scales would enable catch information to be related to particular estuarine habitats and provide better understanding of the importance of habitat connectivity for fisheries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the marine environment, artificial structures are not, in general, managed for their value as habitat and are often built with no a priori expectation as to the assemblages which may colonise them. It may, however, become increasingly important to consider the value of such structures as habitat when decisions are made with respect to the management of artificial structures. This study investigates the role marinas play as habitat for fish by examining the distribution of fish associated with these urban developments and how this distribution relates to the physical characteristics of marinas. Assemblages of fish associated with marinas in waterways around Sydney were sampled in August and December 2002 and May 2003. Counts were done around structures present at marinas, i.e. pontoons and pilings and in the open water immediately adjacent to these structures. Within marinas, spatial patterns were particular to the types of fish examined. Large mobile species, such as Acanthopagrus australis and Girella tricuspidata, moved between structures and the open water between them. Smaller species, such as Trachinops taeniatus and Microcanthus strigatus, were found only in the immediate vicinity of these structures. At a larger spatial scale, assemblages of fish varied markedly between different marinas. This variability could not, however, be attributed to the depth of water, the age or size of marinas, nor the type of material with which marinas were constructed (i.e. pontoons or jetties). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Student computer laboratories are provided by most teaching institutions around the world; however, what is the most effective layout for such facilities? The log-in data files from computer laboratories at a regional university in Australia were analysed to determine whether there was a pattern in student seating. In particular, it was investigated whether students and academic staff usage was affected by the layout of a computer laboratory and therefore a preference by students in where they were seated. It was found that the layout of the computer laboratories does not affect which computer layout a student will use. Further, it was found that academic staff prefer to use a computer laboratory designed along a more traditional lecture room layout when working with first-year students. This research will be valuable to institutions designing new computer laboratory facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines how the emergence of neo-liberalism in rural policy has affected the Central Wheatbelt of Western Australia. Overview of the foundations and spatial dimensions of neo-liberalism; Increase focus on competition and entrepreneurialism in regional development; Impact of government policies on the spatial pattern of economic planning.

The Australian desert ant Melophorus bagoti shows remarkable visual navigational skills relying on visual rather than on chemical cues during their foraging trips. M. bagoti ants travel individually through a visually cluttered environment guided by landmarks as well as by path integration. An examination of their visual system is hence of special interest and we address this here. Workers exhibit distinct size polymorphism and their eye and ocelli size increases with head size. The ants possess typical apposition eyes with about 420-590 ommatidia per eye, a horizontal visual field of approximately 150° and facet lens diameters between 8 and 19 μm, depending on body size, with frontal facets being largest. The average interommatidial angle Δϕ is 3.7°, the average acceptance angle of the rhabdom Δρ(rh) is 2.9°, with average rhabdom diameter of 1.6 μm and the average lens blur at half-width Δρ(l) is 2.3°. With a Δρ(rh)/Δϕ ratio of much less than 2, the eyes undersample the visual scene but provide high contrast, and surprising detail of the landmark panorama that has been shown to be used for navigation., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)