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How are theatre practitioners (re)defining the realist project, a form of theatre intrinsic to the ideological domestication of capitalism? This paper takes up this question through an examination of Simon Stone's production of The Wild Duck 'after Ibsen', staged at Belvoir Theatre in Sydney in 2011, and the late Mark Fisher's (2009) theorization of a market-dominated present as capitalist realism. In doing so, it refers to three different cultural contexts by making parallels to the German theatre director Thomas Ostermeier's work and pointing to developments in Britain. It argues that performances dependent upon the subject's capacity to know and represent the world are predicated on a subjective response and therefore risk locating systemic issues in the closed fictional cosmos of situational dramatic art as part of its exploration of the paralysis intrinsic to the capitalist realist politics of (theatre) spectatorship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates computing students' entrepreneurial intentions, motivations, recognisable barriers and encouragements towards entrepreneurship, with a focus on gender. Two universities, one in Australia and one in the UK (n = 247), were used as locations for the research to consider two distinct contexts. In each university there were similarly high levels of interest in entrepreneurship among computing students, however some significant differences in responses were found, especially between male and female participants. Job flexibility was a strong motivation for the UK-based female participants; while female participants at the Australian university identified internal barriers (such as lack of confidence and experience). Enablers to entrepreneurial activity were identified, including access to incubators and academic support. Directing such support towards computing students, while recognising gender differences, could increase interest in, and take-up of, entrepreneurship. Recommendations are made regarding how universities can best support would-be entrepreneurs and encourage inclusive entrepreneurship into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of Space has become very important in the wake of opportunities and strategic advantages accrued from it. It has become increasingly evident that space science education is beginning to gain grounds in the 21st century and it is perceived to bring about Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) awareness providing a context for teaching and learning of the subject. The competitive nature of Space means developing nations will need to invest in the skills that the industry needs by way of sustained pathways, incentivised research and development, and assured a favourable prevailing business environment by way of creating capacities and capabilities in space sciences. Through an explanatory study, we draw on students' responses (N = 504, interviews = 20) to investigate the educational need of a space science program. Findings revealed implications for the quality and function of a space science program which provide a platform for engagement in space related research and development. Data also demonstrated key facts with the potential of increasing the future of space science instruction which will necessitate a paradigm shift towards the value of space education in the phase of integrating a space science program in the curriculum. The paper concludes with recommendations for practitioners responsible for integration of new curriculum in science education in higher education sectors. • Positive student perceptions towards a space science program. • Space science education influences learners' decision in STEM studies. • Overwhelming student interest for space science curriculum integration. • Space science provides an interdisciplinary avenue for engagement and participation. • Positive mindset breeds right mentality to teaching and learning of the space science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Sydney Theatre Company's (STC) production of Jean Genet's "The Maids," directed by Benedict Andrews and, and starring Cate Blanchett. It discusses Genet's complex theatrical engagement with a First World audience as a voice the West refuses to hear. It argues that STC's production negates Genet's rituals of the oppressed and affirms celebrity status for its First World spectator.

This essay examines The Hayloft Project's theatre production Thyestes, first performed at the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne in 2010. It takes as its starting point public criticism of the practice of adaptation as a derivative form. Contrary to this position, the essay applies recent theorizations of theatre as a hypermedium in order to argue that adaptation is an integral, structural component of theatre rather than simply an intertextual, representational strategy. In doing so, it positions Brechtian approaches to the medium as a historical precedent through which to consider the dramaturgical strategies at work in the production, and it extrapolates on Walter Benjamin's idea of citation as a formative interruption to critique scholarly conceptions of the practice as a "second," palimpsestic form. The essay thus extends the discussion of adaptation beyond the language of alteration and re-creation. Finally, it explores the misapprehensions that result from reading adaptation purely in representational terms in its discussion of adaptation in an Australian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

William Yang’s performance Sadness challenges essentialised categories of identification by juxtaposing tales of his Chinese-Australian family with the journey of friends from his community dying of AIDS-related complications and infection. In doing so, Yang foregrounds the threat of mortality that attempts to stabilise identity politics for the ‘nation’. In the age of global media Yang resists multi-modal approaches to his medium to reclaim the theatrical space of narration. As a consequence, Yang’s Sadness affords an opportunity to rethink the imperatives intrinsic to the classification of social subjects in terms of racial, sexual and reproductive practices, and the relationship of the citizen-body to modes of cultural representation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Fully online courses are becoming progressively more popular because of their “anytime anywhere” learning flexibility. One of the ways students interact with each other and with the instructors within fully online learning environments is via asynchronous discussion forums. However, student engagement in online discussion forums does not always take place automatically and there is a lack of clarity about the ideal role of the instructors in them. In this article, we report on our research on the quality of discussion in fully online courses through analysis of discussion forum activities. We have conducted our research on two large fully online subjects for computing students over two consecutive semesters and used a grounded theoretic approach for data analysis. Our results reveal what students and instructors consider as quality interaction in fully online courses. We also propose two frameworks based on our findings that can be used to ensure effective online interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Learning to program is known to be difficult for novices. High attrition and high failure rates in foundation-level programming courses undertaken at tertiary level in Computer Science programs, are commonly reported. A common approach to evaluating novice programming ability is through a combination of formative and summative assessments, with the latter typically represented by a final examination. Preparation of such assessment is driven by instructor perceptions of student learning of programming concepts. This in turn may yield instructor perspectives of summative assessment that do not necessarily correlate with student expectations or abilities. In this article, we present results of our study around instructor perspectives of summative assessment for novice programmers. Both quantitative and qualitative data have been obtained via survey responses from programming instructors with varying teaching experience, and from novice student responses to targeted examination questions. Our findings highlight that most of the instructors believed that summative assessment is, and is meant to be, a valid measure of a student's ability to program. Most instructors further believed that Multiple-choice Questions (MCQs) provide a means of testing a low level of understanding, and a few added qualitative comments to suggest that MCQs are easy questions, and others refused to use them at all. There was no agreement around the proposition that if a question was designed to test a low level of skill, or a low level in a hierarchy of a body of knowledge, that such a question should or would be found to be easy by the student. To aid our analysis of assessment questions, we introduced four measures: Syntax Knowledge; Semantic Knowledge; Problem Solving Skill and the Level of Difficulty of the Problem. We applied these measures to selected examination questions, and have identified gaps between the instructor perspectives of what is considered to be an easy question and also in what is required to be assessed to determine whether students have achieved the goals of their course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our vision is to create an independent content-distribution system using ubiquitous computing technologies. In this paper, we report on how we implemented mobile computing applications to design and build a content-distribution system using Bluetooth technology in an urban site in order to distribute context-sensitive media. The granularities of our design considerations included the ability to support both annotative and phenomenological locative media projects. GPS surveillance technologies were integrated into our prototype. While we were building the system, we conducted a survey to find out what would induce people to turn their Bluetooth on and what kinds of content they would like to receive. This paper contributes to the field of ubiquitous computing and urban studies through its description of how existing technologies can be combined to provide novel mobile computing applications in the city. In our vision a tram route assumes the guise of a performative terrain where passengers can listen to varied narratives of place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobility is changing the ways people routinely behave in public places. Since the appearance of digital mobile phone networks, mobile phones have become part of suburban and urban landscapes globally. Both the use of public transport and mobile telecommunications are integral for daily life and self-presentation in most large cities such as London and Tokyo. Public places and spaces are being transformed into hybrid geographies through the introduction of new spatial infrastructure. In this paper, we present our analysis of the responses of our survey sample of commuters concerning their use of mobile phones on trains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on universal systems language (USL). USL is based on systems theory and is significantly derived from the Apollo onboard flight software effort. It's purpose has been to provide solutions to problem viewed as next to impossible to solve with traditional methods. According to users, USL thinks in terms of system-oriented objects (SOOs) and system-driven models. The authors list a set of objectives about how they designed objectives for USL. The article mentions the development of the Apollo flight software.

The effects of dietary glucose (chow containing 0%, 10%, 20%, or 40% glucose, w/w) on chronic haloperidol-induced changes in dopamine (DA) neuronal activity were tested. Rats were treated daily by oral gavage for 21 days with either water or 0.5 mg/kg haloperidol, then anesthetized for in vivo electrophysiological recording. The numbers of spontaneously active DA neurons in the substantia nigra (A9) and ventral tegmental area (A10) regions of the midbrain were estimated with the cells-per-track sampling method. In rats fed standard chow, haloperidol significantly reduced the number of active neurons in both regions compared to water controls. In water controls there were no differences in DA cells per track between rats fed standard chow or chow containing 10% or 20% glucose, whereas these glucose diets significantly attenuated the effects of chronic haloperidol on DA cells per track. The 40% glucose diet itself nonsignificantly reduced cells per track and, in turn, nonsignificantly attenuated the effects of haloperidol. The results demonstrate that dietary glucose content can alter haloperidol-induced changes in the activity of midbrain DA neurons. Synapse 53:1-5, 2004. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate and reliable prediction of photovoltaic (PV) power output is critical to electricity grid stability and power dispatching capabilities. However, PV power generation is highly volatile and unstable due to different reasons. The wavelet transform (WT) has been utilised in time series applications, such as PV power prediction, to model the stochastic volatility and reduce prediction errors. Yet the existing WT approach has a limitation in terms of time complexity. It requires reconstructing the decomposed components and modelling them separately and thus needs more time for reconstruction, model configuration and training. The aim of this study is to improve the efficiency of applying WT by proposing a new method that uses a single simplified model. Given a time series and its WT coefficients, it trains one model with the coefficients as features and the original time series as labels. This eliminates the need for component reconstruction and training numerous models. This work contributes to the day-ahead aggregated solar PV power time series prediction problem by proposing and comprehensively evaluating a new approach of employing WT. The proposed approach is evaluated using 17 months of aggregated solar PV power data from two real-world datasets. The evaluation includes the use of a variety of prediction models, including Linear Regression, Random Forest, Support Vector Regression, and Convolutional Neural Networks. The results indicate that using a coefficients-based strategy can give predictions that are comparable to those obtained using the components-based approach while requiring fewer models and less computational time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE:: Examine frequency, timing, and reasons for maternal postpartum rehospitalizations and acute care visits 1 year postpartum after a high-risk pregnancy. STUDY DESIGN:: Secondary analysis of data collected during a randomized clinical trial of advanced practice nurses gives transitional care for women with high-risk pregnancies. The 171 women were primarily African American, never married, Medicaid eligible, diagnosed with pregestational diabetes (20), gestational diabetes (23), either diagnosed (48) or at risk (44) for preterm labor, and chronic hypertension (36). RESULTS:: Of the total rehospitalizations (17%) and acute care visits (32%), over one third occurred in the first 8 weeks postpartum. Chronic hypertensives and gestational diabetics had the highest rate of rehospitalization and proportion of acute care visits. Six women were rehospitalized for subsequent pregnancies. CONCLUSION:: Women with high-risk pregnancies have continued high health care resource use over the first postpartum year demonstrating the need for more intensive patient education and follow-up to improve outcomes and reduce resource use. Journal of Perinatology (2002) 22, 566–571 doi:10.1038/sj.jp.7210796 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Victoria (a southern Australian state) in 1995, Narcotics Anonymous had a small but growing membership providing an opportunity to study the early experience of new self-help members. Ninety-one new members were interviewed and 62 (68%) were reinterviewed after 12 months. Three measures of self-help participation were examined: service role involvement, step work, and stable meeting attendance. Lower prior involvement in treatment services and greater participation in self-help predicted subsequent self-help participation. Higher levels of secondary school education predicted service role involvement and longer periods in stable meeting attendance. Higher self-help participation through the 12 months prior to follow-up was associated with lower levels of hazardous alcohol use and higher emotional support at reinterview. Multivariate regression analysis suggested stable self-help meeting attendance and step work continued to predict reductions in hazardous alcohol use and improvements in social support, after controlling for a range of alternative predictors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Examines an Institute of Medicine report that explored social and behavioral research to devise multipronged intervention strategies using the theories of argumentation of Chaim Perelman. Attributes inherent to argumentation; Categories of audiences; Actions characteristic of public health interventions.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses reports within the issue on topics including child protection from parental substance use, the removal of children from parental alcohol or drug abuse, and the risk to children exposed to social environment of substance users.

Creativity is an important skill for engineers but many students face a lack of experience in idea generation, often compounded by low-self efficacy towards creativity. Providing students with online training modules has been suggested as one solution. However, the literature demonstrates using a computer can influence performance and self-efficacy in a different manner to using pen-and-paper. There is a current lack of research on whether computers may influence self-efficacy during idea generation tasks. Two experiments involving computer-based and pen-and-paper groups were designed. Groups were provided with templates that guided them through the process of applying an idea generation technique and were given sixteen minutes to generate ideas to solve a presented problem. Results revealed that students' performance was similar and using a computer does not negatively influence self-efficacy. This shows that students can engage in idea generation learning tasks using computer-based modes without negatively influencing performance or self-efficacy, suggesting an avenue for educators to engage students with building creativity skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study which tested the theory of higher treatment level attainment, more time spent in treatment and additional time spent within a drug-free therapeutic community treatment level, has a linear association with improvements at outcome. Reference to previous studies which attempted to identify other treatment factors moderating outcomes; Concerns regarding the level system or stages in the therapeutic community treatment process.

Discusses the experiences of some Australian qualitative research and review some of the ethical and legal liabilities in research with hidden populations of illicit drug users. Myth of confidentiality; Examples of legal and ethical liabilities; Emergence of regimes of regulation.

Examines some of the differences between self help and harm reduction approaches on drug treatment. Evidence concerning the harm reduction potential of self help groups; Knowledge based on research versus experiential knowing; Source of intervention; Treatment processes; Treatment goals; Research partnerships for improved harm reduction.

The process of evaluating the Australian National Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NCADA) is described. The campaign consists of activities in education, treatment, research and legislative controls. Because of the complex nature of the campaign, a range of evaluation activities was used, including activity monitoring, process and outcome evaluations and the establishment of an expert task force to undertake an assessment of the overall impact of the first three years of the campaign. The conduct of the task force's approach is described and some positive and negative lessons are discussed [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses ethical and legal liabilities in illicit drug research. Legal and ethical obligations on ethnographic researchers to breach confidential relationships formed in the research environment; Processes that form the research process; Consequences of knowing about illegal activities.

Survey data is presented from a questionnaire designed and distributed through Victorian drug self-help groups. This survey yielded 203 returns representative of Melbourne metropolitan admissions to drug treatment services on the variables of sex and region. The survey is examined both from the perspective of its methodological potential for providing entry to this hard-to-access population and also on the basis of its findings. Questioning of his sample concerning the difficulties they had encountered when seeking help revealed that the most frequently listed difficulties were waiting periods for access to services. Respondents that had previously used particular services were asked how beneficial they had found these services. Respondent most frequently listed self-help groups, residential and methadone services as beneficial and last frequently listed medical (hospital casualty) and doctor services as beneficial. Stepwise logistical regression revealed six variables significantly predicting self-help treatment. Those reporting having sought self-help groups were predicted by more frequently listed problems with alcohol and 'over the counter' drugs, reports of having sough and admission restrictions when seeking services. Despite a number of methodological weaknesses identifiable in the survey, experiences with this project suggested collaboration between researchers and those active in self-help networks as a useful model for future research into the drug service users perspective. Such Collaboration should, however, begin at an earlier phase than occurred in the present study.

Accurate forecasting of regional solar photovoltaic power (SPVP) generation is essential for efficient energy management and planning. Existing approaches have shown the effectiveness of decomposing the time series to model the stochastic variability in SPVP data. However, these approaches have limitations in extracting and exploiting both spatial and temporal information from complex and high-dimensional data from multiple sources with intricate relationships, which can impact the accuracy of predictions. In this paper, we propose a novel approach called multilevel data fusion and neural basis expansion analysis (MF-NBEA) for forecasting aggregated regional-level SPVP generation. MF-NBEA integrates exogenous data at multiple levels, uses supervised and unsupervised encoders to provide compact data representation, and enhances model learning from complex data by incorporating spatial information. It also includes a sequence analyser module based on a neural network decomposition mechanism to learn the variability in data and incorporates a residuals learner module to improve overall predictions. We evaluate MF-NBEA using two real-world datasets and find that it outperforms state-of-the-art deep learning methods in terms of forecast accuracy. Furthermore, MF-NBEA facilitates information fusion and knowledge extraction to provide interpretable predictions regarding trend, seasonality, and residual components. The insights gained from our approach inform decision-making for energy management and planning, and can lead to more efficient and sustainable resource utilisation. • MF-NBEA for multivariate solar power time series forecasting. • A 3D autoencoder encodes spatial and temporal information from heterogeneous sources. • Interpretable forecasting in terms of trend, seasonality, and residuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

eLearning systems have become a very important part of teaching, both as web-based systems for online education and as auxiliary tools for face-to-face study, where they provide an additional learning support for on-campus learners. To insure the sustainability of an eLearning system on both individual and social levels, we have to cover many aspects of sustainability requirements: human, technical, economic, and environmental. This paper provides a systematic literature review of the sustainability meta-requirements for eLearning systems to identify open problems and to present the state of the art of this research area. We analysed 124 papers, so we identified 18 high-level sustainability requirements for eLearning systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contribution: This paper demonstrated on a large scale that explicit articulation of creativity-related learning goals on engineering syllabi is quite limited, and primarily limited to the first year of study. Engineering educators may need to do more to ensure creativity is explicitly addressed as an expected learning outcome within engineering syllabi. Background: Prior studies have shown inclusion of creativity within engineering syllabi and course activities are generally limited. Students may perceive educators do not value creativity, and their studies have limited influence on their creative skills. Studies conflict on whether creativity skills increase over completing an engineering degree. Creativity has been demonstrated to be an important skill for engineering professionals, but one not necessarily appropriately addressed in engineering programs. Few studies have attempted to quantify coverage of creativity material on a nation-wide scale, as opposed to in a single or select few institutions. Research Questions: 1) To what extent do engineering educators explicitly articulate creativity and innovation-related learning goals and material on their course syllabi? and 2) To what extent do engineering educators explicitly articulate exposure to, or instruction in the use of, creativity heuristics within their course syllabi? Methodology: The online publicly accessible course outlines of 1109 compulsory courses from 42 degree programs accredited by two national engineering accreditation bodies were qualitatively analyzed in a two-stage approach using document analysis. Findings: Approximately 2% of compulsory electrical engineering course outlines explicitly articulate creativity-related material; only one course articulated engaging students in using creativity heuristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research project demonstrates the technosocial possibilities that result from creating localized mediated spaces or 'meshworks' using Bluetooth in order to publish independently produced content. Bluetooth technology is a double-edged sword. It is a meshwork for sharing media freely between mobile device users in public places such as shopping centres and private spaces such as the home and the workplace. It presents opportunities for the design of innovative creative projects, however technical issues, user acceptance and competition for the user's attention provide continuing challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem-solving is a key engineering skill, yet is an area in which engineering graduates underperform. This paper investigates the potential of using web-based tools to teach students problem-solving techniques without the need to make use of class time. An idea generation experiment involving 90 students was designed. Students were surveyed about their study habits and reported they use electronic-based materials more than paper-based materials while studying, suggesting students may engage with web-based tools. Students then generated solutions to a problem task using either a paper-based template or an equivalent web interface. Students who used the web-based approach performed as well as students who used the paper-based approach, suggesting the technique can be successfully adopted and taught online. Web-based tools may therefore be adopted as supplementary material in a range of engineering courses as a way to increase students’ options for enhancing problem-solving skills. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers the authors' comments on reforming alcohol taxation in Australia. According to the authors, alcohol and related industries reserve their greatest hostility for proposals to reform alcohol taxation. They state that though there is a good understanding of the flaws in the alcohol taxation system in Australia more scholarly work in the area is required to find solutions.

The aim of this paper is to describe a new comprehensive approach to studying illicit drug policy - one that integrates evidence, disciplinary approaches, drug use behaviours and policy making processes. The methods described here include systematic reviews of the evidence, studies of the ways in which policy decision-making actually occurs, and the use of modelling approaches that can explicate the multi-dimensional nature of drug policy responses and their dynamic interactions. The approach described has the potential to facilitate new drug policy that would not have been possible or apparent through the sole study of one aspect of drug policy, such as the evidence-base or the political context or the economics of drug markets. We believe this approach may be more likely to produce strategic drug policy because it reflects the richness and complexity of the real world of drug use, and drug policy. The purpose of employing an integrative methodology is to create the potential for new drug policy insights, ideas and interventions - not restricted to one body of evidence, nor to accidental or fortuitous policy-making processes. [Ritter A, Bammer G, Hamilton M, Mazerolle L, The DPMP Team. Effective drug policy: a new approach demonstrated in the Drug Policy Modelling Program. Drug Alcohol Rev 2007;26:] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Specimens of 316L stainless steel were irradiated to 0.5–10.3dpa at 30–80°C with a mixture of 500–800MeV protons and spallation neutrons at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE). Tensile test results of irradiated 316L reported earlier had showed hardening and embrittlement with increasing irradiation dose, with significant irradiation hardening occurring at a dose of as low as 0.5dpa. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) examination of the irradiated microstructure of 316L showed black-spot damage (small loops) and somewhat larger faulted Frank loops to produce the hardening. There was an initial decrease in uniform elongation at low dose levels from 49% (unirradiated) to 30% at 1.1dpa, followed by a second, rather abrupt contribution to ductility loss at higher doses (∼2.5dpa) from 21% at 2.5dpa to 0.5% at 3dpa. This second drop in ductility was not accompanied by any visible new or enhanced microstructural development. In the current study additional transmission electron microscope investigation was conducted on both as-irradiated and irradiated plus subsequently deformed 316L in the vicinity of the second abrupt ductility loss (∼2.5dpa). The steel was observed to deform mainly by twinning and no brittle phases were found in the deformation microstructure. It is proposed that gas accumulation with increasing dpa, especially of hydrogen, may be a contributor to this second abrupt decrease in uniform elongation. Although the retained gas (helium and hydrogen) levels approached ∼0.6at.% total at the highest exposure level, no discernible cavities were observed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Peripheral administration of adenosine A1 receptor selective agonists is generally thought to protect the hippocampus against ischemic damage via central actions. We examined the effects of two peripherally administered A1 agonists, cyclohexyladenosine (CHA) and adenosine amine congener (ADAC), on synaptic transmission in the hippocampus and on indices of cardiovascular function. We conclude that the permeability of these agonists is not sufficient to result in concentrations necessary to activate central adenosine A1 receptors within the hippocampus. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This Australian study explored the resilience to online abusive activity and enticements to violence amongst a cohort of young people in vulnerable contexts. The vulnerable contexts were defined as those where family disruption, domestic violence and subsequent geographical dislocation were present in the young person's environment. The young people, aged 12 to 19 years, were interviewed to elicit the prevalence of abusive or violent online and social media behaviours and were invited to discuss the resilience strategies they used to deal with such behaviours. Whilst resilience to online abusive activity has been studied in some depth, the prevalence of such activity and its effect upon young people in domestic violence or other abusive contexts has not. This study which examined the first-hand responses of a small number of young people in domestic violence contexts, found that the resilience strategies were dependent upon the maturity of the individual, the perceived support mechanisms available to the young person, the peer group attitude and the emotional attachment to the peer group. The results broadly match resilience strategies evident in the existing literature but add new knowledge about the significance of the maturation process and its effect upon resilience strategies for vulnerable youth. The study provides new insights into the development of resilience in online or social media contexts for young people in vulnerable contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The alcohol consumption of a systematically sampled population of women from an Australian inner-urban community was measured using the AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) in three different ways to produce varying estimations of hazardous and harmful drinking. The study was located in an area in which there is a high density of licensed premises and its female population contains large numbers of women who are young, students and professionals and thus considered to be potentially risky drinkers. Five hundred and twenty-five women returned completed questionnaires giving a response rate of 74%. Using an AUDIT score of eight as the cut-off point, 21% of women were classified as being at risk of having problems associated with their alcohol consumption. These women were more likely than women who scored less than eight to be beer drinkers, to drink at licensed premises and drink with male and female friends. An association between higher AUDIT scores and being unmarried was found. This paper argues that investigating the social and contextual factors associated with women's potentially problematic drinking can promote more effective community-based interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Established in 2006, the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research (CAPR) is Australia's only research centre with a primary focus on alcohol policy. CAPR has four main areas of research: alcohol policy impacts; alcohol policy formation and regulatory processes involved in implementing alcohol policies; patterns and trends in drinking and alcohol problems in the population; and the influence of drinking norms, cultural practices and social contexts, particularly in interaction with alcohol policies. In this paper, we give examples of key publications in each area. During the past decade, the number of staff employed at CAPR has increased steadily and now hovers at approximately 10. CAPR has supported the development of independent researchers who collaborate on a number of international projects, such as the Alcohol's Harm to Others study which is now replicated in approximately 30 countries. CAPR receives core funding from the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, and staff have been highly successful in securing additional competitive research funding. In 2016, CAPR moved to a new institutional setting at La Trobe University and celebrated 10 years of operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Web 2.0 authoring forms such as wikis and blogs, social bookmarking, and audio and video podcasting pose a challenge to academic authorship traditions. This paper reviews the provisions made in major academic referencing and citation style guides for acknowledging content and ideas that may be published using these new web authoring forms. It offers an overview of features of web 2.0 authoring forms and explores concepts of authoring that can help academics to understand the challenges of working with these forms. It provides examples of referencing and citation in scholarly and scientific communication, and concludes that the conceptual basis of referencing and citation as expressed in current systems and standards needs reform in order to bring academic integrity to the use of these new forms of authorship. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Purpose: To (a) describe women's prenatal and postpartum problems and advanced practice nurses (APN) interventions; and (b) determine if problems and APN interventions differed by women's medical diagnosis (diabetes, hypertension, preterm labor). Design and Methods: Content analysis of 85 interaction logs created by APNs during a randomized clinical trial in which half of physician-provided prenatal care was substituted with APN-provided prenatal care in the women's homes. Patients' problems and APN interventions were classified with the Omaha Classification System. Findings: A total of 212,835 health problems and 212,835 APN interventions were identified. The dominant antenatal problems were physiologic (59.2%) and health-related behaviors (33.3%); postpartum were physiologic (44.0%) and psychosocial problems (31.6%). Antenatally, women with diabetes had significantly more health-related behavior problems; women with preterm labor had more physiologic problems. APN surveillance interventions predominated antenatally (65.6%) and postpartum (66.0%), followed by health teaching, guidance, and counseling both antenatally (25.4%) and postpartum (28.1%). Women with chronic hypertension required significantly more case-management interventions. Conclusions: The categories of women's problems were largely similar across medical diagnostic groups. Interventions to address women's problems ranged from assessing maternal and fetal physiologic states to teaching interpersonal relationships and self-care management to assisting with transportation and housing. Data show the range of APN knowledge and skills needed to improve maternal and infant outcomes and ultimately reduce healthcare costs in women with high-risk pregnancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The function of the 5-hydroxytryptamine3 (5-HT3) receptor is enhanced by ethanol, but the amino acid residue(s) that confers sensitivity to ethanol remains to be identified. Phosphorylation of the related GABAA receptor has been implicated in conferring its sensitivity to ethanol. In common with the GABAA receptor, the 5-HT3 receptor contains multiple consensus sites for protein kinases. To evaluate the possibility that phosphotylation of the 5-HT3 receptor underlies its ethanol sensitivity, we examined the ability of ethanol to enhance 5-HT-mediated currents in a mutant 5-HT3 receptor containing no intracellular serines, threonines, or tyrosines. Mutation of these 13 residues in the intracellular loops produced a modest leftward shift in the 5-HT concentration response curve, with the EC50's for 5-HT decreasing from 0.839 ± 0.03 μM in the wild-type receptor to 0.713 ± 0.03 μM in the mutant receptor. Cooperativity of the 5-HT binding sites was enhanced by the mutations, with Hill coefficients of 2.92 for the wild-type receptor and 3.74 for the mutant receptor, respectively. In oocytes expressing mutant receptors, ethanol (50 to 200 mM) enhanced the currents produced by low concentrations of 5-HT by ∼5 to 45%, which was not statistically different from the potentiation produced by ethanol in wild-type receptors. These results suggest that ethanol enhancement of the 5-HT3 receptor function does not require receptor phosphorylation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the approval of a multi-center clinical study which is designed to assess the effectiveness of a group program for parents of children with challenging behavior. People involved in the research are more motivated than ever to see the project through. Their work as therapists has taught them to be patient with difficult problems, to allow time for change to occur and to adjust their therapy methods as needs arise.