Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Electrophysiological Underpinnings Of Response Variability In The Go/Nogo Task, Diana Karamacoska, Robert J. Barry, Genevieve Z. Steiner

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Response variability has been identified as a useful predictor of executive function and performance in non-clinical samples in the Go/NoGo task. The present study explores the utility of reaction time variability (RTV) and EEG measures as predictors of Go/NoGo performance outcomes and ERP component amplitudes. Forty-four young adults had EEG recorded across eyes-closed (EC) and eyes-open (EO) resting states, and during an auditory Go/NoGo task. The 18 individuals with the lowest/highest RTV were assessed for differences in behavioural outcomes. As expected, individuals with high RTV committed more Go/NoGo errors and had smaller Go P3b and NoGo P3a amplitudes, and greater …

Consumer And Staff Perspectives Of The Implementation Frequency And Value Of Recovery And Wellbeing Oriented Practices, Keren Wolstencroft, Frank P. Deane, Cara L. Jones, Adam Zimmermann, Merrilee Cox

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Background: Despite advances in our understanding of what mental health systems and services can do to enhance recovery and wellbeing outcomes for people seeking support, there is limited evidence demonstrating that this body of work has translated successfully into mental health service practice. The Collaborative Recovery Model (CRM) is a practice framework that has been designed to support application of recovery and wellbeing oriented principles and practices within mental health service delivery. The aims of this study were to assess consumer and staff perceptions of implementation frequency during service engagement and the value of this approach for assisting recovery within …

An Item-Level Analysis Of Lexical-Semantic Effects In Free Recall And Recognition Memory Using The Megastudy Approach, Bao Xia Mabel Lau, Winston Goh, Melvin Yap

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Psycholinguists have developed a number of measures to tap different aspects of a word's semantic representation. The influence of these measures on lexical processing has collectively been described as semantic richness effects. However, the effects of these word properties on memory are currently not well understood. This study examines the relative contributions of lexical and semantic variables in free recall and recognition memory at the item-level, using a megastudy approach. Hierarchical regression of recall and recognition performance on a number of lexical-semantic variables showed task-general effects where the structural component, frequency, number of senses, and arousal accounted for unique variance …

Refugee Background Students Transitioning Into Higher Education: Navigating Complex Spaces, Skye Playsted

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Book review

Plasma Cortisol And Oxytocin Levels Predict Help-Seeking Intentions For Depressive Symptoms, Susan J. Thomas, Theresa A. Larkin

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Background: Depressed individuals often refuse or withdraw from help, a phenomenon termed help-negation, which is a risk factor for poor outcomes. Most previous research has investigated psychosocial factors including stigma as causes of low help-seeking intentions for depression, however these do not adequately explain the problem. We hypothesised that because help-negation worsens with symptom severity, it might be linked to important biological changes associated with depression itself. We investigated the relative contributions of cortisol, a stress hormone linked to depression, and oxytocin, a hormone which mediates social behaviours, alongside psychosocial factors, to help-seeking intentions among depressed and non-depressed individuals. Methods: …

Repeated Megafloods From Glacial Lake Vitim, Siberia, To The Arctic Ocean Over The Past 60,000 Years, Martin Margold, John D. Jansen, Alexandru Tiberiu Codilean, Frank Preusser, Artem L. Gurinov, Toshiyuki Fujioka, David Fink

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Cataclysmic outburst floods transformed landscapes and caused abrupt climate change during the last deglaciation. Whether such events have also characterized previous deglaciations is not known. Arctic marine cores hint at megafloods prior to Oxygen Isotope Stage (OIS) 2, but the overprint of successive glaciations means that geomorphological traces of ancient floods remain scarce in Eurasia and North America. Here we present the first well-constrained terrestrial megaflood record to be linked with Arctic archives. Based on cosmogenic-nuclide exposure dating and optically stimulated luminescence dating applied to glacial-lake sediments, a 300-m deep bedrock spillway, and giant eddy-bars > 200-m high, we reconstruct a …

Biological And Geophysical Feedbacks With Fire In The Earth System, Sally Archibald, Caroline E. R Lehmann, C Belcher, William J. Bond, Ross A. Bradstock, A-L Daniau, K Dexter, E Forrestel, M Greve, T He, S I. Higgins, W Hoffmann, B B. Lamont, D J. Mcglinn, G Moncrieff, C P. Osborne, Juli G. Pausas, Owen F. Price, B Ripley, B Rogers, D Schwilk, M Simon, M Turetsky, G R. Van Der Werf, A E. Zanne

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Roughly 3% of the Earth's land surface burns annually, representing a critical exchange of energy and matter between the land and atmosphere via combustion. Fires range from slow smouldering peat fires, to low-intensity surface fires, to intense crown fires, depending on vegetation structure, fuel moisture, prevailing climate, and weather conditions. While the links between biogeochemistry, climate and fire are widely studied within Earth system science, these relationships are also mediated by fuels-namely plants and their litter-that are the product of evolutionary and ecological processes. Fire is a powerful selective force and, over their evolutionary history, plants have evolved traits that …

Discovery Of Ancient Roman "Highway" Reveals Geomorphic Changes In Karst Environments During Historic Times, Federico Bernardini, Giacomo Vinci, Emanuele Forte, Stefano Furlani, Michele Pipan, Sara Biolchi, Angelo De Min, Andrea Fragiacomo, Roberto Micheli, Paola Ventura, Claudio Tuniz

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Sinkholes are a well-known geologic hazard but their past occurrence, useful for subsidence risk prediction, is difficult to define, especially for ancient historic times. Consequently, our knowledge about Holocene carbonate landscapes is often limited. A multidisciplinary study of Trieste Karst (Italy), close to early Roman military fortifications, led to the identification of possible ancient road tracks, cut by at least one sinkhole. Electrical Resistivity Tomography through the sinkhole has suggested the presence of a cave below its bottom, possibly responsible of the sinkhole formation, while Ground Penetrating Radar has detected no tectonic disturbances underneath the tracks. Additionally, archaeological surveys led …

Packaging Data Analytical Work Reproducibly Using R (And Friends), Ben Marwick, Carl Boettiger, Lincoln Mullen

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Computers are a central tool in the research process, enabling complex and large-scale data analysis. As computer-based research has increased in c omplexity, so have the challenges of ensuring that this research is reproducible. To address this challenge, we review the concept of the research compendium as a solution for providing a standard and easily recognizable way for organizing the digital materials of a research project to enable other researchers to inspect, reproduce, and extend the research. We investigate how the structure and tooling of software packages of the R programming language are being used to produce research compendia in …

Characteristics Of Greenhouse Gas Concentrations Derived From Ground-Based Fts Spectra At Anmyeondo, South Korea, Young-Suk Oh, Samuel Takele Kenea, Tae-Young Goo, Kyu-Sun Chung, Jae-Sang Rhee, Mi-Lim Ou, Young-Hwa Byun, Paul O. Wennberg, Matthaus Kiel, Joshua P. Digangi, G S. Diskin, Voltaire A. Velazco, David W. T Griffith

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Since the late 1990s, the meteorological observatory established in Anmyeondo (36.5382° N, 126.3311° E, and 30 m above mean sea level) has been monitoring several greenhouse gases such as CO₂, CH₄, N₂O, CFCs, and SF₆ as a part of the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) Program. A high resolution ground-based (g-b) Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) was installed at this observation site in 2013 and has been operated within the frame work of the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) since August 2014. The solar spectra recorded by the g-b FTS cover the spectral range …

Tracking The 10be-26al Source-Area Signal In Sediment-Routing Systems Of Arid Central Australia, Martin Struck, John D. Jansen, Toshiyuki Fujioka, Alexandru Tiberiu Codilean, David Fink, Reka H. Fulop, Klaus M. Wilcken, David M. Price, Steven Kotevski, L Keith Fifield, John Chappell

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Sediment-routing systems continuously transfer information and mass from eroding source areas to depositional sinks. Understanding how these systems alter environmental signals is critical when it comes to inferring source-area properties from the sedimentary record. We measure cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al along three large sediment-routing systems ( ∼  100 000 km2) in central Australia with the aim of tracking downstream variations in 10Be-26Al inventories and identifying the factors responsible for these variations. By comparing 56 new cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al measurements in stream sediments with matching data (n =  55) from source areas, we show that 10Be-26Al inventories in hillslope bedrock …

Technical Note: Open-Paleo-Data Implementation Pilot - The Pages 2k Special Issue, Darrell S. Kaufman, Nerilie J. Abram, Michael N. Evans, Pierre Francus, Hugues Goosse, Hans W. Linderholm, Marie-France Loutre, Belen Martrat, Helen V. Mcgregor, Raphael Neukom, Scott St George, Christian Turney, Lucien Von Gunten

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Data stewardship is an essential element of the publication process. Knowing how to enact data polices that are described only in general terms can be difficult, however. Examples are needed to model the implementation of open-data polices in actual studies. Here we explain the procedure used to attain a high and consistent level of data stewardship across a special issue of the journal Climate of the Past. We discuss the challenges related to (1) determining which data are essential for public archival, (2) using data generated by others, and (3) understanding data citations. We anticipate that open-data sharing in paleo …

The Effectiveness Of Support Groups: A Literature Review, Hugh Worrall, Richard Schweizer, Ellen Marks, Lin Yuan, Chris Lloyd, Rob Ramjan

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Purpose: Support groups are a common feature of the mental health support engaged by carers and consumers. The purpose of this paper is to update and consolidate the knowledge and the evidence for the effectiveness of mental health support groups.

Design/methodology/approach: This paper is based on a systematic literature review of relevant databases around support groups for mental health. Support groups are defined as meetings of people with similar experiences, such as those defined as carers of a person living with a mental illness or a person living with a mental illness. These meetings aim to provide support and …

Standardised Alcohol Screening In Primary Health Care Services Targeting Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Peoples In Australia, M Islam, Helen Oni, K Lee, Noel Hayman, Scott Wilson, Kristie Harrison, Beth Hummerston, Rowena G. Ivers, Kate M. Conigrave

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Introduction and aims: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs) around Australia have been asked to standardise screening for unhealthy drinking. Accordingly, screening with the 3-item AUDIT-C (Alcohol Use Disorders Identifcation Test-Consumption) tool has become a national key performance indicator. Here we provide an overview of suitability of AUDIT-C and other brief alcohol screening tools for use in ACCHSs. Methods: All peer-reviewed literature providing original data on validity, acceptability or feasibility of alcohol screening tools among Indigenous Australians was reviewed. Narrative synthesis was used to identify themes and integrate results. Results: Three screening tools-full AUDIT, AUDIT-3 (third …

Short-Term Response Of A Declining Woodland Bird Assemblage To The Removal Of A Despotic Competitor, Galen Davitt, Kimberly L. Maute, Richard E. Major, Paul Mcdonald, Martine Maron

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Interspecific aggression by the noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala), a highly despotic species, is homogenizing woodland avifaunas across eastern Australia. Although a native species, the noisy miner's aggressive exclusion of small birds is a Key Threatening Process under national law. Large-scale removal of noisy miners has been proposed as a management response to this threat following increases in miner presence due to anthropogenic land use practices. We tested this proposal by experimentally removing noisy miners from eucalypt woodland remnants (16-49 ha), assigned randomly as control (n = 12) or treatment (miner removal) sites (n = 12). Standardized bird surveys were conducted …

Unintentional Path Dependence: Australian Guitar Manufacturing, Bunya Pine And Legacies Of Forestry Decisions And Resource Stewardship, Christopher R. Gibson, Andrew T. Warren

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Australian guitar manufacturers are increasingly competitive globally, known for quality, design, and sustainability. Also distinguishing Australian guitar making is the use of native timbers¿a result of unforeseen historical endowments of available trees from earlier eras of colonial appropriation and State-sponsored planting. We develop a critical-materialist, and historical, evolutionary economic geography to trace an example of unintentional path dependence. Present craft-based manufacturing is linked to past regimes of resource stewardship. We illustrate this through the example of the bunya pine (Araucaria bidwillii), an endemic tree with Indigenous significance now used industrially as a ¿tonewood¿ in guitar making. With limited geographic range, …

Cash Transfer Interventions For Sexual Health: Meanings And Experiences Of Adolescent Males And Females In Inner-City Johannesburg, Nomhle Khoza, Jonathan Stadler, Catherine L. Macphail, Admire Chikandiwa, Heena Brahmbhatt, Sinead Delany-Moretlwe

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Background In sub-Saharan Africa, there is growing interest in the use of cash transfer (CT) programs for HIV treatment and prevention. However, there is limited evidence of the consequences related to CT provision to adolescents in low-resourced urban settings. We explored the experiences of adolescents receiving CTs to assess the acceptability and unintended consequences of CT strategies in urban Johannesburg, South Africa. Methods We collected qualitative data during a pilot randomized controlled trial of three CT strategies (monthly payments unconditional vs. conditional on school attendance vs. a once-off payment conditional on a clinic visit) involving 120 adolescents aged 16-18 years …

Cardiorespiratory Fitness And Blood Pressure: A Longitudinal Analysis, Cesar A. Agostinis-Sobrinho, Jonatan R. Ruiz, Carla Moreira, Sandra Abreu, Luis C. Oliveira Lopes, Jose Oliveira-Santos, Jorge Mota, Rute Santos

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and cardiovascular indices 2 years later, and to determine whether changes in cardiorespiratory fitness are associated with cardiovascular indices at a 2-year follow-up in adolescents. STUDY DESIGN: The sample comprised 734 adolescents (349 girls) aged 12-18 years followed for 3 years from the LabMed Physical Activity Study. Cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed by the 20-meter shuttle run test. Height, weight, waist circumference, and resting blood pressure (BP) were measured according to standard procedures. RESULTS: Regression analyses showed a significant inverse association between cardiorespiratory fitness at baseline and systolic BP (B = -0.126; P …

Tren Hidup Di Apartemen Terus Meningkat, Bagaimana Keluarga Dengan Anak Kecil Beradaptasi?, Sophie-May Kerr

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Di Sydney, satu dari empat penghuni apartemen merupakan keluarga dengan anak. Tetapi desain serta bayangan akan kehidupan di apartemen belum mengimbangi perubahan demografi yang pesat ini.

With Apartment Living On The Rise, How Do Families And Their Noisy Children Fit In?, Sophie-May Kerr

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

A growing number of Australians live in apartments. The compact city model presents many benefits. However, living close to each other also presents challenges. Rapid growth in apartment developments in recent decades has led to a rise in noise-related complaints and disputes across urban Australia. Households with children are on the front line of such tensions. They are one of the fastest-growing demographics living in apartments. Analysis of the latest census data show, for instance, that families with children under the age of 15 comprise 25% of Sydney's apartment population. Apartment design and cultural acceptance of families in the vertical …

Evaluation Of The Preschool Situational Self-Regulation Toolkit (Prsist) Program For Supporting Children's Early Self-Regulation Development: Study Protocol For A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial, Steven J. Howard, Elena Vasseleu, Cathrine Marguerite Neilsen-Hewett, Ken Cliff

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Backround: For children with low self-regulation in the preschool years, the likelihood of poorer intellectual, health, wealth and anti-social outcomes in adulthood is overwhelming. Yet this knowledge has not yielded a framework for understanding self-regulatory change, nor generated particularly successful methods for enacting this change. Reconciling insights from cross-disciplinary theory, research and practice, this study seeks to implement a newly developed program of low-cost and routine practices and activities for supporting early self-regulatory development within preschool contexts and to evaluate its effect on children's self-regulation, executive function and school readiness; and educator perceived knowledge, attitudes and self-efficacy related to self-regulation. …

The Relationship Between Executive Functions And Emotion Regulation In Females Attending Therapeutic Community Treatment For Substance Use Disorder, Ely Marceau, Peter James Kelly, Nadia Solowij

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Background Difficulties in emotion regulation influence the development of substance use disorder (SUD), its severity, course, treatment outcomes, and relapse. Impaired executive functions (EFs) are common in SUD populations and may relate to emotion dysregulation. The current study tested whether performance on three basic EF tasks (‘working memory’, ‘inhibition’, and ‘task-switching’) and/or inventory-based assessment of EF were related to difficulties in emotion regulation in females attending residential SUD therapeutic community treatment. Methods Cross-sectional design in which participants (N = 50, all female) completed a questionnaire battery including the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and Behavior …

Are Carer Attitudes Toward Medications Related To Self-Reported Medication Adherence Amongst People With Mental Illness?, Frank P. Deane, Elizabeth Mcalpine, Mitchell K. Byrne, Esther Davis, Christine Mortimer

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Medication nonadherence among consumers with psychiatric disorders can significantly affect the health and wellbeing of the consumer and their family. Previous research has suggested that carers have an impact on consumer attitudes toward medication and adherence. Yet, how carer attitudes toward medication may be related to consumer attitudes and adherence has received little investigation. This exploratory study aimed to investigate the relationships between carer and consumer attitudes toward medication and consumer adherence behaviour. A cross-sectional survey assessing consumer and carer attitudes toward medication and consumer adherence was conducted amongst 42 consumer-carer dyads. Correlation analyses showed a positive association between consumer …

Changes In Infant Visual Attention When Observing Repeated Actions, Felix Koch, Anett Sundqvist, Jane S. Herbert, Tomas Tjus, Mikael Heimann

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

2018 Elsevier Inc. Infants' early visual preferences for faces, and their observational learning abilities, are well-established in the literature. The current study examines how infants' attention changes as they become increasingly familiar with a person and the actions that person is demonstrating. The looking patterns of 12- (n = 61) and 16-month-old infants (n = 29) were tracked while they watched videos of an adult presenting novel actions with four different objects three times. A face-to-action ratio in visual attention was calculated for each repetition and summarized as a mean across all videos. The face-to-action ratio increased with each action …

Experimenting With Agricultural Diversity: Migrant Knowledge As A Resource For Climate Change Adaptation, Natascha Klocker, Lesley M. Head, Olivia V. Dun, Tess Spaven

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Climate change poses serious challenges for agriculture and adaptation to its impacts is widely understood to be necessary - now and into the future. This paper focuses on Australia's horticulturally productive and culturally diverse Sunraysia region. Due to the high seasonal labour demands of horticulture, this region has a large population of temporary and permanent migrants. Many were farmers in their countries of origin. We bring together literature on climate change adaptation in agriculture, and migration and agriculture, to identify a common theme: experimentation. The former emphasises the need for experimentation in uncertain times, and the latter draws attention to …

Going Viral In Png - Exploring Routes And Circumstances Of Entry Of A Rabies-Infected Dog Into Papua New Guinea, Victoria Brookes, Christopher J. Degeling, Michael P. Ward

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In this qualitative study implemented in November 2016, we elicited narratives about fictional rabies incursions from key employees (n = 16) of the National Agriculture and Quarantine Inspection Authority in Papua New Guinea (PNG) to explore the potential circumstances and routes of entry of a rabies-infected dog, and direct rabies preparedness. Although PNG is rabies free, proximity to rabies-endemic Indonesia poses a risk of introduction and it is expected that an outbreak in PNG would have devastating human health impacts consistent with other countries with similarly low human development indices and abundant free-roaming dogs. Participants used their local and professional …

Does Precautionary Information About Electromagnetic Fields Trigger Nocebo Responses? An Experimental Risk Communication Study, Christoph A. Boehmert, Adam Verrender, Mario Pauli, Peter M. Wiedemann

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

2018 The Author(s). Background: Regarding electromagnetic fields from mobile communication technologies, empirical studies have shown that precautionary information given to lay recipients increases their risk perceptions, i.e. the belief that electromagnetic fie lds are dangerous. Taking this finding one step further, the current study investigates whether precautionary information also leads to higher symptom perceptions in an alleged exposure situation. Building on existing research on nocebo responses to sham electromagnetic fields, an interaction of the precautionary information with personality characteristics was hypothesised. Methods: An experimental design with sham exposure to an electromagnetic field of a WLAN device was deployed. The final …

Organised Sports Participation And Adiposity Among A Cohort Of Adolescents Over A Two Year Period, Stewart A. Vella, Dylan P. Cliff

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Background Overweight and obesity among young people is alarmingly high. While hundreds of millions of children participate in organised sports worldwide, it is currently unknown whether time spent in organised sports is associated with levels of adiposity among young people. This study aimed to investigate bidirectional associations between participation in organised sports and adiposity over a two year period.

Method Data were drawn from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. In total, 4033 participants (51% male) reported time spent in organised sports and had their body mass index, body fat percentage, and waist circumference measured at age 12, and again …

Does Gesture Strengthen Sensorimotor Knowledge Of Objects? The Case Of The Size-Weight Illusion, Wim T. J. L Pouw, Stephanie Wassenburg, Autumn Hostetter, Bjorn De Koning, Fred Paas

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Co-speech gestures have been proposed to strengthen sensorimotor knowledge related to objects' weight and manipulability. This pre-registered study (https://www.osf.io/9uh6q/) was designed to explore how gestures affect memory for sensorimotor information through the application of the visual-haptic size-weight illusion (i.e., objects weigh the same, but are experienced as different in weight). With this paradigm, a discrepancy can be induced between participants' conscious illusory perception of objects' weight and their implicit sensorimotor knowledge (i.e., veridical motor coordination). Depending on whether gestures reflect and strengthen either of these types of knowledge, gestures may respectively decrease or increase the magnitude of the size-weight illusion. …

"He Came Back A Changed Man": The Popularity And Influence Of Policy Tourism, Tom Baker, Pauline M. Mcguirk

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Why does policy tourism remain a popular and influential method of policy learning and mobility in an age of information abundance? Framed by a case study of homelessness policy tourism to New York City, this paper suggests that policy tourism remains popular because it allows for: (1) thinking outside the everyday strictures of the bureaucratic workplace; (2) the development of associational bonds between policy tourists, and between tourists and hosts; (3) the verification of information; and (4) the legitimation of decisions/positions. Noting the powerful influence that tourist encounters have on policy tourists, the paper then discusses the production of authenticity. …