Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

How Serious Are Duty Of Care Risks In Virtual Reality?, Sarah Katherine Howard

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Concerned by the debate surrounding multi-user virtual environments, Sarah Howard sets out to determine how serious are the risks versus the rewards.

Assessing Alternative And Differential Response: Implications For Social Work Practice In Diverse Communities, Executive Summary, Jill Duerr Berrick, Christina Branom, Amy Conley Wright, Amy Price

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This study examines outcomes, processes, and community context for "Another Road to Safety" (ARS), a Differential Response intervention providing voluntary home visiting to families reported for child maltreatment. Using mixed methods and drawing on diverse data sources (including interviews, focus groups, administrative records, and census tract data), this research will examine implementation of the program model; clients' perspectives on services; preliminary client outcome data; and the impact of neighborhood factors on client outcomes. Findings will inform the development of a research-based curriculum that will facilitate skill-development in implementation, community engagement, and client understanding for Differential Response interventions.

Stereoscopic Depth Magnitudes At Greater Distances In An Old Steam Railway Tunnel, Barbara Gillam, Stephen Palmisano, Donovan Govan, Robert Allison, Julie Harris

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Abstract presented at the 32nd European Conference on Visual Perception, 24-28 August 2009, Regensburg, Germany

Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention: Outcomes Associated With A Differential Response Program In California, Amy Conley Wright

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Presented at the 17th National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect on April 2, 2009.

Obsolete, Jason Wilson, Jason Jacobs

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Obsolescence is most frequently talked about in relation to the history of technology. A still-common way of understanding modernity is as a linear succession of emerging technologies which supersede existing ones, and which are themselves, in time, made redundant. The cycle of novelty and obsolescence underpins a narrative including episodes of human invention, mastery and eventual technological failure. Nevertheless, it makes technologies themselves the subjects of history, rather than the human beings whose choices frame their contingent births, shapings, adoptions and uses. Many have pointed out the extent to which this simplifies history, but this has made precious little impact, …

Influenza Virus Antigenic Variation, Host Antibody Production And New Approach To Control Epidemics, Jiezhong Chen, Yi-Mo Deng

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Influenza is an infectious disease and can lead to life-threatening complications like pneumonia. The disease is caused by three types of RNA viruses called influenza types A, B and C, each consisting of eight negative single-stranded RNA-segments encoding 11 proteins. Current annual vaccines contain two type A strains and one type B strain and are capable of inducing strong antibody responses to both the surface glycoprotein hemagglutinin (HA) and the neuraminidase (NA). While these vaccines are protective against vaccine viruses they are not effective against newly emerging viruses that contain antigenic variations known as antigenic drift and shift. In nature, …

Conceptualising Progression In The Pedagogy Of Play And Sustained Shared Thinking In Early Childhood Education: A Vygotskian Perspective, Iram Siraj-Blatchford

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This paper is concerned specifically with the pedagogies applied in supporting learning through children‟s play, and it is framed outside mainstream discourses on the nature of play. The development of the paper also represents one stage in a continuing effort to develop a better understanding of sustained shared thinking in early childhood education. The paper also focuses on the educational potential of shared playful activities. However, given the overwhelming consensus regarding the importance of play in early childhood development, even a diehard educational pragmatist must begin by addressing subjects that are most commonly considered by psychologists. The paper begins with …

The Foveal Confluence In Human Visual Cortex, Mark M. Schira, C W. Tyler, Michael Breakspear, Branka Spehar

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The human visual system devotes a significant proportion of its resources to a very small part of the visual field, the fovea. Foveal vision is crucial for natural behavior and many tasks in daily life such as reading or fine motor control. Despite its significant size, this part of cortex is rarely investigated and the limited data have resulted in competing models of the layout of the foveal confluence in primate species. Specifically, how V2 and V3 converge at the central fovea is the subject of debate in primates and has remained “terra incognita” in humans. Using high-resolution fMRI (1.2 …

Factors Influencing The Non-Use Of Respite Services By Caregivers Of People Living With Dementia Differ According To Respite Product And By Caregiver And Care Recipient Need, L Phillipson, S C. Jones

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Abstract presented at the 8th National Conference of Emerging Researchers in Ageing, 23 Oct 2009, Melbourne, Australia

Consuming Children: An Analysis Of Australian Press Coverage Of The Claims And Counterclaims Of Advocacy And Industry Groups In Relation To A Proposed Ban On 'Junk Food' Advertising, Kate Holland, R Warwick Blood, Samantha Thomas, Asuntha Karunaratne, Sophie Lewis

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Evidence of rising rates of overweight and obesity in Australia has generated considerable discussion about potential policy responses and solutions. In relation to childhood obesity, one suggestion that has been put forward is to ban or restrict junk food advertising to children. Debate about the merits of such a proposal was an enduring issue in the Australian press during our study's time frame, January 2008-January 2009. This paper is one part of a larger project investigating the reporting and portrayal of overweight and obesity in the Australian media, and the lived experiences of overweight and obese adults. In Australia, O'Hara …

Writing The Risk Of Cancer: Cancer Risk In Public Policy, Claire Hooker, Stacy M. Carter, Heather M. Davey

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In this paper we examine how cancer risk is written in cancer policy documents from the English speaking OECD nations. We offer an audit of the multiple ways in which cancer risk is conceptualised and presented in health policy and professional contexts with the long term aim of comparing this with lay conceptualisations. Our study sampled cancer policy documents produced by six nations, the World Health Organization and the International Union for Cancer Control since 2000 and analysed them iteratively through questions and codes. Whilst the documents contained a comprehensive range of concepts and locations for cancer risk, our analysis …

Male Rape: Constructing Consent Through Social Attitudes, Philip Rumney, Natalia K. Hanley

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Abstract presented at the SLSA Annual Conference, 7-9 April 2009, Leicester, United Kingdom

Non-Sensory Inputs To Angular Path Integration, Joeanna C. Arthur, John W. Philbeck, David Chichka

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Non-sensory (cognitive) inputs can play a powerful role in monitoring one's self-motion. Previously, we showed that access to spatial memory dramatically increases response precision in an angular self-motion updating task [1]. Here, we examined whether spatial memory also enhances a particular type of self-motion updating - angular path integration. "Angular path integration" refers to the ability to maintain an estimate of self-location after a rotational displacement by integrating internally-generated (idiothetic) self-motion signals over time. It was hypothesized that remembered spatial frameworks derived from vision and spatial language should facilitate angular path integration by decreasing the uncertainty of self-location estimates. To …

Underdetermined Interests: Scientific 'Goods' And Animal Welfare, Christopher J. Degeling, Jane Johnson

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

It is well known that the culture within which actors such as scientists and clinicians operate is structured by the mechanisms through which institutional rewards are distributed (Garfield 1979). In the biosciences, citation counts are the accepted markers of a researcher's originality and competence that permit access to funding, promotion and other forms of institutional support. Osborne and colleagues' (2009) study suggests that beneath this publication-driven reward system is a widespread indifference on the part of journals to the ethical/welfare issues that surround the use of animals for the purposes of science. Although the promotion of animal welfare is not …

Negotiating Value: Comparing Human And Animal Fracture Care In Industrial Societies, Christopher J. Degeling

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

At the beginning of the twentieth century, human and veterinary surgeons faced the challenge of a medical marketplace transformed by technology. The socioeconomic value ascribed to their patients was changing, reflecting the increasing mechanization of industry and the decreasing dependence of society on nonhuman animals for labor. In human medicine, concern for the economic consequences of fractures "pathologized" any significant level of posttherapeutic disability, a productivist perspective contrary to the traditional corpus of medical values. In contrast, veterinarians adapted to the mechanization of horsepower by shifting their primary professional interest to companion animals; a type of patient generally valued for …

Inappropriate Food Marketing, Lesley King, Bridget Kelly, Timothy Gill, Josephine Chau, Kathy Chapman

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The Preventative Taskforce has identified inappropriate food marketing to children as a national policy priority, and is seeking to provide an informed policy approach to guide government action in this area. This project has formulated a set of policy options and recommendations regarding inappropriate food marketing in Australia. The policy options and recommendations have been developed on the basis of an analysis of international evidence, including Australian and international research studies and case studies of policy initiatives. The policy options and recommendations address the potential roles and responsibilities of national government, and take account of the roles of industry groups, …

Moving Beyond The Restrictions: The Evaluation Of The Alice Springs Alcohol Management Plan, Kate Senior, Richard Chenhall, Bill Ivory, Christopher Stevenson

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

A report prepared for the NT Department of Justice.

There have been a number of evaluations of alcohol management in the Alice Springs region. Interestingly, an evaluation in 1975 emphasised the need for government and other agencies to view the issues holistically and to address them accordingly. The outcomes of this evaluation point to a similar situation with comparable recommendations.

The situation in Alice Springs is unique in some respects but has parallel characteristics to other towns and communities in Australia. Alice Springs is an important regional supply, service-orientated, and tourism town. Its people have diverse backgrounds and appear as …

Reinventing Rural Places: The Extent And Impact Of Festivals In Rural And Regional Australia, Christopher R. Gibson, Anna Stewart

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Results have been analysed from a three-year Australian Research Council (ARC) Festivals Project, which sought to document the extent and significance of festivals for rural communities and economies. Rural festivals have proliferated and diversified in recent years from the traditional country show to evermore whacky niches -- the Guyra Lamb and Potato Festival, the Wooli Goanna Pulling Festival, the Thoona Latin American and Wheely Bin Festival and Parkes' Elvis impersonators festival. Are such festivals significant for rural communities in contrast to their apparent short-lived nature? The ARC festivals project sought to answer this question. The largest ever database of rural …

Community Capacity Building: Learning From The 2003 Canberra Bushfires, Gail Winkworth, Christine Healy, Merrilyn Woodward, Peter J. Camilleri

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Research into what happens to communities after disasters is one way of understanding the elements of community capacity building and the actions that help and hinder these processes. In recent years a number of large scale disasters both onshore and offshore have become the focus of Australian State and Commonwealth disaster recovery efforts. These have provided opportunities to reflect on successful elements of 'community recovery' including what 'communities' do themselves to assist 'recovery' and what governments can do to enable and actively facilitate the 'recovery' process. Through an examination of a recent study on the recovery of people affected by …

Development Of In Vitro Methods For Toxicity Testing Of Workplace Air Contaminants, Shahnaz Bakand, Amanda Hayes, Chris Winder

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

While the OECD test guidelines and mostly animal assays have been used to study the toxic effects of chemicals for many years, very little is known about the potential toxicity of vast majority of inhaled chemicals. Considering large number of chemicals and complex mixtures present in indoor and outdoor air, heavy reliance on animal test methods appear to be not adequate. Continuing scientific developments are needed to improve the process of safety evaluation for the vast number of chemicals and inhaled materials. The aim of this study was to optimise in vitro methods for toxicity testing of airborne contaminants. An …

Rethinking The Risks Of Home Ownership, Susan J. Smith, Beverley A. Searle, Nicole T. Cook

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Most debate on home ownership and risk has focused on the management of mortgage debt. But there are other risks for home buyers in settings where housing dominates people's wealth portfolios: where the investment dimensions of property are at a premium; and where housing wealth is, de facto, an asset base for welfare. This article draws from qualitative research with 150 UK mortgage holders to assess the character, extent and possible mitigation of this wider risk regime. The analysis first explores the value home buyers attach to the financial returns on housing. Next we document the extent to which home …

You Have To Make Something Of All That Rubbish, Do You? An Empirical Investigation Of The Social Process Of Qualitative Research, Stacy M. Carter, Christopher F. Jordens, Catherine Mcgrath, Miles Little

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In this article, we examine participants' talk about qualitative research. We provide empirical support for post-structural theorizations of the interview and propose three distinct but related dimensions of qualitative research: emotional, purposive/relational, and epistemic/ontological. In this study, participants often became upset but constructed participation as enjoyable and cathartic. The purpose of participation was to assist the communities to which one belonged. Participation was an active, reflexive practice that reconstructed the self and changed knowledge about one's self. This latter epistemic/ontological dimension of participation appeared to be the most compelling for participants, but it is also the hardest to observe, with …

Virtual Community Consultation? Using The Literature And Weblogs To Link Community Perspectives And Health Technology Assessment, Jackie M. Street, Annette J. Braunack-Mayer, Karen Facey, Richard E. Ashcroft, Janet E. Hiller

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Background  Community views, expressed in social impact assessments and collected through community consultation, should play an important role in health technology assessment (HTA). Yet HTA methodologists have been slow to include outcomes of these forms of inquiry in analyses, in part because collecting community views is time‐consuming and resource intensive. Objective  To explore how community views sourced from published studies, grey literature and informal internet web pages can inform HTA. Methods  A technology reviewed by Adelaide HTA in 2004 was selected: retinal photography for detection of diabetic retinopathy. Published literature, 'grey' literature and informal web pages were searched to examine …

"It's Sort Of Like Being A Detective": Understanding How Australian Men Self-Monitor Their Health Prior To Seeking Help, James A. Smith, Annette J. Braunack-Mayer, Gary Wittert, Megan Warin

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Background It is commonly held that men delay help seeking because they are ignorant about and disinterested in their health. However, this discussion has not been informed by men's lay perspectives, which have remained almost entirely absent from scholarship relating to men's help seeking practices. Methods In this qualitative paper, we draw on semi-structured interviews with 36 South Australian men to examine their understandings of help seeking and health service use. Results & Discussion We use participants' talk about self-monitoring to challenge the assumption that men are disinterested in their health, arguing instead that the men in our study monitored …

Canines, Consanguinity, And One-Medicine: All The Qualities Of A Dog Except Loyalty, Christopher J. Degeling

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The rise of pet culture and the expansion of medical science occurred concurrently in the late nineteenth century. From this time in Anglo-American societies dogs were simultaneously valorised as 'man's best friend' and the 'ideal model' for experimental medicine. By tracking the hounds into our laboratories and onto the settee, changes in our conception of the properties of blood and canine breeding can be used to excavate covert connections between the contradictory social and scientific utilisations of this species. Describing the movement of genealogical and medical knowledge between the benchtop, the kennel and the clinic illustrates how Rudolph Virchow's earlier …

Investigative Methods And Tools: Developing An Integrated Approach To Critical Thinking, Evidence-Based Medicine And Biostatistics, Tam C. Ha, Frank Starmer

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Each day's work, whether a clinician, researcher or homemaker, focuses on investigative strategies and problem solving. Investigative methods and problem solving are rarely addressed formally in a medical school curriculum. Our goal with Investigative Methods and Tools was to convey to future clinician-scientists the skills to be able to confidently deal with information whether acquired from a patient, medical literature or in the laboratory. Our strategy is to convey to students major components of the investigative process including chasing curiosity, visualisation, modelling, experimental design and analysis. In addition, we depart from the traditional "jargon compliant" statistical vocabulary and focused on …

An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Financial Capability And Psychological Well-Being In Mothers Of Young Children In Poor Areas In England, Edward Melhuish, Jay Belsky, Antero Malin

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Financial difficulties lead to financial distress that in turn may lead to poorer psychological well-being. Previous work on people's financial difficulties and capability indicates that those most vulnerable to financial difficulties may well suffer with regard to their psychological state. One particularly vulnerable group are families with young children in disadvantaged areas.

Relationships Between Pupils' Self-Perceptions, Views Of Primary School And Their Development In Year 5, Pam Sammons, Kathy Sylva, Edward Melhuish, Iram Siraj-Blatchford, Brenda Taggart, Helena Jelicic, Sofka Barreau, Yvonne Grabbe, Rebecca Smees

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This research builds on earlier reports (Sammons et al., 2007) by investigating relationships between children's outcomes in Year 5 and aspects of pupils' self perceptions and their views of primary school measured in Year 5 (age 10) and in Year 2 (age 7) of primary school while controlling for background characteristics. These measures have been derived from a self-report instrument completed by the EPPE 3-11 children. The analyses explored associations between children's progress and development over time and their self-perceptions and views of primary school.

Influences On Pupils' Self-Perceptions In Primary School: Enjoyment Of School, Anxiety And Isolation, And Self-Image In Year 5, Pam Sammons, Kathy Sylva, Iram Siraj-Blatchford, Brenda Taggart, Rebecca Smees, Edward Melhuish

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This report presents the results of analyses of pupils' self-perceptions in primary school. It is part of the longitudinal Effective Pre-school and Primary Education 3-11 (EPPE 3-11) research project funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). The focus of this report is pupils' self-perceptions in Year 5 (age 10) in four key areas: 'Enjoyment of school'; 'Academic self-image'; 'Behavioural self-image' and 'Anxiety and Isolation'. Reports on pupils' cognitive and social/behavioural development at this age have been published separately (Sammons et al., 2007). Questionnaires were administered to children asking their views about school and classroom life. These provided …

Influences On Children's Attainment And Progress In Key Stage 2: Cognitive Outcomes In Year 6, Pam Sammons, Kathy Sylva, Edward Melhuish, Iram Siraj-Blatchford, Brenda Taggart, Stephen Hunt

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The report presents the results of analyses related to the primary school phase of a major longitudinal study investigating the influence of pre-school and primary school on children's development. Specifically, this report is concerned with children's cognitive attainments at the end of Year 6 when the children were aged eleven and their academic progress from the age of seven to eleven: Key Stage 2. The findings also extend and develop the findings from previous earlier ages.