University of the Sunshine Coast
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The self-reported driving behaviour of young drivers in Lithuania: An application of the behaviour of young novice drivers scale – Lithuania (BYNDS-Li)
No full textBackground:
With just one year left in the Decade of Action for Road Safety, it is timely nations reflect on their progress in the realm of improving road safety more generally, and in young driver road safety specifically given the pernicious problem that is young driver risky driving behaviour and road crashes. Effective intervention requires a fundamental foundation of understanding the nature of the problem. Therefore the current study explored the self-reported risky driving behaviour of young drivers in Lithuania, a nation classified as a developed country as recently as 2015.
Method:
The self-report Behaviour of Young Novice Drivers Scale (BYNDS, 1) was applied in a sample of 457 Lithuanian young drivers aged 18–24 years, after a rigorous forward-backward translation process.
Results:
Seven factors (risky exposure, transient rule violations, driver misjudgements, driver mood, vehicle overcrowding, personal seatbelt use, substance consumption) explained 65.2% of the variance in self-reported risky driving behaviour as measured by the BYNDS-Li. The most common risky driving behaviours included driving in excess of posted speed limits, and driving at high risk times such as at night and on weekends.
Discussion and implications:
The seven-factor structure of the BYNDS-Li supports arguments that culturally-valid measures should be operationalised in jurisdictions other than those in which they were developed (in the case of the BYNDS, Queensland, Australia). Moreover, systems thinking argues that interventions and efforts must be multi-sectoral and collaborative interventions. In the case of young driver road safety, these should be framed within the 4E’s of education, engineering, enforcement, and engagement
Landscape context and nutrients modify the effects of coastal urbanisation
No full textEstuaries are focal points for coastal cities worldwide, their habitats frequently transformed into engineered shorelines abutting waters with elevated nutrients in an urbanised landscape. Here we test for relationships between shoreline armouring and nutrients on the diversity and trophic composition of fish assemblages across 22 estuaries in eastern Australia. Urbanisation was associated with fish diversity and abundance, but there were differences in the effects of shoreline armouring and nutrient level on the trophic composition of fish assemblages. Fish diversity and the abundance of most trophic groups, particularly omnivores, zoobenthivores and detritivores, was greatest in highly urban estuaries. We show that estuarine fish assemblages are associated with urbanisation in more nuanced ways than simple habitat transformation would suggest, but this depends on the broader environmental context. Our findings have wider implications for estuarine conservation and restoration, emphasizing that ecological benefits of habitat measures may depend on both landscape attributes and water quality in urban settings
Grooming: what parents should know and what schools should do if they suspect it
No full textNo abstract available
C. pecorum: Understanding modes of transmission and control of infection in vaccinated/antibiotic treated koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus)
No full textChlamydia infections of the Australian marsupial, Phascolarctos cinereus (koala) have contributed to population declines. Koala Chlamydia infections are transmitted directly through sexual interactions, direct contact, urine contamination and pap feeding and can result in a range of disease pathologies including conjunctivitis, reproductive disease, cystitis and nephritis. Treatment for koala chlamydiosis is currently limited to antibiotic therapy, which results in bacterial clearance and eventual disease regression. Unfortunately, antibiotic therapy in koalas also commonly results in gastrointestinal dysbiosis and death. Fortunately, a Chlamydia vaccine for koalas has been under development for several years. The most tested version of the Chlamydia koala vaccine has demonstrated induction of humoral immune responses and, importantly, a therapeutic response in koalas with mild conjunctival disease. Firstly, investigations into possible alternative modes of Chlamydia transmission were studied through the screening of concurrent infections of the conjunctiva, urogenital and gastrointestinal tract. Concurrent infections with Chlamydia were identified at the urogenital and rectal sites, with C. pecorum genotype G dominating in the gastrointestinal tract, and genotypes A and E’ dominating in the urogenital tract. Gastrointestinal tract C. pecorum PCR positivity suggested that koala gastrointestinal tract infections are common and occur regularly in animals with concurrent genital tract infections. However, this study did not find evidence of Chlamydia strain contamination between the anatomical sites. This thesis then identified immunological changes at the urogenital mucosa of koalas with Chlamydia-induced cystitis that resulted in disease regression during antibiotic treatment. The aim of this investigation was to identify specific gene targets to enable monitoring during therapeutic vaccination. Through clinical microbiological and transcriptomic approaches, disease regression, bacterial clearance and innate immune responses were mapped in koalas with signs of Chlamydia-induced cystitis while receiving anti-Chlamydia antibiotics. Significant reduction in the signs of cystitis were observed both during, as well as post Finally, identification of gastrointestinal infections and the associations to disease prone sites have indicated evidence for tissue tropic genotypes. This work will aid future vaccine studies in the immunological identification of disease regression, vaccine induced adaptive immune responses and allow for accurate monitoring of bacterial shedding through the inclusion of the gastrointestinal mucosa.Submitted in the fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of the Sunshine Coast, 2020
Row! Row! Row your boat! Transformative value co-creation and co-destruction in Elite and Olympic rowers
No full textThis article explores in-depth interviews with elite and Olympic rowers to examine transformative value, dimensions of value creation that generate uplifting change and greater well-being, and the resources integrated to co-create or destroy these benefits. This study is the first to demonstrate transformative value in a sport setting, extending theorizing on value in sport studies and demonstrating the utility of the multi-dimensional frameworks with five dimensions: emotional, social, functional, epistemic, and community value. The authors also uncover the co-creative “social support” and “restorative” resources, the co-creative and co-destructive resource of “co-performance,” and the co-destructive resources of “interpersonal misbehavior” and “sport misbehavior.” This study provides greater understanding of transformative value by concurrently examining resource integration from both a co-creation and co-destruction perspective
The transformative service paradox: The dilemma of wellbeing trade-offs
No full textPurpose – A transformative service aims to improve wellbeing, however current approaches have an implicit assumption that all wellbeing dimensions are equal and more dimensions led to higher wellbeing. The purpose of this paper is to present evidence for a new framework that identifies the paradox of competing wellbeing dimensions for both the individual and others in society – the transformative service paradox (TSP). Design/methodology/approach – Data is drawn from a mixed-method approach using qualitative (interviews) and quantitative data (lab experiment) in an electricity service context. The first study involves 45 household interviews (n= 118) and deals with the nature of trade-offs at the individual level to establish the concept of the TSP. The second study uses a behavioral economics laboratory experiment (n=110) to test the self vs other nature of the trade-off in day-to-day use of electricity. Findings – The interviews and experiment identified that temporal (now vs future) and beneficiary-level factors explain why individuals make wellbeing trade-offs for the transformative service of electricity. The lab experiment showed that when the future implication of the trade-off is made salient, consumers are more willing to forego physical wellbeing for environmental wellbeing whereas when the ‘now’ implication is more salient consumers forego financial wellbeing for physical wellbeing. Originality/value – This research introduces the term Transformative Service Paradox and identifies two factors that explain why consumers make wellbeing trade-offs at the individual level and at the societal level; temporal (now v future) and wellbeing beneficiary
Collective Biography in the Online Space? An Experiment in Accessible and Sustainable Story Sharing as Activism towards Social Change
No full textNo abstract available
Who Is Directing The Evolution Of Science?
No full textClarivate AnalyticsTM, the company responsible for managing Web of Science, publishes once a year a list with the scholars that have written papers that rank in the top one percent by citations for field and publication year. Using this list, this paper analyses the profile of the scholars who contributed the most to the evolution of science in the decade ending at 2017 and the methods they used to become top scholars. The study concludes that science is being driven by male scholars affiliated to institutions located in highly developed countries where the official language is English. Scholars who work and publish as large groups and self-cite potentially bias the science agenda and gain possible inappropriate standing. This work concludes that to avoid bias, research budgets need to be more equitably distributed among scholars with multiple profiles, especially including women from Latin America and Africa, and search engine algorithms need to be adjusted to include scholar’s characteristics, such as gender and place of affiliation, and to avoid skewing created by multiple authorship