University of the Sunshine Coast
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Teen Lives in Indonesia
No full textThis two-volume encyclopedia looks at the lives of teenagers around the world, examining topics from a typical school day to major issues that teens face today, including bullying, violence, sexuality, and social and financial pressures. Teenagers are living in a rapidly changing and increasingly interconnected yet unequal world. Whether they live in Australia or Zimbabwe, they have in common that they are between childhood and adulthood and increasingly aware of how inequality is affecting their lives and futures. This encyclopedia gives a different perspective based on the experiences of teens in 60 countries.
Each entry gives the reader a brief sketch of a country to helps readers to understand how geography, history, economics, and politics shape teen life. The entries include a country overview and cover the following topics: Schooling and Education; Extracurricular Activities: Art, Music, and Sports; Family and Social Life; Religions and Cultural Rites of Passage; Rights and Legal Status; and Issues Today. Special sidebars, called Teen Voices, appear throughout the text, and include a description of a typical day in the life of a teen in various countries. Students will be able to gain a better understanding of what life is like around the world for their peers and will be able to easily make cross-cultural comparisons between different countries. [Book Synopsis
Review of stone mastic asphalt as a high-performance ungrooved runway surfacing
No full textAustralian runways are typically surfaced with grooved Marshall-designed dense graded asphalt (DGA). Grooving is undertaken to avoid aircraft skidding incidents during wet weather, as well as satisfying regulatory requirements. Closure of these grooves is a common distress at Australian airports and increases the risk of aircraft hydroplaning. However, there are alternative surface materials to grooved DGA that are employed internationally on runways. Of these, stone mastic asphalt (SMA) has demonstrated comparable or better performance characteristics than DGA, and can satisfy regulated surface texture requirements without the need for grooving. Locally, SMA has been implemented successfully for heavy-duty roads, but use as an airport surface in Australia has been limited, with only two trials undertaken on taxiways and aprons. Further research is required to develop an SMA specification, based on experience on Australian roads, and the international experience on airfields. Verification is also required to confirm that SMA mixtures achieve the Australian airport asphalt performance requirements, as well as the regulated surface texture limits, to confirm suitability as an ungrooved runway surface for Australian airports
Safety culture and power: Interactions between perceptions of safety culture, organisational hierarchy, and national culture
No full textPractices that involve power dynamics are integral to maintaining organisational safety (e.g. speaking-up, challenging poor behaviour, admitting error, communicating on safety), and staff engagement in these is assumed to be shaped by perceptions of safety culture. These perceptions, in-turn, are associated with (1) positions within an organisational hierarchy (which makes power-related acts more or less threatening), and (2) societal values for power distance (e.g. challenging authority). With a sample of 13,573 of air traffic control staff (controllers, engineers, administrative, and management) from 21 national air traffic providers, we reconfirm the observation that managers perceive safety culture more positively than frontline staff (hypothesis 1), and that workers in countries with established values for hierarchy and power report safety culture as less positive than those from countries with low power distance (hypothesis 2). We then, for the first time, examine the interaction between these two factors, and establish that differences in safety culture perceptions between those higher in the hierarchy (management) and those lower in the hierarchy (air traffic controllers and administrative staff) are exacerbated by national contexts for large power distance (hypothesis 3). The study contributes to the literature by theorising the role of power in safety culture theory, and its influence upon safety culture perceptions. Moving forward, safety culture research and interventions may benefit from considering how power exists and manifests at the level of superior-subordinate dynamics
Short-term application of mulch, roundup and organic herbicides did not affect soil microbial biomass or bacterial and fungal diversity
No full textApplication of synthetic herbicides is currently the most widely used and cost-effective methods to assist with revegetation programs. However, the effects of short-term application of herbicides such as Roundup®, acetic acid, BioWeed™ and Slasher® as compared with mulch, on soil microbial biomass and microbial diversity remain unknown. This study examined the effects of short-term herbicide application on soil microbial biomass, C:N ratio, and fungal and bacterial communities at months 2 and 8 following initiation of treatment application. No effects of treatments on soil pH, C:N and microbial biomass were found. No segregation among treatments in the community structure of bacteria and fungi was observed. However, the fungal phylum Basiodiomycota had one unidentified class, which was only found in the mulch treatment, suggesting the C quality in the mulch treatment may differ compared with the other treatments. The dry and hot conditions experienced throughout the study period may have resulted in fast degradation of the herbicides and may have minimised the impacts of the herbicides on microbial diversity and community structure. Given that the research was undertaken at a single site and over only a short time frame, the results should be extrapolated with caution. Herbicides may have greater impact with long-term use. Future research will need to assess the revegetation success of each treatment and determine if the observed change in Basidiomycota profile and C quality identified in this study becomes significant over the long-term. We hypothesise that mulching may be a preferred treatment to facilitate weed control in riparian zone revegetation
Not all urban landscapes are the same: interactions between urban land use and stress in a large herbivorous mammal
No full textUrbanisation significantly impacts the health and viability of wildlife populations yet it is not well understood how urban landscapes differ from non‐urban landscapes with regard to their effects on wildlife. This study investigated the physiologsical response of eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus) to land use at a landscape scale. Using faecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGM) we compared stress levels of kangaroo populations in urban and non‐urban environments. We modelled FGM concentrations from 24 kangaroo populations against land use (urban or non‐urban) and other anthropogenic and environmental factors, using a linear modelling approach. We found that land‐use was a significant predictor of FGM concentrations in eastern grey kangaroos with significant differences in concentrations between urban and non‐urban populations. However, the direction of the relationship differed between northern and southern regions of Australia. In the northern study sites, kangaroos in urban areas had significantly higher FGM levels than their non‐urban counterparts. In contrast, in southern sites, where kangaroos occur in high densities in many urban areas, urban kangaroos had lower FGM concentrations than non‐urban kangaroos. Rainfall and temperature were also significant predictors of FGM and the direction of the relationship was consistent across both regions. These results are consistent with the contrasting abundance and persistence of kangaroo populations within the urban matrix between the two study regions. In the northern region many populations have declined over the last two decades and are fragmented, also occurring at lower densities than in southern sites. Our study indicates that it is the characteristics of urban environments, rather than the urban environment per se, which determines the extent of impacts of urbanisation on kangaroos. This research provides insights into how the design of urban landscapes can influence large mammal populations
Resilience and workplace stress in Australian and New Zealand obstetrics and gynaecology trainees: A cross‐sectional survey
No full textBackground:
Obstetrics and gynaecology training is a demanding vocation; there is a paucity of data on trainee resilience and well‐being in this field.
Aim:
To investigate resilience, support and perceived levels of stress and burnout in Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) trainees.
Materials and Methods:
A cross‐sectional survey of RANZCOG trainees in Australia and New Zealand (n = 638) was distributed electronically in May 2018.
Results:
Two‐hundred and thirty‐one (36%) valid responses were received. The mean resilience score was moderate (mean = 77; SD = 11). Resilience was significantly associated with general health (F = 7.5, P = 0.007), depression in the last two weeks (F = 4.4, P = 0.013) and seriously considering leaving the program at some point (F = 15.4, P < 0.001). Most participants (204; 88%) stated improvements could be made to the level of trainee support; with over half identifying the support they received from RANZCOG to be low or very low (132; 57%). One‐third of participants (76; 33%) rated the support from their direct supervisor as low to very low. Over half of all participants identified high to very high responses to: burnout (127; 55%); personal stress (134; 58%); workplace stress (143; 62%) and depression (103; 45%).
Conclusion:
RANZCOG trainees exhibit moderate resilience levels, yet they report high levels of perceived stress, depression and burnout and low‐level support from direct supervisors. This may highlight the need for enhanced support and working conditions to allow trainees to remain resilient and thrive in their careers
Benchmarking the research track record and level of appointment of Australian dietetic academics
No full textAims:
Research involvement is fundamental to the practice of dietetics. The present study aims to benchmark the research track record of Australian dietetic academics, and to provide insight into how research productivity informs the level of appointment of academics across the career pathway.
Methods:
Australian dietetic faculty websites and corresponding Scopus database profiles were used to support a bibliographic analysis of Australian dietetic academics’ research track record. Current research productivity in relation to academic attributes, level of appointment, and institutional characteristics were explored.
Results:
In Australia, dietetic academic level of appointment is logarithmically related to number of publications and relatively consistent across regions and university networks.
Conclusions:
Benchmarking provides universities with guidance regarding the performance to expect from academics at each academic level as well as feedback regarding recruitment and promotion practices. The present study provides an important benchmark for Australian dietetic academics and offers implications for individual academics and university management
The criminal justice system
No full textWhat is crime? How much crime is there in our community? Why do people offend? How do we prevent crime? The text is written by leading Australian criminologists and aims to answer these questions.
This book is for university students (particularly suited to first-year students) and others interested in crime to the fields of criminology and criminal justice. Each chapter is written by one or more of Australia’s most widely respected authorities on criminology, lending this collection legitimacy and currency.
The contributors to this volume guide readers through contemporary research on crime and criminality from Australia and overseas. The large majority of chapters do not simply summarise current knowledge but include data from the authors’ original research, as well as offering distinctive insights and policy recommendations.
The content in the text is a blend of Australian and international research, content and context.
This text can be delivered via Revel, offering an interactive learning experience available on all devices. Revel is an additional cost and not included in the book's price. [Book Synopsis
An introduction to crime and criminology (5e)
No full textWhat is crime? How much crime is there in our community? Why do people offend? How do we prevent crime? The text is written by leading Australian criminologists and aims to answer these questions.
This book is for university students (particularly suited to first-year students) and others interested in crime to the fields of criminology and criminal justice. Each chapter is written by one or more of Australia’s most widely respected authorities on criminology, lending this collection legitimacy and currency.
The contributors to this volume guide readers through contemporary research on crime and criminality from Australia and overseas. The large majority of chapters do not simply summarise current knowledge but include data from the authors’ original research, as well as offering distinctive insights and policy recommendations.
The content in the text is a blend of Australian and international research, content and context.
This text can be delivered via Revel, offering an interactive learning experience available on all devices. Revel is an additional cost and not included in the book's price. [Book Synopsis