University of the Sunshine Coast
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Our Voices: Aboriginal Social Work (Second Edition)
No full textThe second edition of Our Voices is a ground-breaking collection of writings from Aboriginal social work educators who have collaborated to develop a toolkit of appropriate behaviours, interactions, networks, and intervention. The the text explores a range of current and emerging social work practice issues such as cultural supervision, working with communities, understanding trauma, collaboration and relationship building, and the ubiquity of whiteness in Australian social work. It covers these issues with new and innovative approaches and provides valuable insights into how social work practice can be developed, taught and practiced in ways that more effectively engage Indigenous communities
Using horses to assist in promoting Aboriginal wellbeing
No full textThe second edition of Our Voices is a ground-breaking collection of writings from Aboriginal social work educators who have collaborated to develop a toolkit of appropriate behaviours, interactions, networks, and intervention. The the text explores a range of current and emerging social work practice issues such as cultural supervision, working with communities, understanding trauma, collaboration and relationship building, and the ubiquity of whiteness in Australian social work. It covers these issues with new and innovative approaches and provides valuable insights into how social work practice can be developed, taught and practiced in ways that more effectively engage Indigenous communities. [Book Synopsis
Blood management in hip fractures; are we leaving it too late? A retrospective observational study
No full textBackground:
Anaemia in hip fracture patients has been associated with increased risk of allogenic blood transfusion (ABT), poorer functional outcomes and increased mortality. Few studies have reported the prevalence of anaemia on admission or its progression prior to surgery in this cohort. We aimed to measure the prevalence of anaemia on admission in older persons who sustain a hip fracture, identify if anaemia develops or progresses prior to surgery, and to report associations with outcome.
Methods:
A retrospective, observational study was undertaken in a regional hospital. All patients aged 60 and over, admitted with a primary hip fracture resulting from a simple fall, in the 12 months of 2014 were included. The World Health Organization (WHO) definition of anaemia was used. Pathology databases and clinical records were reviewed to collect data. Repeated measures ANOVA’s were used to quantify the progression of anaemia prior to surgery, and Chi square test were used to report associations with outcome variables.
Results:
Two hundred sixty-one patients were identified, median age was 81 years. There were twice as many females as males and just over half the sample had extracapsular fractures. Anaemia was present on admission in 45% (n = 117), highest incidence of anaemia occurred in males 52.0% (n = 39), extracapsular fractures 41.9% (n = 78) and those aged over 80 years 49.7% (n = 91). Progression of anaemia prior to surgery was significant in all groups (p < 0.05), with the greatest reduction seen in extracapsular fractures. Pre-surgery reduction in Hb was recorded in 82.3% of patients between admission and day 1, and in 71.4% between admission and day 2. There was significant association between anaemia on admission and PRBC transfusion (p < 0.05), in hospital mortality (p < 0.05) however no association with the use of antiplatelet or anticoagulant medication, nor LOS.
Conclusions:
The findings demonstrate that pre-surgical anaemia in older hip fracture patients is associated with a PRBC transfusion and increased hospital mortality. Importantly, it also identified that patients continue to bleed after admission, leading to the development of or worsening anaemia. Thus, identification anaemia in the pre-surgical period provides an opportunity for treatment to avoid transfusions and improve patient outcomes
Jae-Dee Survives the Home and Many Mothers
No full textEight authors. Eight students. Eight stories. We are the University of the Sunshine Coast's graduating class of 2018. Our certificates say we are Masters of Professional Practice (Creative Writing). We say, 'Read our works.' Celebrate our graduation. Explore eMerge, an anthology from extracts of our novels. You want aliens and a matriarchal society--it's there. Dystopian Australia--no worries. A childhood robbed--get your handkerchief. A shipwrecked heroine--it's truly unbelievable. A lighthouse--see inside a family salvaged. An African slave, drummer boy and convict--a founder of Australia. The life of an unwed Victorian mother--experience the unimaginable. An alcoholic motorcyclist--rode around Australia--dry. Different worlds; different stories. Fiction and non-fiction. Brilliant works our foremost goal. These are the journeys of USC Masters. Our continuing mission: to explore our creativity; to seek out new styles; emerging work.... to boldly go where no student has gone before! [Book Synopsis
VAT Rebate Policy and Export Performance: A Case Study of China’s Mechanical Goods Industry
No full textValue-added tax (VAT) rebate policy plays an important role in China’s export growth strategy. In this paper, we extended the existing model by introducing the micro-mechanism of VAT rebates into their original framework. This extended model allows us to investigate the economic effect of VAT rebate policy. Our theoretical model suggests that, in the short term, raising the VAT rebate rate may decrease the price as well as the quantity of exports. To empirically examine our conclusions based on the theoretical model, we employ the provincial-level panel data on China covering the period 2012–2017 to analyze the role of VAT policy on exports from China’s mechanical goods industry. To address the issue of potential endogeneity, we adopt a propensity score matching (PSM) technique. Our empirical findings based on the panel data confirm that VAT rebates had a significantly negative effect on China’s mechanical goods exports. In particular, on average, a one-percentage-point increase in the VAT rebate rate decreases exports by 2.07%. Our results are robust to alternative bandwidths. Areas for future research are also identified
Freezing, roasting and salt dipping impacts on peroxide value, free fatty acid and fatty acid concentrations of nut kernels
No full textTree nuts are rich in unsaturated fatty acids and nuts have human health benefits. It is important that postharvest processing does not negatively impact nut fatty acid composition and nut oil quality. Canarium indicum (Burseraceae) is an indigenous tree in the southwest Pacific that produces edible nuts. Canarium nuts are rich in oil (>70%), protein (14%), mineral nutrients and vitamin E. Domestication of Canarium nuts has been a priority in several Pacific countries. A centralised processing factory has been established in Papua New Guinea to produce high-quality Canarium products. We investigated the effects of freezing (frozen vs. fresh) on the fatty acid composition, peroxide value (PV) and free fatty acid (FFA) content of kernels. Freezing nuts did not change the total saturated and total unsaturated fatty acid of kernels compared with fresh kernels. Frozen kernels had significantly lower FFA than fresh kernels. We also explored the effects of roasting and roasting after dipping in salt-water solution on oil oxidation of kernels. The treatments included roasting at 150°C for 10 min, roasting at 150°C for 30 min after dipping in salt-water solution and unroasted. Roasted kernel with or without salt solution dipping had significantly higher PV than unroasted kernels. These results of these studies have led to the establishment of factory protocols for producing Canarium products with high food-quality and food-safety standards
Population size influences the type of nucleotide variations in humans
No full textBackground:
It is well known that the effective size of a population (Ne) is one of the major determinants of the amount of genetic variation within the population. However, it is unclear whether the types of genetic variations are also dictated by the effective population size. To examine this, we obtained whole genome data from over 100 populations of the world and investigated the patterns of mutational changes.
Results:
Our results revealed that for low frequency variants, the ratio of AT→GC to GC→AT variants (β) was similar across populations, suggesting the similarity of the pattern of mutation in various populations. However, for high frequency variants, β showed a positive correlation with the effective population size of the populations. This suggests a much higher proportion of high frequency AT→GC variants in large populations (e.g. Africans) compared to those with small population sizes (e.g. Asians). These results imply that the substitution patterns vary significantly between populations. These findings could be explained by the effect of GC-biased gene conversion (gBGC), which favors the fixation of G/C over A/T variants in populations. In large population, gBGC causes high β. However, in small populations, genetic drift reduces the effect of gBGC resulting in reduced β. This was further confirmed by a positive relationship between Ne and β for homozygous variants.
Conclusions:
Our results highlight the huge variation in the types of homozygous and high frequency polymorphisms between world populations. We observed the same pattern for deleterious variants, implying that the homozygous polymorphisms associated with recessive genetic diseases will be more enriched with G or C in populations with large Ne (e.g. Africans) than in populations with small Ne (e.g. Europeans)
The International ‘Gender Agenda’ in the Context of the South Pacific and Agricultural Livelihoods
No full textSouth Pacific island nations are committed to international agreements and regional declarations to progress gender equality within their own territories, yet progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 5, Gender Equality, has been reported as slow and uneven. Tackling persistent gender inequalities in agriculture has been identified as a priority due to the industry's commercial importance to economies and communities across the region, and its role in food security.
This book is grounded in the ideology that an alignment between the conceptual and practical understandings of gender equality is a critical component of sustainable development. Two introductory chapters establish the book's broader context. The following chapters draw on six rural case studies from Melanesia (Vanuatu, Fiji and Papua New Guinea) and Polynesia (Samoa and Tonga) across cropping, livestock, horticulture and aquaculture sectors to examine the various ways in which gender has been integrated in agricultural research for development projects. The case study authors explore the opportunities and challenges involved in integrating or mainstreaming gender, from research design to implementation, and reflect on the lessons learned. The final chapters synthesise these shared, field-based learnings and positions them within contemporary gender concepts to contribute to an understanding of how they are translated in practice to diverse South Pacific contexts. [Book Synopsis
Curating care-full spaces: doctoral students negotiating study from home
No full textThis article explores how care and space shape doctoral becoming. We extend previous higher education research that has critically examined the spatial arrangements of postgraduate study to explore how doctoral students negotiate both study from home and care-work responsibilities. The article draws on collaborative autoethnographic texts created by the authors to understand the ways in which care shaped their decisions about study spaces. We identify both exclusions and disadvantage in these accounts, at the same time as we discern wilfulness in the ways the contradictory positions of postgraduate student and caregiver were negotiated. We conclude the article by arguing that educational spaces are involved in the maintenance of academic norms that position care-work as invisible and out-of-place/space. Despite this, the creation of productive home spaces that facilitate both care and doctoral work remain possible