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Federation or 'Fetteration'? Secessionist sentiment in Queensland and Western Australia during the first decade of the Commonwealth
No full textHistorians examining the early years of the Australian political system that was established at Federation in 1901 have tended to consider it from the perspective of the Commonwealth government. More recently, historians have emphasised the experiences of those who were disadvantaged or excluded by the federal compact. In placing the new Commonwealth at its centre, the historiography has given less attention to the experience of the former colonies in their transition to statehood. This article shifts the post-Federation focus towards the newly minted states. It examines how state governments and their populations dealt with the challenges of a federal system, with particular emphasis on secessionist sentiments in Western Australia and Queensland. Further, the article will argue that the discontents of the new states are insufficiently recognised and that analysis of ‘teething problems’ in the first decade of Federation provides important context for understanding the subsequent history of the federal compact
Improving long-term water quality forecasting with limited data using hidden pattern extraction and explainable ensemble learning
No full textThis study focuses on enhancing long-term, multi-step forecasting of dissolved oxygen (DO), a key indicator of river water quality. We introduce a novel hybrid method, Hidden Pattern Feature Extraction–Statistical Mode Decomposition (HPFE–SMD), integrated with explainable ensemble learning models, namely Random Forest (RF) and Extra Trees Regressor (ETR), both in standalone and hybrid configurations (HPFE-RF and HPFE-ETR). The models were trained and evaluated using monthly DO data spanning 1974–2023 from two sites within the Mississippi River Basin, across forecasting horizons of 1, 3, 9, and 15 months. The hybrid models consistently outperformed their standalone counterparts. For instance, at a 15-month horizon for Site 1, the HPFE-ETR model reduced the Mean Absolute Error (MAE) by 98.1 % compared to standalone ETR. In comparison with TVF-EMD-based models, HPFE-SMD achieved a 10.8 % and 4.3 % reduction in Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) for RF and ETR, respectively, at the 9-month horizon. Overall, HPFE-RF and HPFE-ETR achieved high predictive performance with RMSE values below 0.25 mg/L and R2 values exceeding 0.99, even for long-term forecasts. SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) analysis revealed that key statistical features, such as vibration amplitude (RMS), energy, skewness, kurtosis, and crest factor, played a dominant role in model predictions. Additionally, the proposed method demonstrated strong generalizability by accurately forecasting other water quality parameters, including total nitrogen, pH, total dissolved solids, and sodium adsorption ratio. These results highlight the added value of the HPFE-SMD approach over traditional decomposition or standalone ML models, showcasing its potential for integration into advanced water quality monitoring and management systems
Barriers and facilitators for female practitioners in orthopaedic training and practice: a scoping review
No full textBackground: Despite advances in medical education and professional opportunities, orthopaedic surgery remains the least gender-diverse medical specialty, with women significantly underrepresented globally. This scoping review aims to synthesize existing literature to provide a comprehensive overview of the barriers and facilitators encountered by females in orthopaedic surgery training and practice.
Methods: A comprehensive search of Medline (OVID), Scopus, Embase, Emcare, and CINAHL was performed from inception to 14 July 2024. Additional sources were identified via citation searching and Google Scholar. Any primary studies employing qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods approaches to explore barriers and facilitators experienced by female orthopaedic trainees and consultants in high-income countries. Quality analysis of included articles was conducted using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool.
Results: Seventy-nine studies met the inclusion criteria, involving over 100 000 participants between 1993 and 2024. Most studies were cross-sectional surveys. Sixty-eight barriers and 38 facilitators were identified. Analysis using the Socio-Ecological Model revealed the complex interplay of factors at the individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and policy levels. The largest proportion of barriers and facilitators resided at the organizational level.
Conclusion: This scoping review provides a comprehensive mapping of current evidence on barriers and facilitators for female practitioners in orthopaedic surgery training and practice. The findings suggest the need for multifaceted interventions to promote gender equity. Future research should evaluate the effectiveness of specific interventions and develop strategies to support women in orthopaedics, ultimately contributing to a more inclusive and diverse workforce
Post-Covid cultural tourism recovery needs in southeast asia
No full textThis paper presents the outcomes of the "Cultural Tourism Recovery: Sharing Best Practices" project, funded by the Australia-ASEAN Council of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). The project facilitated knowledge exchange between cultural tourism initiatives and academic communities across Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines through six hybrid seminars. The seminars focused on sharing experiences of adapting and responding to COVID-19, and exploring strategies for revitalising cultural tourism in the post-pandemic context.
The seminar series attracted over 1,200 registrations from more than 700 participants, two thirds of the participants were women. Participant demographics were diverse, with representation from sectors such as education, government, private, and non-profit organisations. Notably, the majority of attendees were from the Philippines, Indonesia and
Malaysia with fewer participants from Australia and other nations. A post-seminar survey revealed 72% overall satisfaction with the seminar series.
The six seminars, hosted both online and in hybrid formats, covered a range of themes:
1. Introduction and Peer-Sharing (Online)
2. Women & Youth in Cultural Tourism (Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
3. Designing Regenerative Tourism Offerings Post-Pandemic (Cairns, Australia)
4. Marketing Cultural Tourism (Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia)
5. Adaptation & Economic Diversification (Baguio, Philippines)
6. Report Dissemination & Sharing (Online)
Thematic content analysis and an evaluation survey identified recurring themes across all seminars, reflecting shared challenges and approaches to overcome them. Figure 1 presents the content analysis of open-ended questions conducted using Leximancer. Below is a summary of the major themes discussed by the seminar participants
Can Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Transform Prediction and Treatment of Post-Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt (TIPS) Overt Hepatic Encephalopathy?
No full text[Extract] Over the past decade, artificial computational systems in particular artificial intelligence (AI) and derived technologies have become increasingly integrated into clinical practice, revolutionizing care, outperforming/surpassing humans for certain medical tasks, and driving precision and personalized medicine. This transformation has accelerated with the launch of platforms such as “Chat-GPT” that opened new avenues for the implementation of AI systems into clinical practice
A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association of human papilloma virus infections with ocular surface squamous neoplasia
No full textThe incidence of Ocular Squamous Surface Neoplasia (OSSN) is increasing, particularly in populations with high HIV prevalence and higher solar irradiance. Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is considered a precursor/co-factor to OSSN. We aimed to quantify the association between HPV and OSSN and analyse co-factors in this association, including geographical differences and pathology of the comparator group. We used the DerSimonian and Laird method to compute summary odds risk estimates in a random effects model. The I2 statistic was used to quantify heterogenicity. Subgroup analyses, sensitivity analyses and meta-regression were used to explore sources of heterogeneity. Twenty-one studies were included. The odds of HPV was significantly higher in OSSN lesions than benign lesions. The pooled odds ratio was 9.2 (95 % CI: 5.0–16.9) ((I2 = 56.1 % (95 % CI: 26 %-74 %)). In subgroup analysis, the odds ratio was lower in studies from African countries (with high HIV prevalences) and countries closer to the equator. The effect size was lower when ocular surface diseases such as pterygium were used as the comparator group rather than healthy tissues. We report a strong association between HPV and OSSN. The odds of HPV was 9.2 times higher in conjunctival cancers than benign tissues. This association was muted in African countries and countries closer to the equator, highlighting the role of UV radiation and HIV as co-factors in OSSN development. Muting of the association may also signal a role of pterygium as precursor lesions to OSSN, or that HPV may be involved in their development
TARGET-SL: precision essential gene prediction using driver prioritisation and synthetic lethality
No full textThe ability to identify patient-specific vulnerabilities to guide cancer treatments is a vital area of research. However, predictive bioinformatics tools are difficult to translate into clinical applications due to a lack of in vitro and in vivo validation. While the increasing number of personalised driver prioritisation algorithms (PDPAs) report powerful patient-specific information, the results do not easily translate into treatment strategies. Critical in addressing this gap is the ability to meaningfully benchmark and validate PDPA predictions. To address this, we developed Tumour-specific Algorithm for Ranking GEnetic Targets via Synthetic Lethality (TARGET-SL), which utilises PDPA predictions to produce a ranked list of predicted essential genes that can be validated in vitro and in vivo. This framework employs a novel strategy to benchmark PDPAs, by comparing predictions with ground truth gene essentiality data from large-scale CRISPR-knockout and drug sensitivity screens. Importantly TARGET-SL identifies vulnerabilities that are more exclusive to individual tumours than predictions based on canonical driver genes. We further find that TARGET-SL is better at identifying sample-specific vulnerabilities than other similar tools
The role of competent leaders in nursing staff empowerment: A cross-sectional study
No full textBackground: Nursing leadership competency is important for staff empowerment, quality improvement, and patient safety, yet inadequate investment in its development hinders its development. This highlights the urgent need for strategic leadership competency building in nursing management.
Purpose: This study aims to examine the importance of self-assessing leadership competency in guiding Nursing Directors’ leadership development and the relationship between nursing directors’ leadership quality and nursing staff empowerment.
Methods: The cross-sectional quantitative study included two online surveys completed by 21 Nursing Directors and 260 nursing staff from two hospitals with > 90% response rate. Two surveys were conducted: Survey for Nursing Directors adapting items from Management Competency Assessment Project to self-assess competency on leadership and professionalism; Survey for nursing staff using Leadership Behavioral Scales to reflect on Nursing Directors’ leadership behaviors as observed by nursing staff. Descriptive statistical analysis (mean, frequencies and percentages) of the 21 behavioral items self-assessed by Nursing Directors and 19 leadership behaviors assessed by nursing staff were performed and reported Pearson correlation test was performed to test corrections of different variables.
Results: Nursing Directors’ self-assessment on competencies of leadership and professionalism yielded a combined mean score of 4.63 and 4.85 respectively. Between 35% and 60% of staff recognized Nursing Directors’ positive leadership behavior which were significantly and positively correlated with four dimensions of psychological empowerment scale used. The study also found consistent differences in the results of the assessment by Nursing Directors and nursing staff between two targeted hospitals.
Conclusion: The study confirmed that leadership demonstrated by Nursing Directors are important to empower nursing staff and organizational context plays an important role in developing nursing leadership and improving nursing management effectiveness. The study supports the value of management competency self-assessment in identifying competency gaps and competency development needs amongst Nursing Directors
Building management capability for the veterinary organisations – a pilot study
No full textBackground: Veterinary care is facing critical levels of attrition that challenge its sustainability in the provision of standards of care. A competent and skilled management workforce, along with enhanced organisational structures and procedures, is essential to effectively address the challenges that veterinary organisations face today and in the future.
Methods: The pilot study adapted the Management Competency Assessment Partnership (MCAP) tool to collect data from 35 mid-level and senior managers working in five veterinary organisations in Australia via an online survey to understand their competency development needs and the obstacles that they were facing in the management roles. Univariate analyses, Pearson correlations, Kaiser‒Meyer‒Olkin test and Bartlett's test of sphericity were performed.
Results: This study confirmed that the MCAP tool maintained good internal consistency and identified competency gaps that managers in the five veterinary organisations should consider addressing. The study confirmed the positive correlation between informal management-related training and self-study on management issues and self-perceived management competency level. The results supported the need for veterinary organisations to provide management training to foster a culture of continuous improvement and life-long learning among veterinary managers.
Conclusions: This study highlighted the core elements essential for the building management capacity of veterinary care services and organisations. It also validated the value of management competency self-assessment in identifying the development needs of managers, demonstrating how the management development framework adapted from the human healthcare sector can guide the development of a competent management workforce for veterinary care
A cause for academic euphoria: Seven BTS songs that inspire the learning and teaching of services marketing
No full textSongs have been used as an effective learning tool in marketing. Despite the popularity of the K-pop group BTS in popular culture and the importance of services marketing in academia and industry, few studies have examined BTS through the lens of learning services marketing. This opinion piece discusses the services marketing lessons that can be inspired by the songs of BTS. A BTS-Services Marketing Playlist compiling seven selected BTS songs is introduced that captures and synthesizes key fundamental as well as contemporary themes in the services marketing literature. The integrated list of topics and consolidated key literature in the playlist can inspire future research directions for researchers who aim to specialize in the services marketing field. Further, the playlist is a useful compilation that can guide content creation and lesson planning for higher education programs in services marketing. This paper is one of the first to connect K-pop songs to services marketing and pedagogy and contributes to the literature on using the arts for the teaching and advancement of services marketing education