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Evaluation of the trial of the UK Phonics Screening Check in South Australian schools
Get PDF© [2017] Flinders University / Australian Industrial Transformation InstituteBetween 7 and 18 August 2017, the South Australian Department for Education and Child Development (DECD) conducted a pilot of the UK Phonics Screening Check (PSC) for Reception and Year 1 students across the state. The PSC consists of a collection of 40 real and pseudo-words which were administered by teachers one-on-one with students. The structure of the PSC comprises a series of 12 simple pseudo-words, followed by 8 simple real words, 8 complex pseudo-words and 12 complex real words. DECD collected and collated the data of 4,406 students from 268 teachers across 56 primary schools. This report presents the independent evaluation of the pilot which was conducted to understand the usefulness of the PSC for school leaders and teachers with regard to their students’ phonics development
Knowledge and Attitudes towards Handling Eggs in the Home: An Unexplored Food Safety Issue?
No full textThis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).Foodborne illness is a global public health issue, with food handling in the home identified as an underestimated source. In Australia, there has been a significant increase in the incidence of salmonellosis with the majority of outbreaks linked to eggs. This study investigated Australian eggs consumer attitudes, behaviours and risk perceptions associated with the handling of raw eggs in the home. It was identified that 67% of participants chose free range eggs, 11% kept poultry, 7% did not have any preference, 7% cage eggs, 4% barn eggs, 2% organic eggs and 1% pasteurized eggs. The majority of participants (91%) reported they stored eggs in the fridge. It was identified that there is an underestimation of “risky behaviour” associated with the consumption of raw eggs in the home, as 84% of participants indicated that they did not consume raw eggs, but subsequently 86% indicated that they had eaten mixture/batter containing raw eggs. Participants’ responses relating to food safety were also examined in relation to their profession and gender. Safer food handling practices were identified by Environmental Health Officers (EHO) and Food handlers compared to all other professions (p 0.05) their responses
Response to Comments on Whiley Legionella Risk Management and Control in Potable Water Systems: Argument for the Abolishment of Routine Testing. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2017, 14, 12
No full text© 2017 by the author; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).I would like to thank Collins and Walker for their considered comments and for acknowledging that this is an area urgently requiring more research to improve Legionella control and management strategies [1].
I agree with Collins and Walker’s conclusion that the optimum solution would be a water system management strategy that, using an improved Legionella detection method, combines risk assessment, control measures, and routine testing. However, this is currently not an option, as a Legionella detection method that adequately represents the public health risk has not yet been identified [2].
I also suggest that the ‘zero-tolerance’ approach to Legionella utilized in many UK hospitals is an example of false confidence in the culture detection results. It demonstrates how a negative detection result may cause managers to assume their system is ‘Legionella-free’. However, as discussed in the commentary, this is not guaranteed [2]
Agricultural Land Fragmentation at Urban Fringes: An Application of Urban-To-Rural Gradient Analysis in Adelaide
No full textThis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).One of the major consequences of expansive urban growth is the degradation and loss of productive agricultural land and agroecosystem functions. Four landscape metrics—Percentage of Land (PLAND), Mean Parcel Size (MPS), Parcel Density (PD), and Modified Simpson’s Diversity Index (MSDI)—were calculated for 1 km × 1 km cells along three 50 km-long transects that extend out from the Adelaide CBD, in order to analyze variations in landscape structures. Each transect has different land uses beyond the built-up area, and they differ in topography, soils, and rates of urban expansion. Our new findings are that zones of agricultural land fragmentation can be identified by the relationships between MPS and PD, that these occur in areas where PD ranges from 7 and 35, and that these occur regardless of distance along the transect, land use, topography, soils, or rates of urban growth. This suggests a geometry of fragmentation that may be consistent, and indicates that quantification of both land use and land-use change in zones of fragmentation is potentially important in planning
Review of The Beachcomber's Wife by Adrian Mitchell
No full textReview of The Beachcomber's Wife by Adrian Mitchel
Reflections on the Writing Process: Perspectives from Recent Hindi Novels
Get PDFPatricia Waugh defined metafiction as ‘fictional writing which self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artefact in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality’ . Metafictional works, she suggested, are those which ‘explore a theory of writing fiction through the practice of writing fiction’. They are characterised by a tendency to self-reflexivity or, in other words, by a tendency to call attention to the writing process itself. In actual fact, even in dedicated critical works, it is not easy to find a clear and all-encompassing definition of metafiction. Generally, various types of texts are mentioned under this term: texts recounting their origin and birth, dealing with the history of narrative, recounting stories of writers.
Metafiction is generally considered an important feature of postmodern literature. In the postmodern era pure realistic writing is perceived as a limitation and an unsuitable device to render the complexity of the contemporary world. As Baudrillard said, we no longer live in a world made of unequivocal meanings, we live in a world of signs. In this context authors, by reflecting on the writing process, foreground the fictional nature of their narratives. Because of this, the role of metafiction (which obviously cannot be considered as an innovation introduced by postmodernism) has become predominant in the postmodern era. Metafiction can follow different paths to reach its aims: its experimental component can be evident and radical or can be limited to a few pages or lines, without unduly affecting the perception of the story. In some cases, the reader will find no reflections on the structure or on the textual functions of the novel, but on its artistic and intellectual meaning.
Within the history of Hindi literature (referring here to Khari Boli Hindi only) probably the most famous example of metafictional novel is Suraj ka Satvan Ghoda (The Sun’s Seventh Horse, 1952) by Dharmavir Bharati. The novel consists of three narratives about three women recounted by Manik Mulla to his friends over seven afternoons, in the style of Hitopadesha or Panchatantra. Later, in the Seventies, Krishna Baldev Vaid published Bimal Urf Jayen to Jayen Kahan. From the earliest pages of the novel, the narrator addresses his readers with provocative monologues. According to the materials consulted in my research, there are not many other examples of self-reflexive novels until the 1990s: from this decade, in fact, the metafictional component seems to gain new importance. The aim of this paper is to exemplify the new role acquired by metafiction in recent Hindi novels and to understand if it can be considered a possible postmodern trace
Review esay: The Watch Tower by Elizabeth Harrower
Get PDFReview Essay: The Watch Tower by Elizabeth Harrowe
Significant association between perceived HIV related stigma and late presentation for HIV/AIDS care in low and middle-income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Get PDFThis is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Background
Late presentation for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care is a major impediment for the success of antiretroviral therapy (ART) outcomes. The role that stigma plays as a potential barrier to timely diagnosis and treatment of HIV among people living with HIV/AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is ambivalent. This review aimed to assess the best available evidence regarding the association between perceived HIV related stigma and time to present for HIV/AIDS care.
Methods
Quantitative studies conducted in English language between 2002 and 2016 that evaluated the association between HIV related stigma and late presentation for HIV care were sought across four major databases. This review considered studies that included the following outcome: ‘late HIV testing’, ‘late HIV diagnosis’ and ‘late presentation for HIV care after testing’. Data were extracted using a standardized Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) data extraction tool. Meta- analysis was undertaken using Revman-5 software. I2 and chi-square test were used to assess heterogeneity. Summary statistics were expressed as pooled odds ratio with 95% confidence intervals and corresponding p-value.
Results
Ten studies from low- and middle- income countries met the search criteria, including six (6) and four (4) case control studies and cross-sectional studies respectively. The total sample size in the included studies was 3,788 participants. Half (5) of the studies reported a significant association between stigma and late presentation for HIV care. The meta-analytical association showed that people who perceived high HIV related stigma had two times more probability of late presentation for HIV care than who perceived low stigma (pooled odds ratio = 2.4; 95%CI: 1.6–3.6, I2 = 79%).
Conclusions
High perceptions of HIV related stigma influenced timely presentation for HIV care. In order to avoid late HIV care presentation due the fear of stigma among patients, health professionals should play a key role in informing and counselling patients on the benefits of early HIV testing or early entry to HIV care. Additionally, linking the systems and positive case tracing after HIV testing should be strengthened