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Bouncing Back or Forward? Two Approaches to Democratic Resilience After Extremist Attacks
No full textViolent extremist attacks pose a serious threat to democracy, undermining its institutions, norms and practices. This article examines the disruptive impact of violent extremism on the public sphere and considers the role of political leaders in responding to these challenges. Leaders are widely recognised as the key actors shaping the public discourse after extremist attacks, by either reinforcing or resisting the division intended by these attacks. Yet, their role in building democratic resilience – that is, fostering the public sphere’s ability to respond to extremist attacks without compromising its democratic commitments – remains underexplored. Drawing on a range of case studies, the article examines the spectrum of leaders’ responses to violent extremist attacks and their effects on democratic resilience. It identifes two distinct approaches to democratic resilience: ‘bouncing back’ by maintaining the status quo, or ‘bouncing forward’ by deepening democratic commitments. The article considers the implications of each approach and underscores the necessity of the latter in strengthening the public sphere and its deliberative capacity in the aftermath of extremist attacks.</p
Endogenous analgesia, assessed via conditioned pain modulation, is not different in people with hip osteoarthritis compared to controls:a cross-sectional study
No full textBackground: In people with knee osteoarthritis, measures of pain sensitivity have been demonstrated to relate to both pain severity and treatment outcomes, dependent on the type of pain sensitivity being tested. Objective: Quantify if differences in the pressure pain thresholds (PPT) or conditioned pain modulation (CPM) effect exist between people with hip osteoarthritis and age-matched controls without hip osteoarthritis. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study across two geographic locations. PPTs at a local (hip) and remote (elbow) site were collected via a manual algometer. CPM was quantified using PPTs immediately prior to, and during ice water immersion of the hand contralateral to the tested hip. We performed two linear mixed models (hip and elbow) to evaluate between-group (case vs control) differences in PPT over time. Significance was accepted with p < 0.05. Results: We included 71 participants: 32 with hip osteoarthritis (75 % female sex), and 39 without hip osteoarthritis (82 % female sex). Osteoarthritis participants had significantly lower baseline hip PPTs than control participants (p = 0.038). Hip PPTs significantly increased over time following the conditioning stimulus (p < 0.001). However, we did not detect a significant interaction effect for PPTs between group and time (p = 0.308). There were no significant differences detected in elbow PPT between hip osteoarthritis and control participants (p = 0.114). Elbow PPTs significantly increased over time following the conditioning stimulus (p < 0.001). However, we did not detect a significant interaction for PPTs between group and time (p = 0.606). Conclusion: This study demonstrates that people with hip osteoarthritis have local, but not widespread, increases in mechanical sensitivity. Further there were no group differences in CPM.</p
Half of the habitat of Australia's highly imperilled narrow-range species is outside protected areas
No full textGlobally, species with small distributions face disproportionate extinction risk, with the impacts of land use change more likely to have catastrophic consequences. Identifying, protecting and managing sites where such species occur is essential for minimising their extinction risk. Yet across Australia, efforts to protect and manage such species' habitats have hitherto been insufficient. Here, we present an example of an analytical and interpretive pathway for the conservation of such species, for a continental-scale case study. We identified 305 Critically Endangered species that have narrow ranges (<20,000 km2), and are distributed in fewer than six discrete patches. We refined existing species' habitat maps with advice from 18 experts via a modified Delphi approach. We assessed how much of each species' habitat is outside protected areas and considered to have agricultural capability, potentially elevating risk of conversion. We identified ∼85,000 km2 of habitat (∼1% of Australia) for these 305 species that must receive protection and management if the nation is going to meet its commitment to halt new extinctions. Approximately half of this habitat is outside the protected area estate, including the entire distribution of 39 species. Approximately 55% of habitat outside of protected areas had at least some agricultural capability. Protecting and managing the habitats of these narrow-range species should be a high priority in state and national conservation policy. Our case study serves as a template for the identification of important habitat for threatened species and could be applied in other regions of the world.</p
One-quarter of freshwater fauna threatened with extinction
No full textFreshwater ecosystems are highly biodiverse1 and important for livelihoods and economic development2, but are under substantial stress3. To date, comprehensive global assessments of extinction risk have not included any speciose groups primarily living in freshwaters. Consequently, data from predominantly terrestrial tetrapods4,5 are used to guide environmental policy6 and conservation prioritization7, whereas recent proposals for target setting in freshwaters use abiotic factors8, 9, 10, 11, 12–13. However, there is evidence14, 15, 16–17 that such data are insufficient to represent the needs of freshwater species and achieve biodiversity goals18,19. Here we present the results of a multi-taxon global freshwater fauna assessment for The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species covering 23,496 decapod crustaceans, fishes and odonates, finding that one-quarter are threatened with extinction. Prevalent threats include pollution, dams and water extraction, agriculture and invasive species, with overharvesting also driving extinctions. We also examined the degree of surrogacy of both threatened tetrapods and freshwater abiotic factors (water stress and nitrogen) for threatened freshwater species. Threatened tetrapods are good surrogates when prioritizing sites to maximize rarity-weighted richness, but poorer when prioritizing based on the most range-restricted species. However, they are much better surrogates than abiotic factors, which perform worse than random. Thus, although global priority regions identified for tetrapod conservation are broadly reflective of those for freshwater faunas, given differences in key threats and habitats, meeting the needs of tetrapods cannot be assumed sufficient to conserve freshwater species at local scales.</p
Smartphone Proprioception for Ankle Navigation (SPAN):Reliability and Effect of Position Exposure Time
Get PDFThis study investigated ankle discriminative acuity and performance and measurement consistency for tests undertaken with different joint position exposure times (PETs). Twenty-four participants were tested using a novel Smartphone Proprioception for Ankle Navigation (SPAN) under four PETs, i.e., 0.25s, 0.5s, 0.75s and 1s, delivered in a random sequence, and then re-tested within one week. The results indicated a PET main effect (F = 10.12, p = 0.004, partial ƞ2 = 0.14), and limb preference main effect (F = 5.39, p = 0.03, partial ƞ2 = 0.19), without significant interactions (p > 0.05). Ankle proprioception improved with prolonged PET, with the non-dominant side outperforming the dominant side. A PET of 0.25s showed good to excellent reliability, with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) of 0.897 (95%CI: 0.761, 0.955) and 0.885 (95%CI: 0.736, 0.951), with standard errors of measurements (SEM) between 0.030 and 0.035, and minimum detectable change at 90% (MDC90) between 0.070 and 0.082, compared to poor to moderate reliability at the other three longer PETs (ICCs =0.352–0.736). The findings suggested the prolongation of PET can improve ankle proprioceptive performance but can amplify the inter-occasion variability, likely due to increased cognitive analysis with longer stimulus sampling. SPAN may thus be a cost-effective and accessible apparatus for clinical practice.</p
Interdisciplinary online simulation:A collaborative pilot innovation for health professional students
Get PDFInterprofessional learning prepares health graduates to work in collaborative multidisciplinary teams, a cornerstone of quality patient care. Synchronous online cross-institutional multidisciplinary simulation may address some barriers to interprofessional learning. Nineteen participants completed the pilot. Eleven clinical experts from seven health disciplines formed a reference group, and eight students from three disciplines (nursing, pharmacy and physiotherapy) trialed the intervention. This pilot online simulation included case development, reference group review, creation of vignettes, student trials and qualitative evaluation. The reference group validated the cases with some minor amendments for professional relevance. Educators confirmed suitability and feasibility. Preliminary findings support students’ development of role clarity and professional identity, with improved collaboration and strong support for interprofessional integration into their studies. The pilot demonstrated feasibility with positive initial feedback. An online interprofessional activity may offer a scalable model for IPL. Future work will explore broader implementation, assessing long term outcomes across diverse healthcare programs.</p
Learning from lived experience:rural older Australians’ perspectives of mental health, wellbeing, and support
Get PDFObjectives: Older adults with poor mental health living in rural areas are seldom heard in research and disadvantaged in health service provision. Consequently, this study aimed to explore rural older Australians’ perspectives of mental health, wellbeing, and access to and receipt of support. Method: Six older adults with recent self- or clinically-diagnosed mental ill-health in rural Australia (mean age 67.33 years; 66% female), and six informal carers of such individuals (67.33 years; 83% female), participated in interviews exploring their lived and living experiences of rural older adult mental health. Results: Four themes describing participant experiences were identified: ‘how perceived attitudes about mental health reduce help-seeking’, ‘the impact of social transparency in rural areas’, ‘the interconnected nature of physical and mental health in later life’, and ‘the contextual complexities in accessing timely and appropriate supports in rural areas’. Conclusion: The identified themes highlight the personal and contextual complexity affecting access to mental health supports for older adults and informal carers in rural areas. These findings provide valuable lived experience insights to support the design and delivery of appropriate and accessible mental health supports that meet the needs of older rural Australians.</p
Short-Term Exposure to Second Language Apps Modulates Brain Responses in Preschoolers
No full textPrevious research showed that short-term second language training modulates children's brain responses to language processing. However, little is known about whether short-term training from language-immersion apps would have the same effect on young children's neural processing of a newly learnt language. We examined the auditory event-related potentials generated by two groups of 3- to 5-year-old children (total N = 32; 14 male, 18 female; mean age = 49.6 months, SD = 6.0 months), in response to known and unknown non-native language words. The ‘known’ word stimuli were previously exposed to the children via either the ELLA language immersion applications (‘ELLA’ group) or flash cards (‘FLASH’ group). Electroencephalography data were analysed within early (200–300 ms) and late (400–600 and 600–800 ms) time-windows, to determine the main and interaction effects of group (ELLA vs. FLASH) and condition (KNOWN vs. UNKNOWN). We found that the early positive potential (of both groups) for the known words was significantly larger than that for the unknown words. Further, the early negative potential of the apps group was significantly larger than that of the flash card group. Our study showed that short-term training with language-immersion apps modulates language processing in preschool children's brains differently compared to digital flash cards.</p
Western Australian Cultural and Creative Activity: Contribution to state product and industry value add:Briefing Paper
Get PDFThis paper presents estimates of cultural and creative activity value add and gross state product for all of WA and for 14 creative domains. While these estimates follow methods developed by Bureau of Communications, Arts and Regional Research (BCARR) in its 2024 refresh of the cultural and creative satellite accounts originally developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), we also include results for Computer Systems Design in order to capture the full extent of the value of creative work in WA.Some caution should be used in interpreting the statistics reported here. These are estimates calculated by our UC research team, based on estimates calculated by the FootprintLab (developed in collaboration with the University of Sydney and University of New South Wales) and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The trends and relative comparisons presented here are highly informative and are the most important findings. We recommend avoiding any emphasis of standalone numbers taken out of the context of trend and comparative analysis
Understanding the unique goals of complex support clients accessing alcohol and other drug treatment
No full textBackground: Actively involving clients of Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) services in selecting their own treatment goals may help to align clients’ and service providers’ expectations of treatment and improve engagement with services. This study explored the type and frequency of client-selected treatment goals; self-reported progress towards their goals; client and clinician views of their progress, and the acceptability of selecting and tracking goals in a non-residential AOD treatment provider in New South Wales, Australia. Methods: A mixed method study was conducted. Clients selected their goals during AOD treatment then self-rated their progress towards goals using the validated 11-point goal-based outcome (GBO) rating tool. Qualitative interviews were conducted with clients and clinicians. Mean GBO ratings were reported for each timepoint. Goals were thematically analysed to identify type, then descriptively analysed to identify frequency. Interviews were thematically analysed by one researcher and reviewed by a second. Results: Among the 22 clients who completed the GBO at least once, the median number of self-identified goals was 3. The most common goals included: (1) managing mental health and (2) developing strategies to prevent relapse and manage AOD cravings. Most participants reported improvements in their selected goals; there were no participants who reported lower GBO scores at the second timepoint compared to the first. Qualitative themes demonstrate that while the GBO approach provided clarity for clients, was acceptable to clients and clinicians, and considered client expectations of treatment, the approach was difficult for those with limited literacy and reflexive thinking. Those experiencing lapse or relapse reported the linear GBO rating approach was potentially demotivating. Conclusions: Findings demonstrate that a goals-based outcome approach can promote shared decision-making between client and clinicians about treatment goals which are valued by clients. Service providers should be aware of potential complexity of recalling selected goals and completing ratings particularly among clients with co-occurring mental illness and memory impairment. Goals that are time-specific, realistic and relevant should be prioritised to minimise risks of demotivation arising from non-linear progress towards goals.</p