50716 research outputs found
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A Protocol for Enhancing Allied Health Care for Older People in Residential Care:The EAHOP Intervention
No full textBACKGROUND: Complications due to frailty and injury after falls are a significant problem for people living in residential aged care. This can lead to a range of negative outcomes including poor physical, social, and psychological well-being. The Australian Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety highlighted many aspects of care in residential aged care homes requiring improvement, leading to specific recommendations aimed at improving the outcomes in this area. This contributed to four recommendations calling for increased allied health interventions to meet the unmet needs in residential aged care. This intervention aims to implement and evaluate evidence-based allied health interventions for people living in residential aged care specifically relating to frailty, preventing falls, and maintaining engagement in everyday activities.METHOD: This is a pragmatic, non-randomised, pre-post design study where six groups of up to 10 residents of an aged care home will start the intervention at staggered times. The EAHOP intervention is an integrated application of a suite of allied health services (occupational therapy, physiotherapy, dietetics, speech pathology, pharmacy, and optometry), with general practitioner involvement, using allied health assistants in an integrated transdisciplinary model of care. The baseline period is 6 weeks, and intervention is a maximum of 36 weeks with follow-up at 12 and 24 weeks. Primary outcomes measure changes in falls, frailty, and quality of life. A qualitative program evaluation will be completed as well as an economic analysis.CONCLUSION: The results of the study will provide information about the clinical, implementation, and effectiveness outcomes of this integrated, transdisciplinary allied health service model for people living in residential aged care. The results will be used to develop evidence-informed guidelines for residential aged care providers on the delivery of allied health services.</p
What three years of COVID-19 vaccine administration reveals about the incidence of shoulder injury related to vaccine administration (SIRVA).
No full textBackground: Shoulder injury related to vaccine administration (SIRVA) has been reported to be a rare but real complication of vaccination. It is considered attributable to an incorrect vaccine administration technique by the vaccinator. To date, evidence about SIRVA is mainly limited to case studies and case series, and the incidence remains unknown. This study aimed to determine the incidence of SIRVA. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of the publicly available Eudravigilance database (pharmacovigilance data). We examined all COVID-19 vaccine case reports administered between January 2020 and December 2022. Reports were analysed to see if they met the Surveillance of Adverse Events Following Vaccination In the Community (SAEFVIC) definition and inclusion criteria for SIRVA. Data was extracted. Findings: Between January 2020, and December 2022, from 1,172,583,008 administered COVID-19 vaccines, 43,192 cases met the SAEFVIC inclusion criteria for SIRVA. This equals an incidence of 3·7 cases per 100,000 vaccines administered during the three years. Female subjects are disproportionately affected, with 33,828 cases (77.9 %). The incidence was higher with some COVID-19 vaccine formulations than others. Interpretation: The incidence found in this study is higher than previously reported. The data also reflects that it affects more female subjects than males. While previously considered avoidable using the correct vaccine administration technique, the data challenges this notion as it shows that certain vaccine formulations may be associated with a higher incidence of the condition. The causes of SIRVA are likely multifaceted, with current understanding being further impacted by unclear definitions and reporting requirements. Funding: This project was supported by an ECARD grant from The University of Canberra.</p
Addressing grand ecological challenges in aquatic ecosystems how can mesocosms be used to advance solutions?
No full textRapid and drastic anthropogenic impacts are affecting global biogeochemical processes and driving biodiversity loss across Earth's ecosystems. In aquatic ecosystems, species distributions are shifting, abundances of many species have declined dramatically, and many are threatened with extinction. In addition to loss of diversity, the ecosystem functions, processes and services on which humans depend are also being heavily impacted. Addressing these challenges not only requires direct action to mitigate environmental impacts but also innovative approaches to identify, quantify and treat their effects in the environment. Mesocosms are valuable tools for achieving these goals as they provide controlled environments for evaluating effects of stressors and testing novel mitigation measures at multiple levels of biological organisation. Here, we summarise discussions from a survey of marine and freshwater researchers who use mesocosm systems to synthesise their opportunities and limitations for advancing solutions to grand ecological challenges in aquatic ecosystems. While most research utilising mesocosm systems in aquatic ecology has focused on quantifying the effects of environmental threats, there is a largely unexplored potential for using them to test solutions. To overcome spatio-temporal constraints, there are opportunities to scale up the size and time-scales of mesocosm studies, or alternatively, test the outcomes of habitat-scale restoration at a smaller scale. Enhancing connectivity in future studies can help to overcome the limitation of isolation and test an important aspect of ecological recovery. Conducting ‘metacosm' studies: coordinated, distributed mesocosm experiments spanning wide climatic and environmental gradients and utilising more regression-based experimental designs can help to tackle the challenge of context dependent results. Finally, collaboration of theoretical, experimental and applied ecologists and biogeochemists with environmental engineers and technological developers will be necessary to develop and test the tools required to advance solutions to the impacts of human activities on Earth's vulnerable aquatic ecosystems.</p
The Role of Family Planning in Enhancing Community Resilience:Insights from Drought-Affected Youths and Women in Ethiopia
Get PDFThis study assesses the role of family planning (FP) in resilience building among youths and women in Ethiopia’s drought-affected and food-insecure regions. A mixed-method comparative cross-sectional study design with a total of 1712 study participants with an equal 1:1 ratio of the intervention and control groups was used. Binary logistic regression analysis was carried out to identify factors associated with community resilience. More participants in the intervention districts (58.3%) than in the control districts (49%) were currently using FP services. Approximately 54.1% of the intervention group and 43.6% of the control group were able to pay for food and shelter. Two-thirds of the intervention respondents and half of the control respondents had good social cohesion. The food consumption scores for the intervention and control districts were 26.2 and 24.9, respectively. Additionally, 62.5% of the intervention and 53.5% of the control respondents were found to have a good level of community level resilience. FP use (AOR = 3.4, 95% CI: 1.78–6.49), good social cohesion (AOR = 7.9, 95% CI: 6.09–10.23) and productive assets (AOR = 1.4, 95% CI: 1.07–1.92) were significantly associated with community resilience. To enhance community resilience comprehensively, expanding FP services should empower women in decision-making processes, cultivate ties and promote collaborative efforts across different sectors.</p
Correlating environmental DNA and hydroacoustic estimates of biomass and abundance to monitor the globally Endangered mulloway (Argyrosomus japonicus)
Get PDFMonitoring long-term spatiotemporal changes in populations of vulnerable species requires non-lethal methods. Here we investigate the utility of environmental DNA (eDNA) for estimating the relative biomass and abundance of the globally Endangered mulloway (Argyrosomus japonicus) in a southeastern Australian estuary. During minimal tidal movement, 10 parallel transects at each of 12 sites were surveyed, involving water samples being collected for determining eDNA concentrations of mulloway DNA prior to hydroacoustics being used to estimate their abundance and then biomass. There was no significant linear relationship between eDNA and abundance but there was for biomass, although the direction of differences varied seasonally, with positive and negative regressions observed during autumn and spring, respectively. As non-invasive survey methods, both eDNA and hydroacoustics require further validation, and such efforts should assess the influence of key environmental factors
Relative trust in critical minerals governance for just transitions in Ghana and Australia
Get PDFThis paper explores the role of trust in the sustainable mining of critical minerals for a just transition across two complementary and contrasting cases, Ghana and Australia: the former being an emerging critical mineral economy and having a need to enforce social and environmental practices that depart from its history of non-critical minerals mining; the latter using domestic and international institutions to build trust in minerals governance at home and overseas. Based on an interdisciplinary exploratory and reflective methodology relying on four different data streams, this paper offers empirical research on how trust can be built and sustained in-country and through a combination of policies and practices, both on the part of mining companies and governments. We conceptualise trust in terms of confidence about a situation or entity based on experience and reasonable expectations. We found that in critical minerals mining communities, key predictors of trust are satisfaction, participation, social cohesion that is built on shared experiences of the past and present, and an adequate degree of social and economic independence for affected communities. The policy implications of the centrality of trust come at a crucial time when critiques of the role of the critical minerals industry in re-colonising and greenwashing are on the rise. This study finds government regulatory and policy settings can be used to promote trust in ways that are applicable to both developed and developing countries.</p
A comprehensive review of cyber security and current practices in global mining critical infrastructure
Get PDFThe purpose of the study is to explore the reasons behind the low uptake of Information Security Management Standards (ISMS), Asset Management, and Business Continuity Plans despite increasing cyber threats to the mining sector. Mining companies need to modernize and automate to keep up with the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’, driven by disruptive technology, forcing systems and technologies to become more integrated, increasing cyber attack threats. To address this, we conducted a literature review analyzing the mining industry across various regions. The research is based on a qualitative analysis of diversified literature. The results highlighted factors behind the low uptake of ISMS standards: lack of regulatory requirements, low awareness of ISO/IEC 27001 standards, shortage of IT skills and expertise, lack of senior management engagement, and reliance on insurance to mitigate cyber threats. The results suggest mining companies are gradually realizing the potential consequences of cyber threats and are considering formulating a framework to protect the industry from cyber attacks.</p
Co-creating inclusive public services with customers experiencing vulnerability
Get PDFPurpose: Service inclusion empowers customers to self-determine their life and future. Using the motivation-opportunity-ability framework and a strengths-based approach to vulnerability, this study aims to examine the lived experience of secondary school students experiencing vulnerability to better understand how they are motivated, provided the opportunity and able to co-create an inclusive mass public education service. Design/methodology/approach: Twenty secondary school students who attend high school in a low socioeconomic area undertook semi-structured interviews and co-design activities to investigate how customers experiencing vulnerability co-create value in public secondary education services. This grounded theory approach used inductive-deductive thematic analysis to analyse interviews transcript and data artefacts from the co-design activities. Findings: The results show that customers experiencing vulnerability in public secondary education services are intrinsically motivated to co-create inclusive services. Customers provided with opportunities to co-create will use their agency to drive co-creation, perceiving that they are competent to co-create when drawing on past practices and being facilitated by structured freedom. Co-creation is supported by a sense of belonging but impeded by a range of micro-, meso- and macro-level barriers. Customers that co-create inclusive services are subsequently more likely to exhibit engagement. Originality/value: This research provides empirical evidence to support transformative service research theorising that enabling opportunities and offering choice leads to more inclusive service experiences for customers experiencing vulnerability. Perceptions of service captivity can also be improved by co-creation.</p
Strange Dreams and Unforgiving Landscapes:Australian Gothic and the prose poem
No full textThe Australian Gothic is rooted in loss, alienation and angst, concerned with boundaries, transgression and the horror of the “unseen, or the half-seen – the repressed matter that threatens to return” (Doolan, 2019). As a genre which turns on “the perceived hostility of the natural environment, the violence of colonisation … and fears of the racial Other” (Doolan, 2019), it is also embedded in complex ideas about the uncanny, the haunting of borderlines and margins; liminal spaces in which conceptions of belonging, dispossession, and the body interact in uneasy ways; and abjection. While there is significant scholarship on the Australian (colonial) Gothic in relation to cinema and fiction, its connection to poetry is relatively neglected. In this paper we consider the broader implications of prose poems by Samuel Wagan Watson, Thomas Shapcott, Ania Walwicz and Meredith Wattison, as well as prose poems of our own, focusing on how the Australian Gothic may be understood as a form of neo-Gothic, and how the Australian neo-Gothic prose poem possesses an uncanny ability to subvert traditional colonial notions. In doing so, we argue that the Australian neo-Gothic prose poem, partly due to its hybrid form, is well suited to recognising that tragic colonial histories are simultaneously past and present in a postcolonial world – a form of haunting in which violent encounters may not be safely relegated to the past or contained within static visions of time and place.</p
Elite Economists and the Neoliberal Ascendancy in Australia: The Case of Dr John Hewson
No full textWorsening inequality worldwide has stimulated a renewal of scholarly work on the dynamics of elite recruitment, notably Aaron Reeves and Sam Friedman’s large-scale UK study (2024), which found only modest change in the make-up of Britain’s elite between the 1890s and today. Cumulative advantage is shown to accrue to those who pass through more than one of Britain’s “precise channels of elite recruitment”. Reeves and Friedman’s underlying motivation is to identify how these channels “might be remade so the elites we get are the ones we need”—implicitly, elites interested in reversing current trends in inequality. Australia presents an opportunity to consider their findings in a situation where, compared with Britain, elite recruitment is more nebulous. Drawing on the life and transnational career of Australian economist John Hewson, this article responds to Reeves and Friedman’s invocation to evaluate “how elites think, and what elites do, rather than simply who they are”. The dynamics of Hewson’s elite recruitment and its relationship to his role in constructing consent for neoliberalism in Australia in the late 20th century—in the academy, the media and politics—is contextualised in the national and global history of neoliberalism