19683 research outputs found
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To investigate the causes of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) turnover in Australian health services and to devise a CEO retention model
No full textSubmitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Public Health to the School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia.</p
LGBTQA+ Mental Health and Suicidality: Northern Territory Briefing Paper
No full textSuicidality and mental ill-health are serious concerns that impact all parts of the population in Australia, although some are disproportionately affected. LGBTQA+ people are recognised in numerous Commonwealth, State and Territory mental health and suicide prevention strategies or action plans.However, LGBTQA+ people continue to face barriers to accessing affirming healthcare and, to-date, limited comprehensive data exists on the mental health and healthcare experiences of LGBTQA+ people. This briefing paper outlines findings from three major surveys of LGBTQA+ people and aims to:Highlight the extent and nature of mental ill-health and suicidality among LGBTQA+ young people and adults in Northern Territory (NT).Where possible, explore the factors that can put people at greater risk of suicide or mental ill-health, as well as those that reduce their risk of suicide.Examine mental health service engagement and preferences among LGBTQA+ people in NT.Draw comparisons between experience of LGBTQA+ people in NT compared to other jurisdictions in Australia, and where possible, comparisons between LGBTQA+ people in NT to the general population using the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS; 2022-2022).</p
Reaction-Diffusion for Fish Populations with Realistic Mobility
No full textNonlinear reaction-diffusion equations, with Fisher logistic growth and constant diffusion coefficient, have been used in fisheries research to estimate sustainable harvesting rates and critical domain sizes of no-take areas. However, constant diffusivity in a population density corresponds to standard Brownian motion of individuals, with a normal distribution for displacement over a fixed time interval. For available good data sets on mobile fish populations, the distribution is certainly not normal. The data can be fitted with a long-tailed stable Lévy distribution that results from diffusion by fractional Laplacian. Exact multidimensional solutions are developed here for realistic Fisher-Kolmogorov-Petrovski-Piscounov models with diffusion by fractional Laplacian. These can also account for a delay in the reaction term. It is then shown how to modify critical domain sizes of protected areas with Dirichlet and Robin boundary conditions for populations.</p
Building the status of teaching-focused positions as prestigious roles to improve teaching quality
No full textTeaching-focused roles provide an ideal opportunity to improve the quality of teaching in higher education. However, such roles are commonly presented as pragmatic solutions for academics not fulfilling research expectations rather than quality improvement interventions. Workload allocations can be shifted to ensure that unproductive researchers are not counted as research-active in university ranking assessments and, at the same time, help balance salary budgets. These measures to address underperforming researchers have shifted focus from the potential to improve teaching quality that teaching-focused roles promised. We argue that a successful implementation of a supported approach for teaching-focused academics can help to foster a culture of excellence in teaching that should deliver career development and associated benefits for those in teaching-focused roles. This paper discusses a considered approach to improving teaching in higher education by supporting teaching-focused roles in an Australian university. Strategies to raise the profile of teaching-focused academics included a high-level champion, a merit-based application process, and a development program. These strategies aimed to address mis-focused perceptions and stigma related to teaching-focused positions and contribute to a culture of excellence in teaching. We put this approach forward as a model for institutions wanting to improve teaching quality, implement or enhance teaching-focused career paths or review existing models.</p
Early insights into Piaget’s cognitive development model through the lens of the Technologies curriculum
No full textAbstract: Piaget’s theory of stage structure is synonymous with discussions involving cognitive development. As with any theoretical model, researchers inevitably and rightly seek to affirm and/or contest the elements of the model presented. In this comparative study, students’ performance across three hands-on engineering tasks for two distinct student cohort groups were investigated including young primary school students (aged 8 to 10) in Piaget’s concrete operations; and older secondary school students (aged 15 to 18) in Piaget’s formal operations stage of cognitive development. The purpose was to gain an insight into Piaget’s stage structure from the perspective of the compulsory national Technologies curriculum in Australia, of which engineering is a core subject. The senior students outperformed their younger peers on all three tasks (simple, complicated and complex), with differences in abstraction and spatial inferential reasoning abilities increasing, as the task complexity increased. Although there is very limited evidence linking practical technological subjects and Piaget’s cognitive development model, the findings were consistent with respect to students’ abstract thinking capabilities and their cognitive development.</p
An extremely electron poor Au(III) trication bearing acetonitrile ligands
No full textThe synthesis and structural characterization of an electron poor Au(iii) trication bearing 2 imidazole and 2 acetonitrile ligands is described. The new complex is capable of aryl C-H metalation with the formation of a monomesitylene complex and also demonstrated to be highly oxidizing in the rapid room temperature conversion of cyclohexene to benzene.</p
Genome of the endangered eastern quoll (Dasyurus viverrinus) reveals signatures of historical decline and pelage color evolution
No full textThe eastern quoll (Dasyurus viverrinus) is an endangered marsupial native to Australia. Since the extirpation of its mainland populations in the 20th century, wild eastern quolls have been restricted to two islands at the southern end of their historical range. Eastern quolls are the subject of captive breeding programs and attempts have been made to re-establish a population in mainland Australia. However, few resources currently exist to guide the genetic management of this species. Here, we generated a reference genome for the eastern quoll with gene annotations supported by multi-tissue transcriptomes. Our assembly is among the most complete marsupial genomes currently available. Using this assembly, we infer the species’ demographic history, identifying potential evidence of a long-term decline beginning in the late Pleistocene. Finally, we identify a deletion at the ASIP locus that likely underpins pelage color differences between the eastern quoll and the closely related Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii).</p
The Police Accountability Body Victoria Needs: An Evidence-Based Report of the Sector’s Views
No full textThis report summarises the discussions at the Police Accountability Workshop held at La Trobe University Law School on 24 November 2023, organised in collaboration with the Police Accountability Project (‘PAP’) at Inner Melbourne Community Legal, and the Wirraway Practice at Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (‘VALS’). The workshop brought together a range of stakeholders from across advocacy, legal practice, academia, and lived experience, with the aim of identifying the key elements of an effective police oversight body. From those discussions, the following overarching points emerged: 1.The current complaints system is not only ineffective at identifying and addressing police misconduct, but also fails to address harms experienced by the public. 2.An entirely new oversight body is needed. The Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (‘IBAC’) cannot be reformed to become an effective oversight body. The Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland (PONI) should cautiously be considered as a model, but needs to be adapted to an Australian settler-colonial context. 3.The new body must follow a civilian control model, i.e. be structurally and operationally independent from police.4.The new body must be well-resourced and must be granted sufficient coercive powers to meaningfully hold police accountable, as well as monitoring powers and comprehensive access to police data to identify trends and systemic issues.5.The new body must be complainant-centred, culturally safe and trauma informed. It must also have specific functions and powers geared towards addressing systemic racism and other systemic issues. 6.The new body must be empowered and resourced to monitor Victoria Police’s implementation of recommendations. 7.The success of the new body must be measured in practical effectiveness, and not solely by reference to the powers of the oversight body. This report first provides a brief context to the workshop, including an overview of the current police oversight system in Victoria and its shortcomings. It also outlines the growing pressure for the establishment of a new, independent police oversight body. It then offers an overview of the key points raised in the workshop.</p
The Radical Potential of Memoir: the Feminist Polemic in the Age of Neoliberalism
No full textSubmitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia.</p