The ethics of welcome in place: LGBTQ+ migrants to South Australia

Event Abstract Back to Event An MEG neuroimaging study on the developmental changes of face processing in pre-school aged children Wei He1*, Jon Brock1 and Blake W. Johnson1 1 Macquarie University, Department of Cognitive Science, Australia Introduction: An important research question in developmental neuroscience concerns how the underlying neural mechanisms of face perception develop in early childhood. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) holds great promise for examining this question, because it measures a well-known face sensitive brain response, termed the M170, from young children in an entirely passive manner. The M170 and its electrical equivalent N170 discriminate faces from other non-face objects based on larger amplitudes to face stimuli around 170 ms from stimulus onsets in adults (Rossion & Jacques, 2011). The current study measured the M170 from pre-schoolers using a unique child custom-sized magnetoencephalography (MEG) system (Johnson et al., 2010). Furthermore, we evaluated the effective connectivity of cortical networks underlying the M170 using dynamic causal modelling (DCM); and compared the connectivity patterns in children to those of adults. Methods: Brain responses were measured from 15 young children (aged 4.46 ± 0.93 years) and 15 adults (aged 27.6 ± 6.46 years) during flashing pictures of faces, cars, as well as their phase-scrambled counterparts (Kuefner et al, 2010). There were 64 channels in the child MEG system and 160 channels in the adult MEG system. Surface waveforms were analysed by averaging the strongest response across occipital and temporal sensors separately on each hemisphere based on the time window determined by visual checking on individual data. DCM analyses assumed that the M170 was mediated by sources in the occipital face area (OFA), fusiform face area (FFA), and superior temporal sulcus (STS). Using Bayesian model selection, we evaluated three models of the interconnections between these regions based on previous studies using DCM (Fairhall & Ishai, 2007; Chen, et al., 2009; David et al., 2006). Results: In the surface waveform analysis, the child M170 was slower than the adult M170, but it already showed an adult function pattern (i.e., faster and stronger to faces than cars). Analyses of DCM models showed that the first and simplest model with only forward intra-hemispheric connections from OFA to FFA and STS had the largest model evidence in adults, while in children, the second model with extra inter-hemispheric connections between OFA and contralateral FFA showed the largest model evidence. Conclusions: Early face sensitive brain responses indexed by the M170 are present and functioning in the adult pattern in children as young as 4 years old. However, the functional neural mechanism underlying the M170 undergoes further development and fine-tuning before it reaches adult capacities. Acknowledgements This work was supported by Australian Research Council Linkage Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities Grant LEO668421, Australian Research Council Linkage Project Grant LP0669471, and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Cognition and its Disorders (CE110001021), http://www.ccd.edu.au. The authors thank Romina Polermo and Douglas Cheyne for helpful comments during the design of the experiment and Bruno Russion for providing the picture stimuli.

The association between unpaid labour and mental health in working-age adults in Australia from 2002 to 2020: a longitudinal population-based cohort study.

Teaching and learning in an era of time-based access targets: Impact of a new model of care on junior medical officers.

The vision presented in this paper and its technical content are a result of close collaboration between several researchers from the University of Queensland, Australia and the SAP Corporate Research Center, Brisbane, Australia. In particular; Dr Wasim Sadiq (SAP), Dr Shazia Sadiq (UQ), and Dr Karsten Schultz (SAP) are the prime contributors to the ideas presented. Also, PhD students Mr Dat Ma Cao and Ms Belinda Carter are involved in the research program. Additionally, the Australian Research Council Discovery Project Scheme and Australian Research Council Linkage Project Scheme support some aspects of research work towards the HMT solution.

This Report presents the findings and recommendations of a research project established to examine whether the ACT Human Rights Act 2004 (HRA) should be amended to include explicit guarantees of economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) and, if so, what impact this was likely to have on governance in the ACT. The project was funded under the Australian Research Council Linkage Project Scheme; the academic project partners were the Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet) in the College of Asia and the Pacific of The Australian National University and the Australian Human Rights Centre, Faculty of Law, The University of New South Wales, while the Partner Organisation was the ACT Department of Justice and Community Safety.

Tasmania hangs from the map of Australia like a drop in freefall from the substance of the mainland. Often the whole state is mislaid from Australian maps and logos (Reddit). Tasmania has, at least since federation, been considered peripheral—a region seen as isolated, a ‘problem’ economically, politically, and culturally. However, Tasmania not only cleaves to the ‘north island’ of Australia but is also subject to the gravitational pull of an even greater land mass—Antarctica. In this article, we upturn the political conventions of map-making that place both Antarctica and Tasmania in obscure positions at the base of the globe. We show how a changing global climate re-frames Antarctica and the Southern Ocean as key drivers of worldwide environmental shifts. The liquid and solid water between Tasmania and Antarctica is revealed not as a homogenous barrier, but as a dynamic and relational medium linking the Tasmanian archipelago with Antarctica. When Antarctica becomes the focus, the script is flipped: Tasmania is no longer on the edge, but core to a network of gateways into the southern land. The state’s capital of Hobart can from this perspective be understood as an "Antarctic city", central to the geopolitics, economy, and culture of the frozen continent (Salazar et al.). Viewed from the south, we argue, Tasmania is not a problem, but an opportunity for a form of ecological, cultural, economic, and political sustainability that opens up the southern continent to science, discovery, and imagination.

It is gradually being recognised by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians that getting contemporary Indigenous governance right is fundamental to improving Indigenous well-being and generating sustained socioeconomic development. This collection of papers examines the dilemmas and challenges involved in the Indigenous struggle for the development and recognition of systems of governance that they recognise as both legitimate and effective. The authors highlight the nature of the contestation and negotiation between Australian governments, their agents, and Indigenous groups over the appropriateness of different governance processes, values and practices, and over the application of related policy, institutional and funding frameworks within Indigenous affairs. The long-term, comparative study reported in this monograph has been national in coverage, and community and regional in focus. It has pulled together a multidisciplinary team to work with partner communities and organisations to investigate Indigenous governance arrangements–the processes, structures, scales, institutions, leadership, powers, capacities, and cultural foundations–across rural, remote and urban settings. This ethnographic case study research demonstrates that Indigenous and non-Indigenous governance systems are intercultural in respect to issues of power, authority, institutions and relationships. It documents the intended and unintended consequences–beneficial and negative–arising for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians from the realities of contested governance. The findings suggest that the facilitation of effective, legitimate governance should be a policy, funding and institutional imperative for all Australian governments. This research was conducted under an Australian Research Council Linkage Project, with Reconciliation Australia as Industry Partner.

ABSTRACTStaying socially engaged is known to improve health and longevity in older people. As the population ages, maintaining levels of social engagement among older people becomes increasingly important. Nevertheless, advancing age brings with it many challenges to social engagement, especially in rural areas. A three-year Australian Research Council Linkage Project sought to improve understandings of age-related triggers to social disengagement in six Tasmanian communities that are representative of rural Australian experience, and thus of wider salience. A collaboration between academics and health and social professionals, the project investigated design solutions for service frameworks that may be usefulbeforeageing individuals become isolated and dependent, and that may support those individuals to actively contribute to and benefit from social life. The purpose of this paper is to report on perspectives about diminishing levels of social engagement held by older rural participants and service providers, and to advance a number of key insights on ways in which to nurture social engagement and improve the experience of ageing.

To avert runaway climate change the agreed international aim is to keep greenhouse gas emissions to a maximum of 450ppm of CO2-e (carbon dioxide equivalents) in the atmosphere. Those countries that have ratified the Kyoto protocol have agreed on specific targets in terms of percentages, generally but not always, against a baseline, of CO2-e levels produced in 1990. Having agreed in principal to specific individual figures for each country, and a consensus on which processes and activities should be included in the accounting, then it is simply a case of doing the arithmetic and in 2012, when the reporting period ends, it will be clear where the successes and failures lie. 2010 was the year when the majority of the planet's population moved to cities, a trend that is likely to continue, and with cities being responsible for possibly as much as 70% of the world's emissions, it is clear that the built environment needs some close scrutiny now and in the future. Buildings are, and have been for the last two decades, the focus of assessment programs and there is a vast array of tools that have been developed in the form of checklists or rating measures, but those that provide clearly defined metrics are not common. In an atmosphere where there is, arguably, an understanding of the importance of energy use and how it relates to greenhouse gas emissions (at a commercial level if not domestic) there is an increasing interest in how our buildings perform in this regard. This is acknowledged by policies like the mandatory disclosure of building performance, now being rolled out across Australia. There also seems to be an understanding that considering precincts or neighbourhoods is as important, if not more important than individual buildings, because it integrates how people move between and around the city. This is extremely important considering the impact of various modes of transport on the production of greenhouse gasses. Recently, the availability of assessment tools for sustainable development such as BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) Communities and the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Neighbourhood Development tool, seem to have grown exponentially. These tools take on a range of forms from simple checklists to detailed rating tools, but few focus on actual metrics, without which it is difficult to understand the true impact of what is being assessed. Climate change as an environmental issue is proving to be extremely difficult to address, particularly in Australia where, should we choose to believe the media, the science is still being questioned. However if we consider that what the science is telling us is true, we are faced with a challenge of numbers. Decarbonising Cities and Regions (DCR) is an Australian Research Council linkage project that proposes to examine the greenhouse gas emissions (GHGe) of four land redevelopment case studies. The proposal includes a framework that outlines the sources of GHGe that will be examined for all of the case studies. The framework proposed covers: raw materials and building assemblies, construction emissions, operational emissions, private transport, the full water cycle and emissions from municipal waste. This framework is featured in a study of carbon assessment tools which identified the C CAP Precinct tool as the most comprehensive for urban development and redevelopment in accordance with the DCR framework C CAP Precinct has been developed to provide a number of sustainability metrics for developments at all scales, the focus of this paper will be the GHGe that a development proposal is responsible for from operational energy consumption, GHGe associated with water (pumping) and direct emissions from transport options available. The tool also calculates affordability based on annual operating costs and capital costs for technology options applied to a development to reduce GHGe. This paper contains a detailed review of the

The participation rates of girls in post-compulsory information technology courses of Australian universities and high schools have remained low (less than 30%), despite three decades of research and analysis. In seeking to better understand this phenomenon, this paper draws upon data collected during an Australian Research Council Linkage project to investigate first, the reasons that teachers and students in contemporary Australian high schools put forward to account for girls’ underrepresentation; second, the assumptions about gender that underpin these explanations; and third, the extent to which teachers appear able to respond to the full range of factors shaping girls’ decision making. The paper argues that attempts to improve girls’ participation rates might continue to falter unless teacher education programs explicitly prepare teachers to conceptualise educational reforms based on understandings of post-structural perspectives on gender; perspectives that challenge the more common explanations for girls’ behaviour associated with both essentialist and socialisation mindsets.

Introduction: Health promotion is a complex interdisciplinary field and health promotion workforce capacity is influenced by the skills, knowledge and work practices of those doing health promotion work. Place based and settings based approaches to health promotion offer a framework for grounding the complexity of health promotion practice in context. This presentation reports on the baseline capacity of community based health promotion practitioners by exploring the nature and extent of their health promotion practice. This study is one part of an Australian Research Council linkage project, the overall aim of the project was to improve health promotion workforce capacity. Methods: Five focus groups were conducted with participants in roles including: Hospital based nurse practitioner; school based health nurse; community health home care; multidisciplinary community health; and dedicated health promotion practitioners. Results: Thematic analysis of the data illustrated tensions between health promotion roles, resources and capacity. Additionally there were contrasting disciplinary approaches to similar problems and contrasting understandings and use of evidence in practice. Practitioners from different sectors and roles approach health promotion in different ways, even in the context of existing collaborations. Health promotion practitioners have insight into opportunities for service improvement and integration. Conclusion: This research highlights that although contrasting philosophies underpin health promotion practice in the community there is an opportunity and a need to work with practitioners to find innovative ways to collaborate across sectors, and thus improve the translation of health promotion evidence into practice.

Major curriculum and assessment reforms in Australia have generated research interest in issues related to standards, teacher judgement and moderation. This article is based on one related inquiry of a large‐scale Australian Research Council Linkage project conducted in Queensland. This qualitative study analysed interview data to identify teachers’ views on standards and moderation as a means to achieving consistency of teacher judgement. A complementary aspect of the research involved a blind review that was conducted to determine the degree of teacher consistency without the experience of moderation. Empirical evidence was gained that most teachers, of the total interviewed, articulated a positive attitude towards the use of standards in moderation and perceived that this process produces consistency in teachers’ judgements. Context was identified as an important influential factor in teachers’ judgements and it was concluded that teachers’ assessment beliefs, attitudes and practices impact on their perceptions of the value of moderation practice and the extent to which consistency can be achieved.

Under the auspices of its ‘Education Revolution’, the Federal Labor Government is currently implementing a national curriculum for schools. Representing an important intervention into educational practice and governance, the Australian Curriculum offers a unique research opportunity, providing substantial scope for the examination of the changing systems and school-level practices entailed in large-scale curriculum reform. Research into the Australian Curriculum also presents a valuable opportunity to develop educational research methodologies that attend to the complex and multifaceted processes of curriculum reform, from systems to classrooms. Taking two of the disciplinary towers of modern curricula (English and mathematics) and Australia’s two largest jurisdictions (New South Wales and Victoria) as the focus, this article draws on a three-year Australian Research Council Linkage Project to outline an approach to researching major curriculum reform.

Research over the past decade in health, employment, life expectancy, child mortality, and household income has confirmed that Indigenous Australians are still Australia's most disadvantaged group. Those residing in communities in regional and remote Australia are further disadvantaged because of the limited formal economic opportunities there. In these areas mining developments may be the major­ and sometimes the only­ contributors to regional economic development. However Indigenous communities have gained only relatively limited long-term economic development benefits from mining activity on land that they own or over which they have property rights of varying significance. Furthermore, while Indigenous people may place high value on realising particular non-economic benefits from mining agreements, there may be only limited capacity to deliver such benefits. This collection of papers focuses on three large, ongoing mining operations in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory under two statutory regimes­: the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 and the Native Title Act 1993. The authors outline the institutional basis to greater industry involvement while describing and analysing the best practice principles that can be utilised both by companies and Indigenous community organisations. The research addresses questions such as: What factors underlie successful investment in community relations and associated agreement governance and benefit packages for Indigenous communities? How are economic and non-economic flows monitored? What are the values and aspirations which Indigenous people may bring to bear in their engagement with mining developments? What more should companies and government do to develop the capacity and sustainability of local Indigenous organisations? What mining company strategies build community capacity to deal with impacts of mining? Are these adequate? How to prepare for sustainable futures for Indigenous Australians after mine closure? This research was conducted under an Australian Research Council Linkage Project, with Rio Tinto and the Committee for Economic Development of Australia as Industry Partners. Image: 'Coober Pedy Mural' faithmonsoon / flickr

The present paper is based on initial findings from an online survey of Australian social work educators conducted as part of the Australian Research Council Linkage Project “Social Work in the Enterprise University: A national survey of social work educators 1982–2005”.1 The article contributes to empirical data on the Australian social work education workforce and draws attention to the need for greater exploration of the challenges and opportunities confronting social work educators. It is argued that the characteristics of Australian social work academics and their visions for contemporary and future social work education are of increasing importance in a more competitive and global higher education market and in an era when the nature of welfare practice is being radically transformed. Initial findings from the 2005 national survey are compared with findings from the only previous national survey of social work educators and contemporary studies of other academic populations. The data highlight possible implications for contemporary and future social work education in universities.