Region Of South Australia Research Articles

Learning environment, attitudes and anxiety across the transition from primary to secondary school mathematics

Past research has revealed that, relative to primary-school students, high-school students have less-positive attitudes to mathematics and perceive their classroom environments and teacher–student relationships less favourably. This study involved the transition experience of 541 students in 47 classes in 15 primary (year 7) and secondary (year 8) government and Catholic schools in metropolitan and regional South Australia. Scales were adapted from three established instruments, namely, the What Is Happening In this Class?, Test of Mathematics Related Attitudes and Revised Mathematics Anxiety Ratings Scale, to identify changes across the transition from primary to secondary school in terms of the classroom learning environment and students’ attitude/anxiety towards mathematics. Relative to year 7 students, year 8 students reported less Involvement, less positive Attitude to Mathematical Inquiry, less Enjoyment of Mathematics and greater Mathematics Anxiety. Differences between students in Years 7 and 8 were very similar for male and female students, although the magnitude of sex differences in attitudes was slightly different in Years 7 and 8.

Perspectives of rural health and human service practitioners following suicide prevention training programme in Australia: A thematic analysis.

There are well-established training programmes available to support health and human services professionals working with people vulnerable to suicide. However, little is known about involving people with lived experience in the delivery of suicide prevention training with communities with increased rates of suicide. The aim of this paper was to report on a formative dialogical evaluation that explored the views of health and human services workers with regard to a suicide prevention training programme in regional (including rural and remote areas) South Australia which included meaningful involvement of a person with lived experience in the development and delivery of the training. In 2015, eight suicide prevention training workshops were conducted with health and human services workers. All 248 participants lived and worked in South Australian regional communities. We interviewed a subsample of 24 participants across eight sites. A thematic analysis of the interviews identified five themes: Coproduction is key, It is okay to ask the question, Caring for my community, I can make a difference and Learning for future training. The overall meta-theme was "Involvement of a person with lived experience in suicide prevention training supports regional communities to look out for people at risk of suicide." This paper highlights the need for suicide prevention training and other workforce development programmes to include lived experience participation as a core component in development and delivery.

Challenges to uptake of cancer education resources by rural Aboriginal Health Workers: the Cancer Healing Messages flipchart experience.

The Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Aboriginal) population has a higher age-standardised cancer mortality rate and a significantly lower 5-year survival rate for all cancers than the non-Aboriginal population. Aboriginal people from regional and remote South Australia and the Northern Territory, are often required to travel to Adelaide to access specialist cancer care services. The burden and expenses associated with transport and accommodation and cultural and linguistic factors have been identified as barriers to accessing medical treatment and health services. In collaboration with community and stakeholders, Cancer Council South Australia led the development of the Cancer Healing Messages flipchart and patient flyer to assist health professionals in explaining cancer and the cancer journey to Aboriginal cancer patients and their families. This study examined the usage, acceptability and perceived usefulness of the resources, barriers to uptake, and strategies to improve their utilisation and sustainability. An evaluation survey was conducted among Aboriginal Health Workers (AHWs) and other health professionals working with Aboriginal clients in South Australia (n=18). Participants indicated whether they agreed that the resources are valuable, culturally appropriate, helpful for explaining aspects of cancer to Aboriginal cancer patients, and useful with regard patient outcomes, how frequently they used or would use the resources for information, and how they use the flipchart in practice. Participants were also asked to report any usage barriers. The resources were considered useful, valuable and culturally appropriate by almost all participants; however, there was a discrepancy between intentions to use the resources and actual uptake, which was low. The most commonly reported barriers related to appropriateness for certain patients and lack of availability of resources in some contexts. The Cancer Healing Messages flipchart and patient flyer are perceived as appropriate, valuable, and useful tools for AHWs. A long-term strategy and clear implementation plan involving education, training and promotion of the materials, is required to achieve broad reach and sustainable utilisation of the Cancer Healing Messages flipchart and patient flyer.

Emulation of recharge and evapotranspiration processes in shallow groundwater systems

In shallow groundwater systems, recharge and evapotranspiration are highly sensitive to changes in the depth to water table. To effectively model these fluxes, complex functions that include soil and vegetation properties are often required. Model emulation (surrogate modelling or meta-modelling) can provide a means of incorporating detailed conceptualisation of recharge and evapotranspiration processes, while maintaining the numerical tractability and computational performance required for regional scale groundwater models and uncertainty analysis. A method for emulating recharge and evapotranspiration processes in groundwater flow models was developed, and applied to the South East region of South Australia and western Victoria, which is characterised by shallow groundwater, wetlands and coastal lakes. The soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer (SVAT) model WAVES was used to generate relationships between net recharge (diffuse recharge minus evapotranspiration from groundwater) and depth to water table for different combinations of climate, soil and land cover types. These relationships, which mimicked previously described soil, vegetation and groundwater behaviour, were combined into a net recharge lookup table. The segmented evapotranspiration package in MODFLOW was adapted to select values of net recharge from the lookup table depending on groundwater depth, and the climate, soil and land use characteristics of each cell. The model was found to be numerically robust in steady state testing, had no major increase in run time, and would be more efficient than tightly-coupled modelling approaches. It made reasonable predictions of net recharge and groundwater head compared with remotely sensed estimates of net recharge and a standard MODFLOW comparison model. In particular, the method was better able to predict net recharge and groundwater head in areas with steep hydraulic gradients.

Producing value from Australia's vineyards: an ethnographic approach to 'the quality turn' in the Australian wine industry

Abstract This article provides a detailed ethnographic intervention to the phenomenon of value-added agriculture, a discourse that has attained several concrete forms in Australian wine industry policy, and which is routinely presented as a legitimate rural future in wider agricultural and social science research. The legal and policy architecture of 'Geographical Indications' purports to value the regional distinctiveness of agricultural areas, by creating legally-defined wine regions. Producers from these wine regions enjoy privileged access to the use of regional descriptors that apply to their products, and the constitution of such wine regions can also codify the relationships between this regional identity and concrete viticultural and winemaking practices. This article draws on ethnographic research within the Clare Valley region of South Australia, one of the first Australian wine regions to be formally constituted as a legal entity, to examine in close detail the relationships that this region's wine producers have with their own discrete areas of operation. These ethnographic illustrations highlight that the creation of economic value within the premium wine industry cannot be reduced to the technical aspects of viticulture and oenology, nor the legal and policy means by which relationships between products and land are codified. Rather, the nuanced social understandings of landscape that wine producers are consistently developing is a critical element of cultural and commercial infrastructure that affords any wine producer or grape grower the possibility of achieving monopolistic relationships over discrete vineyard areas and the wine that is produced from them. These social understandings have a specifically egalitarian character that acts as a hedge against the chronic uncertainties arising from the global economic environment in which premium wine industry is inescapably a part. This resistance to codification, I argue, is a productive space that constitutes a form of resilience against chronically unstable sets of commercial and environmental conditions. Keywords: monopoly, regional rents, occupational discourse, intellectual property, Geographic Indications, Australian agrarian futures

Quantifying the conservation gains from shared access to linear infrastructure.

The proliferation of linear infrastructure such as roads and railways is a major global driver of cumulative biodiversity loss. One strategy for reducing habitat loss associated with development is to encourage linear infrastructure providers and users to share infrastructure networks. We quantified the reductions in biodiversity impact and capital costs under linear infrastructure sharing of a range of potential mine to port transportation links for 47 mine locations operated by 28 separate companies in the Upper Spencer Gulf Region of South Australia. We mapped transport links based on least-cost pathways for different levels of linear-infrastructure sharing and used expert-elicited impacts of linear infrastructure to estimate the consequences for biodiversity. Capital costs were calculated based on estimates of construction costs, compensation payments, and transaction costs. We evaluated proposed mine-port links by comparing biodiversity impacts and capital costs across 3 scenarios: an independent scenario, where no infrastructure is shared; a restricted-access scenario, where the largest mining companies share infrastructure but exclude smaller mining companies from sharing; and a shared scenario where all mining companies share linear infrastructure. Fully shared development of linear infrastructure reduced overall biodiversity impacts by 76% and reduced capital costs by 64% compared with the independent scenario. However, there was considerable variation among companies. Our restricted-access scenario showed only modest biodiversity benefits relative to the independent scenario, indicating that reductions are likely to be limited if the dominant mining companies restrict access to infrastructure, which often occurs without policies that promote sharing of infrastructure. Our research helps illuminate the circumstances under which infrastructure sharing can minimize the biodiversity impacts of development.

Issues in Using Social Return on Investment as An Evaluation Tool

Social return on investment (SROI) is an approach built on cost benefit analysis and is used in the evaluation of projects with social benefits, as an alternative to cost benefit analysis and theory-based evaluation. This paper provides an analysis of SROI as an evaluation tool compared to theory-based evaluation, based on an evaluation of a community based mental health rehabilitation program in regional South Australia. The paper describes the process of constructing a SROI impact map and identifies the issues at each stage. Establishing the resources used, the activities and the outputs appears relatively straightforward. Arriving at an agreed theory of change is much more contested, even when using a high level of involvement of the service beneficiaries. The single greatest difficulty is to find the indicators and the financial proxies to value the outcomes. Outcomes such as improved wellbeing are difficult to value. It is particularly difficult to establish the level of outcomes immediately after or during an intervention. The paper concludes with an analysis of landscapes where SROI is unlikely to fit.

Using local clinical educators and shared resources to deliver simulation training activities across rural and remote South Australia and south-west Victoria: A distributed collaborative model.

There is a lack of access to simulation-based education (SBE) for professional entry students (PES) and health professionals at rural and remote locations. A descriptive study. Health and education facilities in regional South Australia and south-west Victoria. Number of training recipients who participated in SBE; geographical distribution and locations where SBE was delivered; number of rural clinical educators providing SBE. A distributed model to deliver SBE in rural and remote locations in collaboration with local health and community services, education providers and the general public. Face-to-face meetings with health services and education providers identified gaps in locally delivered clinical skills training and availability of simulation resources. Clinical leadership, professional development and community of practice strategies were implemented to enhance capacity of rural clinical educators to deliver SBE. The number of SBE participants and training hours delivered exceeded targets. The distributed model enabled access to regular, localised training for PES and health professionals, minimising travel and staff backfill costs incurred when attending regional centres. The skills acquired by local educators remain in rural areas to support future training. The distributed collaborative model substantially increased access to clinical skills training for PES and health professionals in rural and remote locations. Developing the teaching skills of rural clinicians optimised the use of simulation resources. Consequently, health services were able to provide students with flexible and realistic learning opportunities in clinical procedures, communication techniques and teamwork skills.

Finding Paradise Within: How Spirituality Protects Palliative Care Clients and Caregivers From Depression.

The aims of this article are to explore the experience of depression among palliative care clients and caregivers, describe the strategies they use in coping with depression, and clarify the role of spirituality in preventing and/or overcoming depression. This article discusses an aspect of the findings of a larger doctoral study that explored the nature of spirituality and spiritual engagement from the viewpoint of individuals with life-limiting conditions and their caregivers. van Manen's phenomenology was used in the study. The data generated from the doctoral study were subjected to secondary analysis to uncover the experience of depression. The methodology underpinning the secondary analysis was phenomenology also by van Manen. Fourteen clients and caregivers from across regional and rural South Australia informed the study. Data collection involved in-depth nonstructured home-based interviews that were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. The findings highlighted relate to participants succumbing to depression, but having spiritual beliefs and practices helped them cope. One of the most insightful understanding was the role spirituality played in protecting individuals from depression, encapsulated in the theme "finding paradise within." Spirituality, understood from a religious or secular perspective, must be embedded in palliative care as it assisted in preventing and overcoming depression.

Coping and resilience of rural and regional Australian immigrants: imperatives for successful settlement

This research provides an understanding of the coping strategies for successful settlement of Australian immigrants by elucidating key conceptual constructs relating to resilience development. Using qualitative descriptive methodology, 10 in-depth interviews with immigrants settling in regional South Australia between 2007 and 2012 were conducted. Thematic analysis was used to identify participants’ meanings and realities associated with immigration and settlement. Five themes emerged around resilience, goals, settlement planning, healthy lifestyles and adaptation. A multidimensional conceptual model was created to capture how the immigrants coped and developed resilience. Findings offer insights for Australian immigrants, policymakers, and human service and health professionals, as well as academic researchers.

Distribution of carbon and nitrogen in forest floor components in Pinus radiata plantations of different ages in South Australia

ABSTRACTThis study was conducted to evaluate the effects of plantation age on the distribution of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) in forest floor components in radiata pine (Pinus radiata D. Don) plantations. Forest floor samples from plantations of three age classes (13-year-old; 27-year-old; 41-year-old) with various site qualities (II–VII) were collected from the Kuitpo radiata pine plantations in the Mount Lofty forest region of South Australia. The C concentrations of the forest floor components were significantly higher in the 41-year-old plantation than in the 13-year-old plantation, whereas the N concentrations were significantly lower in the 41-year-old plantation than in the 13-year-old plantation, except for the needle component. The C and N content of needles was significantly larger in the 13-year-old plantation than in the 41-year-old plantation, whereas fine woody materials, such as branches and bark, contributed less to the total C and N contents in the 13-year-old plantation. The total C content of the forest floor did not significantly differ with age, whereas the N content was significantly affected by age in the radiata plantations. The results reflect the existence of considerable variation in the quality and quantity of the C and N in forest floor components associated with different ages of radiata pine growing in sites of various qualities.

Basis of ACCase and ALS inhibitor resistance in Hordeum glaucum Steud.

Acetyl coenzyme-A carboxylase (ACCase) and/or acetolactate synthase (ALS) inhibitor resistance has been identified by herbicide resistance screening in eight populations obtained from cropping regions of South Australia. This study aimed to quantify the level of resistance and characterise the molecular basis of resistance to ACCase and ALS inhibitors in these H. glaucum populations. H. glaucum populations from the Upper-North region were highly resistant (resistance index RI > 12) to the aryloxyphenoxypropionate (APP) herbicides quizalofop and haloxyfop and less resistant (RI = 2-12) to cyclohexanedione (CHD) herbicide clethodim, and some Mid-North populations had a low level of resistance (RI = 2-6) to the sulfonylurea (SU) herbicide mesosulfuron. Gene sequencing confirmed the presence of Ile-1781-Leu, Ile-2041-Asn and Gly-2096-Ala mutations in the ACCase gene, with no mutation found in the ALS gene. The use of the known metabolic inhibitor malathion in combination with mesosulfuron enhanced the activity of this herbicide. These populations were also susceptible to SU herbicide sulfometuron. This study has documented APP-to-CHD herbicide cross-resistance, the first case of ACCase inhibitor resistance due to Ile-2041-Asn mutation, and characterised the resistance to ALS inhibitors in H. glaucum. Resistance to ACCase inhibitors is due to a target-site mutation. The reversal of SU resistance by malathion and susceptibility to sulfometuron suggests that non-target-site mechanisms confer resistance to ALS inhibitors. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

Groundwater dependent pools in seasonal and permanent streams in the Clare Valley of South Australia

1. Study region The Clare Valley region of South Australia. 2. Study focus Continuing extraction of groundwater threatens pools in seasonal and permanent streams. In order to determine this groundwater dependence, the pools and groundwater from corresponding fractured rock aquifers were investigated using environmental tracers (δD, δ18O, 87Sr/86Sr, and major and minor elements). For the 11 paired pool-groundwater sites in the four different catchments, groundwater dependence was evaluated over a four season sampling period. 3. New hydrological insights In this Mediterranean climate with cool wet winters and dry hot summers strong salinity changes (up to 2.5 times) due to seasonal cycles of wetting and drying were observed in surface water. Oxygen and hydrogen isotope values from pool sites showed strong evaporative enrichment during the dry season with up to 50% net evaporation calculated. Water isotopes from groundwater, however, cluster at the depleted end of the local meteoric water line and most do not show change despite significant seasonal salinity changes. Strontium isotope values and concentrations from the pools over the one year period do not define a mixing relationship. Instead, most pool sites have unchanging strontium isotope values despite the large seasonal change in salinity indicating strong evaporation of groundwater fed pools during this drought year.

Animal Ownership Among Vulnerable Populations in Regional South Australia: Implications for Natural Disaster Preparedness and Resilience.

Few studies have examined the prevalence of animal ownership among populations likely to be at greater risk from disaster events within a bushfire context. To investigate the proportion of vulnerable community members keeping animals and the types of animals kept, as well as perceived risk of harm to pets, and their inclusion in bushfire survival planning. Statewide anonymous online survey in 2014 of adult South Australian animal owners threatened by bushfire in January 2014. Respondents were asked about animal ownership, their bushfire risk perception, and household survival planning. Descriptive statistics are presented for 5 groups considered likely to contribute to increased risk of harm for households: linguistically diverse, older adults, families with young children, physically frail, and self-identifying disabled, as well as individuals with mental health considerations. An opt-in purposively targeted sample of anonymous South Australians living in high fire-risk locations. Adult South Australian animal owners threatened or directly impacted by bushfire events, including individuals matching 1 of the 5 vulnerable groups. Self-reported details of animal ownership, perceived fire risk, survival planning, and vulnerability characteristics. Animal ownership was found to be more prevalent in these 5 populations than in the wider South Australian population. Perceived risk to pets was low to moderately low in these individuals. Variation was observed in the role of animals generally and pets specifically as motivators for preparing bushfire survival plans. Emergency services and associated agencies need to consider how the unique needs of vulnerable populations that keep animals, and their potential differences in risk perception, relate to their bushfire survival planning and preparedness requirements.

Fossils reveal late Holocene diversity and post-European decline of the terrestrial mammals of the Murray–Darling Depression

Context Establishing appropriate faunal baselines is critical for understanding and abating biodiversity declines. However, baselines can be highly reliant on historical records that come from already disturbed ecosystems. This is exemplified in the Murray–Darling Depression bioregion of Australia, where European settlement (and accompanying marked land-management changes and the introduction of many species) triggered rapid declines and losses of native species, often before their documentation. Aims We aim to establish the mammal fauna present when Europeans settled the Murray Mallee and Murray–Darling Depression bioregion and determine the extent of mammal loss since European settlement. Methods We describe a dated vertebrate assemblage from Light’s Roost in the lower Murray Mallee region of South Australia. We compare our data with those of modern fauna surveys and historical records to document the extent of change in the mammal fauna since European settlement. Key results Radiocarbon ages showed that the assemblage was accumulating, at a minimum, within an interval from 1900 to 1300 years ago. Since this time, the Murray–Darling Depression has lost half of its flightless terrestrial mammals. Species lost include the mulgara (Dasycercus blythi/cristicauda), which places this taxon within only 40km of Lake Alexandrina, the hitherto-disputed type locality for D. cristicauda. Fossils provided the principal evidence for nearly half of the Murray Mallee fauna and over three-quarters of the fauna are represented in the fossil record. Conclusions Late Holocene assemblages provide important archives of species biogeography and diversity. Our revised faunal baseline indicated that the pre-European fauna of the Murray–Darling Depression was more diverse than hitherto understood and its reduction appears largely caused by the impacts of European settlement. Implications Baselines for species distributions derived from historical records and modern faunal surveys are likely to be incomplete and warrant revision, particularly for smaller and more cryptic species. Deficiencies in regional records mask the extent of mammal declines caused by European colonisation and associated agricultural practices, and thus vulnerability to anthropogenic disturbance.

Measuring and Modeling the Water Balance in Low-Rainfall Cropping Systems

Abstract. In low-rainfall cropping systems, understanding the water balance, and in particular the storage of soil water in the rooting zone for use by crops, is considered critical for devising risk management strategies for grain-based farming. Crop-soil modeling remains a cost-effective option for understanding the interactions between rainfall, soil, and crop growth, from which management options can be derived. The objective of this study was to assess the error in the prediction of soil water content at key decision points in the season against continuous, multi-layer soil water measurements made with frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) probes in long-term experiments in the Mallee region of South Australia and New South Wales. Field estimates of the crop lower limit or drained upper limit were found to be more reliable than laboratory-based estimates, despite the fact that plant-available water capacity (PAWC) did not substantially differ between the methods. Using the Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) to simulate plant-available water over three-year rotations, predicted soil water was within 7 mm (PAWC 64 to 99 mm) of the measured data across all sowing events and rotations. Simulated (n = 46) wheat grain production resulted in a root mean square error (RMSE) of 492 kg ha-1, which is only marginally smaller than that of other field studies that derived soil water limits with less detailed methods. This study shows that using field-derived data of soil water limits and soil-specific settings for parameterization of other properties that determine soil evaporation and water redistribution enables APSIM to be widely applied for managing climate risk in low-rainfall environments. Keywords: APSIM, Climate risk management, Crop models, Decision support, Soil moisture.

A Dynamic Regional Model of Irrigated Perennial Crop Production

Economic analyses of regional irrigated agricultural production typically make little distinction between perennial and annual crops despite the distinctive characteristics of perennials. Such factors include high planting costs, lags in production, long lifespan, and potentially long-lasting impacts of input use and weather shocks. This study establishes a fully dynamic model of irrigated perennial crop production in a regional context where annuals are also grown. Perennial crop area is modeled as a vintage capital stock with age-dependent yields. The model is applied to the Riverland region of South Australia to examine the possible effects of both temporary and permanent changes in water supplies and the establishment of water prices, which is then used to estimate agricultural water demand. The model demonstrates that annuals are fallowed during drought so that perennial crops may be preserved and how, due to the fixed costs of re-planting perennials, annual crops are used to smooth profits while recovering from a severe shock. In all scenarios, a very slow rate of convergence to the steady state is found, highlighting the need for models that capture the transitional dynamics of agricultural land use in areas with significant perennial production.

A Bayesian inference tool for geophysical joint inversions

Geophysical joint inversions seek to exploit the statistical fact that a model that simultaneously satisfies two or more independent data sets is more likely to represent geological ‘reality’ than a model that only satisfies a single data set. Interpreting geophysical data directly rapidly exceeds the capacity of a human as more data are added, so some form of machine assistance is usually required. Conventional inversion techniques can produce a ‘best fit’ model but this might only be one of a large range of possible models that fit the data. Bayesian inference provides a tool to evaluate the relative probability of all possible geological models in a given set, thereby quantifying the amount of information the data is actually providing. Over 2012–2014, National ICT Australia (NICTA; now Data 61) worked with a number of university, government and industry partners, with support from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, to build a Bayesian inference software tool for geophysical joint inversions. The tool was initially directed at geothermal energy exploration but is equally applicable to investigating other geological problems. For one geothermal exploration problem, Bayesian inference allowed us to jointly invert gravity, magnetics, magnetotelluric soundings and borehole temperature records to map in three dimensions the probability of encountering granite >270°C beneath the Moomba region of South Australia. The results correlated well with an independent deterministic inversion carried out by Geoscience Australia, but provided a much richer interpretation in probability space. NICTA released the software tools as open source code on the GitHub platform.

In Search of Generativity in Prison Officer Work

Generativity, defined as the actions of an individual or group that enable others to care in meaningful ways for themselves and their significant others, has become an important concept for thinking about desistance from crime. In this article, we explore opportunities for prison officers in metropolitan and regional South Australia to model and/or engage in generative conduct. We find the emergence of generativity to be idiosyncratic—linked to individual officer’s capacities to resist the dominant “us” versus “them” culture—and to be often thwarted by a fatalistic outlook. Correctional policy implications are discussed.

“The Chicken or the Egg”: Barriers and Facilitators to Collaborative Care for People With Comorbidity in a Metropolitan Region of South Australia

Mental health disorder and alcohol and other drug comorbidity is prevalent in Australia. This qualitative study used semistructured interviews (N = 20) to elicit clinicians' and workers' knowledge, experiences, and opinions regarding issues pertaining to service needs of people with comorbidity in a metropolitan region of South Australia. The study revealed barriers to effective access and delivery of comorbidity care by MH and AOD services. Participants reported difficulties with identification, access, suitability, policy, funding, and collaboration between sectors and services responding to comorbidity. Results suggest that these models of practice were inadequate influencing the delivery, consistency, and reliability of comorbidity care.