The Global Insurance Market and Change: Emerging Technologies, Risks and Legal Challenges

This book focuses on the global landscape in which insurance is transacted, and where it is evolving, driven from within by transformative technologies and externally by the necessity to address risks like climate change and health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. It discusses the dynamic challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the industry in areas such as on-demand insurance, embedded insurance, parametric insurance, autonomous vehicles, the rise of fintech, the cyber risk landscape and through initiatives driven by distributed ledger technology or blockchain solutions. Moreover, it covers the major external challenges confronting the global insurance market, such as the growing insurance protection gap in relation to the affordability and insurability of natural catastrophes and climate change, and pandemics like COVID-19. This book examines innovations in insurance driven by the industry as well as externally imposed changes and dynamics impacting the industry. It describes these changes, the industry’s responses and the legal framework in which they occur. It canvasses additional regulatory and law reform initiatives that may be necessary to achieve an effective balance between the various competing interests. The book is the first to address these matters holistically with a particular focus upon insurance law, it will describe these changes and industry responses and the legal framework in which they occur. The Global Insurance Market will be directly relevant to legal professionals, insurers, insurtechs, fintechs, brokers, CEOs of insurance companies, risk managers, legal counsel, academics, researchers, the judiciary, and policy makers. It will also serve as a valuable resource for students of all levels.</p

Using journey maps as a holistic, reflective approach to capture student engineering identity experiences

Engineering identity has been repeatedly linked to the retention and success of engineering students, however, the current methods for understanding identity may not capture the holistic engineering identity journey. This study reviewed the method of utilising journey maps as a new approach to capture student engineering identity experiences. Interviews were conducted with 30 engineering students and early career engineers in which the participants responded to semi-structured, open-ended questions through the creation of their individual journey map. These maps were then thematically analysed to identify the key influences of engineering identity and the stage of their university journey when these influences occur. We determined that participants who strongly identify as engineers more often discussed and valued social identity experiences in the mid-year and final years of their degree, in contrast to participants who did not feel like engineers. We found that utilising journey maps as a tool for understanding identity allowed for a retrospective correlation between experience and impact, provided the participants space for authentic reflection and honoured the individuality of identity development. This method of journey mapping could be used to inform engineering education research in the further exploration and understanding of student identity development, reflective experiences and narrative storytelling.</p

Food parenting practices and child eating behaviours in Australian families: A cross-sectional sibling design

Background: Research on feeding in early childhood has focused primarily on parent–child dyadic interactions, despite parents enacting these practices within the complex dynamic of the family system. Objective: Using a sibling design, this study aimed to assess how parents may adapt their food parenting practices for siblings in response to differences in their eating behaviors. Design: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted between October and December 2022. Participants/setting: Data were collected from parents (97.5% women) in Australia with 2 children aged 2 to 5 years (n = 336 parents and n = 672 children). Main outcome measures: Survey items were completed for each sibling, and included four subscales of the Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire and seven subscales of the Feeding Practices and Structure Questionnaire-28. Statistical analyses performed: Multiple linear regression models examined associations between within-sibling pair differences in child eating behaviors and food parenting practices, adjusting for differences in child body mass index z score, age, gender, and early feeding method. Results: Within-sibling pair differences in eating behaviors were associated with differences in some food parenting practices. For the fussier sibling, parents reported using more control-based practices, including persuasive feeding, reward for eating, and reward for behavior, and less of the structure-based practice, family meal settings (P values < 0.001). Similar directions of associations were found for persuasive feeding, reward for eating, and family meal settings with siblings who were slower eaters or more satiety responsive (P values < 0.007); however, no significant differences in reward for behavior were observed in relation to sibling differences in these eating behaviors. For the more food responsive sibling, parents reported using more control-based practices, including reward for behavior and overt restriction (P values < 0.002). Conclusions: Within families, parents may adapt certain practices in response to differences in their children's eating behaviors. Interventions promoting responsive feeding should be designed to acknowledge the integral role of siblings in shaping parents' feeding decisions.</p

Family language policies in China: A Bourdieusian re-framing and review of research

This chapter reviews the research on family language policies in China within a sociological framework. By using the central Bourdieusian concepts of field, capital, and habitus, as well as doxa and the associated concepts of heterodoxy, and orthodoxy, the sociolinguistic components of family language policy (language beliefs, language practice, and language management at home) are re-framed. The extant literature on family language beliefs, practice, or management in China has been reviewed via the three moments of field analysis: relations between fields; the structure of a given field; and habitus. It was found that family is what Bourdieu described as ‘a realised category’; and further, that the language policy in the family field is impacted by those of other social spaces. Specifically, languages or language variants are accorded different values and attract different investments by families on behalf of their children. These investments are influenced by family members’ habitus, which generates family language policy. Finally, the sparsity of relevant research is proposed as a reason for further research in this area.</p

Modeling a Maintenance-Focused Conservation System

There are several intervention approaches that can be applied in heritage conservation; from reconstruction, restoration, repairs to a do-nothing approach. This paper examines whether maintenance is more than an option, but rather a necessity. The aim of the study described in the paper is to propose a framework which puts more emphasis on maintenance in conservation. This research was conducted in an Australian context, where many major buildings are categorized as being ‘modern heritage’. However, the main problem with modern heritage is that although it has become more eminent, maintenance is still on the backseat of most facility management operation, its importance has yet to become a potential solution that will tremendously aid in properly preserving a nation’s architectural legacy. Challenges were evaluated and opportunities were identified in order to highlight the necessity of including maintenance approach in preserving historical fabric in heritage conservation. This research examines the key strategies in order to develop a maintenance-focus conservation system.</p

Australian Psychiatrists and Trainee Psychiatrists’ Perceptions of Chemical Restraint of Adults with Intellectual Disability

BackgroundPsychiatrists prescribe the psychotropic medication that is used to manage behaviors of concern (BOC) in people with intellectual disability (ID) (i.e., chemical restraint), and their attitudes and perceptions towards this treatment are important topics for study.Methods133 Queensland psychiatrists and psychiatry trainees completed a survey on attitudes and perceptions of ID and psychotropic medication. Exploratory cluster analysis was performed on 14 Likert items from this survey to detect groupings within the data.ResultsCluster analysis indicated the existence of two distinct clusters. While both groups were willing to be involved in the treatment of adults with ID, Cluster 1 held attitudes that showed inconsistencies with human rights principles and with international guidelines regarding psychotropic medication use for BOC.ConclusionsOur study highlights that the attitudes and perceptions of a significant subgroup of psychiatrists may contribute to the overprescribing of psychotropics for BOC

Review on the challenges of salt phase change materials for energy storage in concentrated solar power facilities

Concentrated Solar Thermal Power has an advantage over other renewable technologies because it can provide 24-hour power availability through its integration with a thermal energy storage system. Phase change materials in the form of eutectic salt mixtures show great promise as a potential thermal energy storage medium. These salts are typically low cost, have a large energy storage density, are easily sourced/abundant and their use has a low environmental impact. Implementing molten salts as part of a thermal energy storage system, however, comes with some unique challenges. There are significant engineering design and material compatibility hurdles that need to be overcome and have made prototyping such a storage system difficult. This review summarises new advancements in phase change material research, a comparison analysis of salts and other storage technologies, and recommendations for future work required to address these challenges. Topics of interest include the latest simulation/modeling work for shell-and-tube and encapsulated storage configurations, corrosion degradation studies, and innovative optimization investigations from a larger power plant perspective. From the overall findings presented, if impurity levels can be stringently controlled in conjunction with better salt selection and better fidelity modeling studies, the prototyping of an effective commercial-scale storage system is feasible. Even though this technology is still in its infancy stage, salt phase change materials are a promising solution to the energy storage problem.</p

What is Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and why is it important?

Fostering students’ social and emotional competencies is an area of increasing priority in schools today. Key competencies encompassed under the term Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) include managing emotions, establishing positive relationships, demonstrating empathy towards others, and making responsible decisions. In this chapter, we outline the origins and development of SEL internationally and within an Australian context and describe the extensive body of evidence attesting to the benefits of high quality SEL instruction for academic, social, and behavioural domains. We situate SEL in the context of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) and describe how schools can promote SEL through classroom instruction and supplementary intervention. This approach is illustrated in practical terms through a case study. Finally, we provide recommendations for a national approach to SEL in Australia underpinned by robust evidence, consistent policy, clear guidance, and training opportunities for schools and educators

9-Azahomocubane

Homocubane, a highly strained cage hydrocarbon, contains two very different positions for the introduction of a nitrogen atom into the skeleton, e. g., a position 1 exchange results in a tertiary amine whereas position 9 yields a secondary amine. Herein reported is the synthesis of 9-azahomocubane along with associated structural characterization, physical property analysis and chemical reactivity. Not only is 9-azahomocubane readily synthesized, and found to be stable as predicted, the basicity of the secondary amine was observed to be significantly lower than the structurally related azabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane, although similar to 1-azahomocubane.</p