Book review: 'Community gardening as social action'

Aisling Bailey reviews the book 'Community gardening as social action' by Clare Nettle, published by Routledge, 2014

Promoting correctional officer wellbeing: guidelines and suggestions for developing psychological training programs

This paper explores the issue of staff wellbeing in a correctional context and discusses the need for the development of evidence-based and industry-responsive training for correctional officers to ameliorate the negative psychological effects of perceived workplace adversity. The paper provides a rationale for the development of training based on the existing literature and offers a set of overarching guidelines for consideration when developing programs aimed at positively impacting the wellbeing of correctional staff. Among other things, the enunciation of these guidelines is based on the contention that there is a need for training programs that acknowledge the unique challenges and environmental contexts faced by contemporary correctional officers. As such, it is argued that the planning, development and implementation of training programs need to be responsive to the diverse needs of staff and designed to be both relevant and palatable to correctional officers

The psychophysiological impact of childhood autism spectrum disorder on siblings

Objective: The negative impact of caring for a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) on parents' psychophysiological functioning has been widely evidenced. However, siblings, who also face emotional, social and physical challenges associated with having a brother/sister with ASD, have been less widely studied. This study examined the psychophysiological impact of childhood ASD on siblings. Methods: A sample of 25 siblings of children with ASD (and their mothers) and a control group of 20 siblings of neuro-typical children (and their mothers) completed questionnaires assessing: (a) demographic and lifestyle information, (b) family characteristics, (c) child behaviour problems, (d) social support and (e) depressive symptomology. Saliva samples were collected at several time points on two consecutive days, and estimates of the cortisol awakening response (CAR), diurnal cortisol slope and mean diurnal cortisol output were derived. Results: Total depressive symptoms were higher in siblings of children with ASD compared with controls. Group differences with respect to depressive symptomology were driven more by emotional than functional problems. With respect to physiological functioning, groups were comparable on all cortisol indices. In siblings of children with ASD, social support, especially from parents and close friends, predicted total depressive symptoms, as did the behaviour problems of their brother/sister with ASD. Conclusion: Siblings of children with ASD experience greater emotional problems and overall depressive symptoms compared with a control group. Interventions that enhance social support, as well as helping siblings better understand the behaviour problems of their brother/sister with ASD, might be effective for alleviating depressive symptoms

Engineering and environmental evaluation of spent coffee grounds stabilized with industrial by-products as a road subgrade material

Current construction technology increasingly seeks the sustainable usage of waste by-products as a resource material. This paper evaluates the viability of utilizing spent coffee grounds (CG), a highly organic beverage waste, to be stabilized as a road subgrade material. The additives used in this research incorporates industrial by-products such as fly ash (FA), ground granulated blast-furnace slag (S) as well as traditional binders such as portland cement (PC) and hydrated lime (L). CG collected from a coffee roaster were mixed with controlled additive content ratios by mass to assess the effects of these common engineering stabilizers towards the load-bearing capacity of CG. The additive contents of FA and S were 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50% whereas the PC and L additive contents were 3 and 5% by dry unit weight. Modified proctor compaction tests, 7-days unconfined compressive strength (UCS) tests, and California bearing ratio (CBR) tests were carried out to determine the optimum moisture content and bearing strength of the different mixes produced. It found that as the proportion of additives in the specimen increased, the optimum moisture content of the additive-stabilized CG specimens subsequently decreased. Regardless of the type of stabilizers used, the UCS strength increases were found to be nominal. FA and S mixes above the 20% additive contents satisfied the requirements for subgrade materials; however, the low PC and L contents were insufficient to meet subgrade requirements. The research findings indicate that instead of being disposed of into landfills, stabilized CG has the potential to be used as a subgrade material. Such a sustainability driven approach for reuse of CG will have the potential to divert CG from landfills and at the same time utilize CG as a viable construction material

Fluid security in the Asia Pacific: transnational lives, human rights and state control

This book explores the experiences of temporary migrants in the Asia-Pacific region. It develops the original concept of 'fluid security' to analyse the way in which persons carry a set of tools, strategies and attitudes across spatial, temporal and imagined borders. This concept applies a mobilities lens to human security in order to take into account the aspirations and needs of mobile populations appropriate for a globalising world. The book brings to light the diverse experiences of mobility and the multiple vulnerabilities experienced by individuals that intersect with, and sometimes challenge, national security domains. The authors analyse mobility patterns that are diversifying at a rate far outstripping the capacity of governments to adapt to the human security needs of mobile populations. While the idea of global citizenship may be held up as an ideal through which access to rights is not an arbitrary lottery, it remains far from a reality for the majority of migrants. They are excluded from the migratory flows global elites engage in almost at will. This important book advances the idea that mobile individuals can generate their own security when they have agency and the ability to plan; that experiences of security are not necessarily tied to permanence; that mobile populations benefit from policies that support transnational life; and that fluid security is enhanced when individuals are able to carry a bundle of rights with them

Setting structural safety requirement for controlling earthquake mortality risk

Structural engineers design buildings according to the earthquake action (demand) specified in code of practice, whilst the rationale behind such requirement is commonly untold. In fact, even if a structure is designed strictly in accordance to the best standard and practice in the world, there is still a (small) chance of failure or collapse in an extreme earthquake event, due to the uncertainties in material properties and actual ground motions characteristics. This is the residual risk, which is unavoidable, and should be taken as a governing parameter for determining the performance goals of seismic design. This study attempts to establish the required (target) collapse risk limits for designing different types of ordinary buildings based on a well-accepted tolerable level of mortality risk and estimates of fatality rates in buildings. The proposed limits are compared with the target risk of collapse stipulated in the 2012 edition of the International Building Code (IBC). The risk-based approach presented in this paper should also be applicable for setting performance objectives for structural design of buildings and infrastructure against other natural, human-caused and technological hazards

What we can learn from the Australians who've made social change happen

What obstacles must be overcome to achieve social and legal change? What are the common keys to success? From anti-tobacco campaigners to Indigenous broadcasters and legal campaigners, Andrew Dodd profiles Australians who have made change happen

Franchisee-based brand equity: The role of brand relationship quality and brand citizenship behavior

Despite the evidence that brand management is core to the success of franchising businesses, limited empirical work has focused on branding in such business-to-business (B2B) exchanges. Integrating social exchange theory and the identity-based brand management framework, this study proposes that brand relationship quality is crucial in promoting franchisee brand citizenship behavior that can enhance brand equity attributable to franchisees, thereby advancing a model of ‘franchisee-based brand equity’ (FBBE). Survey results from 352 franchisees in franchised B2B exchanges suggest that brand relationship quality promotes brand citizenship behavior, thereby enhancing FBBE. Additionally, moderated mediation analysis indicates that the indirect effect of brand relationship quality on FBBE via brand citizenship behavior is stronger when franchisor competence is high. However, franchisor–franchisee relationship duration has no moderating effects on these relationships. The findings of this study have implications for franchising practitioners that are interested in understanding the role of brand relationship management in promoting franchisee brand citizenship behavior and FBBE

Exploration and visualization in the web of big linked data: a survey of the state of the art

Data exploration and visualization systems are of great importance in the Big Data era. Exploring and visualizing very large datasets has become a major research challenge, of which scalability is a vital requirement. In this survey, we describe the major prerequisites and challenges that should be addressed by the modern exploration and visualization systems. Considering these challenges, we present how state-of-the-art approaches from the Database and Information Visualization communities attempt to handle them. Finally, we survey the systems developed by Semantic Web community in the context of the Web of Linked Data, and discuss to which extent these satisfy the contemporary requirements

High-precision timing of 42 millisecond pulsars with the european pulsar timing array

We report on the high-precision timing of 42 radio millisecond pulsars (MSPs) observed by the European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA). This EPTA Data Release 1.0 extends up to mid-2014 and baselines range from 7–18 yr. It forms the basis for the stochastic gravitational-wave background, anisotropic background, and continuous-wave limits recently presented by the EPTA elsewhere. The Bayesian timing analysis performed with temponest yields the detection of several new parameters: seven parallaxes, nine proper motions and, in the case of six binary pulsars, an apparent change of the semimajor axis. We find the NE2001 Galactic electron density model to be a better match to our parallax distances (after correction from the Lutz–Kelker bias) than the M2 and M3 models by Schnitzeler. However, we measure an average uncertainty of 80 per cent (fractional) for NE2001, three times larger than what is typically assumed in the literature. We revisit the transverse velocity distribution for a set of 19 isolated and 57 binary MSPs and find no statistical difference between these two populations. We detect Shapiro delay in the timing residuals of PSRs J1600−3053 and J1918−0642, implying pulsar and companion masses mp=1.22+0.5−0.35 M⊙, mc=0.21+0.06−0.04 M⊙ and mp=1.25+0.6−0.4 M⊙, mc=0.23+0.07−0.05 M⊙, respectively. Finally, we use the measurement of the orbital period derivative to set a stringent constraint on the distance to PSRs J1012+5307 and J1909−3744, and set limits on the longitude of ascending node through the search of the annual-orbital parallax for PSRs J1600−3053 and J1909−3744