Learn to Live Again: A Pilot Study to Support Women Experiencing Domestic Violence

Purpose: The prevalence of domestic violence is increasing, and it is becoming more common for women who have experienced domestic violence to access support programs in their community. Learn to Live Again (L2LA) is an eight-week therapeutic program facilitated by Barnardos, which is provided through community support services in NSW, Australia. The program is designed for women who have experienced or continue to experience the traumatic effects of family and domestic violence. Methods: The pilot study involved collecting survey data from former participants and semi-structured interviews with current participants and facilitators. Data collection occurred between June and August 2023. Data collection included both face-to-face and online versions of the program. Results: All participants reported positive experiences of L2LA. The main benefits of the program for participants included connecting with women in similar situations, learning skills and strategies to cope with their experiences, sharing their lived experiences of domestic violence, and reconnecting with their children. Facilitators also had positive experiences of facilitating the program and observing the positive changes women experienced. Although, challenges were also identified and included managing the group dynamics, small group sizes, and managing trauma experiences in a group setting. Conclusion: The results indicate participants as well as facilitators had positive experiences of L2LA. Participants valued the program and felt that it helped them to begin the healing process and improve their overall wellbeing. Women were very passionate about recommending the program to other women. Facilitators observed many positive changes in the women throughout the program. However, L2LA challenges included the small group size, managing the dynamics of the group, and the range of trauma within the group as well as children being present. A larger evaluation of this program is required to confirm these findings.</p

An Analysis of the European Union’s Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing Regulation: Impact of the EC Carding System on the Laws and Practices of Third Countries

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Norms-Driven Behaviour Change for GHG Reduction: A Meta-Analytic Review of High and Low Involvement Behaviors

This meta-analysis explores how Normative Conduct Theory explains high-involvement behaviours, such as choosing electric vehicles, and low-involvement behaviours, such as reducing meat intake – both aimed at lowering carbon emissions. The study reveals that personal norms, descriptive norms, injunctive norms and social norms positively correlate with both behavioural categories examined. Personal norms are found to have the most significant impact on low-involvement behaviours, aligning with existing literature. In contrast, injunctive norms are the most influential for high-involvement behaviours, such as selecting electric vehicles, suggesting that these choices are strongly impacted by recommendations from significant others. Descriptive norms, social norms and personal norms follow in their influence on EV uptake. The analysis highlights the complex role of normative influences in promoting carbon reduction behaviours, providing valuable insights for advancing theoretical understanding and developing practical interventions to encourage sustainable choices.</p

Exploring the Experiences of Mental Health Consumers and Nursing Students at a Therapeutic Recreation Camp: A Novel Arts-Based Methodological Study

Background: In group settings people can develop bonds which are strong and contribute greatly to their feelings of wellbeing and satisfaction in life. Groups reduce isolation, bring hope, and connect people to something bigger than their individual selves. When positive contact takes place between two different groups, diversity between these groups can be a means to increase social capital. However, there is little research about contact through combined immersive group experiences, from the perspectives of both groups.Aim: The aim of this study was to explore mental health consumers’ and nursing students’ experiences of being in a group together at a therapeutic recreation camp.Research Design: A qualitative paradigm and arts-based methodology were used for this study. The research setting was a therapeutic recreation (TR) camp, where all participants, who were mental health consumers and nursing students, were immersed together in groups. Data were gathered through written contributions of participants to canvas artboards collectively. Contributions were guided by a question specific to their cohort. Consumers were asked: What is your experience of being immersed with nursing students? Students were asked: What is your experience of being immersed with consumers? Data from each cohort were thematically analysed, using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) method.Findings: There were ten consumer elements and twelve student elements which informed six themes.The consumer themes were Safe, Supportive, Interactions; Teaching and Learning with Students, and An Affirming Environment. The student themes were Evolving Perspectives; Positive View of Consumers, and Rich Experiences with Consumers. The essence of meaning reflecting the themes of both cohorts was Psychosocial Expansion.Discussion: Psychosocial Expansion is a concept which aligns with and extends sociological theories of group dynamics. Group self-expansion, relational self-expansion and positive regard toward outgroups were examined. Immersive experiences where two groups combined at a TR camp, led to Psychosocial Expansion for both mental health consumers and nursing students, fostering growth and benefits within their collective groups.Conclusion and Implications: This study generates new qualitative understandings of the impact of contact and immersion between two groups. A novel arts-based data collection method using canvas artboards was used to effectively explore the combining of mental health consumers and nursing students together in an immersion experience. The outcomes of the study have strong implications for community integration for mental health consumers, immersive education, and prejudice reduction.</p

Safe Adaptation of Foundation Large Language Models for Clinical Information Extraction in Aged Care: Evaluating Optimal Methods

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The Endocannabinoidome in Major Depressive Disorder: From Gene Expression and Neuroinflammation to Potential Novel Therapeutics

Major depressive disorder (MDD) affects approximately 5% of adults worldwide, causing substantial personal and societal costs. Current treatments like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) show limited effectiveness, with only 20% of patients demonstrating meaningful improvement over non-pharmacological interventions. The complex pathophysiology of depression involves multiple interconnected mechanisms, including monoamine dysfunction, neurotransmitter dysregulation, oxidative stress, and chronic inflammation. The endocannabinoidome (eCBome), a complex lipid signalling system, regulates many of these pathways, yet its role in depression remains poorly understood. Through systematic post-mortem human brain analysis, animal studies, and cellular and plant characterisation work, this thesis investigated eCBome alterations in MDD and explored novel therapeutic approaches targeting this system.</p

Self-regulated learning, satisfaction with distance learning, and learning outcomes among female gifted high school students

This study investigates the relationships between self-regulated learning (SRL), satisfaction with distance learning, and learning outcomes among female gifted high school students in Saudi Arabia, addressing a notable gap in the literature on K-12 gifted learners in distance learning. While prior research has extensively explored SRL, its role specifically within gifted distance learners remained underexamined. Additionally, student satisfaction has been studied at the university level but has not been fully examined in relation to learning outcomes and SRL among gifted high school students. By integrating these three variables, this research offers new insights into the dynamics of distance learning for gifted students.The study sample included 311 gifted female students who completed a four-part questionnaire developed by the researcher from validated instruments. The questionnaire collected general information, assessed SRL, students’ perceived learning outcomes, and satisfaction with distance learning. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed to analyse the data. SEM, chosen for its confirmatory approach and ability to model complex relationships, enabled the assessment of both direct and indirect effects among variables.</p

Mechanism of transcription modulation by the transcription-repair coupling factor

Elongation by RNA polymerase is dynamically modulated by accessory factors. The transcription-repair coupling factor (TRCF) recognizes paused/stalled RNAPs and either rescues transcription or initiates transcription termination. Precisely how TRCFs choose to execute either outcome remains unclear. With Escherichia coli as a model, we used single-molecule assays to study dynamic modulation of elongation by Mfd, the bacterial TRCF. We found that nucleotide-bound Mfd converts the elongation complex (EC) into a catalytically poised state, presenting the EC with an opportunity to restart transcription. After long-lived residence in this catalytically poised state, ATP hydrolysis by Mfd remodels the EC through an irreversible process leading to loss of the RNA transcript. Further, biophysical studies revealed that the motor domain of Mfd binds and partially melts DNA containing a template strand overhang. The results explain pathway choice determining the fate of the EC and provide a molecular mechanism for transcription modulation by TRCF.</p

Application of Wire-arc Directed Energy Deposition Process in the Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-Sc-Zr Alloys

Wire-arc directed energy Deposition (WA-DED) process is a combination of arc and wire feeding additive manufacturing technology including either the gas tungsten arc (GTA) or the gas metal arc (GMA) process. And this technology has been applied in the aerospace manufacturing industry to reduce the time of product development and “buy-to-fly” ratios. In recent years, many researchers and scientists have begun to apply WA-DED technology to manufacture different aluminum alloy components.The high-strength Al-Zn-Mg-Cu (7xxxx series) aluminum alloy is called as a non-weldable aluminum alloy due to their high susceptibility of hot cracking during the welding process. Traditional processing technologies, such as casting, also face many challenges such as poor casting performance and extremely high buy-to-fly ratio during the manufacturing process of large-scale Al-Zn-Mg-Cu high-strength aerospace structural parts. Therefore, the feasibility of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu aluminum alloys in WA-DED applications is very necessary to be verified. However, the existing Al-Zn-Mg-Cu aluminum alloy filler wires are not suitable for WADED process due to their high susceptibility to hot cracks, which is the major challenge for 7xxxx series aluminum alloy applied in WA-DED.In this thesis, a novel Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-Sc-Zr aluminum alloy wire with ultra-high strength and excellent hot-crack resistance has been successfully prepared by optimizing the composition of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloying elements and adding appropriate amounts of inoculants Sc and Zr elements during the smelting process. And then, the thin-wall components without any hot cracks were successfully fabricated by using cold metal transfer (CMT) process. Several key steps including smelting process, wire process, deposition parameters, heat treatment processes were shown in this study. The microstructure and precipitated second phases under the as-deposited and different heat-treated conditions were discussed in detail. The average ultimate tensile strength (UTS), yield strength (YS) and elongation of the T6 heat-treated sample were measured to be 618 ± 4 MPa, 542 ± 6 MPa and 5.7%, respectively. The outstanding tensile strength successfully exceeded 600MPa.However, WA-DED technology is based on the fusion welding process, and porosity defects are inevitable during the manufacturing process of WA-DED aluminum alloys due to the significant difference in the solubility of hydrogen in the liquid and solid phases of aluminum alloys. Meanwhile, there are also lack of fusion (LOF) defects and severe grain boundary segregation during the solidification process. All these defects will seriously affect the mechanical properties of WA-DED aluminum alloys, especially the fatigue property which is always considered as the final criterion for the engineering application of a new material. In order to effectively address pore defects, LOF defects as well as solve the grain boundary segregation issue in WA-DED aluminum alloys, an innovative hybrid WA-DED + interlayer friction stir processing (FSP) method was applied to successfully fabricate thick-walled Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-Sc-Zr aluminum alloy component with enhanced strength-ductility and fatigue properties. The porosity defects caused by the WA-DED process were effectively addressed in the FSP effective zone, and the original continuous grain boundary eutectic structures were broken up and dispersed along the grain boundaries. The grains were also further refined with an average size of about 1.1 ± 0.2 μm in the stirring zone (SZ). After T6 heat treatment. The manufactured alloy achieves isotropy in mechanical properties, with a tensile strength and elongation of 645 ± 8 MPa and 12.6 ± 0.5%, respectively. The fatigue performance is significantly improved to 250 MPa. This method provides a feasible approach for eliminating defects and achieving isotropy in aluminum alloys during the additive manufacturing process.</p

COVID-19 pandemic and the effect of increased utilisation of mobile X-ray examinations on radiation dose to radiographers

Introduction: The use of ionising radiation results in occupational exposure to medical imaging professionals, requiring routine monitoring. This study aims to assess the effect of increased utilisation of mobile X-ray units, mobile imaging of non-routine body regions and radiographer work practice changes for impact on staff radiation dose during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A retrospective analysis of general radiology departments across two metropolitan hospitals was performed. Personal radiation monitor exposure reports between January 2019 and December 2020 were analysed. Statistical analysis was conducted using a Mann–Whitney U test when comparing each quarter, from 2019 to 2020. Categorical data were compared using a Chi-squared test. Results: Mobile X-ray use during the pandemic increased approximately 1.7-fold, with the peak usage observed in September 2020. The mobile imaging rate per month of non-routine body regions increased from approximately 6.0–7.8%. Reported doses marginally increased during Q2, Q3 and Q4 of 2020 (in comparison to 2019 data), though was not statistically significant (Q2: P = 0.13; Q3: P = 0.31 and Q4 P = 0.32). In Q1, doses marginally decreased and were not statistically significant (P = 0.22). Conclusion: Increased utilisation and work practice changes had no significant effect on reported staff radiation dose. The average reported dose remained significantly lower than the occupational dose limits for radiation workers of 20 mSv.</p