The uptake of advance care planning by older adults in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatu Campus, New Zealand

Advance Care Planning refers to planning for end-of-life care in a proactive and comprehensive manner, preferably using a planning template. This is the first nationwide study since the formal introduction of Advance Care Planning to New Zealand in 2010, to look at the level of uptake among older adults in New Zealand. Four thousand and twenty-eight participants were surveyed about completion of living wills, enduring powers of attorney and advance care plans. Participants were also asked who they had discussed end-of-life matters with. The data was analysed using descriptive and inferential methods, including analysising demographic data for correlations with Advance Care Planning activities. Following the survey, nine participants were chosen by convenience sample to be interviewed. Thematic analysis was applied to the interview data. The interviews explored the contextual factors and decision-making processes underpinning end-of-life-care choices. The study found that uptake was low for all forms of planning documentation although enduring powers of attorney were the most commonly completed document. Advance Care Plan discussions occurred very regularly, with nearly half of the participants having discussions in the six months preceding the survey. These were most often with family and friends and seldom with health professionals. Bivariate correlation analysis showed weak to moderate correlations between age, physical health, gender, ethnicity, and Advance Care Plan activities. Logistic regression was used to explore the completion of advance care planning templates. This revealed that the most influential factors were completing a living will or enduring power of attorney; having a discussion with a legal representative; speaking with a spiritual advisor; and being non-Māori. The qualitative interviews found seven major themes covering knowledge of ACP, the process and timing of planning, independence, who should be part of the planning process and what had been learned from previous experiences. Overall, this study reveals that, despite health promotion efforts, uptake of formal Advance Care Planning remains low in New Zealand. Further work is needed to educate the public about Advance Care Planning and to support health professionals to initiate and maintain the ACP process

Desiring walls

Este fragmento es el capítulo de un libro de Wendy Brown que trata de ofrecer unas pautas teóricas para poder explicar la proliferación de los muros internacionales en las últimas décadas. Describe una de las contradicciones de la globalización liberal (un proceso de integración global provocado por la libre circulación de capital, bienes y personas), sosteniendo que estas construcciones representan un intento fracasado de revertir sus efectos para volver a imponer el poder del Estado-nación. Este texto explora las posibles explicaciones sobre por qué existe un deseo de tener muros en la modernidad tardía. En particular, Wendy Brown analiza si se podría relacionar este fenómeno con las nociones de defensa identitaria en el trabajo psicoanalítico de Sigmund y Anna Freud. Brown argumenta que los muros sirven para reforzar la identidad y la soberanía perdida por el estado-nación a causa de la globalización, y que ofrecen monumentos visuales que esconden la crisis del poder soberano fortaleciendo la idea de que estos pueden parar los efectos de la globalizaciónThis fragment is part of a book that tries to offer theoretical insights that may allow us to explain the proliferation of international walls over the last decades. It describes one of the contradictions of liberal globalisat ion (a process of global integration provoked by the free movement of capital, goods and people), arguing that these constructions represent a failed attempt at reversing its effects in order to impose the Nation-states power. This chapter explores possible explanations for why there is a desire for walls in late modernity. In particular, Wendy Brown analyses whether it would be possible to relate this phenomenon to the notions of identity defense developed in the psychoanalytic work of Sigmund and Ana Freud. Brown argues that walls serve to supplement the identity and sovereignty lost by the Nation-state, caused by globalization, in offering visual monuments that hide sovereign powers crisis and reinforce the idea that it can stop globalisation’s effects

Developing Australian Academics' Capacity: Supporting the Adoption of Open Educational Practices in Curriculum Design

This seed project initiative addressed an identified gap in Australian higher education between awareness of open educational practices (OEP) and implementation of OEP, particularly the production, adaptation and use of open educational resources (OER) to support the design of innovative, engaging and agile curriculum. In response, the authors aimed to design, develop, pilot and evaluate a free, open and online professional development course focused on supporting curriculum design in higher education. The specific aim of the course - Curriculum design for open education (CD4OE) - is to develop the capacity of academics in Australia to adopt and incorporate OER and OEP into curriculum development, for more effective and efficient learning and teaching across the sector

Martian north polar cap summer water cycle

A key outstanding question in Martian science is 'are the polar caps gaining or losing mass and what are the implications for past, current and future climate?' To address this question, we use observations from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) of the north polar cap during late summer for multiple Martian years, to monitor the summertime water cycle in order to place quantitative limits on the amount of water ice deposited and sublimed in late summer. We establish here for the first time the summer cycle of water ice absorption band signatures on the north polar cap. We show that in a key region in the interior of the north polar cap, the absorption band depths grow until Ls=120, when they begin to shrink, until they are obscured at the end of summer by the north polar hood. This behavior is transferable over the entire north polar cap, where in late summer regions 'flip' from being net sublimating into net condensation mode. This transition or 'mode flip' happens earlier for regions closer to the pole, and later for regions close to the periphery of the cap. The observations and calculations presented herein estimate that on average a water ice layer ~70 microns thick is deposited during the Ls=135-164 period. This is far larger than the results of deposition on the south pole during summer, where an average layer 0.6-6 microns deep has been estimated by Brown et al. (2014).Comment: This article is closely related and draws from arXiv:1501.0204

The Prevalence, Severity, and Impact of Breast Pain in the General Population

Breast pain has been investigated in clinical populations; however we have yet to understand the prevalence and severity of this condition in the general population to determine whether more should be done to minimize the impact of this condition on women's quality of life. Therefore, this study investigated the prevalence, severity, and impact of breast pain on quality of life and factors associated with breast pain in a normal population sample. 1,659 females (34.1 ± 13.2 years) completed the Breast Pain Questionnaire online, providing information on demographics, duration, frequency, and severity of breast pain, its association with the menstrual cycle, relieving, and aggravating factors and the impact on quality of life. Over half the sample (51.5%) experienced breast pain, with a severity similar to that reported in clinical populations. There was a higher prevalence of breast pain in older participants, larger breasted participants and those who were less fit and active. Of symptomatic participants, 41% and 35% reported breast pain affecting quality of life measures of sex and sleep and 10% of symptomatic participants had sufferer for over half their lives. The results of this study suggest that breast pain is a significant issue within the general population and yet this is the first study to investigate it. It is concluded that this condition warrants increased investigation, awareness, and treatment. The reported relationship between breast pain and fitness/activity levels may offer an alternative treatment in the form of exercise intervention strategies to reduce breast pain

Corporate governance and the informativeness of disclosures in Australia:a re-examination

We re-examine the association between corporate governance and disclosures reported by Beekes and Brown (2006), using an extended time series of Australian data. Since the ASX corporate governance guidelines were introduced in 2003, firms generally have increased their disclosure frequency and demonstrated an improvement in the timeliness of bad news relative to good news, indicating a levelling of disclosure practices and greater transparency. Better governed firms have become more cautious in their disclosure practices. However they continue to be more balanced with respect to good and bad news timeliness. Changes to disclosure laws have also influenced company practices

Financial integration and the transparency of firms in emerging capital markets

We examine the association between financial integration and capital market transparency of emerging-market firms. We use four intra-year price timeliness measures derived from the Beekes and Brown (2006, 2007) methods as indicators of the firm’s transparency. The sample comprises 57,465 firm-year observations on listed companies in 24 emerging economies over the period 1995-2010. As expected, we find that greater financial integration is associated with greater transparency, and that the effect is more pronounced when the news about the firm is bad. Using structural equation modelling (SEM), we find evidence of a mechanism through which financial integration enhances the information environment: improved corporate governance