Coming of Age in Boston: Out-of-School Time Opportunities for Teens

Synthesizes findings from interviews, surveys, a literature review, and new research on current out-of-school time programs, what teens need and seek, and elements of effective programs. Includes a case study of environmental youth development programs

Review of "Making Stories: How Ten Australian Novels Were Written" by Kate Grenville and Sue Woolfe.

Kate Douglas's review of "Making Stories: How Ten Australian Novels Were Written" (Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, 2001, 1993)

Review of "Big Bother: Why did that reality-tv show become such a phenomenon" by Toni Johnson-Woods.

English LiteratureKate Douglas's review of "Big Bother: Why did that reality tv-show become such a phenomenon?" by Toni Johnson-Woods (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 2002)

Review of "Other People's Words" by Hilary McPhee.

postcolonialKate Douglas's review of "Other People's Words" by Hilary McPhee (Sydney: Picador, 2001)

Blunted cardiac reactions to acute psychological stress predict symptoms of depression five years later: Evidence from a large community study

We recently reported a cross-sectional negative relationship between cardiovascular reactivity and depressive symptoms. The present analyses examined the prospective association between reactivity and symptoms of depression five years later. At the earlier time point depressive symptoms, using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and cardiovascular reactions to a standard mental stress were measured in 1608 adults comprising three distinct age cohorts: 24-, 44-, and 63-year olds. Depression was re-assessed using the HADS five years later. Heart rate reactions to acute psychological stress were negatively associated with subsequent depressive symptoms; the lower the reactivity the higher the depression scores. This association withstood adjustment for symptom scores at the earlier time point, and for socio-demographic factors and medication status. The mechanisms underlying this prospective relationship remain to be determined

We Don't Need No Education: Adolescence and the School in Contemporary Australian Teen TV

postcolonialTelevision remains the number one leisure pursuit of Australian teenagers, yet teenagers occupy a number of complicated, sometimes contradictory, spaces on contemporary Australian television. Non-fictional teen representations range from the routinely apocalyptic (such as the ‘street kids’ and ‘drug addicts’ of news media), to the conventionally 'beautiful' (on reality programmes such as "Search for a Supermodel" and "Popstars"). Alongside these images are a variety of fictional teen images dominated by soap operas such as "Home and Away" and "Neighbours", which have successfully targeted teen and young adult demographics for a number of years. Since the mid-1990s, there has also been a (relatively unsuccessful) shift in Australia towards 'quality teen television drama' — programmes fundamentally for and about youth. In this chapter we focus on "Heartbreak High", arguably the most significant Australian 'quality teen television drama' of the 1990s. We explore how the programme’s diegesis negotiates and maps identities for contemporary Australian teenagers. More specifically, we examine constructions of teenage identities in contemporary Australian ‘quality teen television drama’ (hereafter referred to as ‘teen TV’) via representations of ‘the school’ and ‘post-school’ options within the programme. We investigate how "Heartbreak High" has responded to (whether by conforming to, or exceeding) the available cultural spaces for narrating adolescent experiences, but also to the broader social relationship between adolescents and schools. How does this programme represent the accord and tension between teens and schools? Do these representations offer diverse or uniform outcomes for their teen characters in relation to educational and post-school options, and what are the implications for Australian teen identities more broadly? We overview "Heartbreak High" and its reception, but also make comparative references to other Australian programmes that feature teens prominently

‘Nostalgic food heals for us’: A qualitative exploration of experiences with nostalgia, food, and mood

Issue AddressedNostalgia—the bittersweet reliving of the past—has been linked to social connection and psychological wellbeing. Although food consumption is often an intrinsically social experience, relatively little research has examined how individuals experience and understand how food consumption relates to feelings of nostalgia, food and mood.MethodsIn the current study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight Australians from varying cultural backgrounds to explore their experiences with nostalgia, food and mood.ResultsReflexive thematic analysis identified three key themes from the data: (i) The bittersweet experiences of food-evoked nostalgia—individuals' descriptions of food-evoked nostalgia and how it impacted their mood both positively and negatively (ii) social connection and identity continuity—participants' description of food-evoked nostalgia and how this provides an opportunity for social connection and identity continuity throughout life, which positively influences mood, and (iii) the role and relationship of food-evoked nostalgia and mood—individual descriptions of the important role that nostalgic food plays in their life, in addition to their relationship with food, and how this impacts mood.ConclusionsUnderstanding the positive component of nostalgic foods allowed individuals to bolster positive mood states with food-evoked nostalgia, increasing their quality of life.So What?Understanding the link between food-evoked nostalgia and mood has significant implications, suggesting that negative mood states altered by nostalgic foods may result in positive mood states. Appropriate use of food-evoked nostalgia may increase the quality of life for individuals experiencing low mood states

Strategic Disclosure in the Patent System

Patent applications are evaluated in light of the prior art. What this means is that patent examiners evaluate a claimed invention by comparing it with what in a rough sense corresponds to the set of ideas and inventions already known to the public. This is done for three reasons. First, the comparison helps to ensure that patents issue only in cases where an inventor has made a non-trivial contribution to the public\u27s store of knowledge. Second, it protects a possible reliance interest on the part of the public since, once an invention is widely known, members of the public might reasonably assume that the invention is free for all to use. And third, it pressures inventors to file their patent applications promptly lest some other inventor disclose a related invention or the applicant himself inadvertently let slip some fraction of his own research result. The prior art inquiry has a fourth policy implication, however, and while this one might not have been one of the motivating factors for establishing the inquiry in the first place, it is just as important when it comes to designing and interpreting sensible prior art rules. That additional wrinkle is simply this: the fact that patent applications are evaluated in light of the prior art gives firms a strategic incentive to create prior art. A firm can publish a journal article or engage in a public demonstration and in that way affect both a rival\u27s ability to patent a related invention and the rival\u27s incentive to do so. Perhaps surprisingly, this can make the disclosing firm better off even though, by revealing information, the firm is likely helping its rival and, worse, narrowing or even fully preempting the very patent it seeks. In this Article, then, we explain the incentive for strategic disclosure. We show that a firm trailing in a given patent race has an incentive to disclose information in the hopes of preempting a rival\u27s patent, but only if the laggard itself has little chance of leapfrogging the leader and winning the race. We show that a firm leading a patent race similarly has an incentive to disclose, this time in an effort to reduce its rival\u27s expected payoff and in that way encourage the rival to quit the race. We consider the possibility that private negotiations will displace public disclosures, for example with the laggard agreeing not to disclose and in exchange receiving from the ultimate patentee some form of favorable licensing agreement. Lastly, we consider the implications all this might have for the patent system overall