Sharing sweet water: Culture and the wise use of wetlands in Western Australia

The similarities and differences in traditional, contemporary and global/international cultures’ development and use of institutions for the wise use of wetlands are explored across Western Australia. A process grounded in social anthropology is used to test a research hypothesis and to assess the structure and function of the diverse cultures’ institutions and empathy for wetlands. Six thematic case studies were located in catchments on Perth’s Ridge Hill, Perth’s Eastern Hills, Perth, and Western Australia’s Swan Coastal Plain, the Southwest, and its rangelands. Sources of evidence also include the literature on Aboriginal Australia, an extensive and detailed ethnographic review of regional and historic documents, the scientific literature of strategic water, wetlands and environmental management, and three decades of the author’s professional work. This analysis demonstrates that traditional Western Australian cultures have diverse and effective institutions for sustainable use, conservation, protection and a well-developed empathy for their inland waters. In contrast, contemporary Western Australian cultures with some important exceptions do not, and are more accepting of the continuing exploitation and systematic destruction of the remaining natural waters, particularly in urban and agricultural areas of the Southwest. This recent destruction of wetlands is moderated occasionally by the efforts of traditional cultures, community and heritage organizations, sometimes through the use of contemporary planning and environmental protection institutions, and more rarely because of Australia’s obligations to global Conventions. The analysis explains why better use of these institutions is essential. Opportunities for improving wise use of wetlands in Western Australia are identified. Particularly important is the need for the more transparent engagement and regular reporting by the State of Western Australia in support of Australia’s obligations to the global Conventions. This includes reporting on progress towards the establishment of nature reserves on Swan Coastal Plain wetlands under Article 4 of the Ramsar Convention. It includes reporting the meeting of National targets for protecting priority biodiversity of inland water ecosystems, the protection of the buffers of wetlands and waterways as parts of ecological corridors, and State-wide progress towards use of traditional ecological knowledge to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Reporting is needed on progress made towards implementing relevant Articles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. All reports might valuably include progress on identified new priority initiatives such as distributed network of wetland education centres, the better protection of monument wetland sites and improved indigenous heritage conservation. Such work, carried out in conjunction with Perth’s Whadjug peoples, the Southwest’s Nyoongar peoples, and the rangeland’s Kimberley, Yarnangu and Yamatji peoples, will help the conservation of the State’s inland waters as a necessary condition of human and ecosystem existence, as well as provide valuable common ground in which to practise tolerance, respect and cooperation between cultures. The better recognition of traditional ecological knowledge, the provision of more support for Indigenous engagement in wetland conservation, and the implementation of a far broader range of effective institutions are all identified as essential requirements for moving towards the wise use of wetlands in Western Australia

Sib Kinnect: supporting siblings of children with disabilities using a telehealth approach

Current evidence-based literature regarding the experiences of siblings of children with disabilities acknowledges that siblings have diverse experiences and that it is unclear to what extent siblings are negatively impacted. (Emerson & Giallo, 2014; Giallo, Roberts, Emerson, Wood, & Gavidia-Payne, 2014; Goudie, Havercamp, Jamieson, & Sahr, 2013; Neely-Barnes & Graff, 2011). Yet the literature also emphasizes that a substantial portion of siblings experience emotional and social difficulties and are in need of clinical services that better address their challenges. The aim of this doctoral project is to create an evidence-based and theoretically grounded program that supports siblings through the use of telehealth. Telehealth has previously been used with youth, mostly to address chronic conditions, and demonstrated comparable, and sometimes superior, outcomes when using telehealth as opposed to face-to-face treatment (Dougherty, Lipman, Hyams, & Montgomery, 2014; Gettings, Franco, & Santosh, 2015; Letourneau et al., 2012). The objectives of Sib Kinnect, the proposed program, are to use telehealth to increase knowledge about disability, promote development of meaningful interests, improve coping and problem solving skills, and provide an enjoyable experience in which siblings can connect and learn from each other. The eight-week manual-guided program is designed for siblings, ages 10-12, of children with developmental disabilities and will include fun, age-appropriate activities and discussions that address the desired outcomes in a format that is enjoyable and engaging. In order for this program to be implemented, this project will also discuss important operational components such as the evaluation plan, information dissemination, staffing, and fundin

Reflections on Citizenship: Thinking About Power as Interaction

The steady decline of participation in many areas of public life suggests that we may be overlooking power as not only a source of the problem, but also as a critical part of the solution. Leslie Hill argues that to revive concepts of citizenship and democratic participation enshrined in the language of the nation\u27s founding, we ought to rethink conventional ideas about power as control and domination and, in the alternative, view power as interaction. She also suggests that we need to adopt new approaches to civic education that include this concept of power as interactive politics. Underlying this argument, she asserts, is a fundamental tenet of democratic governance: that all parties in a democracy, not just those with superior wealth, status, or expertise, ought to be involved in initiating, responding to, and determining what the common good is and the most appropriate ways to achieve it

A sustainable approach to financial turnaround of a mature business within the UK steel industry

PhD ThesisThe UK steel industry is an example of a mature industry that has failed to cope with the harsh realities of changing market dynamics. Since nationalisation its response has been predicated upon cost and asset retrenchment. However, this alone has failed to address decline in sales and poor financial returns. Consequently, the UKs market share within home and global markets has been eroded and will continue as such unless it can address its ability to differentiate the product it offers. This thesis has considered the cause(s) of organisational failure and the development of an appropriate turnaround strategy. As an Action Researcher this has involved understanding how change introduced in the work place was accepted within the social context of that environment. Fieldwork undertaken within Corus Tubes Energy (CTE), considered by the Researcher to be representative of the UK steel industry, included both primary and secondary methods of data capture and analysis. For example, interviews, observation, narrative and content analysis, followed by periods of reflection as theories were constructed and tested. Investigative studies concluded that for CTE to compete effectively it had to differentiate itself as a high-tech, low-cost competitor by addressing internal issues and improving productivity by 52%. The turnaround strategy developed by the Researcher was premised on a mutually supportive operational and HRM strategy. Lean Manufacturing (LM) was adopted as a mechanism to reform workshop practices, address operational efficiency, reduce conversion cost, extend capability and thereby address competitive position. Whilst simultaneously, outdated HRM practices were reconstituted to support the introduction and the ability to sustain a radical transformation in operational and strategic practices. The ‘adopt and adapt’ approach employed has achieved this and resulted in a sustained turnaround moving a loss-making trajectory to profit-making. The turnaround has demonstrated the viability of the business and safe-guarded jobs. The unique contribution to theory has been the development of the Sustainability Framework and the use of LM as a concept to be used to facilitate turnaround. Supportive contributions include: the extension the NEPA model through the development of a process that supports strategic change at management level within the UK steel industry; and a closed loop methodology that engaged shop floor operators in continuous improvement

The fragility of thinking

In a recent volume titled Demande (Expectation), containing texts written over a period of more than thirty years, but each devoted to different aspects of the relationship between philosophy and literature, Jean-Luc Nancy offers a suggestive account of their mutual genesis and ongoing dialogue in order to underline the way in which, beyond their apparent dialectical reciprocity, philosophy and literature are each inseparable from the unanswered and unanswerable questions they ask themselves and each other. Both, in other words, are said to belong to the “in-between,” that fragile zone of undecidability that, according to Nancy’s reading of Kant, is a salient characteristic of all supposed self-identity. This article explores some of the implications of Nancy’s formulation as it affects the seemingly intractable question of myth’s interruption. It considers in particular some of the problematic features, deriving, it argues, from the inescapable fragility of thought itself, that may to be found in Nancy’s sometimes tense and contradictory engagement with the work of Maurice Blanchot, the subject of two important essays in Demande, which raises probing questions of Nancy’s own philosophical enterprise

Effects of Perceiver / Target Gender and Social Networking Presence on Web-based Impression Formation

As the Web has expanded in its use and utility it has fundamentally changed the way in which individuals gather and use information. This paper suggests that those changes give rise to tangible and significant effects in the impressions people form of others using Web-based information. This study explores the impacts of perceiver gender, target gender, and social networking presence on subjects’ perceptions of potential teammates otherwise unknown to them as revealed by ratings they assign based only on search engine results. Experiments reveal differences in how male and female perceivers view others’ social networking activity in general and suggest that how the perceiver gender matches, or differs, from the gender of the target affects how social networking presence plays into impression formation. Findings hold implications for professionals, academics and individuals concerned with the role that Web-based information plays in impression formation and how inherent gender-based biases may affect power and politics in the workplace and beyond

Medicare Fraud in the United States: Can it Ever be Stopped?

The majority of the United States health care fraud has been focused on the major public program, Medicare. The yearly financial loss from Medicare fraud has been estimated at about $54 billion. The purpose of this research study was to explore the current state of Medicare fraud in the United States, identify current policies and laws that foster Medicare fraud, and determine the financial impact of Medicare fraud. The methodology for this study was a literature review. Research was conducted using a scholarly online database search and government Web sites. The number of individuals charged with criminal fraud increased from 797 cases in fiscal year 2008 to 1430 cases in fiscal year 2011—an increase of more than 75$25.2 million of taxpayers’ money. Educating providers about the policies and laws designed to prevent fraud would help them to become partners. Many new programs and partnerships with government agencies have also been developed to combat Medicare fraud. Medicare fraud has been a persistent crime, and laws and policies alone have not been enough to control the problem. With investments in governmental partnerships and new systems, the United States can reduce Medicare fraud but probably will not stop it altogether

Oligomerization of Negatively-Charged Amino Acids by Carbonyldiimidazole

The carbonyldiimidazole-induced oligomerizations of aspartic acid, glutamic acid and 0-phospho-serine are amongst the most efficient reported syntheses of biopolymers in aqueous solution. The dependence of the yields of products on the concentrations of reagents, the temperature and the enantiomeric composition of the substrate amino acids are reported. Catalysis by metal ions, particularly by Mg(2+), is described. These reactions do not generate significant amounts of material in the size-range of several tens of residues that are thought to be needed for a polymer to function as a genetic material

Catalysis of the Oligomerization of O-Phospho-Serine, Aspartic Acid, or Glutamic Acid by Cationic Micelles

Treatment of relatively concentrated aqueous solutions of O-phospho-serine (50 mM), aspartic acid (100 mM) or glutamic acid (100 mM) with carbonyldiimidazole leads to the formation of an activated intermediate that oligomerizes efficiently. When the concentration of amino acid is reduced tenfold, few long oligomers can be detected. Positively-charged cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide micelles concentrate the negatively-charged activated intermediates of the amino acids at their surfaces and catalyze efficient oligomerization even from dilute solutions

The Limits of Template-Directed Synthesis with Nucleoside-5'-Phosphoro(2-Methyl) Imidazolides

In earlier work we have shown that C-rich templates containing isolated A, T or G residues and short oligo(G) sequences can be copied effectively using nucleoside-5'-phosphoro(2-methyl)imidazolides as substrates. We now show that isolated A or T residues within an oligo(G) sequence are a complete block to copying and that an isolated C residue is copied inefficiently. Replication is possible only if there are two complementary oligonucleotides each of which acts as a template to facilitate the synthesis of the other. We emphasize the severity of the problems that need to be overcome to make possible non-enzymatic replication in homogeneous aqueous solution. We conclude that an efficient catalyst was involved in the origin of polynucleotide replication