Australian attitudes towards national identity: citizenship, immigration and tradition

Examines the results of the latest ANUpoll on Australian attitudes towards \u27what it means to be Australian\u27. Introduction National identity and what it means to be ‘Australian’ regularly influence the political and public debate in Australia, but they are not always clearly defined. This study, the 18th ANUpoll, explores how Australians identify with their country and how they view themselves as citizens

Online petitions in Australia: Information, opportunity and gender

This article compares offline and online petition signing in Australia, to examine whether online forms of political activity can mobilise citizens who would otherwise not participate. Using data from the 2010 Australian Election Study and a model of civic voluntarism comprising online and offline resources, the article presents several unexpected findings. First, women are significantly more likely than men to sign both written and e-petitions, and this will likely continue with the increasing circulation of e-petitions and corresponding decline in written petitions. Second, Australians from a non-English-speaking background are underrepresented in the signing of written petitions but not of e-petitions. Civic skills gained in the workplace and voluntary organisations positively predict both forms of petition signing, but language, gender and income do not constitute barriers to the signing of e-petitions. This article contributes to emerging evidence the internet can mobilise traditionally underrepresented groups to participate in political activity

Enforced compulsory voting results in more evenly distributed political knowledge than in voluntary systems

Electoral turnout in UK elections has been disappointing over recent cycles, despite a small uptick at the past two elections. One proposed solution is introducing compulsory voting, though this measure is controversial in countries where voluntary voting is practiced. Dr. Jill Sheppard argues that countries which use compulsion to ensure turnout not only have higher turnout, but also more politically informed citizens – though the results of her research were not wholly straightforward in their implications

Legislators' accountability for issue stances:evidence from Australia's Marriage Law Postal Survey

For legislators to be held accountable for their stances voters need to sanction unpopular positions. However, because of strong party discipline it is difficult to identify the effects of individual MPs’ stances rather than the stance of their party, because MPs almost always have the same stance as their party. Researchers must therefore study issues which cut across parties or where parties allowed representatives to follow their conscience. Same-sex marriage is one such issue. We use data from the 2017 marriage law survey and subsequent 2019 federal election results to test whether MPs whose referendum positions were out-of-step with their district faced electoral sanction. We find that a standard deviation increase in congruence at the level of the polling place catchment area yields a statistically and substantively insignificant change in vote share of -0.1 percentage points. The results question the degree to which electors control their representatives beyond voting for a party label

Developing the repository manager community

This paper describes activities which have taken place within the UK institutional repository (IR) sector focusing on developing a community of practice through the sharing of experiences and best practice. This includes work done by the UK Council of Research Repositories (UKCoRR) and other bodies, together with informal activities, such as sharing the experience of organising Open Access Week events. The paper also considers future work to be undertaken by UKCoRR to continue developing the community

Measuring social attitudes with voter advice application data

This study directly compares survey data on social attitudes collected from an opt-in sample of voter advice application (VAA) users and a randomly recruited, probability-based online panel of respondents. Whereas much research to date has focused on the demographic representativeness of VAA-generated data, less is known about the attitudinal and other representativeness of these data. The findings from these Australian samples contribute to the emerging international literature. VAAs are proliferating as a source of 'big data' among public opinion and political science researchers, despite concerns about the representativeness of the opt-in samples. During July 2016, VAA developer Election Compass collected email address details for approximately 40,000 Australian users of its application in the weeks before the 2016 Australian federal election. In November 2016, this study surveyed the sample of VAA users on their attitudes towards a range of Australian social issues. In December 2016, the same questionnaire was administered to a probability-based sample, using an identical mode of administration and similar response maximisation techniques. The questionnaire contains a broad range of questions designed to identify dimensions of sociopolitical attitudes in Australian society. Comparing the composition of dimensions and relationships between variables within the data contributes to our understanding of incidental samples such as VAA users, and the extent to which we can and should make inferences from VAA-generated data. Comparison of point estimates of the unweighted and weighted datasets, and of estimates of the internal relationships between variables within both datasets suggests that VAA user data should not be considered externally valid sources of social attitude data, even after adjustment. Further, researchers and reviewers should use greater caution when adjusting VAA user data on the basis of observable measures (with wellestablished population parameter estimates) to explain unobservable measures without robust population parameter estimates (such as social attitudes)

Structure and functioning of fish assemblages in two South African estuaries, with emphasis on the presence and absence of aquatic macrophyte beds

Temporarily open/closed estuaries (TOCEs) are the dominant estuary type in South Africa. These systems are often characterized by extensive beds of submerged macrophytes, which form important foraging and shelter habitats for fishes, especially for estuary-dependent fish species such as the Cape stumpnose Rhabdosargus holubi and Cape moony Monodactylus falciformis that are commonly associated with them. A loss of submerged macrophytes from an estuary has been shown to affect the fish community as well as reducing overall system productivity. The TOC East Kleinemonde Estuary, situated in the warm-temperate biogeographic region of South Africa has been subject to an ongoing long-term fish monitoring project since 1995. During the period 1995 to 2002, this estuary contained large beds of the submerged macrophytes Ruppia cirrhosa and Potamogeton pectinatus. However, subsequent to a major flood event in 2003 these macrophytes have been largely absent from this system. The effect of the loss of submerged macrophytes on the East Kleinemonde fish assemblage was investigated through an analysis of seine and gill net catch data. Seine net catches for a 12 year period, encompassing six years of macrophyte presence and six years of macrophyte senescence, revealed changes in the relative abundance of certain fish species. Vegetation-associated species such as R. holubi and M. falciformis decreased in abundance whereas sediment-associated species, especially members of the family Mugilidae, increased in abundance following loss of the macrophytes in this estuary. The critically endangered pipefish Syngnathus watermeyeri was only recorded in catches during years in which macrophyte beds were present. In addition to the analysis of catch data, the importance of macrophytes as a primary energy source for selected estuarine fishes was explored through the analysis of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes. Prior to conducting these analyses, common methodological practices to address the presence of carbonates and lipids within isotope samples were evaluated. A subset of samples were either acid washed to remove carbonates, or lipids were removed according to the method of Bligh and Dyer (1959) as both of these compounds have been shown to affect stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios. The suitability of the lipid normalization models of Fry (2002) and Post et al. (2007) for samples of estuarine fish muscle were also tested. Based on this evaluation both models are suitable for use with estuarine fish muscle tissue, however since neither carbonate nor lipid content of any of the samples used in this study was high all samples were left untreated in the following analysis. Carbon isotope ratios from a wide range of fish species collected from the East Kleinemonde Estuary during the macrophyte-senescent phase were compared with individuals of the same species from the neighbouring West Kleinemonde Estuary (where extensive beds of R. cirrhosa and P. pectinatus were present) and revealed the influence of submerged macrophyte material in the diet of fishes in the latter system. However, it was apparent that these plants are not directly consumed but rather contribute to the detrital pool that forms a food source for most invertebrate and some fish species. The most significant source of carbon for East Kleinemonde fishes during the macrophyte senescent phase appeared to have a more depleted origin; probably from benthic or pelagic microalgae. In conclusion, while the importance of macrophyte beds as shelter and foraging habitats for estuarine fishes are well documented, their role in terms of the structuring and functioning of fish assemblages in TOCEs remains somewhat uncertain. The findings of this study were possibly masked by the resilience of vegetation-associated species to the loss of this habitat, as well as by life history characteristics of species such as R. holubi that allow their numerical dominance despite habitat change. Nonetheless, macrophyte senescence in the East Kleinemonde Estuary resulted in the loss of at least one species and the reduced abundance of vegetation-associated species, probably reflective of reduced food resources and/or increased vulnerability to predation. As a result, beds of submerged macrophytes are an important habitat within TOCEs

The social determinants of health and subjective wellbeing: a comparison of probability and nonprobability online panels

As response rates to surveys decline all over the world, researchers are increasingly turning to sampling frames that are easier and cheaper to reach, and that have more predictable response rates. These include nonprobability web panels (NWPs) and probability web panels (PWPs). Although generally more expensive to construct, the latter have been shown in many instances to suffer from fewer biases and deviation from benchmarks. The literature comparing NWPs with PWPs is fedgling. We add to this research area by comparing measures of the social determinants of health that were estimated from a number of NWPs and PWP equivalents with a high-quality benchmark. The analysis finds that, when looking at the distributions of self- assessed health and life satisfaction, probability panels differ less from the gold standard than do nonprobability panels. This supports previous work, although we also show that this conclusion holds when a greater range of control variables is included in the model. However, some of the predictors of health are captured better using the nonprobability panels. In particular, the relationship between area-level disadvantage and health is better captured through a pooled nonprobability sample

Flow rate impacts on capillary pressure and interface curvature of connected and disconnected fluid phases during multiphase flow in sandstone

We investigate capillary pressure-saturation (PC-S) relationships for drainage-imbibition experiments conducted with air (nonwetting phase) and brine (wetting phase) in Bentheimer sandstone cores. Three different flow rate conditions, ranging over three orders of magnitude, are investigated. X-ray micro-computed tomographic imaging is used to characterize the distribution and amount of fluids and their interfacial characteristics. Capillary pressure is measured via (1) bulk-phase pressure transducer measurements, and (2) image-based curvature measurements, calculated using a novel 3D curvature algorithm. We distinguish between connected (percolating) and disconnected air clusters: curvatures measured on the connected phase interfaces are used to validate the curvature algorithm and provide an indication of the equilibrium condition of the data; curvature and volume distributions of disconnected clusters provide insight to the snap-off processes occurring during drainage and imbibition under different flow rate conditionsWe gratefully acknowledge funding from the Australian Research Council through Discovery Project DP160104995, and the member companies of the ANU/UNSW Digicore Research Consortium