Access to early childhood education in Australia

This report presents AIFS research undertaken to identify gaps in access to and participation in preschool programs by Australian children in the year before full-time school review how "access" to preschool services is conceptualised and defined; identify the issues and factors that affect access to preschool services; and document and provide recommendations on how access to preschool services can be measured beyond broad performance indicators. To meet these objectives, the publication includes a review of Australian and international literature; results of consultations across Australia; and analyses of participation of children in early childhood education using a number of Australian datasets. The key messages identified by the study included: "Access" to Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Australia is considered to be more than just "participation" in ECE. It should, for example, also cover elements of quality, relevance to children. However, data are not available that would allow measurement against such a broadly defined concept of "access". There are difficulties and limitations in using existing survey and administrative data to measure "access" by "participation" in ECE. Nevertheless these data provide broad indications of ECE participation. Participation rates have the advantage of being easily understood and easily compared over jurisdictions and time. The complexity and variation in how ECE is delivered in Australia has implications for the measurement of access. This is related to different nomenclature used, and varied ages at which children are eligible to attend ECE. The different models of delivery of ECE also complicate the measurement issues, with long day care a widespread provider of ECE in some states/territories, but not others. Given there are difficulties in measuring access, this research used a number of datasets, to provide a fuller understanding of access across Australia. The analyses showed that children missing out on ECE were more often represented among disadvantaged families, and whose children are perhaps in greatest need of ECE to achieve school-readiness. The groups of children who stood out in these analyses as being less likely to be participating in ECE were Indigenous children and children from NESB backgrounds

Access to early childhood education in Australia: insights from a qualitative study

Based on interviews with 94 parents in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia, this report investigates parents\u27 knowledge of and attitudes towards early childhood education. Executive summary This report documents the background, methodology and findings from the Access to Early Childhood Education (AECE): Qualitative Study, undertaken by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) and commissioned by the then Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR; now the Department of Education) on behalf of the Early Childhood Data Subgroup (ECDSG). This research was commissioned within the context of the National Partnership Agreement on Early Childhood Education (NP ECE), which jointly committed the Commonwealth and all state and territory governments to achieving universal access to preschool by 2013. The AECE Qualitative Study was undertaken in order to develop a qualitative evidence base about how the concept of “access” to early childhood education (ECE) is defined and understood, and to explore what reasons and barriers exist in relation to access to ECE. A qualitative framework was chosen for this study to enable more in-depth study of any barriers to ECE, and/or factors that lead to parents making particular decisions about their children’s use of ECE. &nbsp

Improved Bounds on the Phase Transition for the Hard-Core Model in 2-Dimensions

For the hard-core lattice gas model defined on independent sets weighted by an activity $\lambda$, we study the critical activity $\lambda_c(\mathbb{Z}^2)$ for the uniqueness/non-uniqueness threshold on the 2-dimensional integer lattice $\mathbb{Z}^2$. The conjectured value of the critical activity is approximately $3.796$. Until recently, the best lower bound followed from algorithmic results of Weitz (2006). Weitz presented an FPTAS for approximating the partition function for graphs of constant maximum degree $\Delta$ when $\lambda<\lambda_c(\mathbb{T}_\Delta)$ where $\mathbb{T}_\Delta$ is the infinite, regular tree of degree $\Delta$. His result established a certain decay of correlations property called strong spatial mixing (SSM) on $\mathbb{Z}^2$ by proving that SSM holds on its self-avoiding walk tree $T_{\mathrm{saw}}^\sigma(\mathbb{Z}^2)$ where $\sigma=(\sigma_v)_{v\in \mathbb{Z}^2}$ and $\sigma_v$ is an ordering on the neighbors of vertex $v$. As a consequence he obtained that $\lambda_c(\mathbb{Z}^2)\geq\lambda_c( \mathbb{T}_4) = 1.675$. Restrepo et al. (2011) improved Weitz's approach for the particular case of $\mathbb{Z}^2$ and obtained that $\lambda_c(\mathbb{Z}^2)>2.388$. In this paper, we establish an upper bound for this approach, by showing that, for all $\sigma$, SSM does not hold on $T_{\mathrm{saw}}^\sigma(\mathbb{Z}^2)$ when $\lambda>3.4$. We also present a refinement of the approach of Restrepo et al. which improves the lower bound to $\lambda_c(\mathbb{Z}^2)>2.48$.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figure. Polished proofs and examples compared to earlier versio

Geochemistry of mineral dust in the McMurdo Dry Valleys Region, Antarctica

The transport and deposition of windblown materials are major processes in the ice-free areas of polar regions. The deposition of aeolian material provides connectivity within the ecosystems of these regions and is integral in understanding geochemical balances and exchanges between landscape units. We have analyzed materials deposited on glacier and permanent lake-ice surfaces as well as geomorphological features formed by aeolian processes in the largest ice-free area in Antarctica, the McMurdo Dry Valleys (~78 °S) in order to determine the source of this sediment. This presentation will focus on the materials collected from the glacier and lake surfaces. The bulk of sediment movement occurs during foehn events in the austral winter that redistribute material throughout the region. The majority of these samples were sand size (\u3e80 %) by weight. Samples containing the highest silt size were from the glaciers in the eastern portion of the Taylor Valley which is the most downwind position. Major rock-forming elements were analyzed using Standard XRF techniques. The alkali metals were depleted with respect to the Upper Continental Crust (UCC), in both the sand and silt fractions, while the alkaline earths were enriched. The TiO2, Fe2O3 and Al2O3 in the sands are similar to UCC values. The major element geochemistry of the aeolian material suggests that it is a mix of the four major rock types in the Valley itself: PreCambrian basement complex, Beacon Sandstone, Ferrar Dolerite and McMurdo Volcanics. Sr isotopic measurements of the fine grained materials from the glacier surfaces indicate the material is similar to the soils from their respective glacier/lake basins. Nd isotope values of this material lie intermediate to the rock values, indicating multiple sources of the aeolian material. The Sr and Nd isotopic data do not plot within the fields of dust from either Vostok or Dome C ice cores which has been interpreted as coming primarily from South America. All of our data suggest a local source of the majority of aeolian material deposited with Taylor Valle

An Essential Role for Tumor Necrosis Factor in Natural Killer Cell–mediated Tumor Rejection in the Peritoneum

Natural killer (NK) cells are thought to provide the first line of defence against tumors, particularly major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I− variants. We have confirmed in C57BL/6 (B6) mice lacking perforin that peritoneal growth of MHC class I− RMA-S tumor cells in unprimed mice is controlled by perforin-dependent cytotoxicity mediated by CD3− NK1.1+ cells. Furthermore, we demonstrate that B6 mice lacking tumor necrosis factor (TNF) are also significantly defective in their rejection of RMA-S, despite the fact that RMA-S is insensitive to TNF in vitro and that spleen NK cells from B6 and TNF-deficient mice are equally lytic towards RMA-S. NK cell recruitment into the peritoneum was abrogated in TNF-deficient mice challenged with RMA-S or RM-1, a B6 MHC class I− prostate carcinoma, compared with B6 or perforin-deficient mice. The reduced NK cell migration to the peritoneum of TNF-deficient mice correlated with the defective NK cell response to tumor in these mice. By contrast, a lack of TNF did not affect peptide-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte–mediated rejection of tumor from the peritoneum of preimmunized mice. Overall, these data show that NK cells delivering perforin are the major effectors of class I− tumor rejection in the peritoneum, and that TNF is specifically critical for their recruitment to the peritoneum

Synthesizing diverse evidence: the use of primary qualitative data analysis methods and logic models in public health reviews

Objectives: The nature of public health evidence presents challenges for conventional systematic review processes, with increasing recognition of the need to include a broader range of work including observational studies and qualitative research, yet with methods to combine diverse sources remaining underdeveloped. The objective of this paper is to report the application of a new approach for review of evidence in the public health sphere. The method enables a diverse range of evidence types to be synthesized in order to examine potential relationships between a public health environment and outcomes. Study design: The study drew on previous work by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence on conceptual frameworks. It applied and further extended this work to the synthesis of evidence relating to one particular public health area: the enhancement of employee mental well-being in the workplace. Methods: The approach utilized thematic analysis techniques from primary research, together with conceptual modelling, to explore potential relationships between factors and outcomes. Results: The method enabled a logic framework to be built from a diverse document set that illustrates how elements and associations between elements may impact on the well-being of employees. Conclusions: Whilst recognizing potential criticisms of the approach, it is suggested that logic models can be a useful way of examining the complexity of relationships between factors and outcomes in public health, and of highlighting potential areas for interventions and further research. The use of techniques from primary qualitative research may also be helpful in synthesizing diverse document types. (C) 2010 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Educational strategies to enhance reflexivity among clinicians and health professional students: a scoping study

Reflexivity involves the ability to understand how one's social locations and experiences of advantage or disadvantage have shaped the way one understands the world. The capacity for reflexivity is crucial because it informs clinical decisions, which can lead to improvements in service delivery and patient outcomes. In this article, we present a scoping study that explored educational strategies designed to enhance reflexivity among clinicians and/or health profession students. We reviewed articles and grey literature that address the question: What is known about strategies for enhancing reflexivity among clinicians and students in health professional training programs? We searched multiple databases using keywords including: reflexivity, reflective, allied health professionals, pedagogy, learning, and education. The search strategy was iterative and involved three reviews. Each abstract was independently reviewed by two team members. Sixty-eight texts met the inclusion criteria. There was great diversity among the educational strategies and among health professions. Commonalities across strategies were identified related to reflective writing, experiential learning, classroom-based activities, continuing education, and online learning. We also summarize the 19 texts that evaluated educational strategies to enhance reflexivity. Further research and education is urgently needed for more equitable and socially-just health care