Submission to the Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee: Youth Justice (Boot Camp Orders) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012

This submission addresses the Youth Justice (Boot Camp Orders) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012 which has as its objectives (1) the introduction of a Boot Camp Order as an option instead of detention for young offenders and (2) the removal of the option of court referred youth justice conferencing for young offenders. As members of the QUT Faculty of Law Centre for Crime and Justice we welcome the invitation to participate in the discussion of these issues which are critically important to the Queensland community at large but especially to our young people

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationWith numerous options for mitigating CO2 emissions, the need to address global climate change, and limited financial resources, it is essential to evaluate greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation strategies to prioritize investments of time and capital. This research adopts a life-cycle approach toward this prioritization for three GHG mitigation strategies: (1) aqueous CO2 mineralization, (2) oxyfiring for unconventional transportation fuels, and (3) underground coal thermal treatment (UCTT). As this research moves from strategy (1) to strategy (3), it progresses from using literature data to close collaboration with other researchers to design and perform experiments and simulations needed to assess GHG impacts. The evaluation of each strategy includes quantitative consideration of all major energy and GHG flows and a qualitative consideration of other potential barriers, i.e., resource availability and hazardous byproducts. Commercial-scale, aqueous CO2 mineralization involves the reaction of CO2 with an industrial caustic or a waste containing a reactive metal oxide to form a solid mineral carbonate. The evaluation revealed that once the full-life cycle material and energy balance are considered, this technology has limited applicability at the large scale. The industrial caustic pathway has a high energy penalty (50 to > 100%) and produces toxic byproducts (chlorine gas). The reactive metal oxide/waste pathway has a lower energy penalty (10 to 20%), but its applicability is limited by the availability of wastes containing reactive metal oxides. Oxyfiring with CO2 capture is one of the most promising CO2 mitigation strategies for the fossil energy sector. Chapter 3 discusses whether oxyfiring with CO2 could help fuels derived from oil sand and shale meet a low-carbon fuel standard. The results showed that this strategy is feasible, but it will likely place these fuels at a competitive disadvantage. UCTT is a novel technology to heat coal in situ and produce a lower carbon content, higher heating value syngas or liquid fuel. Results indicate that UCTT has a limited potential for CO2 mitigation because of the large energy ""losses"" to the coal in situ caused by the large volumes of coal that are heated to low temperatures, resulting in limited product

Intimate bodies and technologies: A concept for live-digital dancing

This thesis considers the relationship between dance and digital media, and considers a specific type of case regarding this relationship: live and mediated. My motivation has been to identify and investigate, through practice, some of the difficulties presented when live and mediated bodies are placed within the same performance environment. In order to challenge some of the difficulties of what I consider as the problematic medium of digital dance, this thesis offers an examination of the ways in which digital media can positively transform the processes of making movement, and explores how the assimilation of media, as an integral agent within movement generation, can counter the dominance of the digital. Such dominance has been considered using a Practice As Research (PaR) model, and thus the thesis exemplifies both the creation of, and a deep reflection on, three works: Shift (2010-11), Betwixt & Between (2012-13) and Modulation_one (2013-14). Through the development of these works, I have sought to formally analyze and illuminate how media technologies, and in particular projection, can enrich the processes for making movement. This has been done in the context of a proliferation of digital technologies being available within a studio setting. In particular, the works have been established from the perspective of the dancer, which represents a specific case study for challenging the dominance of the digital. What follows in the written thesis is an analysis of what is a continuing and emerging practice. The written thesis therefore serves as both a document of the process and presents an illustration of a methodological approach for generating synergistic relationships with movement and projection. This relationship is proposed as a concept for live-digital dancing, which represents the main contribution to knowledge. The term live-digital advances the idea that a dancer is neither bound or restricted by either a live or digital construct, rather she is inspired to move and respond, in the moment of performance, to an unfolding assemblage of live and digital materials. Significantly, this has been established through the experiential encounters of the dancer moving with simultaneous projections of self. Live-digital therefore offers a methodological approach for constructing digital dance performance environments, which place perception and experience at the fore

Interprofessional impressions among nursing and pharmacy students: a qualitative study to inform interprofessional education initiatives

Background Medical care is increasingly complex and must draw upon the distinct, yet complementary skills of various health disciplines. Healthcare student integration through interprofessional education (IPE) activity is considered one way to promote early, and subsequently sustain, the principles of teamwork. However, It has been demonstrated that each profession has distinct profession-based subcultures, or common attitudes, beliefs and values, even among undergraduate students before commencing their training. We sought to evaluate if undergraduate pharmacy and nursing student in the Middle East had similarly formed attitudes and perceptions of each others’ roles. Methods Focus group and semi-structured interviews were conducted with undergraduate pharmacy and nursing students enrolled at Qatar University College of Pharmacy and University of Calgary – Qatar Nursing programs. An eight-question topic guide was developed following comprehensive literature review of reports of other interdisciplinary assessments (either quantitative and qualitative). Working theories were drawn by the two primary investigators based on relevant topic characteristics such as expressed roles and purposes for interacting with one other, patients, and physicians, to develop explanatory constructs for the findings and identify patterns in the data. Qualitative analysis of interviews were supported by NVivo10 © (QSR International 2013) software. Results One shared themes across both health professional groups evolved during data analysis: perceptions of collaborative roles. Discipline specific themes included pharmacist knowledge and visibility (nursing students) and nurses as informants and roles in total patient care (pharmacy students). As expected, students with little or no curricular-based structured experiential training yet largely drew upon personal experiences, whereas senior students, who did have some amount of professional context, often mirrored those that have been found in other studies investigating this interdisciplinary partnership in the clinical setting. Basic understanding of one another’s roles were exhibited, but tended to closely follow traditional scripts that are particularly pervasive in the Middle East. Conclusion Concepts arising from our work reinforces the importance of reaching interdisciplinary understanding through assorted formal and informal exposures and can inform ways in which future IPE initiatives can be developed among the various health professional training programs

Prevention of Hydatid Disease

This publication provides details for preventing hydatid disease in dogs and sheep

Participatory research meets validated outcome measures:tensions in the co-production of social care evaluation

Funding for care service research is increasingly subject to the satisfaction of two requirements: public involvement; and adoption of validated outcome tools. This study identifies competing paradigms within these requirements and reveals significant challenges faced by researchers who seek to satisfy them. The focus here is on a study co-produced between academic researchers and people with experience of adult social care services. It examines to what extent research studies can conduct high quality public involvement and genuine co-production of knowledge, whilst attempting to produce quantifiable outcome scores. Findings add to debate around how to incorporate diverse perspectives in research which may draw on incommensurate accounts of validity and reliability. Findings also highlight constructive attempts by academic and co-researchers to make the combination of approaches work in the field. These small scale acts of researcher agency indicate some scope to combine the two approaches in future research studies. However conclusions foreground the importance of broader awareness of how tensions and power imbalances related to this combination of approaches play out in social policy research practice

No Child Overlooked: Mental Health Triage in the Schools

Mental health problems among children in schools are on the increase. To exercise due diligence in their responsibility to monitor and promote mental health among our nation’s children, school counselors may learn from triage systems employed in hospitals, clinics, and mental health centers. The School Counselor’s Triage Model provides school counselors with an easy-to-use, time efficient assessment tool to enable them to screen large groups of students to determine their mental health needs. By engaging in systematic mental health screening, school counselors can efficiently and effectively demonstrate their commitment to a core value of school counseling: addressing every child’s social-emotional needs

The relationship between insight and violence in psychosis:A systematic literature review

Poor insight is a risk factor for violence within established risk-assessment tools, yet its relationship to violence in people experiencing psychosis is unclear. To clarify this issue, we sought to systematically review studies investigating the relationship between poor insight and violence in psychosis. A systematic search of studies published between 1980 and 2019 was carried out using Pubmed, Embase, Medline, PsychInfo and CINAHL databases. From combined search results of 5701 articles, 18 observational studies met the inclusion criteria and were selected for full-text review and quality grading. Eight demonstrated a positive relationship between poor insight and violence whilst 10 failed to find this relationship. Significant methodological limitations were found across studies. Those measuring the clinical insight dimension specifically and reliably were most able to demonstrate a positive relationship between poor insight and violence. Choice of the measurement tool and co-variates such as psychopathy were found to influence this relationship. We, therefore, found partial evidence in support of a relationship between poor insight and violence in psychosis. In order to gain an enhanced understanding of this relationship, better quality research accounting for relevant co-variates and using appropriate measurement tools which target the ‘clinical’ insight dimension is required

Organic-Conventional Dairy Systems Trial in New Zealand: Four Years’ Results

The Organic-Conventional Comparative Dairy Systems trial at Massey University began in August 2001, and the organic farmlet achieved certification in August 2003. The trial is unique because it is the only comparative grassland-based open grazing dairy study in the world. The organic and conventional systems are managed individually according to best practice, and both are intensively monitored for production, animal health, and environmental impacts. The systems remained similar for the first two years, but began to diverge in the third and fourth years. Production has been 10-20% lower on the organic farm, but environmental impacts appear to be less than on the conventional unit, and net incomes would be similar given a 20% price premium for the organic product. Animal health issues have been manageable on the organic farmlet, and not too dissimilar from the conventional farmlet. Full results after four years of the trial will be available and presented at the conference