How has welfare to work reform affected the mental health of single parents in Australia?

Concerns raised about the inadequacy of income support payments in Australia have chiefly centred on the increased poverty experienced by highly vulnerable recipients, such as single parents. This poverty not only increases the risk of social exclusion, but has broader implications for health and wellbeing.This research was funded through a grant - ARC Grant #DP120101887

Converting energy from fusion into useful forms

If fusion power reactors are to be feasible, it will still be necessary to convert the energy of the nuclear reaction into usable form. The heat produced will be removed from the reactor core by a primary coolant, which might be water, helium, molten lithium-lead, molten lithium-containing salt, or CO2. The heat could then be transferred to a conventional Rankine cycle or Brayton (gas turbine) cycle. Alternatively it could be used for thermochemical processes such as producing hydrogen or other transport fuels. Fusion presents new problems because of the high energy neutrons released. These affect the selection of materials and the operating temperature, ultimately determining the choice of coolant and working cycle. The limited temperature ranges allowed by present day irradiated structural materials, combined with the large internal power demand of the plant, will limit the overall thermal efficiency. The operating conditions of the fusion power source, the materials, coolant, and energy conversion system will all need to be closely integrated.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part A: Journal of Power and Energy December 11, 201

An exploration of octatonicism: From Liszt to Takemitsu

The octatonic pitch set can be found in the works of many composers since the early nineteenth century, often with different characteristics of the pitch set being exploited by the composers. Much of the literature on octatonicism relates to specific instances in compositions or a specific composer’s approach to it rather than exploring octatonicism from a more holistic perspective. This dissertation serves as a holistic resource for the characteristics of the octatonic pitch set; whether as a scale, especially with regards to common practice harmony; or an unordered set. It does this by considering the contextual historical implications of the octatonic pitch set; the historic lineage of octatonic usage; and, significantly, with the goal of extracting specific compositional devices from the works of various composers that come from a variety of stylistic, historical, and harmonic perspectives. These compositional devices are learnable methods, or conventions that a composer can modify, build upon or implement into their own work. The contextual historical information, along with the description of the characteristics of the octatonic pitch set and, especially, the compositional devices are all intended to be both a single pedagogical resource and starting point for composers in relation to developing new octatonic compositional techniques and a holistic theoretical overview of octatonicism. The evidence, retrieved from third party analysis of select composers’ octatonic works, finds learnable compositional devices from broad stylistic backgrounds that can be reinterpreted and expanded into individualised compositional methods

Copyright, creative commons and artistic integrity

Copyright offers tight control over intellectual property while Creative Commons deliberately relaxes this control; this relaxed control provides an artist with an alternative marketing strategy as well as a secure electronic distribution method. Copyright has been a useful tool for controlling intellectual property since its inception in 1710, but new developments in distribution of copyrighted materials has provided new challenges for copyright law. Creative Commons offers an alternative approach to copyright that embraces, rather than confronts these challenges. Creative Commons is an alternative to copyright that is capable of representing all forms of art; sculpture, painting, literature, music printing and performances. This paper will discuss the difference between copyright and creative commons, and how they relate to music composition and performance.1 Whilst Copyright continues to offer steadfast protection to creators, Creative Commons\u27 unique marketing potential and relaxed approach to intellectual property control provides customisable licensing formats for creators. Though it does have limitations, Creative Commons enables the artist to safely control their work as well as adequately promote it, making the most of new electronic marketing and distribution strategies

Quantitative sensory testing in painful hand osteoarthritis demonstrates features of peripheral sensitisation.

Hand osteoarthritis (HOA) is a prevalent condition for which treatments are based on analgesia and physical therapies. Our primary objective was to evaluate pain perception in participants with HOA by assessing the characteristics of nodal involvement, pain threshold in each hand joint, and radiological severity. We hypothesised that inflammation in hand osteoarthritis joints enhances sensitivity and firing of peripheral nociceptors, thereby causing chronic pain. Participants with proximal and distal interphalangeal (PIP and DIP) joint HOA and non-OA controls were recruited. Clinical parameters of joint involvement were measured including clinical nodes, VAS (visual analogue score) for pain (0-100 mm scale), HAQ (health assessment questionnaire), and Kellgren-Lawrence scores for radiological severity and pain threshold measurement were performed. The mean VAS in HOA participants was 59.3 mm ± 8.19 compared with 4.0 mm ± 1.89 in the control group (P < 0.0001). Quantitative sensory testing (QST) demonstrated lower pain thresholds in DIP/PIP joints and other subgroups in the OA group including the thumb, metacarpophalangeal (MCPs), joints, and wrists (P < 0.008) but not in controls (P = 0.348). Our data demonstrate that HOA subjects are sensitised to pain due to increased firing of peripheral nociceptors. Future work to evaluate mechanisms of peripheral sensitisation warrants further investigation

Social disadvantage and individual vulnerability: a longitudinal investigation of welfare receipt and mental health in Australia

OBJECTIVE: To examine longitudinal associations between mental health and welfare receipt among working-age Australians. METHOD: We analysed 9 years of data from 11,701 respondents (49% men) from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. Mental health was assessed by the mental health subscale from the Short Form 36 questionnaire. Linear mixed models were used to examine the longitudinal associations between mental health and income support adjusting for the effects of demographic and socio-economic factors, physical health, lifestyle behaviours and financial stress. Within-person variation in welfare receipt over time was differentiated from between-person propensity to receive welfare payments. Random effect models tested the effects of income support transitions. RESULTS: Socio-demographic and financial variables explained the association between mental health and income support for those receiving student and parenting payments. Overall, recipients of disability, unemployment and mature age payments had poorer mental health regardless of their personal, social and financial circumstances. In addition, those receiving unemployment and disability payments had even poorer mental health at the times that they were receiving income support relative to the times when they were not. The greatest reductions in mental health were associated with transitions to disability payments and parenting payments for single parents. CONCLUSIONS: The poor mental health of welfare recipients may limit their opportunities to gain work and participate in community life. In part, this seems to reflect their adverse social and personal circumstances. However, there remains evidence of a direct link between welfare receipt and poor mental health that could be due to factors such as welfare stigma or other adverse life events coinciding with welfare receipt for those receiving unemployment or disability payments. Understanding these factors is critical to inform the next stage of welfare reform.PB was funded by NHMRC fellowship 525410. This paper was funded by the Australian Research Council grant DP120101887 and uses unit record data from the HILDA Survey. The HILDA project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA)

The contribution of financial hardship, socioeconomic position and physical health to mental health problems among welfare recipients

Recent changes to income support payments for single parents have prompted public debate about the financial adequacy of Newstart allowance and other welfare payments. Currently, the Newstart Allowance for a single person with no dependents is $501.00 per fortnight. The inadequacy of these payments has been highlighted by studies estimating that recipients of unemployment payments spend 122% of their income on daily living expenses, and 75% of Newstart recipients are reported to live in extreme poverty. Given that common psychiatric disorders occur more frequently among welfare recipients relative to the general population, and that financial hardship and socioeconomic disadvantage are key correlates of mental disorders, the types of welfare reforms recently introduced can have real implications for population health and wellbeing.This research was funded through a grant - ARC Grant #DP120101887

Mental health selection and income support dynamics: multiple spell discrete-time survival analyses of welfare receipt

BACKGROUND The higher occurrence of common psychiatric disorders among welfare recipients has been attributed to health selection, social causation and underlying vulnerability. The aims of this study were to test for the selection effects of mental health problems on entry and re-entry to working-age welfare payments in respect to single parenthood, unemployment and disability. METHODS Nationally representative longitudinal data were drawn from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey. Multiple spell discrete-time survival analyses were conducted using multinomial logistic regression models to test if pre-existing mental health problems predicted transitions to welfare. Analyses were stratified by sex and multivariate adjusted for mental health problems, father’s occupation, socioeconomic position, marital status, employment history, smoking status and alcohol consumption, physical function and financial hardship. All covariates were modelled as either lagged effects or when a respondent was first observed to be at risk of income support. RESULTS Mental health problems were associated with increased risk of entry and re-entry to disability, unemployment and single parenting payments for women, and disability and unemployment payments for men. These associations were attenuated but remained significant after adjusting for contemporaneous risk factors. CONCLUSIONS Although we do not control for reciprocal causation, our findings are consistent with a health selection hypothesis and indicate that mental illness may be a contributing factor to later receipt of different types of welfare payments. We argue that mental health warrants consideration in the design and targeting of social and economic policies.This paper was funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) grant DP120101887 and uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA)

Understanding Depressive Symptoms among High-Risk Pregnant African American Women

Much has been written about depression and its risk factors, particularly among women. However, a growing body of literature on prenatal depression has begun to emerge, given that depression during pregnancy presents a major public health concern, since it is found to be a common experience among childbearing aged women (Gaynes et al., 2005; Marcus, 2009). In fact, the onset of depressive symptoms is most likely to occur between 20 to 40 years of age, the range when most women become pregnant (Marcus & Heringhausen, 2009). Further, prior studies have found rates of depression among pregnant women to range from ten to thirty percent (Gotlieb et al., 1989; Kurki et al., 2002). Importantly, depression during pregnancy can have adverse effects not only for the mother, but the unborn child as well. For example, it has been noted that depressive symptoms can lead to an increased risk for negative birth outcomes such as low birth weight and preterm delivery (Marcus, 2009; Marcus & Heringhausen, 2009), and can also result in serious effects after pregnancy, including the mother’s own psychosocial functioning, poor mother-child relation, and the psychosocial development of the child (Boyd, Zayas, & McKee, 2006; Cicchetti, Rogosch, & Toth, 1998; Downey & Coyne, 1990). Therefore, the goal of this paper was to examinesociodemographic, psychosocial, and behavioral factors that influence depressive symptoms among high-risk African American pregnant women