Inside Out: A Diasporic Narrative

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Stuart Hall’s writing began to take a biographical turn. For readers such as myself, then a mature undergraduate pursuing an American Studies degree in New Zealand, this was somewhat of a revelation. The surprise was not so much Hall’s shift from the somewhat dry prose of structural Marxism to the rather more vital style of a postcolonially inflected poststructuralism, but the fact of Hall’s Caribbean background when I, along with no doubt many other geographically distant readers, had assumed him to be exworking class, British and white. Some seven years later, while wrestling with a PhD on the history of cultural studies at the University of Melbourne, I found myself writing an essay for Arena using the question of Hall’s diasporic identity to explore ‘the relations between knowledge production and cultural identity/location

DIY selves?

In Ulrich Beck’s writings on the ‘risk society’ he depicts contemporary western social identity as reflexive and ad hoc-shaped through calculative strategies of self-management rather than traditional social categories such as class. Beck’s model of ‘reflexive individualization’ can be seen to be particularly pertinent to the realm of health today, which is increasingly marked by discourses of the ‘DIY’ subject. This article uses the findings of a study of young people’s use of online health information as a means of examining the utility of Beck’s theories. Comparing the experiences of young people from different social backgrounds, the article complicates the assertion that social identity has broken free of its class affiliations. Adopting the term ‘health habitus’, the article suggests that one way of countering the problematic tendency in Beck’s work to displace questions of social location is to ground the notion of reflexive individualization in Bourdieu’s concept of habitus

Shoreline distribution and landscape genetics of bears in a recently deglaciated fjord: Glacier Bay, Alaska

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2012To further knowledge of mammalian colonization patterns following deglaciation, I used occupancy modeling to estimate black and brown bear shoreline distribution of Glacier Bay and how these distributions relates to the number years of land exposure and post glacial plant and stream succession. I also conducted microsatellite genetic analysis of brown bear hair and tissue to determine contemporary population structure throughout the park and how it relates to landscape features and surrounding populations. Closed forest cover within 1 km of the study site was a strong positive predictor of black bear occurrence. Brown bears were detected at 100% of sites although their use was highest in recently glaciated and old growth forest areas, and lowest in young forests. The shoreline of Glacier Bay hosts brown bears from three geographically overlapping distinct populations, one of which is likely composed of the original colonizers following glacial retreat that were isolated long enough to undergo genetic drift. The southern portion of Glacier Bay fjord and the Fairweather Mountain range are barriers to dispersal. Evidence of range expansion and recent migration indicate that brown bears are still actively colonizing Glacier Bay

Cultural Economies of Hard Rubbish

This study examined informal practices of hard rubbish reuse (or ‘gleaning’) by households, and found them to be characterised by the expression of positive values associated with not-wasting, caring for others, and social responsibility. Executive summary Previous research in Melbourne has suggested that informal practices of hard rubbish reuse (or ‘gleaning’) by households may significantly decrease the amount of landfill. Despite this, many municipal councils throughout Melbourne have sought to make gleaning illegal. Those councils, such as Moreland, that have supported personal gleaning, have expressed concerns around managing issues of dumping and ‘professional’ gleaning. This qualitative study of 15 households in the Moreland Council region aimed to provide more in-depth knowledge of why and how people glean. Building on previous work on the political economy of hard rubbish, we saw a need for a more culturall-inflected understanding of this lifestyle practice in relation to wider consumption practices, cultural perspectives on commodities, and perceived changing norms and values around responsibility and ownership, ‘waste’ and value, and environmental or ethical consumption. By providing a more complex understanding of the culture and practices of gleaning our concern has been to locate the potential ‘place’ and role of gleaning activities, particularly for domestic reuse, within councils and communities and indicate the social, economic, and other implications and potential limitations of current strategies and policies to manage and control hard rubbish reuse. The study reveals the practice of gleaning as characterised by, and as allowing, the expression of positive values associated with not-wasting, caring for others, and social responsibility. What the study found was that it fosters a sense of connection across generations and with the wider community. Interviewees associated the opposite values of wastefulness, selfishness, and social isolation with mainstream consumerism; gleaning is explicitly characterised by study participants as an active and performative rejection of this. The report concludes, in light of these study findings, with a list of recommendations for Moreland City Council. This report was prepared for Moreland City Council by RMIT’s School of Media and Communication, in collaboration with Swinburne University of Technology’s Institute for Social Research

Drug Interactions with Antimalarial Medications in Older Travelers: A Clinical Guide

Increasingly older adults are traveling to international destinations with malaria as a present risk. Surveillance systems indicate that older adults are more likely to suffer severe complications from malaria. The role of health care providers in selecting an appropriate medication for chemoprophylaxis or treatment of malaria in adults becomes more difficult as older adults undergo physiologic changes that alter the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic nature of medications potentially causing increased drug interactions, adverse events, and altered drug action. A comprehensive literature search from 1970 to present, with a focus on the last 10 years, was conducted on drug interactions, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic effects on antimalarials in adults. It was determined that due to pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic changes in older adults, especially renal and cardiovascular, special attention should be given to this population of travelers in order to minimize the likelihood of adverse events or altered drug efficacy. Antimalarial-disease interactions in older adults can occur more often due to QT prolongation, exacerbation of hypoglycemia, decreased renal elimination, and decreased hepatic metabolism. Older antimalarials have well documented drug-drug interactions. Tafenoquine, a new antimalarial, requires G6PD screening like primaquine and monitoring of new potential drug interaction with MATE1 and OCT2 substrates. While drug-drug interactions in older travelers may occur more often as a result of poly-pharmacy, data does not indicate adverse reactions or decreased drug efficacy is greater compared with younger adults. Overall, with the exception of recently approved tafenoquine, much is known about antimalarial drug and disease interactions, but new drugs are always being approved, requiring travel health providers to understand the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of antimalarial drugs to predict the impact on safety and efficacy in travelers. This guide provides travel health providers with valuable insights on potential outcomes associated with drug interactions in adults and recommended monitoring or drug regimen modification

Reproduction and Dispersal of Biological Soil Crust Organisms

Biological soil crusts (BSCs) consist of a diverse and highly integrated community of organisms that effectively colonize and collectively stabilize soil surfaces. BSCs vary in terms of soil chemistry and texture as well as the environmental parameters that combine to support unique combinations of organisms—including cyanobacteria dominated, lichen-dominated, and bryophyte-dominated crusts. The list of organismal groups that make up BSC communities in various and unique combinations include—free living, lichenized, and mycorrhizal fungi, chemoheterotrophic bacteria, cyanobacteria, diazotrophic bacteria and archaea, eukaryotic algae, and bryophytes. The various BSC organismal groups demonstrate several common characteristics including—desiccation and extreme temperature tolerance, production of various soil binding chemistries, a near exclusive dependency on asexual reproduction, a pattern of aerial dispersal over impressive distances, and a universal vulnerability to a wide range of human-related perturbations. With this publication, we provide literature-based insights as to how each organismal group contributes to the formation and maintenance of the structural and functional attributes of BSCs, how they reproduce, and how they are dispersed. We also emphasize the importance of effective application of molecular and microenvironment sampling and assessment tools in order to provide cogent and essential answers that will allow scientists and land managers to better understand and manage the biodiversity and functional relationships of soil crust communities

Digital divine : technology use by Indian spiritual sects

Spirituality-based organizations in India, centered around a set of beliefs and practices, with a charismatic guru figure at their head, have embraced the information age enthusiastically, and have come to the fore as key players in the national narrative around social welfare and development in recent years. We conducted a qualitative study of four Hinduism-oriented Spirituality-based Organizations (SBOs) in India using interviews, on-site observations, and in-depth examination of their online outreach material to understand the ways in which technology impacts and advances their core functions. We examine five core ways which technology plays a critical role in these SBO - community-building, dissemination of core practices, self-fashioning, philanthropic outreach, and organizational growth – all of which inform these organizations’ influence in society beyond the confines of their adherents. We find that all these functions are enabled in different ways by digital technologies, which have organizational value in and of themselves, but also play an equally important role in helping extend these organizations’ public image as modern, innovative organizations aligned with broader aspirations of national development and social welfare

Promoting Clinical Engagement and Cross-sector Collaboration Through Changes in Workforce, Use of Technology, and Improved Business Systems

Published version made available here with permission from publisher.Background: Cross-sectoral collaboration across health care settings has the potential to deliver efficiencies as well as improve health care outcomes. There is a need for better understanding and awareness of models, mechanisms and strategies that enhance crosssectoral collaboration in Australia. Improved cross-sectoral collaboration is supported by a number of changes in workforce, use of technology and improved business systems. This review seeks to summarise these programs for those who may be seeking to engage in this area as a means of determining the range of options and possible proven benefits. Methodology: This study employs a mixed methods approach. A pragmatic literature review was undertaken to determine the relevant collaborative care models and review current programs Australia-wide that implement these models. Programs were selected from searching the grey and indexed medical literature as well as suggestions obtained from relevant stakeholders. Criteria for inclusion included having description in the peer reviewed and grey literature, ability to represent a unique model, extent of current use and description of outcomes of the intervention. Additional qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted to elucidate more detailed information about technology, workforce and business systems. This information is summarised in the report and details about the individual programs are included as an appendix to this report. Results: Fifteen models were reviewed for this report. Qualitative semi-structured interview data were employed to supplement findings from the literature review. Key mechanisms of these models are described specifically focusing on the use of technology, workforce and business systems. Facilitators and barriers were identified and explored