Introduction

Unlike many studies that focus on official, bilateral transactions and large-scale engagements, this volume explores the less publicised experiences of individuals and non-government groups within the Australia-Japan relationship. It represents diverse areas of involvement of men and women who moved geographically and vocationally as they pursued their special interests in the creative arts, media, business and international trade. It encompasses many aspects of personal life, such as travel, marriage, family dynamics and the experiences of children. It spans 150 years of peace, war, globalisation and terrorism, and examines how these issues have affected individuals. Rather than concentrating on the familiar chronicle dominated by military, political and trade milestones, these essays investigate how personal space and alien customs were negotiated, how foreign cultures were drawn on and selectively recast in accordance with particular needs, and how competing codes and loyalties have sometimes generated great emotional and psychological dilemmas in these little-known participants. A similar diversity characterises the contributors to the volume, who are based in Australia and Japan. Like the individual subjects of their research, some are expatriates, others are writing from the country of their birth. They include academics and non-academic researchers from history, cultural studies, social research, journalism, English and communications, arts and media studies

A complete ancient RNA genome : identification, reconstruction and evolutionary history of archaeological Barley Stripe Mosaic Virus

The origins of many plant diseases appear to be recent and associated with the rise of domestication, the spread of agriculture or recent global movements of crops. Distinguishing between these possibilities is problematic because of the difficulty of determining rates of molecular evolution over short time frames. Heterochronous approaches using recent and historical samples show that plant viruses exhibit highly variable and often rapid rates of molecular evolution. The accuracy of estimated evolution rates and age of origin can be greatly improved with the inclusion of older molecular data from archaeological material. Here we present the first reconstruction of an archaeological RNA genome, which is of Barley Stripe Mosaic Virus (BSMV) isolated from barley grain ~750 years of age. Phylogenetic analysis of BSMV that includes this genome indicates the divergence of BSMV and its closest relative prior to this time, most likely around 2000 years ago. However, exclusion of the archaeological data results in an apparently much more recent origin of the virus that postdates even the archaeological sample. We conclude that this viral lineage originated in the Near East or North Africa, and spread to North America and East Asia with their hosts along historical trade routes

Aotearoa/New Zealand Starting National Evaluation Conferences

Aotearoa/New Zealand had its first national evaluation conference in September 2004. Organised by the Auckland Evaluation Group, the meeting was held at the Tauhara Centre, near Lake Taupo (central North Island)

Evaluation--Making it Real in Aotearoa New Zealand: Leading by Example, Leading by Association

The second Aotearoa New Zealand Evaluation Conference, sponsored by the Auckland Evaluation Group, will be held 18-20 July, 2005 at the Tauhara Centre, Acacia Bay, Taupo

Aotearoa/New Zealand Starting National Evaluation Conferences

Aotearoa/New Zealand had its first national evaluation conference in September 2004. Organised by the Auckland Evaluation Group, the meeting was held at the Tauhara Centre, near Lake Taupo (central North Island)

Evaluation--Making it Real in Aotearoa New Zealand: Leading by Example, Leading by Association

The second Aotearoa New Zealand Evaluation Conference, sponsored by the Auckland Evaluation Group, will be held 18-20 July, 2005 at the Tauhara Centre, Acacia Bay, Taupo

Leadership course evaluation with patient and public involvement

Executive Summary1. This project had two components, the evaluation of a Developing and Enhancing Leadership and Management Skills programme delivered to 150 frontline supervisory and senior managers in North Bristol NHS Trust and the implementation of guidelines for Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in research.2. Evaluation data were collected through three knowledge café events engaging 36 staff. These events were used to facilitate and record meaningful conversations that were focused around five questions. Follow-up interviews were conducted with a further 15 staff.3. The PPI guidelines were applied throughout the project and the experiences of the two service users involved were recorded through ongoing dialogue and review of guideline implementation.4. Data from the events and interviews suggested the programme had benefits for staff. These included the development of new insights and better understanding of the roles and experiences of other leaders in the Trust. Immediate and sustained outcomes were also reported for the individuals and organisation. Staff felt that they moved forward professionally and had insight into the “bigger picture”. They also welcomed delivery from external facilitators who had a refreshing approach.5. Staff were also able to demonstrate new learning. In particular the programme had changed their approach to handling leadership issues and their use of tools and skills. Managers reported taking a different approach to the management of more challenging situations, planning responses rather than reacting and encouraging problem-solving and reflection in staff.6. Staff reflected on a number of issues that affected their ability to apply learning in practice. They commented on the need for a learning culture, with a strategy to support the implementation of new learning. They felt senior managerial support with the implementation of change was crucial. Having the time to implement learning was important and access to ongoing support to implement change would also be helpful, through perhaps knowledge café events or supervision and coaching.7. The service users found their involvement in this research to be largely positive, though there is a need to ensure all academics are attuned to the needs of service users engaged in projects.8. A number of recommendations emerged, such as: continue to include a wide range of staff in the same programme to allow sharing of expertise; consider delivering to an even wider range of staff including team leaders; maintain external consultancy role in delivery; consider post-course follow-up and include this in the initial contracting. There was also a recommendation that the organisation undertake internal reflections that explore the current learning culture and identify ways of supporting staff to implement learning in practice.9. The UWE guidelines for PPI in research were evaluated as being fit for purpose and could usefully guide service user and carer involvement in a range of evaluation and research projects

Causal inference and large‐scale expert validation shed light on the drivers of SDM accuracy and variance

Aim: To develop a causal understanding of the drivers of Species distribution model (SDM) performance. Location: United Kingdom (UK). Methods: We measured the accuracy and variance of SDMs fitted for 518 species of invertebrate and plant in the UK. Our measure of variance reflects variation among replicate model fits, and taxon experts assessed model accuracy. Using directed acyclic graphs, we developed a causal model depicting plausible effects of explanatory variables (e.g. species' prevalence, sample size) on SDM accuracy and variance and quantified those effects using a multilevel piecewise path model. Results: According to our model, sample size and niche completeness (proportion of a species' niche covered by sampling) directly affect SDM accuracy and variance. Prevalence and range completeness have indirect effects mediated by sample size. Challenging conventional wisdom, we found that the effect of prevalence on SDM accuracy is positive. This reflects the facts that sample size has a positive effect on accuracy and larger sample sizes are possible for widespread species. It is possible, however, that the omission of an unobserved confounder biased this effect. Previous studies, which reported negative correlations between prevalence and SDM accuracy, conditioned on sample size. Main conclusions: Our model explicates the causal basis of previously reported correlations between SDM performance and species/data characteristics. It also suggests that niche completeness has similarly large effects on SDM accuracy and variance as sample size. Analysts should consider niche completeness, or proxies thereof, in addition to sample size when deciding whether modelling is worthwhile

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy