Here / Not Here

This paper is a complement to the creative audio miniseries, HERE / NOT HERE. Its purpose is to analyse the concept of home from an academic perspective, both as complement and as perspective to the audio series’ autobiographical nature. Through philosophical, reflexive enquiry that analyses home’s connection to place, landscape, memory, senses and the body, this paper answers the question - ‘what does home mean to others’? In conjunction with the audio series, this paper also answers the question - ‘what do we talk about when we talk about home’? The paper starts with an introduction to the idea of home and the project as a whole, before diving into a discussion on podcasting, what it is, how podcasts are produced, and how this project fits into the existing podcasting landscape. After laying that knowledge base, the paper then turns to academic research theory, arguing that this project adds to an academic library of reflexive enquiry and subverted fieldwork. Following that, the paper discusses the academic theory of both of place and home, before deconstructing home and looking at how home interacts with other facets of the human experience, namely - the self, childhood, memory, the senses and the body. Throughout, the paper connects academic theory to the podcast’s creative elements. As such, it provides a context for the podcast’s two series - one of which looks at home through the lens of the senses, the other through the lens of the body, while also discussing other aspects of home. Previous work has failed to look at home from such a comprehensive perspective; this paper aims to tie together those threads, as well as put forth autobiographical self-reflection as fuel for both creative and academic work. In this way, this paper provides an academic backbone to the audio project’s creative enquiry. The paper itself also provides its own findings, the main one being this - when we talk about home, we talk about ourselves

Brisbane Biological and Organic Chemistry Symposium (BBOCS 2005)

Retrosynthetic analysis is an essential tool for the design of multistep synthetic procedures. Sadly, even the more expensive chemistry drawing packages focus on molar retention and not on true retrosynthetic analysis and offer little, if anything, in terms of synthetic assistance. Most chemical drawing packages, such as ChemDraw (Registered Trademark) or Chemsketch (Registered Trademark), allow for the generation of a SMILES code for any desired compound. A SMILES (Simplified Molecular Input Line Entry System) is a single line of text representing the connectivity of the molecule eg., acetic acid. The focus of this project was the development of a prototype program where SMILES codes could be used as both input (reactants) and output (products) for conducting synthetic and retrosynthetic methodologies. The resulting SMILES codes can easily be pasted into any chemical drawing package to view the resulting chemicals. Three simple, common organic reactions, SN2, esterification and Diels-Alder reactions, were investigated in the prototype program. We now wish to report on the initial success of this project. The program developed is capable of both synthetic and retrosynthetic reactions for SN2 and esterification reactions and synthetically for the Diels-Alder reactions. We will discuss the strategy required for constructing the program, its current limitations and its potential, if not as a research tool then as a teaching tool for undergraduate organic chemistry

Evo-devo of human adolescence: beyond disease models of early puberty

Despite substantial heritability in pubertal development, much variation remains to be explained, leaving room for the influence of environmental factors to adjust its phenotypic trajectory in the service of fitness goals. Utilizing evolutionary development biology (evo-devo), we examine adolescence as an evolutionary life-history stage in its developmental context. We show that the transition from the preceding stage of juvenility entails adaptive plasticity in response to energy resources, other environmental cues, social needs of adolescence and maturation toward youth and adulthood. Using the evolutionary theory of socialization, we show that familial psychosocial stress fosters a fast life history and reproductive strategy rather than early maturation being just a risk factor for aggression and delinquency. Here we explore implications of an evolutionary-developmental-endocrinological-anthropological framework for theory building, while illuminating new directions for research

Intergenerational conflicts may help explain parental absence effects on reproductive timing: a model of age at first birth in humans.

Background. Parental absences in childhood are often associated with accelerated reproductive maturity in humans. These results are counterintuitive for evolutionary social scientists because reductions in parental investment should be detrimental for offspring, but earlier reproduction is generally associated with higher fitness. In this paper we discuss a neglected hypothesis that early reproduction is often associated with parental absence because it decreases the average relatedness of a developing child to her future siblings. Family members often help each other reproduce, meaning that parents and offspring may find themselves in competition over reproductive opportunities. In these intergenerational negotiations offspring will have less incentive to help the remaining parent rear future half-siblings relative to beginning reproduction themselves. Method. We illustrate this "intergenerational conflict hypothesis" with a formal game-theoretic model. Results. We show that when resources constrain reproductive opportunities within the family, parents will generally win reproductive conflicts with their offspring, i.e., they will produce more children of their own and therefore delay existing offsprings' reproduction. This is due to the asymmetric relatedness between grandparents and grandchildren (r = .25), compared to siblings (r = 0.5), resulting in greater incentives for older siblings to help rear younger siblings than for grandparents to help rear grandchildren. However, if a parent loses or replaces their partner, the conflict between the parent and offspring becomes symmetric since half siblings are as related to one another as grandparents are to grandchildren. This means that the offspring stand to gain more from earlier reproduction when their remaining parent would produce half, rather than full, siblings. We further show that if parents senesce in a way that decreases the quality of their infant relative to their offspring's infant, the intergenerational conflict can shift to favor the younger generation

Development of Social Variation in Reproductive Schedules: A Study from an English Urban Area

Background: There is striking social variation in the timing of the onset of childbearing in contemporary England, with the mean age at first motherhood about 8 years earlier in the most deprived compared to the least deprived neighbourhoods. However, relatively little is known about how these social differences in reproductive schedule develop in childhood. Methodology/Principal Findings: We studied the development of differences in reproductive schedules, using a crosssectional survey over 1000 school students aged 9–15 in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside. Students from more deprived neighbourhoods had earlier ideal ages for parenthood than those from more affluent ones, and these differences were fully apparent by age 11. We found evidence consistent with three mechanisms playing a role in maintaining the socioeconomic gradient. These were: vertical intergenerational transmission (students whose own parents were younger at their birth wanted children younger); oblique intergenerational transmission (students in neighbourhoods where parents were younger in general wanted children earlier); and low parental investment (students who did not feel emotionally supported by their own parents wanted children at a younger age). Conclusions/Significance: Our results shed some light on the proximate factors which may be involved in maintaining early childbearing in disadvantaged communities. They help understand why educational initiatives aimed at adolescents tend to have no effect, whereas improving the well-being of poor families with young children may do so. Our results also sugges

Birthweight and paternal involvement predict early reproduction in British women: evidence from the National Child Development Study

There is considerable interest in the mechanisms maintaining early reproduction in the most socioeconomically disadvantaged groups in developed countries. Previous research has suggested that differential exposure to early-life factors such as low birthweight and lack of paternal involvement during childhood may be relevant. Here, we used longitudinal data on the female cohort members from the UK National Child Development Study (n=3014-4482 depending upon variables analysed) to investigate predictors of early reproduction. Our main outcome measures were having a child by age 20, and stating at age 16 an intended age of reproduction of 20 years or lower. Low paternal involvement during childhood was associated with increased likelihood of early reproduction (O.R. 1.79-2.25) and increased likelihood of early intended reproduction (O.R. 1.38-2.50). Low birthweight for gestational age also increased the odds of early reproduction (O.R. for each additional s.d. 0.88) and early intended reproduction (O.R. for each additional s.d. 0.81). Intended early reproduction strongly predicted actual early reproduction (O.R. 5.39, 95% CI 3.71-7.83). The results suggest that early-life factors such as low birthweight for gestational age, and low paternal involvement during childhood, may affect women?s reproductive development, leading to earlier target and achieved ages for reproduction. Differential exposure to these factors may be part of the reason that early fertility persists in socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. We discuss our results with respect to the kinds of interventions likely to affect the rate of teen pregnancy

Strength-Based Psychotherapeutic Approaches for Relational Trauma: A Scoping Review

Background: Psychology is increasingly adopting strength-based approaches through philosophy, research, and practice. The field recognises the need to adapt psychotherapeutic approaches for various contexts and populations; however, a universal agreed theoretical framework of strength-based psychotherapeutic approaches for relational trauma is yet to be determined. Objective: The present study undertakes a scoping review of literature to explore what is known about strength-based psychotherapeutic approaches for relational trauma and maps the findings. The review examines data from the selected literature to clarify conceptual boundaries of both relational trauma and strength-based psychotherapeutic approaches. It investigates what constitutes a strength-based psychotherapeutic approach, the kinds of relational trauma studied, the types of approaches used in the treatment of relational trauma, and the contexts in which strength-based psychotherapeutic approaches are applied. Design: A scoping review protocol were followed to identify, find, select, chart, and collate data from relevant literature. Four online databases were searched to identify literature published between 2000-2022, from which 22 publications were selected. The selected articles examined strength-based psychotherapeutic approaches for relational trauma with adult participants aged 18 or older and were from United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Norway, Taiwan, Canada, Israel, Tanzania, Greece, Poland, Slovenia, and Australia. Results: Four key themes and 12 sub-themes were generated through reflexive thematic analysis. The key themes are healing relationships, trauma-informed, transtheoretical relevance, and balancing symptoms with wellbeing. Conclusions: While the quality or rigor of the studies were not examined, the findings informed six key conclusions: 1) there is paucity of research on the research topic, 2) evidence from the limited research was promising but not proven and future research might prioritise scientific rigor for clinical recommendations, 3) healing relationships span across relational layers relevant to the therapeutic context, 4) the research topic is transtheoretical and strengthening interdisciplinary terminology would be advantageous, 5) trauma-informed practices that include cultural competence and contextual adaptations are fundamental, and 6) a strengths-approach is a balanced approach that focuses both on symptom reduction as well as enhancing wellbein