Evaluation of the ACT Sexual Assault Reform Program (SARP)

In 2005 the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) produced a report, Responding to sexual assault: The challenge of change (DPP & AFP 2005), which made 105 recommendations for reforming the way sexual offence cases are handled by the ACT’s criminal justice system. The Sexual Assault Reform Program (SARP) is one key initiative developed in response to these recommendations. Managed by the ACT Justice and Community Safety Directorate (JACS), SARP’s main objective is to improve aspects of the criminal justice system relating to: processes and support for victims of sexual offences as they progress through the system; attrition in sexual offence matters in the criminal justice system; and coordination and collaboration among the agencies involved. In November 2007 the ACT Attorney-General announced $4 million of funding for several SARP reforms. This funding provided for additional victim support staff; a dedicated additional police officer, prosecutor and legal policy officer; and an upgrade of equipment for the Supreme Court and Magistrates Court, including improvements in technology to assist witnesses in giving evidence, and the establishment of an off-site facility to allow witnesses to give evidence from a location outside of the court. In addition, the reform agenda included a number of legislative amendments that changed how evidence can be given by victims of sexual and family violence offences, children and other vulnerable witnesses. The primary objectives of these legislative changes are to provide an unintimidating, safe environment for vulnerable witnesses (including sexual offence complainants) to give evidence and to obtain prompt statements from witnesses to improve the quality of evidence captured (DPP 2009: 13)

Indigenous youth justice programs evaluation

In this report, four programs that were already being implemented by states and territories and identified by them under the National Indigenous Law & Justice Framework as promising practice in diversion are examined. Executive summary Diversion from the youth justice system is a critical goal for addressing the overrepresentation of Indigenous young people in the criminal justice system. In this report, four programs that were already being implemented by states and territories and identified by them under the National Indigenous Law & Justice Framework as promising practice in diversion are examined. The programs were evaluated, as part of a broader initiative, to determine whether and on what basis they represent good practice (ie are supported by evidence). State and territory governments nominated the programs for evaluation. The four programs sit at different points along a continuum, ranging from prevention (addressing known risk factors for offending behaviour, such as disengagement from family, school, community or culture), early intervention (with identified at-risk young people), diversion (diverting from court process—usually for first or second time offenders) and tertiary intervention (treatment to prevent recidivism): • Aboriginal Power Cup (South Australia)—a sports-based program for engaging Indigenous young people in education and providing positive role models (prevention). • Tiwi Islands Youth Development and Diversion Unit (Northern Territory)—a diversion program that engages Tiwi youth who are at risk of entering the criminal justice system in prevention activities, such as a youth justice conference, school, cultural activities, sport and recreation (early intervention and diversion). • Woorabinda Early Intervention Panel Coordination Service (Queensland)—a program to assess needs and make referrals for young Indigenous people and their families who are at risk or have offended and have complex needs (early intervention and diversion). • Aggression Replacement Training (Queensland)—a 10 week group cognitivebehavioural program to control anger and develop pro-social skills, delivered to Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth assessed as ‘at risk’ of offending or reoffending (early intervention and tertiary intervention with offenders to reduce risk of reoffending). For each program, the evaluation team developed a ‘program logic’, identifying the activities and goals of the program, and how it articulates within a broader framework of criminal justice prevention. This informed the design of the evaluation and the approach to collecting both qualitative data (from young people participating in the program, program staff, family, or other service providers/community members) and quantitative data to identify any effects of the program on individuals, or the broader community

A Manipulative Experiment to Estimate Biparental Inbreeding in Monkeyflowers

Biparental inbreeding occurs when plants receive pollen from genetically related neighbors. The frequency of biparental inbreeding in natural populations is unknown but directly relevant to the evolution of plant mating systems. We suggest a simple manipulative experiment to distinguish the effects of biparental inbreeding from those of self‐fertilization. The basis of the method is to compare the levels of inbreeding in plants with and without the potential to outcross with genetic relatives. We eliminate the potential for biparental inbreeding by transplanting seedlings to different locations within a population. The level of inbreeding is then estimated from homozygosity at molecular markers. This method is applied in a study of two natural populations of Mimulus guttatus (the yellow monkeyflower) using microsatellites as marker loci. In contrast to previous studies of this species, our study finds no evidence of biparental inbreeding in either population

Hospitals caring for rural Aboriginal patients: holding response and denial

Open Access article published under a CC-BY-NC-ND licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.en_US).Objective To investigate how policy requiring cultural respect and attention to health equity is implemented in the care of rural and remote Aboriginal people in city hospitals. Methods Interviews with 26 staff in public hospitals in Adelaide, South Australia, were analysed (using a framework based on cultural competence) to identify their perceptions of the enabling strategies and systemic barriers against the implementation of official policy in the care of rural Aboriginal patients. Results The major underlying barriers were lack of knowledge and skills among staff generally, and the persistent use of ‘business as usual’ approaches in their hospitals, despite the clear need for proactive responses to the complex care journeys these patients undertake. Staff reported a sense that while they are required to provide responsive care, care systems often fail to authorise or guide necessary action to enable equitable care. Conclusions Staff caring for rural Aboriginal patients are required to respond to complex particular needs in the absence of effective authorisation. We suggest that systemic misinterpretation of the principle of equal treatment is an important barrier against the development of culturally competent organisations. What is known about this topic? The care received by Aboriginal patients is less effective than it is for the population generally, and access to care is poorer. Those in rural and remote settings experience both severe access barriers and predictable complexity in their patient care journeys. This situation persists despite high-level policies that require tailored responses to the particular needs of Aboriginal people. What does this paper add? Staff who care for these patients develop skills and modify care delivery to respond to their particular needs, but they do so in the absence of systematic policies, procedures and programs that would ‘build in’ or authorise the required responsiveness. What are the implications for practitioners? Systematic attention, at hospital and clinical unit level, to operationalising high policy goals is needed. The framework of cultural competence offers relevant guidance for efforts (at system, organisation and care delivery levels) to improve care, but requires organisations to address misinterpretation of the principle of equal treatment

The comparison of two training programs, isometric ontractions and Calisthenics, on Strength and Selected Body Measurements of Female College Freshman

It would be unusual for a day to go by without some reminder on physical fitness reaching us but some information medium. The ancient Greeks considered physical education training for warfare. During and immediately after World War II there was great deal of interest in fitness. The development of muscular strength in women, as well as men, demands encouragement and investigation. The sides of women possessing muscular strength as well and being physically attractive is incongruous to many people. The author believed there was a need for a study to investigate programs designed to increase strength and to learn what effect such programs would have on the body measurements of women. The purpose of this study was to determine which of two training programs, isometric contractions or celisthenics, was superior in producing changes in strength and in selected body measurements of female freshman students. This study was limited to two freshman service classes of basketball at South Dakota State College, Brookings, South Dakota and the subjects were not familiar with the testing instruments and methods

Population structure and local selection yield high genomic variation in Mimulus guttatus

Across western North America, Mimulus guttatus exists as many local populations adapted to site-specific environmental challenges. Gene flow between locally adapted populations will affect genetic diversity both within demes and across the larger metapopulation. Here, we analyse 34 whole-genome sequences from the intensively studied Iron Mountain population (IM) in conjunction with sequences from 22 Mimulus individuals sampled from across western North America. Three striking features of these data address hypotheses about migration and selection in a locally adapted population. First, we find very high levels of intrapopulation polymorphism (synonymous =0.033). Variation outside of genes is likely even higher but difficult to estimate because excessive divergence reduces the efficiency of read mapping. Second, IM exhibits a significantly positive genomewide average for Tajima\u27s D. This indicates allele frequencies are typically more intermediate than expected from neutrality, opposite the pattern observed in many other species. Third, IM exhibits a distinctive haplotype structure with a genomewide excess of positive associations between rarer alleles at linked loci. This suggests an important effect of gene flow from other Mimulus populations, although a residual effect of population founding might also contribute. The combination of multiple analyses, including a novel tree-based analytic method, illustrates how the balance of local selection, limited dispersal and metapopulation dynamics manifests across the genome. The overall genomic pattern of sequence diversity suggests successful gene flow of divergent immigrant genotypes into IM. However, many loci show patterns indicative of local adaptation, particularly at SNPs associated with chromosomal inversions

Contribution of chromosomal polymorphisms to the G-matrix of Mimulus guttatus

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Scoville, A., Lee, Y. W., Willis, J. H., & Kelly, J. K. (2009). Contribution of chromosomal polymorphisms to the G-matrix of Mimulus guttatus. The New Phytologist, 183(3), 803–815. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.02947.x, which has been published in final form at http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.02947.x. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.Evolution of genetic (co)variances (the G-matrix) fundamentally influences multitrait divergence. Here, we isolated the contribution of two chromosomal quantitative trait loci (QTLs), a meiotic drive locus and a polymorphic inversion, to the overall G-matrix for a suite of floral, phenological and male fitness traits in a population of Mimulus guttatus. This allowed us to predict the evolution of trait means and genetic (co)variances as a function of allele frequencies, and to evaluate theories about the maintenance of genetic variation in fitness. Individuals generated using a replicated F2 breeding design were grown under common conditions, genotyped and measured for trait values. Significant additive genetic variance existed for all traits, and most genetic covariances were significantly nonzero. Both QTLs contribute to the additive genetic (co)variances of multiple traits. Pleiotropy was not generally consistent, either between QTLs or with the genetic background. Shifts in allele frequencies at either QTL are predicted to result in substantial changes in the G-matrix. Both QTLs contribute substantially to the genetic variation in pollen viability. The Drive QTL, and perhaps also the inversion, demonstrates the contribution of balancing selection to the maintenance of genetic variation in fitness

Spatially and temporally varying selection on intra-population QTL for a life history tradeoff in Mimulus guttatus

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: MOJICA, J. P., LEE, Y. W., WILLIS, J. H. and KELLY, J. K. (2012), Spatially and temporally varying selection on intrapopulation quantitative trait loci for a life history trade-off in Mimulus guttatus. Molecular Ecology, 21: 3718–3728. doi:10.1111/j.1365-294X.2012.05662.x, which has been published in final form at http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2012.05662.x. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.Why do populations remain genetically variable despite strong continuous natural selection? Mutation reconstitutes variation eliminated by selection and genetic drift, but theoretical and experimental studies each suggest that mutation-selection balance insufficient to explain extant genetic variation in most complex traits. The alternative hypothesis of balancing selection, wherein selection maintains genetic variation, is an aggregate of multiple mechanisms (spatial and temporal heterogeneity in selection, frequency-dependent selection, antagonistic pleiotropy, etc.). Most of these mechanisms have been demonstrated for Mendelian traits, but there is little comparable data for loci affecting quantitative characters. Here, we report a three-year field study of selection on intra-population Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) of flower size, a highly polygenic trait of Mimulus guttatus. The QTL exhibit antagonistic pleiotropy: alleles that increase flower size reduce viability but increase fecundity. The magnitude and direction of selection fluctuates yearly and on a spatial scale of meters. This study provides direct evidence of balancing selection mechanisms on QTL of an ecologically relevant trait

The Texas Earth and Space Science (TXESS) Revolution: A Model for the Delivery of Earth Science Professional Development to Minority-Serving Teachers

At the time of publication K.K. Ellins, E. Snow, H.C. Olson, M. Willis, and J. Olson were at the University of Texas Austin, E. Stocks and M.R. Odell were at the University of Texas at Tyler.The Texas Earth and Space Science (TXESS) Revolution was a 5-y teacher professional development project that aimed to increase teachers' content knowledge in Earth science and preparing them to teach a 12th-grade capstone Earth and Space Science course, which is new to the Texas curriculum. The National Science Foundation–supported project was designed around six principles that proved to be critical to in its success: (1) model best practices in workshop presentations, (2) use authentic Earth science data and cybertechnology to teach up-to-date content, (3) provide ongoing training to cohorts of learners over a 2-y period, (4) involve geoscience consortia and programs that can provide proven content for classrooms, (5) use ongoing evaluations to guide future workshops, and (6) provide opportunities for leadership development through participation in research and curriculum development projects. The project served 177 science teachers by supporting them with the pedagogical, technological, and scientific tools to teach modern geoscience. TXESS Revolution teachers directly impacted more than 29,000 students, of which about 69% are nonwhite, by exposing students in Texas to the geosciences and planting the seeds for them to pursue geoscience as a field of study. Using a train-the-trainer approach, TXESS Revolution teachers shared their professional development with other Texas teachers, strengthening Earth science education at all K–12 levels throughout the state, an impact that extends beyond preparation in Earth and space science.Petroleum and Geosystems Engineerin