Family-friendly work practices: differences within and between workplaces

One of the major economic and social changes of recent decades has been the large increase in the number of mothers in paid employment. As a consequence, there has been increasing recognition by employers of the importance of family-friendly work arrangements to assist parents to balance work and family responsibilities. This research is the first large-scale analysis of the extent to which employees within organisations in Australia have differential access to a range of family-friendly work practices.

Hobbes, empire and the politics of the cabal : political thought and policymaking in the Restoration

This article explores a sizable and largely unknown manuscript treatise from the 1670s, “Pax et Obedientia,” which discusses the Civil Wars, trade, the origins of government, toleration, plantations (especially Jamaica), and the royal supremacy, embedding within it a distinctive engagement with Hobbes and a particular vision of imperial composite monarchy. This first analysis of what “Pax” said, who wrote it, and why he did so in the way that he did nuances the present understanding of Restoration debates over a centralizing empire; it reveals the different forms that policy makers thought that empire might take, while also capturing a moment of transition between different meanings of imperium. The anonymous author's engagement with Hobbes further suggests how questions that later fell into the realm of political economy were discussed at the time, using the language of natural jurisprudence. In demonstrating the methodological necessity of utilizing both linguistic and institutional contexts, the authors argue that the apparent incoherence of “Pax” reflects an essential although ineptly executed strategy on the part of its author. Inchoate though the manuscript is, it offers a significant opportunity to understand the intellectual world of junior members of the government and to reconsider the intersection of political thinking and political action.PostprintPeer reviewe

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

Exploring Students\u27 Perceptions of Academically Based Living-Learning Communities

This qualitative study employed focus group interviews to explore students\u27 perceptions of three well established academically based living-learning communities at a large, land-grant university in the Midwest. Three themes emerged that illustrated students\u27 perceptions of a culture that promoted seamless learning, a scholarly environment, and an ethos of relatedness among faculty, staff, and peers. Implications for practice and future research are discussed

Children’s experience and attitudes towards the police, personal safety and public spaces: findings from the 2009/10 British Crime Survey interviews with children aged 10 to 15, supplementary volume 3 to Crime in England and Wales 2009/10

The British Crime Survey (BCS) is a face-to-face victimisation survey of around 46,000 adults resident in households in England and Wales. The survey has been carried out since 19821, asking adults aged 16 or over about their experiences of crime in the 12 months prior to interview as well as their attitudes towards different crime-related issues such as the police, criminal justice system, and perceptions of crime and anti-social behaviour. One of the key recommendations of crime statistics reviews carried out in 2006 was that the BCS should be extended to include populations currently not covered by the survey, for example, people aged under 16 (Smith, 2006; Statistics Commission, 2006). An announcement was made in May 2008 that the BCS would be extended to include children aged 10 to 15 following independent expert advice (Pickering et al., 2008). After a period of testing, development and consultation, data collection began in January 2009. A methodological report detailing all aspects of this process was published on 21 October 2010 (see Fitzpatrick et al., 2010)

POWERLIB: SAS/IML Software for Computing Power in Multivariate Linear Models

The POWERLIB SAS/IML software provides convenient power calculations for a wide range of multivariate linear models with Gaussian errors. The software includes the Box, Geisser-Greenhouse, Huynh-Feldt, and uncorrected tests in the "univariate" approach to repeated measures (UNIREP), the Hotelling Lawley Trace, Pillai-Bartlett Trace, and Wilks Lambda tests in "multivariate" approach (MULTIREP), as well as a limited but useful range of mixed models. The familiar univariate linear model with Gaussian errors is an important special case. For estimated covariance, the software provides confidence limits for the resulting estimated power. All power and confidence limits values can be output to a SAS dataset, which can be used to easily produce plots and tables for manuscripts.

BamView: visualizing and interpretation of next-generation sequencing read alignments.

So-called next-generation sequencing (NGS) has provided the ability to sequence on a massive scale at low cost, enabling biologists to perform powerful experiments and gain insight into biological processes. BamView has been developed to visualize and analyse sequence reads from NGS platforms, which have been aligned to a reference sequence. It is a desktop application for browsing the aligned or mapped reads [Ruffalo, M, LaFramboise, T, Koyutürk, M. Comparative analysis of algorithms for next-generation sequencing read alignment. Bioinformatics 2011;27:2790-6] at different levels of magnification, from nucleotide level, where the base qualities can be seen, to genome or chromosome level where overall coverage is shown. To enable in-depth investigation of NGS data, various views are provided that can be configured to highlight interesting aspects of the data. Multiple read alignment files can be overlaid to compare results from different experiments, and filters can be applied to facilitate the interpretation of the aligned reads. As well as being a standalone application it can be used as an integrated part of the Artemis genome browser, BamView allows the user to study NGS data in the context of the sequence and annotation of the reference genome. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) density and candidate SNP sites can be highlighted and investigated, and read-pair information can be used to discover large structural insertions and deletions. The application will also calculate simple analyses of the read mapping, including reporting the read counts and reads per kilobase per million mapped reads (RPKM) for genes selected by the user

Engineering Faculty Perspectives on the Nature of Quality Teaching

There is wide agreement that teaching quality matters in higher education, but faculty have varied ideas about the definition of quality. Faculty definitions of quality teaching were coded using an existing framework. The most common definition of teaching quality (held by 49% of participants) is associated with elitism and restricted access—the best way to improve education is to admit better students. These faculty focus on education as “knowledge transfer” and “learning content.” Another 38% of faculty had a transformational perspective, more focused on process than content, valuing “empowering students,” “developing students,” and “creating an environment for learning.” These faculty refer to pedagogies of engagement such as active learning. The only other prevalent definition of quality (30% of faculty) focused on “fitness for purpose,” characterized by terms such as “ability to meet specific legitimate learning objectives” and “mastery of learning outcomes.” This work provides guidance to faculty development efforts