Australian families with children and adolescents

This report highlights some of the ways in which Australian families with children under 18 years old have changed or remained stable.Key messagesThis fact sheet examines the extent and nature of change in household and family forms. The broad trends observed include the following: Family size has decreased, with the proportion of those families with only one or two children younger than 18 years increasing over successive Census periods.In turn, larger families, with three, four or more children are less prevalent.For those families headed by an unpartnered parent, however, the numbers of children in the family have changed little over the last decade.Women are having children later in life than was apparent for earlier generations. As a result, the proportion of mothers (of children under 18 years old) in the 45-54 year age group has steadily increased over the last two decades. These trends are similar both for mothers in couple families and for unpartnered mothers, though fewer of the former than the latter group tend to be younger than 25 years old.The proportions of intact, step- and blended families with children under 18 years old have not changed over the last 20 years. While rates of cohabitation have increased steadily over the decades, step-families show the highest rate, followed by blended families.Given that as children mature their chance of having experienced parental separation at some stage in their childhood increases, the proportion living in one-parent families or in step-families also increases progressively with increases in the children\u27s age.Rates of paid employment of mothers have steadily increased, typically involving part-time work when children are younger than 12 years.When family forms (couple or one-parent family) and the employment circumstances of the parent(s) who are living with the child are taken into account, then the most common arrangements for children aged under 5 years old is for them to live in a couple family in which one parent works full-time and the other is either not employed or away from work. For older age groups, the most common situation is to be living in a dual-earning couple family.Mothers continue to spend more time than fathers on household work, even if working full-time. Some fathers work well beyond the standard full-time hours. This tends to generate dissatisfaction and lowered wellbeing across a range of areas, including family relationships, though some fathers appear to thrive on such work hours, at least in the short-term.Most parents in intact families report high satisfaction with their relationship with each other, though fathers tend to be more satisfied than mothers. While most are highly satisfied with their own and the other parent\u27s relationship with their children, both mothers and fathers are more likely to express high satisfaction with the mother-child than father-child relationship.Biological parent—child relationships tend to be viewed more favourably by those experiencing them than is the case for step-parent—child relationships. Compared with step-fathers, step-mothers report lower relationship quality with their step-children.Overall, adolescents seem highly satisfied with their relationship with their parents, but relationships with step-parents are less likely to be viewed in such a favourable light. Step-daughters seem less satisfied than step-sons with these relationships

Global investigation of large earthquakes using InSAR and long-period seismic data

In this thesis I present the first comprehensive global archive of InSAR-determined source models (ICMT database) compiled from the literature, which I use to independently assess source parameters reported in global and regional seismic catalogues. In general there is good agreement between InSAR and seismic source models, but there are some large discrepancies, particularly in location and seismic moment. There is a large intra-event variability in source parameters in the ICMT database, which highlights the uncertainties introduced by errors in the data and by simplified assumptions used in the modelling. Large discrepancies for five earthquakes with magnitudes Mw 6.0 -Mw 8.1 are investigated in detail by comparing seismic data with theoretical seismograms calculated using two forward modelling techniques and 1-D and 3-D Earth models. For moderate magnitude events the InSAR location improves the fit to the seismic data, but this is not the case for the larger earthquakes, which is partly due to errors in the Earth models used. These findings motivated the development of a new seismo-geodesy joint source inversion technique that takes into account the effects of 3-D Earth structure when modelling the seismic data. It is tested on three synthetic events with different faulting mechanisms and for three real earthquakes in various tectonic settings (Mw 6.0 Eureka Valley, Mw 6.6 Aiquile and Mw 6.5 Zarand events). These tests clearly show the advantages of taking into account 3-D Earth structure in the modelling, and the combination of InSAR and seismic datasets reduces parameter tradeoffs and enables the robust characterisation of the earthquake source

Development of the Writing Attitudes and Strategies Self-Report Inventory

Several self-report inventories assess specific aspects of writing. However, skilled writing is a multidimensional process requiring a comprehensive measure that assesses writing attitudes, self-efficacy, and strategy use. The Writing Attitudes and Strategies Self-Report Inventory (WASSI) is designed to fulfill this need. Currently in its second iteration, the WASSI-2 displays superior reliability and validity evidence when compared to other measures. The seven subscales all exceeded minimum standards for Cronbach\u27s alpha. Additionally, the underlying factor structure that best represents the data mirrors the intended seven-factor design. Validity evidence based on external relations was yielded from correlating the WASSI-2 scores with the Daly-Miller Writing Apprehension Test, the Children\u27s Social Desirability Scale, and expert scores on student essays; all but one of the correlations were in the expected direction and of appropriate magnitude. This evidence indicates that the WASSI may potentially be a useful assessment tool for educators and researchers

An American Eve : the construction of a modern revisionist heroine in Kate Chopin's "The awakening", Ernest Hemingway's "The sun also rises" and F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The great Gatsby"

Cette recherche a pour but d’identifier une personnalité féminine révisionniste dans le modernisme littéraire américain. Cette personnalité révisionniste a pour nom «American Eve» et défie le «American Adam» qui est un personnage mythique patriarcal de R.W.B. Lewis provenant du dix-neuvième siècle. Cette conceptualisation est accomplie à l’aide d’une analyse socio-critique et comparative des trois protagonistes féminins dans les romans modernes The Awakening (1899) de Kate Chopin, The Sun Also Rises (1926) d’Ernest Hemingway, et The Great Gatsby (1925) de F. Scott Fitzgerald. Ma construction de cette personnalité féminine est divisée en trois chapitres, chacun étant dédié à un protagoniste en particulier. En comparant ces personnages littéraires sur un plan socio-critique et féministe, je permets à mon étude d’établir en quoi les personnages en question contribuent ou ne contribuent pas à la personnalité de «American Eve». Cette approche comparative est un excellent moyen d’évaluer l’évolution du potentiel révisionniste de la femme au vingtième siècle et les différentes façons par lesquelles elle emploie ce pouvoir

Unmasking Uncle Sam: A Legal Test for Defining and Identifying State Media

In December 2018, the Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee published a report detailing how the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the central federal state media agency, illegally targeted social media ads at Americans at least 860 times from 2016 to 2018. The U.S. Agency for Global Media and other U.S. state media agencies have enormous resources, and if left unchecked, could unduly influence public opinion, threaten the free and independent press, and subvert democratic accountability. To address this growing concern, this Article proposes a new, comprehensive legal test for defining and identifying state media that incorporates existing approaches for analyzing government publications employed by the federal government and independent media platforms

Innovative Approaches to Emergency Medical Services Fellowship Challenges

Introduction: Since the development of an Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-accredited emergency medical services (EMS) fellowship, there has been little published literature on effective methods of content delivery or training modalities. Here we explore a variety of innovative approaches to the development and revision of the EMS fellowship curriculum.Methods: Three academic, university-based ACGME-accredited EMS fellowship programs each implemented an innovative change to their existing training curricula. These changes included the following: a novel didactic curriculum delivery modality and evaluation; implementation of a distance education program to improve EMS fellows’ rural EMS experiences; and modification of an existing EMS fellowship curriculum to train a non-emergency medicine physician.Results: Changes made to each of the above EMS fellowship programs addressed unique challenges, demonstrating areas of success and promise for more generalized implementation of these curricula. Obstacles remain in tailoring the described curricula to the needs of each unique institution and system.Conclusion: Three separate curricula and program changes were implemented to overcome specific challenges and achieve educational goals. It is our hope that our shared experiences will enable others in addressing common barriers to teaching the EMS fellowship core content and share similar innovative approaches to educational challenges

Young adults and advance care planning

Advance care planning (ACP) is often thought to be for the old or seriously ill, but young adults often experience unexpected accidents, leaving them unable to communicate their wishes for medical care. As the medical community strives toward person-centered care, not having an advance directive (AD) inhibits planning toward individual desires and places an unnecessary burden on next-of-kin to make choices for the patient. There is no comprehensive rule about when ACP should start. Ideally, it is an ongoing dialogue between individuals, their families, and their providers. This study explored young adults and advance care planning in the United States through the lens of Symbolic Interaction Theory and Systems Theory while examining the association of age and race/ethnicity on completing the tasks of ACP, the impact of having been exposed to ACP discussion with elders, the relationship of knowledge and health status, as well as the impact of experience with death on willingness to engage in those discussions. Recommendations for practitioners and future research are also addressed

Laser Guide Star for Large Segmented-Aperture Space Telescopes, Part I: Implications for Terrestrial Exoplanet Detection and Observatory Stability

Precision wavefront control on future segmented-aperture space telescopes presents significant challenges, particularly in the context of high-contrast exoplanet direct imaging. We present a new wavefront control architecture that translates the ground-based artificial guide star concept to space with a laser source aboard a second spacecraft, formation flying within the telescope field-of-view. We describe the motivating problem of mirror segment motion and develop wavefront sensing requirements as a function of guide star magnitude and segment motion power spectrum. Several sample cases with different values for transmitter power, pointing jitter, and wavelength are presented to illustrate the advantages and challenges of having a non-stellar-magnitude noise limited wavefront sensor for space telescopes. These notional designs allow increased control authority, potentially relaxing spacecraft stability requirements by two orders of magnitude, and increasing terrestrial exoplanet discovery space by allowing high-contrast observations of stars of arbitrary brightness.Comment: Submitted to A

Biodegradation Of Weathered Oil In Soils With A Long History Of TPH Contamination

Sites with a long history of exposure to petroleum hydrocarbons contain mainly long chain hydrocarbons or “weathered oil”. This is because petroleum is a complex mixture of many organic compounds and these compounds biodegrade at different rates. Under aerobic conditions the shorter hydrocarbon chains biodegrade first and the longer chains are more recalcitrant. Long chain hydrocarbons are less soluble in water and more like tar in consistency than the shorter chain hydrocarbons, so a major problem with the degradation of these compounds is that bacteria that break down hydrocarbons do not come into contact with them. These compounds are not bioavailable and therefore do not biodegrade. A petroleum refinery that has been active for many years has a large amount of weathered oil in the surrounding soil and groundwater. A treatability study was performed on samples from the Site to determine whether conditions could be manipulated to stimulate the biodegradation of the weathered oils. Several sets of microcosms containing soil and groundwater were set up. Along with nutrients and an oxygen source, a biodegradable surfactant was added to some of the sets in order to determine whether increasing the bioavailability of the hydrocarbons would enhance their degradation. After the microcosms were set up, there was an initial increase in hydrocarbons in the aqueous phase and a decrease in hydrocarbons in the soil phase in the microcosms that had received surfactant. This change was due to the surfactant solubilizing hydrocarbons out of the soil and into the water. As the experiment progressed however, a decline in hydrocarbon levels in both soil and groundwater was observed. It was determined that by manipulating the conditions and solubilizing the hydrocarbons, biodegradation of weathered oils could be stimulated. Hydrocarbons could be removed from soils that had contained these weathered oils for many years without any appreciable degradation