Shared differences: Creativity in graduate research

In this article, we talk about the centrality of something that “feels creative” in the research process. We talk across shared differences ‒ different but cognate disciplines, different but cognate migrant histories, and the shared difference of a (past) supervisor/supervisee relationship. And we talk about that “something” as it relates to three important dimensions of graduate research: the nature of a creative-production thesis; the process of making/writing such a thesis; and the potential of a supervisory relationship pertaining to such making/writing. We want to think about graduate research from these perspectives in order to finesse any seductive opposition between “traditional” and “creative” research; to imagine ways in which doctoral research students go about developing elegant theses, especially the strategies that work for creative-production researchers; and also to imagine how the supervisory relationship, albeit structurally hierarchical, can be collegial and productive – can be creative. We do all this in aid of thinking about what is transformative in higher degree research for students, for supervisors, for universities

Taking the Stairs instead: The impact of workplace design standards on health promotion strategies

Background: Comprehensive health promotion in Western Australia has been conducted from the point of views of policy development, promotion, education and service delivery. Much of this recent work has been focused on supporting workplaces – but there has yet to be any real focus on the design of the actual physical workplace environment from a health promotion perspective. Aims: This paper is aimed at highlighting the gap in health promotion knowledge by addressing how the disciplines of architecture and health promotion can work together to challenge the regulations that dictate design practice and ultimately bridge that gap for long-term change. The overarching aim is to undertake further evidenced-based research that will inform best practice in the planning and design of workplaces to reduce sedentary behaviour and increase opportunities for physical activity. Method: Within this wide objective this paper focuses in particular on the idea of stairs-versus-lift movement strategies within office buildings. By examining building design guidelines from a health promotion perspective we expose a central dichotomy, where health promotion posters say “Take the stairs instead” whereas the language of building design suggests that the lift is best.Results: From a design point of view, the National Codes of Construction (NCC), formally known as the Building Codes of Australia (BCA), the essential technical regulation for all building design and construction, primarily addresses the concepts of ‘egress’ and ‘travel distance’ for escape in the event of fire, and building access in terms of universal access. Additionally, The Property Council of Australia’s Guide to Office Building Quality prioritises lift performance criteria along with the quality and experience of lift use as a major grading factor. There is no provision in either set of standards for staircase quality and experience. Conclusion: The stairs, despite being promoted as better life choice for better health, is not promoted through these building codes nor, consequently, through the building design in actuality. It is proposed that health promotion strategies could be coupled with design-led movement strategies in workplace design so that the promotional language, such as “take the stairs instead”, is balanced by the design language of the building

Socio-spatial and quality of life themes in aged care architecture: A qualitative methods protocol

Aim: To evaluate the connection between residential aged care architecture, the residents’ ability to find home and Quality of Life themes. Design: This study uses convergent qualitative mixed methods approach across the three phases of the research project to explore the lived experience of residential aged care residents, their family members, and direct care staff. Methods: The chosen qualitative methodology is based on a constructionist paradigm and uses a combination of observations, photo production and prompted discussions, and architectural visual data collection methods. Funding was approved in March 2018. Discussion: This research will provide a novel approach to understanding ways by which residents of residential aged care facilities engage with their surrounding environments and make those surroundings into a place they ‘called home’. The research will serve to articulate the core elements of residential aged care building types which lead to an enhanced quality of life and sense of place for residents. Impact: There is little contemporary socio‐spatial, lived experience research on the implications of new building types, such as small household aged care facilities on residents quality of life. This research contributes and is significant, to the disciplines of aged care, nursing, architecture, and user studies. The research will provide new knowledge about the influences of the physical environment on resident\u27s quality of life and their ability to find home across different building types, while providing insight into how quality of life might be improved through spatial strategies

Taking the Stairs Instead: The impact of workplace design standards on health promotion strategies

Background Comprehensive health promotion in Western Australia has been conducted from the point of views of policy development, promotion, education and service delivery. Much of this recent work has been focused on supporting workplaces – but there has yet to be any real focus on the design of the actual physical workplace environment from a health promotion perspective. Aims This paper is aimed at highlighting the gap in health promotion knowledge by addressing how the disciplines of architecture and health promotion can work together to challenge the regulations that dictate design practice and ultimately bridge that gap for long-term change. The overarching aim is to undertake further evidenced-based research that will inform best practice in the planning and design of workplaces to reduce sedentary behaviour and increase opportunities for physical activity. Method Within this wide objective this paper focuses in particular on the idea of stairs-versus-lift movement strategies within office buildings. By examining building design guidelines from a health promotion perspective we expose a central dichotomy, where health promotion posters say “Take the stairs instead” whereas the language of building design suggests that the lift is best. Results From a design point of view, the National Codes of Construction (NCC), formally known as the Building Codes of Australia (BCA), the essential technical regulation for all building design and construction, primarily addresses the concepts of ‘egress’ and ‘travel distance’ for escape in the event of fire, and building access in terms of universal access. Additionally, The Property Council of Australia’s Guide to Office Building Quality prioritises lift performance criteria along with the quality and experience of lift use as a major grading factor. There is no provision in either set of standards for staircase quality and experience. Conclusion The stairs, despite being promoted as better life choice for better health, is not promoted through these building codes nor, consequently, through the building design in actuality. It is proposed that health promotion strategies could be coupled with design-led movement strategies in workplace design so that the promotional language, such as “take the stairs instead”, is balanced by the design language of the building

Accessibility to Possibility

Neil is a sporty, outdoorsy sort of bloke. He spends very little time at home, preferring to golf, surf, go to the footy and hang out with his mates: You can tell just by looking inside his house—a huge TV in the darkened lounge, and golf equipment, surfboards and motorbike gear fill up the room. That was before last October. Now, in June, Neil is a paraplegic, his house is inaccessible and his boys-toys are in the way.  For Neil, his home, previously an inwardly focused place to sleep and store, will become the centre of his world (when he can eventually get into it). Initially, accessibility is the key problem to be solved. To this end the architectural advisor from the rehabilitation unit proposed formulaic adjustments to the bathroom to allow for wheelchair access. However, accessibility is only one facet of the problem. This environment, relatively unimportant before, now needs to enable and inspire the occupant both physically and emotionally. As physical abilities dramatically change the spatial practices of everyday life also change. The home environment is ever more important to support and help heal emotional scarring after a life-changing event.  In the context of shorter hospital and rehabilitation stays, the home provides a vital extension to the healthcare system. Therefore it is important that architectural advice given to enable this move considers the holistic qualities of design thinking rather than be restricted to short-term solutions.

Measuring, Mapping, Creating: A mixed method approach to sedentary behaviours and work-place design

This paper reports on the formation and success of an innovative interdisciplinary research team formed to tackle a current critical challenge in our social, cultural and built environments. The challenge—that of sedentary behaviour and its relationship to workplace design—is somewhat familiar to researchers in health promotion but is less so to architectural researchers. The research team has been especially choreographed to include a diverse membership with different skills and expertise ranging from highly scientific to highly creative practices. The team consists of experienced researchers from the fields of architecture, health promotion and recreation and includes early career researchers, doctoral and undergraduate students. The mixed methods employed in this study reinforce the value of engaging critical creative practices with scientific analyses. The success of the partnership is demonstrated by being awarded the first ‘Healthway’ grant to an area outside of Health Sciences at Curtin University. In undertaking the research and engaging in interdisciplinary practices it was found that all parties built understandings and capacities in unexpected and enriching ways. Tackling a real world challenge, such as this, through the full spectrum of scientific, critical and creative means results in multifaceted creative solutions and outputs with wide dissemination opportunities

Application of the Occupational Sitting and Physical Activity Questionnaire (OSPAQ) to office based workers

Background The workplace is a setting where sedentary behaviour is highly prevalent. Accurately measuring physical activity and sedentary behaviour is crucial to assess the impact of behavioural change interventions. This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and criterion validity of the Occupational Sitting and Physical Activity Questionnaire (OSPAQ) and compare with data collected by accelerometers. Methods A test-retest study was undertaken on 99 participants using the OSPAQ. Data were then compared to accelerometer records of 41 participants. Reliability was assessed by paired t-test and intra-class correlations (ICC) via a two-way mixed model based on absolute agreement. Difference and agreement were measured by comparison of mean self-reported data with accelerometer data using the Pearson’s correlation coefficient and Bland-Altman plots. Results The ICCs for minutes spent sitting (0.66), standing (0.83) and walking (0.77) showed moderate to strong test-retest reliability. No significant differences were found between the repeated measurements taken seven days apart. Correlations with the accelerometer readings were moderate. The Bland-Altman plots showed moderate agreement for standing time and walking time but systematic variation for sedentary time. Conclusion The OSPAQ appears to have acceptable reliability and validity measurement properties for application in the office workplace setting

Community SARS-CoV-2 Surge and Within-School Transmission

OBJECTIVES: When the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic began, experts raised concerns about in-person instruction in the setting of high levels of community transmission. We describe secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2 within North Carolina (NC) K-12 school districts during a winter surge to determine if mitigation strategies can hinder within-school transmission. METHODS: From 10/26/2020–02/28/2021, 13 NC school districts participating in the ABC Science Collaborative were open for in-person instruction, adhered to basic mitigation strategies, and tracked community- and school-acquired SARS-CoV-2 cases. Public health officials adjudicated each case. We combined these data with that from August 2020 to evaluate the effect of the SARS-CoV-2 winter surge on infection rates, as well as weekly community- and school-acquired cases. We evaluated the number of secondary cases generated by each primary case, as well as the role of athletic activities in school-acquired cases. RESULTS: More than 100,000 students and staff from 13 school districts attended school in-person; of these, 4,969 community-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infections were documented by molecular testing. Through contact tracing, NC local health department staff identified an additional 209 infections among >26,000 school close contacts (secondary attack rate <1%). Most within-school transmissions in high schools (75%) were linked to school-sponsored sports. School-acquired cases slightly increased during the surge; however, within-school transmission rates remained constant, from pre-surge to surge, with approximately 1 school-acquired case for every 20 primary cases. CONCLUSIONS: With adherence to basic mitigation strategies, within-school transmission of SARS-CoV-2 can be interrupted, even during a surge of community infections

Incidence and Secondary Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Infections in Schools

BACKGROUND: In an effort to mitigate the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), North Carolina (NC) closed its K–12 public schools to in-person instruction on 03/14/2020. On 07/15/2020, NC’s governor announced schools could open via remote learning or a “hybrid” model that combined in-person and remote instruction. In August 2020, 56 of 115 NC school districts joined the ABC Science Collaborative (ABCs) to implement public health measures to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission and share lessons learned. We describe secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2 within participating NC school districts during the first 9 weeks of in-person instruction in the 2020–2021 academic school year. METHODS: From 08/15/2020–10/23/2020, 11 of 56 school districts participating in ABCs were open for in-person instruction for all 9 weeks of the first quarter and agreed to track incidence and secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Local health department staff adjudicated secondary transmission. Superintendents met weekly with ABCs faculty to share lessons learned and develop prevention methods. RESULTS: Over 9 weeks, 11 participating school districts had more than 90,000 students and staff attend school in-person; of these, there were 773 community-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infections documented by molecular testing. Through contact tracing, NC health department staff determined an additional 32 infections were acquired within schools. No instances of child-to-adult transmission of SARS-CoV-2 were reported within schools. CONCLUSIONS: In the first 9 weeks of in-person instruction in NC schools, we found extremely limited within-school secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2, as determined by contact tracing

Evolutionary conservation of the fidelity of transcription

Accurate transcription is required for the faithful expression of genetic information. However, relatively little is known about the molecular mechanisms that control the fidelity of transcription, or the conservation of these mechanisms across the tree of life. To address these issues, we measured the error rate of transcription in five organisms of increasing complexity and found that the error rate of RNA polymerase II ranges from 2.9 × 10 -6 ± 1.9 × 10 -7/bp in yeast to 4.0 × 10 -6 ± 5.2 × 10 -7/bp in worms, 5.69 × 10 -6 ± 8.2 × 10 -7/bp in flies, 4.9 × 10 -6 ± 3.6 × 10 -7/bp in mouse cells and 4.7 × 10 -6 ± 9.9 × 10 -8/bp in human cells. These error rates were modified by various factors including aging, mutagen treatment and gene modifications. For example, the deletion or modification of several related genes increased the error rate substantially in both yeast and human cells. This research highlights the evolutionary conservation of factors that control the fidelity of transcription. Additionally, these experiments provide a reasonable estimate of the error rate of transcription in human cells and identify disease alleles in a subunit of RNA polymerase II that display error-prone transcription. Finally, we provide evidence suggesting that the error rate and spectrum of transcription co-evolved with our genetic code