Juveniles in detention in Australia, 1981-2008

The Australian Institute of Criminology’s (AIC’s) national Juveniles in Detention Monitoring Program was established to contribute to the evidence base on juvenile detention in Australia, with a particular focus on Indigenous juveniles. Findings date back to 1981 and have been reported annually. This report provides an overview of the numbers and rates of juveniles in detention in Australia since 1981 and juveniles in detention for the financial year 2007–08. As with the AIC’s previous report on juveniles in detention (Taylor 2009), it also provides contextual information on young people sentenced in the children’s courts. The collation of data for these reports is supported by statutory juvenile justice agencies in each of Australia’s jurisdictions, as well as the NSW Department of Corrective Services. As described in more detail in this report, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) administers the Juvenile Justice National Minimum Data Set and also reports annually on juveniles in detention. Given this development, the AIC is conducting a review of the Juveniles in Detention Monitoring Report in 2010–11, to ensure that AIC’s research and monitoring does not duplicate the AIHW’s work and that it makes a useful contribution to the field and enables more in-depth analysis of key issues

Quasilocal Smarr relation for an asymptotically flat spacetime

A quasilocal Smarr relation is obtained from Euler's theorem for Einstein-Maxwell(-Dilaton) theory for an asymptotically flat spacetime, and its associated first law is studied. To check both, we calculate quasilocal variables by employing Brown-York quasilocal method along with Mann-Marolf counterterms, which are consistent with Tolman temperature. We also derive entropy by constructing a quasilocal thermodynamic potential via Euclidean method. Here we found that the Euclidean action value in a quasilocal frame just yields a usual thermodynamic potential form, which do not include a $PA$ term, and entropy just becomes the Bekenstein-Hawking one. Through the examples, we confirmed that our quasilocal Smarr relation is satisfied with all cases, and its first law is also exactly satisfied except the dyonic black hole with the dilaton coupling constant $a=\sqrt{3}$. In that case when making a large $R$ expansion, the first law is satisfied up to $1/R$ order but it does not hold for higher sub-leading order of $R$. This issue should be resolved in future.Comment: 24 page

From Disaster to Sustainability: The Story of the Pacific Groundfish

This paper reviews the circumstances that led to the collapse of the Pacific groundfish fishery and the steps that fishery managers took to curb over-harvesting and bring the fishery back to sustainability. Fishery managers utilized various management tools such as a vessel buyback program, regulatory mechanisms, and market strategies to improve the available data on the fishery, improve safety for fishermen, and reduce harvest rates and overcapitalization. By employing a diverse range of measures, managers developed a system by with they successfully balanced conservation objectives and minimized adverse impacts to fishing communities. Overcapitalization and overharvest continue to degrade the health of fisheries stocks across the world. Vessel buyback programs and limited entry programs can control access to the fishery and reduce fishing capacity. Individual fishing quotas and similar market strategies can help reduce harvest rates and improve catch value. While not universally applicable to all fisheries, some combination of the strategies used in regulating the pacific groundfish recovery are applicable for use for other global overfished stocks

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis dissertation project analyzes tensions between class and rhetoric conflicts over coal in West Virginia, particularly contemporary conflicts over Mountaintop Removal (MTR) in the state. In it, I focus on how class animates rhetorics of resistance, identity, and control, (re)examining and recalibrating the relationship between rhetoric and class as vital to the construction of rhetorical theory on one hand and the contemporary salience of class on the other. Here, class broadly refers to the way populations are separated and stratified based on analytics and ideals of value (economic security and mobility being one), primarily articulated to align with teleological commitments to progress as they are defined alongside capitalism and deliberative democracy. Drawing from critiques of sociology, I forward what I call the socialization of class. The socialization of class is the long and deeply engrained process of making populations legible as classed or less inherently valuable. This process depends on varied iterations of class that rely on and enforce one another in the world-making process. As a result, I contend that class is always a rhetorical phenomenon, tangible because of and salient in the social (both material and abstract) is dynamics that have become normal in the contemporary world. In turn, I also contend that rhetoric, as both a field and a practice, has prominent and often unexamined classed dimensions and forward the socialization of class as a way of (re)examining the political tenors that undergird much of rhetorical theory. Appalachian populations, and more specifically West Virginia and its people, have been historically juxtaposed to progress, cultivating material and ideological differences that are used to make Appalachian populations legible in the American imagination. Those differences both animate and are animated by practices, perceptual orientations, and rhetorical maneuvers. Consequently, to elucidate and recalibrate the relationship between rhetoric and class I explore the history of coal in West Virginia and its reliance on varied commitments to progress. Then, I analyze public discourses and events that engage MTR conflicts, focusing heavily on popular West Virginia newspaper articles, editorials, and letters to the editor between approximately 2006 and 2013. I attempt to pay particular attention to the way more contemporary rhetorical appeals are indebted to the history of creating a dependent culture in West Virginia, a conscious goal of the coal mining industry since just before the turn of the 20th Century. In addition to challenging implicit theoretical commitments to progress, the goal here is to formulate a heuristically valuable approach to class that helps make sense of the contemporary demands facing and opportunities available to activists in marginalized communities, particularly rural Appalachia

Polymer-stabilized sialylated nanoparticles : synthesis, optimization, and differential binding to influenza hemagglutinins

During influenza infection, hemagglutinins (HAs) on the viral surface bind to sialic acids on the host cell's surface. While all HAs bind sialic acids, human influenza targets terminal α2,6 sialic acids and avian influenza targets α2,3 sialic acids. For interspecies transmission (zoonosis), HA must mutate to adapt to these differences. Here, multivalent gold nanoparticles bearing either α2,6- or α2,3-sialyllactosamine have been developed to interrogate a panel of HAs from pathogenic human, low pathogenic avian, and other species' influenza. This method exploits the benefits of multivalent glycan presentation compared to monovalent presentation to increase affinity and investigate how multivalency affects selectivity. Using a library-orientated approach, parameters including polymer coating and core diameter were optimized for maximal binding and specificity were probed using galactosylated particles and a panel of biophysical techniques [ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, and biolayer interferometry]. The optimized particles were then functionalized with sialyllactosamine and their binding analyzed against a panel of HAs derived from pathogenic influenza strains including low pathogenic avian strains. This showed significant specificity crossover, which is not observed in monovalent formats, with binding of avian HAs to human sialic acids and in agreement with alternate assay formats. These results demonstrate that precise multivalent presentation is essential to dissect the interactions of HAs and may aid the discovery of tools for disease and zoonosis transmission

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

Feedback-enhanced algorithm for aberration correction of holographic atom traps

We show that a phase-only spatial light modulator can be used to generate non-trivial light distributions suitable for trapping ultracold atoms, when the hologram calculation is included within a simple and robust feedback loop that corrects for imperfect device response and optical aberrations. This correction reduces the discrepancy between target and experimental light distribution to the level of a few percent (RMS error). We prove the generality of this algorithm by applying it to a variety of target light distributions of relevance for cold atomic physics.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure