Digital Commons Network^™

New Medical Graduates: Can General Practice Help With Training?, Tom Brett

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Medical student numbers in Australia have increased significantly in recent years. A resulting increase in medical graduates is inevitable and desirable.

Western Australian medical graduates will double by 2012 and treble shortly afterward. Insufficient training positions in hospitals will likely require additional training opportunities to be provided by general practices.

This article reviews innovative general practice training schemes for new medical graduates in Australia and overseas. It examines whether Australian general practice can play a role in training the rising numbers of new doctors.

Practice Nurses And Research: The Fremantle Primary Prevention Study, Julie Young, Wendy Manea-Walley, Noelene Mora, Diane Arnold-Reed, Tom Brett

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

The Primary Health Care Research Evaluation and Development strategy provides financial support for the development of early to mid career researchers through its Research Capacity Building Initiative and Research Development Program. Practice nurses can provide valuable contributions to research practices undertaking research projects.

This article documents the experiences of three practice nurses involved in an independently funded cardiovascular research project and how the experience helped to enhance their role in their general practice.

The combination of general practitioner and practice nurse working together is an important component of primary care research. The development of research skills is an exciting option …

Knowledge And Attitudes Of Men To Prostate Cancer, Diane Arnold-Reed, Dana Hince, Max Bulsara, Hanh Ngo, Michael Eaton, Alan R. Wright, Frank R. Jones, Walter Kaczmarczyk, Andreas G. Marangou, Tom Brett

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Objective: To ascertain the current level of understanding about prostate cancer (PCa), including treatment options and potential side effects of treatment, among older men.

Design and Setting: Questionnaires administered by general practitioners (GPs) in 5 general practices in the Perth metropolitan and regional areas of Western Australia.

Participants: Convenience sample of men aged 40-80 years (n=503) with or without prostate cancer presenting for routine consultations.

Main outcome measures: Knowledge and attitudes of men to prostate cancer

Results: Eighty percent of men did not know the function of the prostate and 48% failed to identify PCa as the most common internal …

Irritable Bowel Syndrome Patients Exhibit Depressive And Anxiety Scores In The Subsyndromal Range, Sean D. Hood, Jonathon Q. Shufflebotham, Julie Hendry, Dana A. Hince, Ann S. Rich, Chris S J Probert, John Potokar

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients frequently experience affective disorders and psychiatric outpatients frequently meet criteria for IBS. The exact nature of this co-morbidity is not clear. 34 patients with Rome-II diagnosed IBS were recruited from a Gastroenterology clinic. Patients with social anxiety disorder (10 SSRI-remitted and 7 untreated subjects) were used as a psychiatric comparison, 28 normal subjects from our register were included as a fourth group (Volunteers). Depressive and anxiety symptoms were measured by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Spielberger Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), respectively. Personality traits were measured with the Swedish universities Scales of Personality (SSP). IBS …

Teenage Parents, Julie A. Quinlivan

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Teenage pregnancy is considered to be one of the most important adolescent health problems in Western society. It is associated with a high economic cost involving both direct monetary expenditure for public assistance for welfare and child health care as well as negative societal outcomes in terms of child abuse, neglect and poverty (Quinlivan, 2004). Australia now has one of the highest adolescent fertility rates in the world. Teenage mothers may experience a number of adverse outcomes associated with teenage pregnancy including failure to complete schooling, inability to find a job, and increased risk of poor health (Quinlivan, 2004; Social …

Referring Patients To Specialists: A Structured Vignette Survey Of Australian And British Gps, Moyez Jiwa, Michael Gordon, Hayley Arnet, Hooi Ee, Max Bulsara, Brigitte Colwell

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Background: In Australia and in the United Kingdom (UK) access to specialists is sanctioned by General Practitioners (GPs). It is important to understand how practitioners determine which patients warrant referral.

Methods: A self-administered structured vignette postal survey of General Practitioners in Western Australia and the United Kingdom. Sixty-four vignettes describing patients with colorectal symptoms were constructed encompassing six clinical details. Nine vignettes, chosen at random, were presented to each individual. Respondents were asked if they would refer the patient to a specialist and how urgently. Logistic regression and parametric tests were used to analyse the data.

Results: We received 260 …

The Perceptions Of Recently Assigned Secondary Religious Education Teachers, Chris Hackett

Education Papers and Journal Articles

This article focuses on survey responses from newly appointed secondary Religious Education teachers from the first phase of a longitudinal study. The study was conducted in Catholic schools in three dioceses of Western Australia over two school years, from 1998 to 1999. The study focused on the teachers’ perceptions of implementing the Perth Archdiocesan Religious Education Units of Work. The article outlines briefly the demographic and professional backgrounds of recently appointed RE (RARE) teachers. Next, it reports upon how these teachers perceived their use of the instructional resources and teaching approach in the RE Units. The article then describes what …

Developing Student Leadership Through Service-Learning, Shane D. Lavery

Education Papers and Journal Articles

Adolescents possess enormous potential as leaders. They have the capacity to become leaders in the workplace, in their families, in the community, and in government.

Increasingly, schools have taken on the important responsibility of the developing leadership in young people. Schools are, what van Linden and Fertman call, “hotbeds of leadership development” (1998, p. 224). For instance, Catholic schools have a commendable reputation for preparing, promoting, developing and nurturing elected student leaders. Fair and just elections, leadership camps, leadership reflection days, mixed school leadership programs, and leadership seminars, all form valid and valuable ways of preparing students for the challenges, …

E-Learning Pedagogy In The Primary School Classroom: The Mcdonaldization Of Education, Matthew Etherington

Education Papers and Journal Articles



This paper begins as an initial rejoinder to the ideas expressed by Ross (2000) in The Promise and Perils of E-Learning: A critical look at the new technology. In his article, Ross supports the traditional practices of pedagogy at the primary school level—face-to-face pedagogy— and then critiques what he describes as a ‘fetishisation’ of technological pedagogy—a fetishisation seen in the increase of E-learning pedagogy at the primary school level. The ideas expressed in this article gain their structure and momentum from Ross’s (2000) arguments against E-learning and extends a more cautious approach to the widespread belief in the …

Front Matter Of Volume 3 Number 1, Tufail A. Qureshi

Business Review

Front matter, Contents and Editorial Perspective

Institution Of Bureaucracy And The Conflict In South Asia, Huma Baqai

Business Review

The role of bureaucracies is vitally important in the conflict-cooperation balance. Bureaucrats by definition are implementers of policy. This implementation also sometimes graduates to initiation of policies; therefore, it would be appropriate to say that although they are implementers, they also perform a variety of other functions which enhances their role and importance in the functions of the states, particularly bureaucratic states.

Economic Reforms And Total Factor Productivity Growth In Pakistan: An Empirical Analysis, Muhammad Sabir, Qazi Masood Ahmed

Business Review

This paper compares the average growth rates in GDP, factor inputs and total factor productivity during pre-reform period 1972-73 to 1987-88 and the reform period 1987-88 to 2001-02 and summarizes the historical patterns. Particular attention is given to assessing the impact of structural adjustment policies on total productivity growth directly and indirectly through other determinants of total factor productivity growth, such as human capital etc.

On Nonlinearities In Kse 100 Index Stock Return, Khurshid M. Kiani

Business Review

This research investigates possible existence of asymmetries in business cycle fluctuations in Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) 100 index over money market rates. I model the relationship between excess stock return in KSE 100 index using a number of nonlinear time series models for constructing linearity tests for testing linearity in KSE 100 excess returns. These tests include Keenan test, Ramsay RESET test, and its improved versions i.e. RESET1 and RESET2 tests. The results based on Keenan test show statistically significant evidence of nonlinearities in KSE 100 excess returns. Likewise the results from Ramsay RESET test confirm this behavior. However, the …

Pilot Study Of 8 Smes In Pakistan, Ejaz Mian

Business Review

These (eight) cases study small firms (with 1-50 employees) in Pakistan to determine marketing factors that lead to success. Information is gathered through in-depth interviews with owner-managers on their premises. Convenience sampling is used within the city of Karachi. Firms included relate to production, and services (including retail). It was found that most of the firms are not marketing oriented and they do not understand marketing. Thus they will benefit from some kind of marketing training conducted by the government or through their own resources.

A Word About The Iba, About Our Authors, Note For Contributors, Back Matter, Tufail A. Qureshi

Business Review

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Gera Conference Program [2008], Gera

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

Conference program for 2008.

Email Overload In Academia, Jeffrey D. Hole

Theses

The emergence of email as a viable and inexpensive communication channel has led to its increased presence in the daily lives of professionals. Email has become a ubiquitous tool in a faster paced and more globally connected world. Besides simple notes, professionals now use email to communicate tasks, important personal and organizational announcements, meeting requests, and share documents. As the importance of email has grown, professionals have made the email client a work nerve center. The vast increase in the volume of email and the use of the email client as a multifunctional tool now threatens the productivity gains it …

A Preliminary Analysis Of Pet Barrier Technologies And Mechanical Performance Related To A 3l Pet Wine Bottle, Colleen K. Baude

Theses

The objective of this study was to test and compare Monolayer, Amosorb 2%, and Multilayer 3% PET wine jugs for package integrity and mechanical properties. In addition, two secondary package configurations were tested and analyzed. The first a shipper with load bearing inserts, the second configuration consisted of no inserts. Further, both shipping configurations and PET material have different costs associated. A Monolayer PET bottle has a savings of 17% a case compared to Amosorb and Multilayer PET bottle substrate. Shippers not utilizing inserts are $.20 less per case. The analysis was broken into three test and result phases. Phase …

Hydrogen Energy: A Study Of The Use Of Anaerobic Digester Gas To Generate Electricity Utilizing Stand-Alone Hydrogen Fuel Cells At Wastewater Treatment Plants, Charles W. Emerson

Theses

Not provided.

Counting And Sampling Paths In Graphs, T. Ryan Hoens

Theses

Since Euler began studying paths in graphs, graph theory has become an important branch of mathematics. With all of the research into graph theoretic problems, however, counting – exactly or approximately – the number of simple paths in finite graphs has been neglected. This thesis investigates an approximation technique known as Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) for the specific purpose of approximating the number of simple paths in graphs. Due to the paucity of research into the subject, the thesis will make the conjecture that this cannot be done exactly in an efficient manner (assuming that the longstanding conjecture P …

A Needs Assessment & Exploration For Incorporating Tablet Pc Technology To Improve Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Students Cooperative Learning Experiences In The Mainstream Classroom, Sarah B. Remelt

Theses

This project focuses on qualitative exploratory research that analyzes the possible inclusion of Tablet PC technology and teaching strategies to enhance cooperative learning in the mainstream classroom environment. After 3 observations, suggestions for use of Tablet PC technology and teaching strategies were shared and modeled for the classroom Teachers of the Deaf(TODs). Feedback via interview and survey were solicited from the TODs involved in the study and a final report written. The report showed the findings that the Tablet PC is perceived to have the ability to enhance deaf and hard of hearing student experiences, participation and communication during cooperative …

Deep Freeze And The Nssa Labs, Jay Snell

Theses

This work represents a formative evaluation of the effect of Deep Freeze on the labs in the Networking, Security, and Systems Administration department. This department maintains 4 labs for student use and has implemented Deep Freeze, a software package intended to maintain a standard set of configurations on each computer. In order to provide a proper focus to the evaluation, the process consisted of identifying specific evaluation questions, first through a diverging process, including the input of key stake holders, followed by a converging process. The data was collected using both a survey instrument and interviews, providing both quantitative and …

How Does Advertising Articulate The Tropes Of The Posthuman That Exist In Contemporary Culture?, Norah Campbell

Doctoral

The posthuman is a concept that has accrued much currency in disciplines as diverse as legal theory, artificial life science and philosophy. This thesis explores the meaning of the concept by initially examining what it means to be human, finding that art and science have so far failed to provide a long-lasting definition of humanness. Instead of a temporal “coming-after” stage of humanity, posthumanism might be more usefully seen as a concept that draws attention to the cracks that have always existed in the apparently water-tight description of the human- how the “human” has changed radically and continues to change …

The Influence Of The Servicescape On Post-Consumption Processes, Daire Hooper

Doctoral

The physical and atmospheric cues in service environments have long been accepted as potent contributors to consumers’ overall evaluations of their service experiences. Theoretical frameworks conceptualising how these environmental cues impact on both emotional and cognitive processes have been put forward, yet the empirical work supporting these theories has become highly disjointed with a great deal of confusion regarding what should be classified as an environmental stimulus. By integrating the extant literature, this dissertation attempts to overcome theoretical ambiguities and proposes a second order factor model of service environments, also known as the servicescape, which is subsequently tested using a …

Love-Variant: The Wakin-Vo I. D. R. Model Of Limerence, Albert H. Wakin, Duyen B. Vo

Psychology Faculty Publications

The purpose of the current paper is to 1) propose the Wakin-Vo I.D.R model of limerence and 2) establish grounds for the scientific query of limerence. Limerence is an involuntary interpersonal state that involves intrusive, obsessive, and compulsive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are contingent on perceived emotional reciprocation from the object of interest. The model that the authors propose holds that although limerence resembles normative love, it is a state that is necessarily negative, problematic, and impairing, with clinical implications. The model frames limerence as consisting of three functional components: initiating force, driving forces, and resultant forces. Parallels between …

Enhancing Recursive Supervised Learning Using Clustering And Combinatorial Optimization (Rsl-Cc), Kiruthika Ramanathan, Sheng Uei Guan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The use of a team of weak learners to learn a dataset has been shown better than the use of one single strong learner. In fact, the idea is so successful that boosting, an algorithm combining several weak learners for supervised learning, has been considered to be one of the best off-the-shelf classifiers. However, some problems still remain, including determining the optimal number of weak learners and the overfitting of data. In an earlier work, we developed the RPHP algorithm which solves both these problems by using a combination of genetic algorithm, weak learner and pattern distributor. In this paper, …

We Are Condemned To Learn: Towards Higher Education As A Learning Society, Ted Fleming

Level 3

As higher education faces challenges to adapt to changing social, political, and labour-force contexts this is an opportune time to examine these influences. Demands come from the economy, mediated by the neo-liberal state, to reform, attend to the interests of the job market, become less dependent on the state and have more inclusive access policies. The language and values of the economy insert themselves into the discourse, management and pedagogic practices of the university. The ideas of Jürgen Habermas are useful for understanding this dynamic and for plotting a way forward. His ideas on the relationship between the state, economy …

Engineering: An Inherently Philosophical Enterprise, William Grimson

Level 3

This chapter first sets out the arguments for considering engineering from a philosophical point of view with specific reference to the main branches of Philosophy. Additionally within the single branch of Epistemology, the relevance of Empiricism, Rationalism, Existentialism, Logical Positivist, and Post-Modernism to engineering is briefly outlined. The general proposition advanced is that Engineering is itself fundamentally philosophical in nature, attempting in its own way to make sense of the world in which we live.

Towards A Model Of Critical Ethics To Inform The Research Process In Postgraduate Research, Aidan Kenny

Level 3

he ethics narrative has become embedded in the contemporary research process, as evident in the emergence of Ethical Committees in faculty and both public and private organisations. Ethics have been codified, made visible and accessible as text artefacts in the forms of (both voluntary and regulatory) codes, statements, conventions, guidelines, principles, procedures, practices. In this short paper I explore this codification of ethics from the period post WWII, detailing some of the milestone text artefacts

International League Tables And Rankings In Higher Education: An Appraisal, Kathleen Lynch

Level 3

Universities have marketed themselves in the public sphere and justified public funding for their activities on the grounds that they serve the public good. They have traded on their Enlightenment inheritance that they are the guardians and creators of knowledge produced for the greater good of humanity in its entirety. They are seen and claim to be seen as the watchdogs for the free interchange of ideas in a democratic society; they claim to work to protect freedom of thought, including the freedom to dissent from prevailing orthodoxies.