School of Social and Political Sciences - Research Publications

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    Effects of Progesterone on Mammary Carcinogenesis by DMBA Applied Directly to Rat Mammae
    JABARA, AG ; MARKS, GN ; SUMMERS, JE ; ANDERSON, PS (Springer Nature, 1979-01-01)
    The effects and site(s) of action of progesterone on DMBA mammary carcinogenesis in the rat, when a small dose of the carcinogen was applied directly to the inguinal mammary gland, were investigated. No reduction in tumour yield was apparent when progesterone was administered s.c. for 18 days before dusting DMBA. This finding contrasts with a previously reported inhibitory effect on carcinogenesis when hormone treatment was followed by intragastric administration of DMBA. When progesterone injections were begun either 2 days before or 2 days after direct application of DMBA, and were continued until the end of the experiment (135 or 195 days) an enhancement in carcinogenesis was observed similar to that previously demonstrated after gastric intubation of DMBA. These findings, together with previously reported observations, suggest that progesterone may exert its inhibitory effect on carcinogenesis by acting at a site outside the breast, perhaps on the liver. However, it is likely that the hormone acts directly on the mammary tissue to exert its enhancing effect on tumorigenesis.
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    Awareness and practice of patient's rights law in Lithuania.
    Ducinskiene, D ; Vladickiene, J ; Kalediene, R ; Haapala, I (Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2006-09-02)
    BACKGROUND: Patient's rights law is intended to secure good medical practice, but it can also serve to improve understanding between patients and medical staff if both were aware of their rights. METHODS: Awareness and practice of the new patient's rights law in Lithuanian health care institutions was explored through a survey of 255 medical staff and 451 patients in the four Kaunas city medical units in 2002. Participation rates were 74% and 66%, respectively. RESULTS: Majority of the medical staff (85%) and little over one half of the patients (56%) had heard or read about the Law on Patient's Rights (p < 0.001). Only 50% of professionals compared to 69% of patients thought information for patients about diagnosis, treatment results and alternative treatments is necessary (p < 0.001). A clear discrepancy was indicated between physicians informing the patients (80%-98% of physicians) and patients actually knowing (37%-54%) their treatment prognosis, disease complications or possible alternative treatment methods. CONCLUSION: These results suggest a need for awareness-raising among patients to improve the practical implementation of the Patient's Rights Law in Lithuania.
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    The Role of Community in Restorative Justice Conferencing
    Johns, D (RMIT Publishing, 2009-02-01)
    In examining the role of the community in restorative justice conferencing, this article seeks to highlight the critical aspect of conferencing which differentiates it as a mode of restorative justice: the involvement of supportive others of both victims and offenders; the engagement of a restorative community. Reflection on the nature of this community, and its role in the conferencing process, reveals both its functional and symbolic significance. Drawing on the findings of a study of conferencing for young offenders in Melbourne, Australia, between 2000 and 2003, a detailed picture of the role of the restorative community is presented, largely from the perspective of those most closely involved: young offenders and their families.
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    Measuring emotional and social wellbeing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations: an analysis of a Negative Life Events Scale.
    Kowal, E ; Gunthorpe, W ; Bailie, RS (Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2007-11-14)
    Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians experience widespread socioeconomic disadvantage and health inequality. In an attempt to make Indigenous health research more culturally-appropriate, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians have called for more attention to the concept of emotional and social wellbeing (ESWB). Although it has been widely recognised that ESWB is of crucial importance to the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, there is little consensus on how to measure in Indigenous populations, hampering efforts to better understand and improve the psychosocial determinants of health. This paper explores the policy and political context to this situation, and suggests ways to move forward. The second part of the paper explores how scales can be evaluated in a health research setting, including assessments of endorsement, discrimination, internal and external reliability.We then evaluate the use of a measure of stressful life events, the Negative Life Events Scale (NLES), in two samples of Aboriginal people living in remote communities in the Northern Territory of Australia. We argue that the Negative Life Events Scale is a promising assessment of psychosocial wellbeing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. Evaluation of the scale and its performance in other samples of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations is imperative if we hope to develop better, rather than more, scales for measuring ESWB among Indigenous Australians. Only then will it be possible to establish standardized methods of measuring ESWB and develop a body of comparable literature that can guide both a better understanding of ESWB, and evaluation of interventions designed to improve the psychosocial health of Indigenous populations and decrease health inequalities.
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    Media awards for responsible reporting of suicide: Experiences from Australia, Belgium and Denmark
    Dare, AJ ; Andriessen, KAM ; Nordentoft, M ; Meier, M ; Huisman, A ; Pirkis, JE (BMC, 2011-06-03)
    BACKGROUND: Media awards to encourage responsible reporting of suicide have been introduced in several countries, including Australia, Belgium and Denmark. AIMS: This study aimed to examine the experiences of Australian, Belgian and Danish award recipients in preparing stories on suicide, and consider the impacts of the awards for these recipients and for media professionals more broadly. METHOD: We conducted semi-structured telephone interviews with the majority (14 out of 15) of past recipients of the awards in the three countries of interest. RESULTS: Media awards appear to show promise as a method of reinforcing national and international media guidelines on reporting suicide. The recipients of awards were proud to have had their achievements recognized in this way, and had developed a heightened awareness of the issues inherent in reporting suicide. Although relatively few had prepared subsequent stories on suicide, a number had been given opportunities to provide advice to other media professionals about how best to approach this sensitive topic. Recipients viewed the awards as an important means by which good quality reporting can be rewarded, and a springboard for raising community awareness about suicide. CONCLUSION: The experience from Australia, Belgium and Denmark suggests that media awards which recognize responsible reporting of suicide are extremely worthwhile.
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    Evidence-based guidelines to reduce the need for restrictive practices in the disability sector
    Budiselik, M ; Davies, M ; Geba, E ; Hagiliassis, N ; Hudson, A ; McVilly, K ; Meyer, K ; Tucker, M ; Webber, L (Australian Psychological Society, 2011)
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    Quasi-Markets and Service Delivery Flexibility Following a Decade of Employment Assistance Reform in Australia
    Considine, M ; Lewis, JM ; O'Sullivan, S (CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS, 2011-10-01)
    In 1998, we were witnessing major changes in frontline social service delivery across the OECD and this was theorised as the emergence of a post-Fordist welfare state. Changes in public management thinking, known as New Public Management (NPM), informed this shift, as did public choice theory. A 1998 study of Australia’s then partially privatised employment assistance sector provided an ideal place to test the impact of such changes upon actual service delivery. The study concluded that frontline staff behaviour did not meet all the expectations of a post-Fordist welfare state and NPM, although some signs of specialisation, flexibility and networking were certainly evident (Considine, 1999). Ten years on, in 2008, frontline staff working in Australia’s now fully privatised employment sector participated in a repeat study. These survey data showed convergent behaviour on the part of the different types of employment agencies and evidence that flexibility had decreased. In fact, in the ten years between the two studies there was a marked increase in the level of routinisation and standardisation on the frontline. This suggests that the sector did not achieve the enhanced levels of flexibility so often identified as a desirable outcome of reform. Rather, agencies adopted more conservative practices over time in response to more detailed external regulation and more exacting internal business methods.
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    Front-line work in employment services after ten years of New Public Management reform: Governance and activation in Australia, the Netherlands and the UK
    Considine, M ; Lewis, JM (Sage Publications, 2010)
    This study examines the impact of administrative reforms upon the work of front-line staff in the employment services of three reform-oriented countries – Australia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. These changes have involved greater use of private agents, more detailed performance contracts, clearer expectations about outcomes for job-seekers, and increased competition between agencies seeking government work. The study compares the work characteristics and strategies of front-line staff in agencies in the three systems in 2008 and a decade earlier, using surveys. The results show that there are substantial differences in the level of tailoring and investment in these countries. There are three relatively stable modes of governance in these cases and the most stable of these types across countries and across time is what we term the corporate-market mode – more generally labelled New Public Management (NPM). Despite the expectations of theorists and of reformers, the role of network governance proves neither as stable nor as generalised as expected.
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