Journal articles on the topic 'Birth control Economic aspects Australia'

Poisoning, ripping of warrens and a combination of both techniques were assessed as means of controlling rabbits in steep areas of the southern Flinders Ranges in semiarid South Australia. The number of active warren entrances was reduced significantly by poisoning and by ripping. One month after treatment, untreated plots contained an average of 72.2 active entrances whereas the poisoned and ripped plots averaged 27.1 and 7.3 active entrances, respectively. A combination of both techniques reduced the number of active warren entrances even further, but this is not recommended because it increases the cost of control substantially. The efficiencies of a large and a small crawler tractor were compared. Costs of ripping were similar, and the suitability of each tractor is discussed. In the southern Flinders Ranges rabbit control is clearly economical in relation to the improvements in sheep production likely to be obtained.

Plant invasions of natural systems threaten biodiversity and ecosystem processes across many biomes. Historically most plant invasions have been facilitated by human activities such as industry, transport and landscape modification. Consequently, both causes and management of weed invasion are dependent on human behaviour and management advice provided by ecologists needs to take account of this fact. This paper assesses current environmental weed control policy in Australia and asks: are government, land managers and the scientific community using available social levers to achieve optimal weed management? We do this by comparing aspects of weed policy with a generalized natural resource policy framework. Adequacy of issue characterization and policy framing are discussed with particular reference to public perceptions of the weed problem, policy scaling and defining policy principles and goals. The implementation of policy Instruments, including regulation, VOluntary incentives, education, Information, motivational instruments, property-right instruments and pricing mechanisms are reviewed. Limitations of current instruments and potential options to improve instrument effectiveness are discussed. Funding arrangements for environmental weed control are also reported: environmental weed invasion generally represents an external cost to economic markets which has resulted in relatively low funding levels for control operations. Finally, review and monitoring procedures in weed programmes and policy are addressed. Rigorous monitoring systems are important in effective, adaptive weed management where control techniques are continually refined to improve ecological outcomes. The utility of maintaining links between project outcomes and policy inputs along with methods of implementing appropriate monitoring are discussed.

This paper reviews the transmission modes ofTrypanosoma evansi. Its worldwide distribution is attributed to mechanical transmission. While the role of tabanids is clear, we raise questions on the relative role ofHaematobiasp. and the possible role ofStomoxyssp. in delayed transmission. A review of the available trypanocidal drugs and their efficacy in various host species is useful for understanding how they interact in disease epidemiology, which is complex. Although there are similarities with other mechanically transmitted trypanosomes,T. evansihas a more complex epidemiology due to the diversity of its hosts and vectors. The impact of clinical and subclinical disease is difficult to establish. A model was developed for buffaloes in the Philippines, which could be transferred to other places and livestock systems. SinceTrypanosoma evansiwas reported in humans, further research is required to investigate its zoonotic potential. Surra remains a potentially emerging disease that is a threat to Australia, Spain, and France. A number of questions about the disease have yet to be resolved. This brief review of the basic knowledge ofT. evansisuggests that there is renewed interest in the parasite, which is spreading and has a major economic impact.

Abstract The aim of this study is to present certain aspects connected with transformation of contemporary Polish families and to indicate threats to performing their functions. Systematic, economic, social and cultural transformations have influenced lives of people and families and new opportunities emerged to improve standards of living, change attitudes and lifestyles. Contemporary families are characterized by varied structure and dominance of non-productive families formed primarily on non-economic grounds, which control and plan birth of children. However, families are facing a number of challenges and threats that affect performing the basic family functions. High unemployment rate, poverty, violence and addictions are only part of the phenomena that negatively affect quality of living of Polish families. This study presents opinions of young people about transitions and threats concerning family functions.

Preterm birth is a vital global health-economic problem. Health disorders provoked by it generate a high neonatal mortality rate. Prenatal corticosteroid prevention aims to reduce postnatal complications in premature infants. This survey covered two basic baby groups: work group of 89 premature infants that had been subjected to prenatal corticosteroid prophylaxis and a control group of 78 premature babies without prenatal prevention. The analysis of the pharmacoeconomic aspects of prenatal corticosteroid prevention enabled the comparison of clinical and therapeutic results, treatment costs, therapeutic expenditures, shortterm therapeutic effect, benefits and sequences from premature infants’ therapy. The analysis of clinical data obtained during this survey enabled the conclusion that when analyzing the combined effect of Dexamethasone prophylaxis, gestation week at birth and the age of the mother of premature infants with RDS, respiratory obstuction occurrence was mediated by the earlier gestation week at birth, older mother’s age and, at this background, it was restricted to a certain extent by prenatal corticosteroid administration. Conclusions: Prenatal corticosteroids cause reduction of premature infants’ treatment costs. The implementation of a smaller number of dexamethasone applications leads to smaller expenditures for premature infants’ treatment and care compared to those that have more dexamethasone applications.

ArgumentBy examining sources created by people who were detained or employed at the quarantine stations of Australia and the Western Pacific, this article illuminates aspects of the history of disease control that cannot be observed in other source material. Most research examining the history of maritime quarantine has tended to rely on the records of official and government agencies. As a result, discussion has largely been confined to government policy and larger issues of the political, economic, and social consequences of maritime disease control. This article contributes to the historiography by examining personal sources that show how quarantine policy and practice were experienced from the perspective of its participants. They reveal the experiences of otherwise obscured healthy detainees and illuminate agency among quarantined individuals that cannot be observed without these sources.

The population problem has always been a fundamental, overall and strategic issue faced by the human society. While China’s family planning policy has promoted China’s economic development and social progress, the “two-child” policy failed to receive satisfactory result. Confronted by China’s low fertility rate, efforts must be done from many aspects to spur population growth: establish the National Population Security Council, strengthen the selection and appointment of population policy makers, strengthen the family values, adopt incentive measures to increase fertility, and so on. The “two-child” policy has been carried out for more than three years, and the policy is still facing the test of time. China’s “two-child” policy is still a transitional policy, and the final solution will be to abandon birth control.

Johne’s disease (JD) is caused by Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) and is an important and emerging problem in livestock; therefore, its control and prevention is a priority to reduce economic losses and health risks. Most JD research has been carried out on cattle, but interest in the pathogenesis and diagnosis of this disease in sheep and goats is greatest in developing countries. Sheep and goats are also a relevant part of livestock production in Europe and Australia, and these species provide an excellent resource to study and better understand the mechanism of survival of MAP and gain insights into possible approaches to control this disease. This review gives an overview of the literature on paratuberculosis in sheep and goats, highlighting the immunological aspects and the potential for “omics” approaches to identify effective biomarkers for the early detection of infection. As JD has a long incubation period before the disease becomes evident, early diagnosis is important to control the spread of the disease.

The research on proximate determinants of fertility was carried out based on the condition of fertility in Papua which is still high compared to national figures and the use of modern contraception tends to decrease according to several periods of Indonesian Demographic and Health Surveys (IDHS). The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between social, economic, demographic factors and the proximate determinant of fertility in Papua. This study is a secondary data the 2017 IDHS, analysis using descriptive and multivariate with multiple logistic regression test. The results show that Papuan women’s education has a dominant effect on the duration of marriage and the use of contraception. The higher education level will likely increase the use of contraception and the length of marriage. This can be used as a foothold in the planning and implementation of population control programs, in this case, is the regulation and restrictions on future births. Birth control programs through the Population, Family Planning, and Family Development Program need to synergize with other government programs, especially with the Education Program for Papuan women in planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating programs of course. An approach to traditional leaders is needed since customs and traditions greatly affect all aspects of Papuan people’s lives. The traditional leader’s advice and suggestions are very well heard by people. The traditional leader’s communication, information dissemination, and education to program targets really need to be strengthened. This method is certainly implemented by all levels of the program area, but especially in the field lines that are very close to the target.

In March 1988 the People's Republic of China announced the birth of the first test-tube baby born to a 39-year-old infertile peasant woman. This surprise announcement appeared in strong contradiction to China's population reduction goals amidst a population crisis. Yet, the media attention given to this medical achievement would seem to be consistent with the political, social, and economic changes taking place in the last decade, including technological innovation as the key to a modern socialist nation. In short, this announcement highlights tensions facing China as it simultaneously attempts to modernize within a trans-national economy, control population, and maintain traditional Confucian family values within a rapidly changing context.

This article discusses the situation of income support claimants in Australia, constructed as faulty citizens and flawed welfare subjects. Many are on the receiving end of complex, multi-layered forms of surveillance aimed at securing socially responsible and compliant behaviours. In Australia, as in other Western countries, neoliberal economic regimes with their harsh and often repressive treatment of welfare recipients operate in tandem with a burgeoning and costly arsenal of CCTV and other surveillance and governance assemblages. Through a program of ‘Income Management’, initially targeting (mainly) Indigenous welfare recipients in Australia’s Northern Territory, the BasicsCard (administered by Centrelink, on behalf of the Australian Federal Government’s Department of Human Services) is one example of this welfare surveillance. The scheme operates by ‘quarantining’ a percentage of a claimant’s welfare entitlements to be spent by way of the BasicsCard on ‘approved’ items only. The BasicsCard scheme raises significant questions about whether it is possible to encourage people to take responsibility for themselves if they no longer have real control over the most important aspects of their lives. Some Indigenous communities have resisted the BasicsCard, criticising it because the imposition of income management leads to a loss of trust, dignity, and individual agency. Further, income management of individuals by the welfare state contradicts the purported aim that they become less ‘welfare dependent’ and more ‘self-reliant’. In highlighting issues around compulsory income management this paper makes a contribution to the largely under discussed area of income management and the growth of welfare surveillance, with its propensity for function creep, garnering large volumes of data on users approved (and declined) purchasing decisions, complete with dates, amounts, times and locations.

The article examines the prerequisites for the creation and early stages of development of the Commonwealth of Australia from the founding of the first European colonies prior to the legal formalization of the federation. Also mentioned are the variability of approaches to the development of Australia’s historiography, in particular from the positions of classical English and modern Australian views. Also, the early stages of the development of the continent that preceded the discovery of Australia by Europeans are considered. It analyzes the wide context of geopolitical processes in Europe in the era of imperialism (XVI-XIX centuries), as well as the circumstances of the formation of large colonial empires. In particular, features of the status, place and role of England in the international political processes of the XVIІ and XVIII centuries are shown, and the stages of the formation of the British colonial empire are also considered. The complex of internal socio-economic as well as foreign policy prerequisites for the beginning of the colonization of Australia by Great Britain is analyzed, in particular the attention paid to the consequences of the British Industrial Revolution XVIII. The stages of formation of the British colonies in Australia, as well as the development of the mainland from the establishment of the first settlement - New South Wales until full control of the continent are investigated. The characteristics of the economic, social, political, demographic and other aspects of the development of Australian colonies are analyzed. The article discusses the evolution of trade and administrative relations between individual colonies, as well as the stages of preparation for the creation of a federation, which was called the Commonwealth of Australia and changed the country's colonial position to the dominion status in the British Empire. Particular attention is paid to the international political processes that accompanied the development of the Australian continent, as well as the role of colonial administrations in regional geopolitical processes, in particular the colonization of New Guinea.

This article reviews the demographic effects of breastfeeding on fertility and child survival and, ultimately, on population growth. Extended breastfeeding both reduces fertility by prolonging birth intervals and increases child survival through improved nutrition, especially where adequate substitutes are not available. The results presented show, however, that although breastfeeding is a major determinant of fertility in the absence of other means of fertility control, prolonged breastfeeding alone cannot reduce fertility to levels consonant with slow or zero population growth. The benefits, at least for the first year of life, demonstrate the need for policies that promote breastfeeding and encourage compatibility between breastfeeding and other aspects of women's fives. In particular, policies are needed that permit women to breastfeed their children while, at the same time, improving their socio-economic circumstances through participation in the labour force.

Coal mine drainage waters are low in pH with varying amounts of iron and manganese and are generally brackish. The Austar Coal Mine in NSW, Australia, sought alternatives to their current lime dosing as the pre-treatment before the downstream reverse osmosis plant. Undesirable operating aspects of the current system include manganese and gypsum scaling/fouling, the need for anti-scalants and reduced water recovery. Thirteen processes for acid mine drainage were initially considered. The preferred process of caustic and ozone for Mn(II) oxidation was pilot tested at up to 0.74 kL/hr at the mine site. Under proper conditions and no aeration, about 81 per cent of the Fe could be removed (initially at 156 mg/L) as green rust. Supplemental aeration followed first-order kinetics and allowed 99.9 per cent Fe(II) oxidation and removal but only with a hydraulic residence time of about 47 minutes. The addition of supplemental Cu catalyst improved Fe removal. Ozone applied after caustic was effective in stoichiometrically oxidising recalcitrant Mn(II) and any remaining Fe(II). Control of the ozonation was achieved using the oxidation reduction potential during oxidation of the Mn(II) species. The use of caustic, followed by ozone, proved economically comparable to the current lime pre-treatment.

Groundwater pumping is used to control salinity problems in many irrigation regions of Australia. Options for managing the pumped groundwater are required to be consistent with achieving high farm production levels and minimising salt export from irrigation regions. In this study, pasture production and economic aspects of 6 options for managing pumped groundwater are compared. The 6 options include (i) complete farm reuse of pumped groundwater for irrigation; (ii) complete export to river system; (iii) complete disposal to evaporation basin; (iv) partial farm reuse with reduced salt export; (v) partial farm reuse with reduced disposal to evaporation basin; and (vi) partial farm reuse with disposal to a salt tolerant forage crop. The comparison between the 6 options is made for a hypothetical 100 ha dairy farm that has a perennial pasture based production system. Complete farm reuse was the most economic option in areas where groundwater salinity is low (<5 dS/m). Partial farm reuse with disposal of surplus groundwater to a salt tolerant forage species was the most economical option for managing higher salinity groundwater.

Society’s resources are scarce, and biosecurity actions need to be targeted and prioritised. Various models have been developed that prioritise and rank pests and diseases according to the risks they represent. A prioritisation model allows utilisation of scientific, ecological and economic information in decision-making related to biological hazards. This study discusses such models and the properties associated with them based on a review of 78 prioritisation studies. The scope of the models includes all aspects of biosecurity (human, animal and plant diseases, and invasive alien species), but with an emphasis on plant health. The geographical locations of the studies are primarily North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Half of the studies were conducted during the past five years. The review finds that there generally seems to be several prioritisation models, especially in the case of invasive plants, but only a select few models are used extensively. Impacts are often accounted for in the model, but the extent and economic sophistication of their inclusion varies. Treatment of uncertainty and feasibility of control was lacking from many studies.;

The exotic alien species Aethina tumida, commonly known as the small hive beetle (SHB), was first detected in the Italian region of Calabria in 2014. The SHB is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa and is established in North and Central America, Australia, and many other world regions. Little is known about the effects of SHB introduction in new regions. This article focuses on the economic and regulatory aspects of SHB invasions. It presents the results of a survey questionnaire administered to Italian bee experts and extension agents in the spring of 2019, which documents opinions about the SHB invasion and its management in Italy. The results show that the SHB and Varroa are perceived as major threats to bee health. Over half of respondents agree that SHB eradication is no longer an attainable policy objective in Calabria, and support a policy shift from eradication to control of SHBs. Among respondents, extension agents are the most likely to agree with the need for a policy adjustment. Additional scientific and economic evidence and analysis can help resolve the differences in the opinions of stakeholders about feasible or preferable management policies for the SHB, and crucially, ensure the participation of beekeepers in the surveillance and control efforts.

One of the determinants of people’s numbers is the socioeconomic prosperities of a particular place in the context of population census. The population is defined as the total number of people, animals and other variables per unit area in the environment. This study focuses on the negative and positive aspects of population growth and distribution. The study also covers possible factors influencing population growth and distribution in Mararaban Guruku, Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State. The data presented were obtained from the National Population Commission with a focus on socio-economic data and made use of appropriate statistical analysis of coefficient of determination (R2). Almost all the models have a strong and significant correlation. The multiple regression analysis defined the fitness the model at 0.9 and 0.8. The result indicates positive correlation of dependency ratio and strong impact on population increase. Mararaban Guruku is considered to have high population growth and subjected to negative influence population change ranging from high crime rate, growth of urban slums and ghetto, unemployment and overcrowding. However, it is suggested by the respondents that people are becoming aware of the use of family planning as an effective avenue of Birth control.

To investigate the sociological, environmental, and economic impact of hormonally active contraceptives, a series of comprehensive literature surveys were employed. Sociological effects are discussed including abortion, exploitation of women, a weakening of marriage, and an increase in divorce with deleterious effects on children such as child poverty, poorer health, lower educational achievement, suicide risks, drug and alcohol abuse, criminality, and incarceration, among others. The environmental impact is discussed briefly and includes the feminization and trans-gendering of male fish downstream from the effluent of city wastewater treatment plants with declining fish populations. The potential economic impact of most of these side effects is estimated based on epidemiologic data and published estimates of costs of caring for the diseases which are linked to the use of hormonally active contraceptives. Hormonally active contraceptives appear to have a deleterious impact on multiple aspects of women’s health as well as negative economic and environmental impacts. These risks can be avoided through the use of nonhormonal methods and need to be more clearly conveyed to the public. Summary: Hormonal contraceptives have wide-ranging effects. The potential economic impact of the medical side effects is estimated. Sociological effects are discussed including abortion, exploitation of women, a weakening of marriage and an increase in divorce with negative effects on children such as child poverty, poorer health, lower educational achievement, suicide risks, drug and alcohol abuse, criminality and incarceration among others. The environmental impact includes hormonal effects on fish with declining fish populations. Women seeking birth control have a right to know about how to avoid these risks by using effective hormone-free methods like Fertility Awareness Methods.

THIS BOOK IS ABOUT MANIFESTATIONS of power in medicines and pharmaceutical industry policy. The main focus is on the Republic of Ireland but there are chapters also on drug regulation in Canada, Britain and Australia. The multinational pharma companies loom larger in Ireland than in most other countries; several chapters detail the implications for this small country of the presence of a major cluster of global drug companies. Globalisation is the hallmark of the drug sector; innovation and production occur within international networks which are mirrored by interaction between regulatory agencies which operate similar systems of control and monitoring. Since the 1990s, many aspects of product safety regulation have been standardised across the developed countries through the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) process, sponsored by the regulatory agencies and industry associations of the USA, the European Union and Japan. While orchestrating vast scientific, economic and technological resources, the big pharma companies participate as insiders in national policy processes, such as those described in this book. Firms typically affirm a commitment to the health and economic concerns of the local jurisdiction ? however governments cannot help but be sensitive to their global reach and power to choose where to invest.

There are several analytical strands through which historians and demographers understand the evolution of twentieth-century population politics and expertise. One is the history of the declining birthrate, nationalism, pro-natalism, and modern degeneration anxieties, including histories of eugenics. A second strand is the story of global overpopulation, its mobilization as a mid-twentieth-century issue in Cold War politics, the dominance of the idea of demographic transitions and political economy, and subsequent links between aid, development, family planning, and various international agencies. A third is the history of reproductive and bodily rights, feminism, and birth control, which has been analyzed with respect to the history of technology, the history of colonialism and neo-colonialism, the history of nationalism, and to some extent the history of internationalism. The political economy aspects of the population question tend chronologically to bookend the feminist narrative, with Malthus at the late eighteenth-century end and Cold War political economy of third world development at the twentieth-century end. A fourth strand is a burgeoning intellectual history of demography, social science, and economic theory.

‘Bait-resistance’ is defined as progressive decreases in bait efficacy in controlled pest species populations. Understanding the mechanisms by which bait-resistance can develop is important for the sustainable control of pests worldwide, for both wildlife conservation programs and agricultural production. Bait-resistance is influenced by both behavioural (innate and learned bait-avoidance behaviour) and physiological aspects of the target pest species (its natural diet, its body mass, the mode of action of the toxin, and the animal’s ability to biochemically break down the toxin). In this review, we summarise the scientific literature, discuss factors that can lead to innate and learned aversion to baits, as well as physiological tolerance. We address the question of whether bait avoidance or tolerance to 1080 could develop in the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), an introduced predator of significant economic and environmental importance in Australia. Sublethal poisoning has been identified as the primary cause of both bait avoidance and increased toxin-tolerance, and so, finally, we provide examples of how management actions can minimise the risk of sublethal baits in pest species populations.

This study has proven that the economic system is determined by various components, in particular, it includes the real sector of the economy, which is formed on mega-, macro, meso-, micro-and nano-levels. In addition, it was proved that the nano-level is determined by the activities of individuals whose economic activity begins with the birth and attitude of parents, attending various educational and upbringing institutions, and studying at university. A separate segment of the nano-level of the economic system is the baby industry responsible for the production of goods and services for children and future parents. All these aspects are indicators of the development of the baby economy. Such an economic category as the baby economy was separated and defined. The study uses the following methods: analysis, synthesis, structural analysis, systemic approach, observation, comparison, multifactor regression. These methods made it possible to achieve the results, which involve isolation of the baby economy as a component of nanoeconomy and definition of such components of the baby economic segment of nanoeconomy as a family or household economy, the baby industry, the economy of the educational process and upbringing. For this purpose, the value-institutional approach was applied. In addition, multifactorial analysis of the impact of indicators of the baby economy development on the population of a country with a transitive economy with incomes below the subsistence minimum was performed. This analysis identified a direct but minor relationship between these phenomena, which demonstrates the need to intensify and create a policy for the baby economy in similar states. The theoretical significance of the obtained results is determined by the introduction of a new economic category of "the baby economy" for the formation of a nano economic component within socio-economic systems.

The publication is presenting changes in epidemiology and economic importance of leptospirosis in swine. During the fifties or even earlier or later of the twenty century this disease in swine was causing remarkable losses occurring worldwide. During the end of the twenty century and during the twenty first century the importance of leptospirosis of swine has decreased, being restricted to Argentina, Brasil, Northern Hemisphere, Northern Australia and New Zealand. In Europe, including Poland, endemic, very often symptomless infection or presentation of reproductive failer as abortion, stillbirth, the birth of weak piglets, reduced viability was demonstrated. Other symptoms and pathological changes, if developed were similar do occurring also in other infectious diseases of swine and did not present diagnostic value for swine leptospirosis. Therfore for diagnosis of swine leptospirosis, laboratory tests have to be used. This publication is mentioning as the prescribed and most widely used microscopic agglutination test (MAT), and as alternative the competitive ELISA. For detection and identification of nucleic acids of leptospira serovars the PCR is recommended. Control of leptospirosis in swine is dependent on the combined use of antibiotics, vaccination and management. However antibiotics are in many countries prohibited for use, against leptospirosis of swine. Vaccines are very seldom available and theirs used is not on satisfied level. Management is difficult to perform and economically in many cases not respected

The article presents the results of long-term observations of the authors to assess the health of pregnant women, children and adolescents of the Far-Eastern Federal District. In the dynamics of the observation there is an improvement in indicators characterizing the health status of women and children: the reduction of morbidity, infant and child mortality. However, these data are much higher than in European countries. Thus, the infant mortality rate on average in the Far Eastern Federal District decreased from 11.0‰ in 2013 to 5.7‰ in 2017 (on average in Russia it was 5.5‰). At the same time, in the “new” countries of the European Union (EU) that are the closest in socio-economic condition to Russia (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia), this figure in 2016 amounted to 3.9‰, and in the “old” countries of the EU it was 3.3‰. The child mortality rate (1-17 years old) in some regions of the Far Eastern Federal District ranges from 73.0 in the Khabarovsk territory (per 100 thousand of the corresponding age) to 101.1 in the Jewish Autonomous Region and on average in Russia in 2016 it was 70.9. And in the EU countries, this figure was significantly lower and amounted to 37.6 in the “new” countries and 31.4 in the “old” countries. In the analysis of risk factors affecting health, infant and child mortality, the following biological factors were noted: maternal health, complicated pregnancy, genetic factors, living conditions and, above all, economic and biogeochemical environmental factors. In areas with a tense and critical assessment of the environmental situation, the proportion of spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, premature, congenital malformations is much higher. In the formation of pathology in children, the deficiency or imbalance of essential, i.e. vital trace elements, the nature of nutrition, nutrient deficiency, and the formation of energy deficiency of immunocompetent blood cells can influence a lot. All these environmental factors, in fact, are etiological and determine different variants of pathology, the formation of metabolic imprinting, the manifestation of fetal programming and the birth of immature offspring. Disturbance of embryogenesis under the influence of these factors leads to the development of various pathologies of newborns, long-term consequences in the form of reproductive dysfunction, pathology of immune reactions, mental dysfunction, and reduced adaptability. As a result, we have an increased morbidity, sick offspring, and a decrease in life expectancy. In order to develop specific measures to reduce morbidity, infant and child mortality, it is necessary to solve a number of medical and organizational measures, strengthen the preventive orientation of medical care for pregnant women, and timely correct the deficit conditions. It is necessary to organize the system of active health follow-up (examination based on automated control systems) of pregnant women, a system of data banks for the examination, treatment and rehabilitation of women with a burdened obstetric history and from the risk group for the development of perinatal pathology at the stage of planning pregnancy (the best option) or in the early stages of pregnancy.

Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), feline calicivirus (FCV), and feline herpesvirus (FHV-1) are common viral infections of domestic cats in Australia. A study was performed to investigate the possible effect of area-based socioeconomic factors on the occurrence of FIV, FCV, and FHV-1 infection in Australian client-owned cats. A total of 1044 cases, reported to a voluntary Australian online disease surveillance system between January 2010 and July 2017, were analysed with respect to their postcode-related socioeconomic factors using the Socio-Economic Indexes For Areas (SEIFA). SEIFA consists of four different indexes which describe different aspects of socioeconomic advantage and disadvantage. Signalment details including age, sex, neuter status, and breed were also considered. A significant correlation was observed between areas of lower socioeconomic status and a higher number of reported cases of FIV infection for all four SEIFA indexes (p ≤ 0.0002). Postcodes with SEIFA indexes below the Australian median (“disadvantaged” areas) were 1.6–2.3 times more likely to have reported cases of FIV infection than postcodes with SEIFA indexes above the median (“advantaged” areas). In contrast, no correlation was observed between the number of reported cases of FCV or FHV-1 infection and any of the four SEIFA indexes (p > 0.05). When signalment data were analysed for the three infections, FIV-infected cats were more likely to be older (p < 0.00001), male (p < 0.0001), neutered (p = 0.03), and non-pedigree (p < 0.0001) compared to FCV and FHV-1 infected cats. Results from this study suggest that area-based disease control strategies, particularly in areas of social disadvantage, might be effective in reducing the prevalence of FIV infection in pet cats in Australia.

PPP (public-private partnership) is traditionally considered as a supplementary tool of spurring economic activity in specific areas. But in innovations such a union proves to become especially vital in modern situation of NBIC-revolution (Industrial Revolution 4.0). The article examines why and how a Network of Radical Innovation PPPs in USA (Manufacturing USATM) became the major zest of Obama’s economic policy and what can be done for their more active development under President D. Trump, should such a will become real under his rule. As shown below, the Manufacturing USA Network creates basis for Greenfield birth and/or sprouting of new NBIC-technologies through traditional industrial clusters, reviving their most perspective segments and elements and thus giving chances for new sustainable competitive growth of USA economy within global market. Notwithstanding general assumption of US national innovation system as decentralized and based on private innovation entrepreneurship (corporations), contemporary economic reality gives little chance for US firms to be competitive in cutting- edge technologies of the future without pre-competitive cooperation with each-others, with the State and with academic sector (research universities) using smart PPP models. Radical innovation PPPs (RIPPPs), thus, are turning into indispensable new element of US innovation mechanism. Perspectives of US innovation and industrial system without RIPPPs look gloomy as without joint federal and academic support US-based corporations (both transnational corporations and nationally-oriented firms) cannot timely obtain substantial sustainable competitive technological advantage over their foreign counterparts. Usage of PPP tool is not uncommon for America as back in 1987 USA established world’s first Innovation PPP called SEMATECH aimed at fostering semiconductor industry in face of Japan growing global leadership in semiconductors. But today such cooperation is needed throughout a bunch of mutually-dependent and interconnected NBIC- technologies among which IT is only a separate one. The article shows that RIPPP system has both theoretical, pragmatic and political aspects and US leading parties do not coincide on this important subject. Author proves that RIPPP is in the interest of all sectors of economy as RIPPPs develop mainly radical general- purpose technologies (as, for example, was ICT-technology for USA in 1980-1990). Notwithstanding that no progress yet made in Innovation PPPs by administration of D. Trump, Manufacturing USA net grows and new international innovation partnerships with US participation demonstrate growing internation al importance of such cooperation: BRAIN Initiative declared at the Australian Academy of Science in Canberra in December 2017 by representatives of the United States, Australia, Europe, Japan and Korea is declared to unite USA with major countries of former Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement, TPP (Including USA, Australia, Japan, Korea) notwithstanding the fact that D. Trump forced USA to leave TPP in 2017. This International RIPPP is the first example of precompetitive cooperation in artificial intelligence (AI) field. International RIPPPs tend to form an important new node in global innovation system.

Australia’s future landscapes will be shaped by global climatic, economic, and cultural drivers. Landscapes evolve. They are manifestations of the complex negotiations between nature and cultures, over millennia. In the Anthropocene, humans are the dominant evolutionary force reshaping the biosphere. Landscape management involves all human activities and interventions that change the forms and functions of landscapes. It also involves the ways we learn about, and understand the world, and our place in it. Responses to climate change are driving changes in natural resources policy, research and management. Building capability for large-scale, adaptive management is critical in an era of global change. By rigorously examining and learning from recent experience—bioregional conservation planning, natural resource management (NRM), landcare, and water reform—Australia can build capacity for integrated and adaptive resource management. Climate change compounds existing stressors on ecosystems. It adds complexity and presents new challenges for integrated assessment, planning, and management of natural resources. Given the dynamic nature of the ecosystems, static conservation paradigms and stationary hydrology models are increasingly redundant. In the face of inherent complexity and uncertainty, ‘predict and control’ strategies are likely to be less useful. Adaptive approaches are called for, due to the complex relationships and non-linear feedbacks between social, ecological, and climatic systems. Australia should invest in building professional and community capacity. Australia’s scientific and professional capacity in natural resources provides useful foundations, but substantially increased investment is called for. Research should be focused on guiding and influencing management at large scales and on avoiding undesirable thresholds or tipping points in complex ecological systems. Cultural and governance aspects are emphasised as central to effective adaptation strategies, because landscape management is an intergenerational, societal challenge that requires participatory, adaptive learning approaches.

ABSTRACTIn this paper we examine associations between the fertility histories of older British women and men and their quality of life using data on a sample of 6,374 men and women born between 1923 and 1949 drawn from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). Quality of life in 2001 was measured using scores from the four subscales of the CASP-19 questionnaire: control, autonomy, pleasure and self-realisation. Fertility histories were derived using information on the births of children collected in all waves of the BHPS. The aspects of fertility history investigated were number of children born and parents' ages at birth of first and last child. Age, education, marital status, tenure status, smoking, co-residence with one or more children, perceived social support and health limitations were included as covariates. The results suggested that early entry to parenthood and to some extent high parity were related to poorer quality of life. These associations were mostly mediated by socio-economic, social support and health factors. Compared to women with two children, nulliparous women expressed a higher level of autonomy, and both nulliparous women and those with four or more children a higher level of self-realisation. Low parity was related to a lower level of pleasure, especially among men, but this relationship appeared weaker and among women was not significant when background factors were controlled.

The present study aims to assess the effects of alcohol and drug consumption on the cerebral status of a newborn with risk. Although there is a vast literature on the quality of life in terms of health, there is no uniform point of view, since the well-being of a person implies other elements that consider not only health but also the economic and educational environment in which the individual evolves and often these factors are connected. Besides, there is no valid instrument for measuring the quality of life either for an adult or for a child. In most cases, alcohol consumption intensifies in time, significantly decresing the quality of life for the mother and especially for the conception product. The study focuses on showing the The study focuses on highlighting the psychosocial and pharmacological aspects relevant to the diagnosis and management of neonatal cerebral status. The study participants, whose responses were the base for the quantitative analyzes, were individually interviewed using a standardized interview protocol. The interviews were conducted between October 2015 and September 2017. The interview protocol included three sections, in this chapter focusing our attention on the following sections: a) socio-demographic characteristics: age of gestation, sex of the newborn; b) clinical data: Presentation, Weight at Birth, Apgar Score, Cerebral Saturation (rSO2), Peripheral saturation (SpO2), The extraction fraction (FTOE), Parameters harvested from the umbilical cord at birth (pH, Base excess (BE), pCO2, pO2, MetHb, COHb), c) risk profile: mother�s alcohol consumption, including during pregnancy and drug use. The study group consisted of 90 infants born full term in Elena Doamna Maternity Hospital in Iasi, between 2015-2017, included in the programme of follow-up of the newborn with risk with the purpose of performing an non-invasive assessment of the fetal and neonatal cerebral status, in order to prevent and establish treatment methods for perinatal asphyxia. Based on the information obtained through the preliminary documentation, 30 newborns with alcohol and / or drug-consuming mothers and 60 neonates with risk-free mothers were selected - the control batch, who accepted to participate in the study.The cases studied showed the homogeneity of the groups depending on the mother�s age and gestational age, as well as the sex of the newborn and the weight at birth (p]0.05). In neonates from mothers at risk, the under-reference level of 1-minute brain saturation, combined with a lower gestational age and the 62.5% probability of performing a caesarean section at low levels of cerebral saturation was noted in 66.7% of newborns.The cut off value of SpO2, was established at 70 mL/ 100g/1 min, with a sensitivity of 50.9% and a specificity of 51.3%, after reading the coordinates of ROC curve, but the prediction was not significant from the statistical point of view (p=0.670). The mean level of base excess was al excesului de baze was slightly lower in newborns with the extraction fraction below the cut off value (-4.64 vs -4.18; p=0.560). According to the cases studied, 1 min after birth, 23.3% of the newborns showed an increased level of pCO2 associated with a reduced level of peripheral saturation (r= -0.231; p=0.05). The correlation between the pO2 level and the cerebral saturation, recorded 1 min after birth, was direct, but reduced as intensity (r= +0.295; p=0.049). About 27% of the newborns associated increased values of pO2 with reduced values of the extraction fraction (r=-0.272; p=0.047). The newborns with an extraction fraction over the cut off value had a level of COHb below 1% (p=0.756) more frequently. Newborns from mothers who have consumed alcohol and / or drugs, including during pregnancy, show a reduced level of cerebral saturation and peripheral saturation 1 minute after birth. In 16.7% of newborns, the extraction limit was below the baseline 1 minute after birth.

The present paper addresses turning knowledge into practical benefit; acknowledging a critical emphasis of the career of John L. Black. Average efficiency of pasture use by beef enterprises in southern Australia is historically ~35%. Two projects established in 2002 showed that the efficiency of pasture use could approach 90% and the conservative rates observed were due to a low adoption of existing knowledge and the perceived risks from intensification. A risk-control management system, ‘More Beef from Pastures’, was developed from these projects, to identify management practices that had the largest impacts on productivity and profitability, the variables that needed to be measured and the upper and lower limits for those measurements to optimise enterprise performance. The principles from that system were incorporated into a productivity and economic spreadsheet model for a beef enterprise near Blayney on the Central Tablelands of New South Wales. The present paper reports the effects on productivity and profitability of several management scenarios, including current practice with 180 breeding cows and progeny sold in the second year after birth; buying and selling steers; making silage; or combinations of steers and silage, to maintain pasture availability between 1200 and 2600 kg DM/ha. Simulations were conducted for rainfall and growth of a phalaris–subterranean clover pasture predicted for the Blayney climate by the Sustainable Grazing Systems model for the Years 2000–2011. The simulations covered eight consecutive years from 2002 to 2009, when mean pasture growth was only 70% of the average. Results from the simulations for current practice were similar to those observed for the enterprise. The simulations showed the importance on profitability of utilising excess pasture in years of high pasture growth. The highest average profitability across years resulted from the scenario involving purchase and sale of steers, but year-to-year fluctuations were large and significant capital was required. The silage and steer-silage scenarios were intermediate in profitability, and depended on initial silage reserves and numbers of breeding cows. The exercise demonstrated that a simple spreadsheet model based on principles of animal nutrition, pasture management and economics was needed to fully evaluate alternative management strategies for practical benefit on existing beef enterprises.

Live fences in tropical production systems: a global review of uses and perceptions. The expansion of agricultural and livestock production has been a key factor in deforestation in the world and especially in the tropical region. Currently, more than half of the Earth’s surface is used for the establishment of production systems; in this context, live fences can generate positive effects on the environment and provide environmental goods and services. In this work, we reviewed the effects of live fences on production systems from the tropical regions of America, Africa, Asia and Australia, analyzing the uses and perceptions of farmers that have made use of these fences. It was found that live fences were mainly related to the delimitation of farms and pastures. However, their uses and benefits are manifold, among which we found: provide forage, wood extraction, fruit supply, windbreaks, medicinal, to avoid soil erosion, moisture retention and nutritional support. In addition, other positive perceptions were: increasing landscape connectivity, increasing economic incomes, reducing production costs, reducing pressure on remaining vegetation, keeping maintenance costs down, contributing to pest control, and improving fertility. However, negative perceptions included the excessive work in repairing or pruning them, shade negative impact on agricultural production, lack of information discourages establishment, high establishment costs, generation of property conflicts and management difficulty. It was found that the uses by farmers are focused on improving the yields of productive systems, but also on the conservation of natural resources especially soil and biodiversity. We proposed research topics for the future, as determining the criteria in the selection of native species to establish and enrich living fences valuing ecological and socioeconomic aspects; in additionally, we must deepen the benefits they produce on the yields of productive systems. We suggest the development of live fences studies in the tropical region of Australasia, because no data was found for this region, in order to know the biodiversity and services status that they provide to the rural communities. As a conclusion, it will be important to generate initiatives that encourage the formulation of rural policies, the creation of programs that encourage the establishment of live fences, whether through payments for environmental services, tax compensation or other mechanisms. Providing adequate information to farmers and livestock farmers is a key aspect on dynamizing the establishment of live fences. Rev. Biol. Trop. 66(2): 739-753. Epub 2018 June 01.

Soil security identifies global challenges and a series of dimensions that are necessary requirements to meet those global challenges using sustainable land management. The soil security concept is applied to two contrasting soil landscape systems with varying climate, landform and soil types. Previous methodologies for assessing land and soil capability are combined within the soil security conceptual approach. The land and soil capability methodologies are used to assess how the soil condition changes in response to the stresses and forcing associated with land management and land and soil degradation processes. It is the soil capability that defines how the soil condition changes between the reference state of the soil condition, or the genoform, and the soil condition under land use, or the phenoform. The conclusion is that soil capability, which is one of the dimensions used to apply the soil security concept, is a complex dimension and has several aspects or further facets to be considered to achieve sustainable land management. It is apparent that in assessing soil capability, the following facets are relevant. I: The capacity of the soil to provide ecosystem services to meet the global challenges outlined for Soil Security. II: The stability of the soil condition to land degradation processes resulting from the effects of land management practices and the environmental stresses on the soil. III: The capacity to recover following degradation. Facets II and III can be considered the resilience. An important conclusion is that the soil capability cannot be assessed without taking into account features of the landscape including climate and landform. Two examples from south eastern Australia of the application of these facets of soil capability to on-ground situations are presented. The Cowra Trough Red Soils in the Australian wheat belt are a set of soils, primarily contributing to meeting the global challenge of food security. The major degradation processes threatening the stability of these soils are water erosion and soil acidification. The Kosciusko National Park in the Snowy Mountains region is primarily contributing to meeting the challenges of water security for the irrigation industry in the Murray Darling Basins and energy security through the production of hydroelectricity. The set of soil landscapes also contributes to biodiversity protection and human health and well-being. The major degradation processes threatening the stability of these soils and their capacity to meet the global challenges are water and wind erosion. A major limitation is the poor capacity of these soils to recover once degraded. Identifying the main ecosystem services provided by the two examples, together with the major risks of land degradation can clarify extension, economic and policy aspects of sustainable land management for the two sets of soil landscapes. For the Cowra Trough Red Soils, management of water erosion and soil acidification are essential for maintaining the contribution of the area to food security. For the Kosciusko National Park, the control of water and wind erosion are essential to maintain the contribution of the area to water and energy security.

Abstract Background After China entered an aging society and gradually implemented the two child and three child policy, the population dependency ratio and population structure of Yunnan Province have changed. According to the data of the seventh national census, the age structure of the population in Yunnan Province is unreasonable, the aging process is accelerated, and there are intergenerational conflicts and contradictions in the upbringing relationship between the elderly and young people, especially negative factors, which also have a significant impact on the social and economic development of Yunnan Province. Research Objects and Methods In order to understand the new changes and their causes, this paper uses the population data of Yunnan Province from 1999 to 2019, as well as variables such as total population dependency ratio, resident happiness index, natural population growth rate, unemployment rate, average life expectancy, urbanization rate, child birth rate, birth rate, social security and employment expenditure, which are selected from the perspective of positive psychology. Through the preprocessing, correlation and multicollinearity test of time series data, the ADL model is established to analyze the changes of population dependency ratio and structure in Yunnan Province, and explore the influencing factors and degree from the perspective of positive psychological emotion regulation. The life satisfaction scale is the life satisfaction scale (SWLS) compiled by dinner et al. There are five items in the scale, which are scored by Likert 7 points. 1 ~ 7 represent “very disagree” to “very agree” respectively. Calculate the average score of the five items. The higher the score, the higher the degree of life satisfaction. The internal consistency of life satisfaction scale in this study α the coefficient is 0.820. Results Through the intuitive analysis of the population data of Yunnan Province from 1999 to 2019, the results showed that the dependency ratio of the total population in Yunnan Province decreased slowly. The dependency ratio of children decreased rapidly, while the dependency ratio of the elderly increased slowly. Yunnan may enter the dilemma of “getting old before getting rich”. Whether now or in the future, it will pose great challenges to economic, social and public governance, especially to the establishment of harmonious family intergenerational relations. Through the analysis of ADL model, the results show that the changes of population dependency ratio and population structure in Yunnan Province are affected by factors such as residents' happiness index, unemployment rate, life expectancy and urbanization rate. The impact of residents' happiness index on population dependency ratio is long-term. The simple effect analysis of interaction found that for the non depressed population, there were significant differences in the emotional state of the subjects in the frustration inducing stage among the control group, conscious distraction group and unconscious distraction group (f (2,51) = 11.98, P &lt; 0.001), η p2=0.52). Bonferroni's post hoc test showed that the scores of PA in conscious attention dispersion group (P &lt; 0.001) and unconscious attention dispersion group (P &lt; 0.05) were significantly higher than those in control group (M = 25.03, SD = 4.14), while there was no significant difference between unconscious attention dispersion group (M = 36.13, SD = 7.47) and conscious attention dispersion group (M = 37.33, SD = 6.93) (P = 0.67). It can be further seen from Figure 5 that both conscious and unconscious attention dispersion can effectively improve the positive mood of non depressed people. For depressed people, there was significant difference in emotional state among control group, conscious attention dispersion group and unconscious attention dispersion group after frustration induction (f (2,51) = 7.02, P &lt; 0.05, η p2= 0.39). Bonferroni's post hoc test showed that the score of PA in unconscious attention dispersion group (M = 33.17, SD = 7.41) was significantly higher than that in control group (P &lt; 0.05) and conscious attention dispersion group (P &lt; 0.05), while there was no significant difference in emotional state between control group (M = 22.94, SD = 3.85) and conscious attention dispersion group (M = 27.29, SD = 6.73) (P = 1.00). It shows that only unconscious attention dispersion can effectively improve the positive emotion of depressed people. Similarly, ANOVA was performed on the negative emotion index Na of Panas. The results showed that group (f (2111) = 8.41, P &lt; 0.05, η the main effect of P2 = 0.18) was significant, the main effect of population (f (1111) = 1.98, P = 0.17) was not significant, and the interaction of group * population was not significant (f (2111) = 2.60, P = 0.08). After the scores of trait anxiety, state anxiety, expression inhibition, acceptance and action scale were included in the covariates, only the main effect of the group was significant (f (2107) = 11.73, P &lt; 0.001), η p2=0.32). Bonferroni's post hoc analysis of the main effect of the group showed that the scores of Na in conscious attention dispersion group (P &lt; 0.001) and unconscious attention dispersion group (P &lt; 0.001) were significantly lower than those in the control group (M = 27.21, SD = 8.49), while there was no significant difference between conscious attention dispersion group (M = 20.16, SD = 7.26) and unconscious attention dispersion group (M = 19.19, SD = 5.11) (P = 0.62) This shows that both conscious and unconscious attention dispersion can effectively reduce the self-assessment intensity of negative emotions, and their regulatory effects are similar for depressed and non depressed people. Conclusion Therefore, from the perspective of positive psychology, this paper puts forward the ways to improve the effect of young and middle-aged childbearing age in Yunnan Province from the aspects of developing individual positive psychological quality, improving family members' subjective well-being and improving the effect of young and middle-aged childbearing age in Yunnan Province. Create harmony between man and social environment. It aims to help Yunnan society, families and families establish harmonious parent-child relations for generations and promote the coordinated development of social economy in Yunnan Province. Acknowledgements Supported by a project grant from national Innovation and entrepreneurship training program (Grant No. DCXM165002).

Background and objectivesServices have variable practices for identifying and providing interventions for ‘severe attachment problems’ (disorganised attachment patterns and attachment disorders). Several government reports have highlighted the need for better parenting interventions in at-risk groups. This report was commissioned to evaluate the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of parenting interventions for children with severe attachment problems (the main review). One supplementary review explored the evaluation of assessment tools and a second reviewed 10-year outcome data to better inform health economic aspects of the main review.Data sourcesA total of 29 electronic databases were searched with additional mechanisms for identifying a wide pool of references using the Cochrane methodology. Examples of databases searched include PsycINFO (1806 to January week 1, 2012), MEDLINE and MEDLINE In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations (1946 to December week 4, 2011) and EMBASE (1974 to week 1, 2012). Searches were carried out between 6 and 12 January 2012.Review methodsPapers identified were screened and data were extracted by two independent reviewers, with disagreements arbitrated by a third independent reviewer. Quality assessment tools were used, including quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies – version 2 and the Cochrane risk of bias tool. Meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of parenting interventions was undertaken. A health economics analysis was conducted.ResultsThe initial search returned 10,167 citations. This yielded 29 RCTs in the main review of parenting interventions to improve attachment patterns, and one involving children with reactive attachment disorder. A meta-analysis of eight studies seeking to improve outcome in at-risk populations showed statistically significant improvement in disorganised attachment. The interventions saw less disorganised attachment at outcome than the control (odds ratio 0.47, 95% confidence interval 0.34 to 0.65;p < 0.00001). Much of this focused around interventions improving maternal sensitivity, with or without video feedback. In our first supplementary review, 35 papers evaluated an attachment assessment tool demonstrating validity or psychometric data. Only five reported test–retest data. Twenty-six studies reported inter-rater reliability, with 24 reporting a level of 0.7 or above. Cronbach’s alphas were reported in 12 studies for the comparative tests (11 with α > 0.7) and four studies for the reference tests (four with α > 0.7). Three carried out concurrent validity comparing the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) with another assessment tool. These had good sensitivity but poor specificity. The Disturbances of Attachment Interview had good sensitivity and specificity with the research diagnostic criteria (RDC) for attachment disorders. In our supplementary review of 10-year outcomes in cohorts using a baseline reference standard, two studies were found with disorganised attachment at baseline, with one finding raised psychopathology in adolescence. Budget impact analysis of costs was estimated because a decision model could not be justifiably populated. This, alongside other findings, informed research priorities.LimitationsThere are relatively few UK-based clinical trials. A 10-year follow-up, while necessary for our health economists for long-term sequelae, yielded a limited number of papers.ConclusionsMaternal sensitivity interventions show good outcomes in at-risk populations, but require further research with complex children. The SSP and RDC for attachment disorders remain the reference standards for identification until more concurrent and predictive validity research is conducted. A birth cohort with sequential attachment measures and outcomes across different domains is recommended with further, methodologically sound randomised controlled intervention trials. The main area identified for future work was a need for good-quality RCTs in at-risk groups such as those entering foster care or adoption.Study registrationThis study is registered as PROSPERO CRD42011001395.FundingThe National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme.

Education is a major key to the development of any nation. The realization that education is an engine room to the advancement of both industrial and technological growth of nations has propelled the leadership and citizens of many nations to consider the training of their younger generations with seriousness. The school is a formal institution vested with the responsibility to ensure that children are properly trained in the methods, ways and means for the future progress of the society. In Nigeria, there are educational policies put in place in line with other international institutions to ensure that all children at least acquire the basic level of education. Presently, there are millions of children that lack access to basic education. These children are referred to as out-of-school children. The real statistical figure of these children appears obviously shady. With the rapid explosion of the number of out-of-school children, Nigeria has been described globally as the country with the largest population of such children. It is on record that one out of every child that is excluded from formal education in Africa is a Nigerian child. There are many reasons that evidently might be responsible for lots of these children being out-of-school. Among them are poverty, ignorance, insecurity, corruption, the devaluation of education and knowledge in the social system, materialism and many more. No one can expect to reap what he/she did not give or sow, subsequently the aftermath of leaving out these children without completing their education had multiple negative consequences to the child, the society and the country at large. For one, such children might become ready crop of adults later in life to serve in menial positions of responsibilities with low salary grades; experience marital instabilities due to their economic status and therefore become ready tools that could be ignorantly manipulated by the political elite in the society. They may also raise families without birth control, thereby extending a vicious cycle of people living in poverty and low self-esteem. Beyond being easily exploited, most of them become known for anti-social vices, such as cultism, criminals with tendencies as armed robbery, drug addicts, rapists, kidnapers, hoodlums, and sex workers (prostitutes). The implications of all these to nation building is stagnation and general insecurity to life and property. The article then proffered some likely suggestions that can assist the society to overcome some of these psychosocial challenges once taken into consideration.

A few days ago, in August 2013, a Cochrane Database Systemic Review reported that the existing limited evidence to date on the effect of Mediterranean diet (MD) on primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD), suggests some favorable effects on risk factors; however, the reduction of CVD event rates was not mentioned [1]. The review included 11 trials (15 papers, 52,044 participants); 7 trials described the intervention as a MD. Clinical events were reported in only one trial [Women's Health Initiative (WHI) 48,835 postmenopausal women with an intervention not described as a MD but increased fruit and vegetable and cereal intake], where no statistically significant effects of the intervention were seen on fatal and non-fatal endpoints during the 8 years of its duration [1]. Since the WHI study was huge and had a great weight in the analysis, it eliminated any other beneficial effect on CVD incidence from other studies. Moreover, in this study the diet used as an intervention was not MD. On April 2013 the results of the Prevención con Dieta Mediterránea (PREDIMED), a multicenter trial from Spain, were published in New England Journal of Medicine [2]. The study included a total of 7,447 persons (aged 55-80 years) with no CVD at baseline. These were randomized to 1 of 3 diets: a MD supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil, a MD supplemented with mixed nuts or a control diet (advice to reduce dietary fat) [2]. An interim analysis terminated the trial prematurely at 4.8 years. The primary endpoint was the rate of major CVD (myocardial infarction, stroke, or CVD death). The multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios were 0.70 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.54 to 0.92) and 0.72 (95% CI, 0.54 to 0.96) for the group assigned to a MD with extravirgin olive oil and the group assigned to a MD with nuts, respectively, vs. the control group [2]. No diet-related adverse effects were reported [2]. Moreover, a post hoc analysis of PREDIMED that will be published in September 2013, in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggests that one of the mechanisms by which MD, particularly if supplemented with virgin olive oil, can exert health benefits is through changes in the transcriptomic response of genes related to CVD risk [3]. These results of the PREDIMED trial confirm that changes in diet can have beneficial effects on CVD risk. However, the study was criticized for mainly 3 reasons. One is that in MD the dietary pattern as an entity is rather more important than the inclusion or avoidance of specific nutrients [4]. Second there were low (in absolute terms) primary composite CVD outcome rates (3.8% and 3.4% in the intervention groups vs. 4.4% in the control group) and a minor absolute risk difference (range 0.6 to 1%), thus limiting the importance of the study findings [5]. Furthermore there were statistically significant differences in baseline characteristics between the groups: men (+5.7%), obese persons (+4.7%), diuretic use (+3.5%), and oral hypoglycaemic use (+3.2%) in the control group than in the intervention group [5]. And third there was a complete lack of policy implications [6]. The PREDIMED trial was neither a pure test of a Mediterranean-style diet nor a pure test of extra- virgin olive oil or nuts. All the above make the interpretation of the PREDIMED trial similarly difficult to that of the Lyon Diet Heart Study [7], which tested provision of a margarine rich in alpha-linolenic acid on top of brief advice to consume a MD in high CVD risk patients with astonishing results [7]. Policymakers [8] and Great Scientific Organizations, like Mayo Clinic [9], already recommend consumption of a Mediterranean-style diet on the basis of a body of evidence from observational and interventional studies, in antithesis to the findings of the Cochrane Database Systemic Review [1]. On the other hand, the policy implications of the PREDIMED trial related primarily to the supplemental foods [2] and not MD itself, thus, we probably have to go both back and elsewhere to find evidence base for the benefits of MD and if these are related in any degree to blood pressure (BP) reduction. The Seven Countries Study showed that the risk and rates of heart attack and stroke both at the population and at the individual level were directly and independently related to the level of serum total cholesterol (TC). It demonstrated that the association between TC level and coronary heart disease (CHD) risk from 5 to 40 years follow-up is found consistently across different cultures [10,11]. The Seven Countries Study started in 1958 in former Yugoslavia. In total, 12,763 men, 40–59 years of age, were enrolled as 16 cohorts, in 7 countries, in 4 regions of the world (United States, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Japan); 1 cohort is in the United States, 2 cohorts in Finland, 1 in the Netherlands, 3 in Italy, 5 in the former Yugoslavia (two in Croatia, and three in Serbia), 2 in Greece (1 in Crete and 1 in Corfu), and 2 in Japan [10]. The Seven Countries Study has continued, with high levels of participation, for more than 50 years.􀀁The initial and objective data on CVD health in relation to the MD originated from the Seven Countries Study [10]. CHD deaths in the United States and Northern Europe greatly exceeded those in Southern Europe, even when controlled for age, TC and BP levels, smoking, physical activity, and weight [12]. After further investigation, the importance of the eating pattern characterized as the MD became clear [12,13]. What exactly is meant by "Mediterranean diet" today, and its benefits, is detailed by other researches during the last 20 years [14,15]. During the 90's, for the first time, the concept of a food pyramid and the need for an adherence to MD score were born [14-16]. As a result of the Seven Countries Study, the MD has been popularized as a "healthy" diet. Nevertheless, it has not replaced the "prudent" diet commonly prescribed to coronary patients [17]. The Crete cohort of the Seven Countries Study had the lowest rates of deaths from CVD [10]; even the 25 year mortality was lower than others (for example vs. the Italian cohort) [18]. This was attributed to the entire lifestyle of Cretans including a variation of MD, the Cretan-type MD. Many investigators during the last 20 years would rather refer to the Cretan-type MD rather than plain MD, which is a rather abstract definition [19-22]. The 40 years’ CVD mortality in the Corfu cohort showed that participants also benefited from the long-term adoption of a nutritional pattern (close to the Cretan-type) of MD, the presence of physical activity, optimism, and a positive psychological profile [23]. During the last 15 years, and before the economic crisis, Greeks adopted a more western way of life. Nevertheless, several aspects of the traditional Greek way of life and diet, suggest that a relatively high consumption of vegetables and fruits or olive oil and bread, remained well-established among large segments of the Greek population, and may explain why a population with a few healthy habits still enjoys one of the longer life expectancies among the 16 cohorts of the Seven Country Study 40 years after its initiation [23]. The Working Group on Epidemiology and Prevention of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) coordinated in 2003 information from 12 European cohort studies, including 205,000 persons, and assessed the 10-year CVD mortality rates. This gave birth to the SCORE (Systematic Coronary Risk Estimation) project [24]. The European Society of Cardiology encouraged the creation of local SCORES for each country, based on the original SCORE and local data. Indeed the HellenicSCORE (equations and charts) present the calibration of the risk by age group and sex, based on mortality data, as reported by the National Statistical Services of Greece and prevalence data regarding smoking, TC and BP levels, as reported by the ATTICA study [25]. This was very successfully tested in the ATTEMPT Study [26]. The predicated rates of CVD were verified in a survival study with a nearly 4-year follow-up in patients with metabolic syndrome and randomization to intensive versus moderate risk factor treatment [27]. In the meantime the MD score (MedDietScore) was developed, according to the adherence to MD [28].􀀁The weekly consumption of the following 9 food groups: non-refined cereals(whole grain bread and pasta, brown rice, etc.), fruits, vegetables, legumes, potatoes, fish, meat and meat products, poultry, full fat dairy products (like cheese, yoghurt, milk), as well asolibe oil and alcohol intake, were included [28]. The inclusion of dietary evaluation (MedDietScore), as well as other sociodemographic and anthropometric characteristics, increases the accuracy and reduces estimating bias of CVD risk prediction models [29]. Thus, we have a country adjusted integrated system that can predict CVD risk. It was clear, during the use of HellenicSCORE and MedDietScore, that a better adherence to MD was related to a lower CVD risk. On the contrary, aging, central fat, hypertension (HTN), diabetes, inflammation, low social status and abstinence from a MD seem to predict CVD events within a 5-year period; actual data from the ATTICA study [30]. All these put the adoption of MD at a high position among CVD risk factors, for good and for bad, according to the degree of adoption (MedDietScore). However, does MD affect the level of BP? Is HTN one of the factors to increase CVD risk if the adherence to MD (MedDietScore) is low? There is some evidence on this issue. It has been suggested by a review on the dietary influences on BP that there is more than enough evidence from observational and clinical studies that diets low in saturated fats and sodium and rich in fruits, vegetables, and fiber, with adequate amounts of potassium, calcium, and magnesium, are effective in the prevention and treatment of HTN alone or as an adjunct to pharmacologic therapy [31]. Such dietary combinations are provided by the MD [31]. The association of adherence to the MD with the incidence of HTN was evaluated among 9,408 men and women enrolled in a dynamic Spanish prospective cohort (SUN) study during 1999- 2005 [32]. The adherence to MD was associated with reduced mean values of systolic BP [moderate adherence, -2.4 mm Hg (95% CI: -4.0, -0.8); high adherence, -3.1 mm Hg (95% CI: -5.4, -0.8)] and diastolic BP [moderate adherence, - 1.3 mm Hg (95% CI: -2.5, -0.1); high adherence, -1.9 mm Hg (95% CI: -3.6, -0.1)] after 6 years of follow-up [32]. These results suggest that adhering to a Mediterranean-type diet could contribute to the prevention of age-related increase in BP [32]. In the ATTICA Study the mean value of the MedDiet Score was 25.5 (±3) for men and 27 (±3) for women (p<0.001). The prevalence of HTN was 36.6% in men and 23.7% in women (p<0.001) [33]. Diet score was 23.5±6.4 in hypertensive and 26.8±6.6 in normotensive individuals (p<0.001). The sensitivity of defining people with HTN was higher than for any other CVD risk factor, suggesting that the adoption of MD reduces the risk for HTN [33]. In an elderly population of Cyprus, another Mediterranean Country, 60% of men and 58% of women have HTN, along with other classical CVD risk factors [34]. A 10-unit increase in the MedDietScore was associated with 21% lower odds of having one additional risk factor, including HTN, in women (p< 0.001) and with 14% lower odds in men (p=0.05) [34]. The results of the CARDIO2000 study [35] point out that the adoption of MD by physically active subjects seems to significantly reduce the coronary heart disease (CHD) events and prevent, just about, the one-third of acute CHD syndromes, in controlled subjects with HTN [35]. This supports the idea that MD combined with physical activity provides substantial protection from acute coronary events in patients with HTN [35]. Other data from the SUN Study also [36] suggest that there is an inverse relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption and the prevalence of nonpreviously diagnosed HTN in a Mediterranean population with a very high intake of both fat (paradoxically) and plantderived foods [36]. There was a 77 % reduction in the prevalence of HTN for those with the higher consumption of both fruit and vegetables compared with those at the lower quintiles of both food groups [36]. This inverse relationship was also evident when considering BP as a continuous variable, with a mean systolic BP and diastolic BP of 2.2 mmHg lower for those with the highest consumption of fruit and vegetables compared with those with the lowest intake [36]. The study concludes that in a Mediterranean population, with an elevated fat consumption, a high fruit and vegetable intake is inversely associated with BP levels [36]. From the same (SUN) study it was reported that there is an inverse association between fiber or fruit/vegetable consumption and weight gain, thus emphasizing the importance of replacing some dietary compounds by such foods and fiber-rich products, which may help to avoid weight gain [37]. This brinks about the issue of MD and obesity, mainly central, which is the key clinical manifestation of metabolic syndrome (MetS); this includes HTN. Data suggest that the prevalence of MetS has dramatically increased during the recent years, especially in Western Countries and South East Asia [38]. More than one third (35 %) of adults in the U.S. could be characterized as having the MetS, which translates to nearly 84 million U.S. adults affected by MetS [38]. Unfortunately the prevalence of MetS in Mediterranean Countries is high (one forth of the adult population), although definitely lower than that in U.S. [39,40]. It has been shown by prospective cohort studies, cross-sectional studies and clinical trials that adherence to the MD was associated with reduced risk of the MetS and its individual components also, in particular waist circumference, triglycerides levels, low density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), BP levels and glucose metabolism [38,41]. These effects of MD increase life expectancy in patients with MetS [42]. On the other hand, Mediterranean countries, such as Greece, have experienced a rapid social-economic change in the last 15 years and recently an economic crisis; both having negative impacts on healthy eating. These community changes affect nutritional habits and there is a tendency to abandon the traditional healthy MD [43]. However, if we continue to try at the elementary school level, things might be better than they look. A study aiming to examine the long-term effects of the "Cretan Health and Nutrition Education Program" on BP, examined several parameters: BP, dietary, anthropometrical and physical activity data nearly 10 years after the original study (at baseline year 1992-1993, and follow-up examination at year 2001-2002) [44]. The findings of the study revealed that the increase over the 10- year period in systolic BP and diastolic BP was higher in the control group than in the MD intervention group (P=0.003 and P<0.001 respectively). These facts are encouraging, indicating favorable changes in BP, micronutrients intake, body mass index (BMI) and physical activity over a 10-year period and 4 years after program's cessation [44]. We just have to keep trying to establish MD at an early age. In brief, MD reduces CVD risk and this action could be at least in part attributed to the reduction of BP and MetS. Given that the complete adoption of MD is practically impossible, a high degree of adherence is desirable. This could substantially reduce adverse CVD events as well as the incidence of acute coronary syndromes, by one third, If combined with a high level of physical activity. A high adherence to MD also reduces the prevalence of MetS, a part of which is HTN, and diminishes its clinical consequences, improving life expectancy. It is more effective if MD is adopted early in life.

Relevance of the research topic. Various social cataclysms of the twentieth century and recent decades, such as the two world wars, the hybrid wars, the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, have led to the emergence of the concept of "social security" in the twentieth century. The latter, given the socialization of all spheres of human life, plays a key role in the entire national security system. In a democratic society, the interests of social security of the individual and the state as a whole must be reconciled and harmoniously balanced. In the legal field of Ukraine there is no official definition of the category "social security", and the term "social security" has recently entered into scientific and political circulation. In Ukraine, a new stage of legislative regulation of relations in the sphere of pension provision began with the adoption of the Constitution of Ukraine. Only the laws of Ukraine define the basis of social protection, forms and types of pension provision (paragraph 6 of Article 85). Article 46 of the Constitution provides for the right of citizens to social protection, to ensure them in case of full, partial or temporary loss of working capacity, loss of the employer, unemployment from circumstances beyond their control, as well as in old age and other cases provided for by law [1]. Article 46 of the Constitution provides for the right of citizens to social protection, to provide them in case of complete, partial or temporary disability, loss of breadwinner, unemployment due to circumstances beyond their control, as well as in old age and in other cases provided by law [1]. Since the right to a pension can arise throughout a person's life, starting from birth, replacing lost income with a pension is important for the well-being and prevention of poverty of certain categories of the population. As the de jure three-tier pension system de facto remains only two-tier with a predominant share of first-tier pension benefits, it remains relevant to study the level of pension provision from the solidarity system, which is built on the principle of intergenerational solidarity. Problem solving. The need for a comprehensive study of the issue of pension provision, conceptual definition of its mechanisms (instruments) from different levels of the pension system, especially in the conditions of aging of the nation, is conditioned by the need to improve practice and raise the level of pension provision in Ukraine as a guarantee of social security of the person. Analysis of recent research and publications. The issues of functioning of the pension system, functioning of its components, including the solidarity pension system, as well as reform of the latter have found their coverage in the works of both domestic and foreign scholars. The works of well-known foreign scientists – Otto von Bismarck, D. Wittas, E. Atkinson, K. Bateman, W. Beveridge, R. Disney, K. Clark, K. Conrad, P. Laroc, T. Marshall, G. Rudolf and others. Among the researchers of the domestic pension system, the mechanisms of its financial support should be mentioned first of all L. Barannyk, N. Bolotin, O. Vrublevska, V. Grushka, I. Gnibidenko, O. Dmitriev, O. Zaletov, O. Kurilo, E. Libanov, N. Lavrukhin, O. Paliya, A. Fedorenko, V. Yatsenko and others. The results of their own research on the problem of pensions are given in [10, 13, 14]. The allocation of the investigated parts of the general problem. Despite the current work on the issue of pension provision of the population, further research in terms of social security of the person requires the content and practice of pension reform during the last 20 years, ways and possibilities of raising the level of pension provision of the population of Ukraine, especially in the conditions of Russian aggression against Ukraine. Setting of the task, objectives of the research. The object of the study is the level of pension provision as a guarantee of social security of the person, and the subject is practical aspects of pension provision from the first level of the pension system in Ukraine, the Pension Fund of Ukraine and the issue of its imbalance. The objective of the article is to assess the financial capacity of the solidarity pension system as a guarantee of social security of the person by analyzing the structure of sources of financing of the Pension Fund and the amount of expenditures for pension provision from the state budget. Method and methodology of the study. Statistical, comparative and system methods are used in the study to develop statistical data of PFCs. The results of analysis in the form of tables and graphs were executed by means of graphical and tabular methods and generalization of data. The structural-functional method is used to detect the impact of PFU revenues on expenditure volumes. Field of application of results. The obtained conclusions and results can be used for development and implementation of practical measures to improve the pension system, in the scientific field, in the educational process of higher education institutions in training specialists in major 8.18010014 "Management of financial and economic security", in the social component of economic state security, in particular, social security. The practical relevance of scientific results will contribute to achieving a higher level of social protection, meeting the needs of people who have reached the retirement age. Conclusions. Today, the welfare of almost one third of the population of Ukraine depends on the financial capacity of the pension system. Funding for pension provision should be directed at achieving the main goal – realization of constitutional rights of all citizens to receive financial support in case of loss of the operator, disability, disability, disability, disability, old age and other cases established by the legislation [11]. In Ukraine, for almost 20 years, they are trying to implement pension reform, but effective and effective results have not yet been achieved. The current state of the solidarity system of pension provision is characterized by the "fear" of the population of the retirement age and chronic deficit of the Pension Fund. This is evidence of low social security for people of retirement age, according to international estimates of poverty, at which the cost of daily consumption is set at $ 5 (up to UAH 4,300 per month). That is, 85.4% of Ukrainian pensioners as of January 1, 2021 received a pension in the amount lower or at the level of this limit (up to UAH 5,000). The annexation of Crimea, the fighting in the East and almost 2 million IDPs, Russia's large-scale war against Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, gave rise to the concept of "sudden poverty".

It is fitting for this issue of the Christian Journal for Global Health to come to you just before Christmas. We remember the birth of the Christ child, God with us. God with us not just in the ordinariness of human life, but in the calamities, defeats, and suffering entailed in that ordinariness. The coronavirus pandemic, as well as myriad of other human afflictions, is a reminder of those aspects of life. Surely the greatest spiritual lesson of the pandemic is that we are not the masters of our own destiny. The pandemic is a rebuke to the hubris of our age – that human knowledge is the remedy for all ills. Responses to the pandemic have exposed the fissures in our societies as well. While the healthcare community has responded heroically to the challenges, churches have served as a much-needed solace and source of health information, as well as, at times, sources of spread. Some who consider faith non-essential and are antagonistic to it have proposed severe restrictions to much-needed fellowship. In the providence of God, we are able to rejoice at the arrival of effective vaccines to prevent SARS CoV-2 infection, the world-wide calamity that has dogged us for nearly an entire year. The vaccines come out-of-time, as it were, having been developed, produced, and tested with a speed that is astonishing. Hopefully, they will enable this devastating infectious disease to be put behind us. If that proves to be possible, it is salutary to ponder what is able to be anticipated and to appreciate the perspicacity of someone like Dr. Jono Quick, whose book, The End of Epidemics, foresaw in 2018 what came to pass in 2020. For additional insights, we are pleased to feature in this issue a guest editorial by Dr. Quick which surveys some of the challenges that the release, use, and equitable global distribution of the vaccines hold for us, as well as the Christian responsibility to follow the data for both individualized whole-person care and community care as acts of love for our global neighbor. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted systemic vulnerabilities, health inequities, and the ongoing diseases and conditions that continue to threaten individuals and populations. The response to the pandemic has affected the global economy and exacerbated hunger and extreme poverty. Progress in global health to control the remaining poliovirus, HIV, malaria and tuberculosis has also been tragically impaired due to the pandemic.1 Two original articles describe efforts to evaluate health needs for chronically impoverished villages and then to train Christian health workers in the ways to most effectively service those needs. Claudia Bale reports that the results of surveying Guatemalan villages for health needs and barriers to health produced a variety of themes that provided guidance for the organizations seeking to meet these needs. Sneha Kirubakaran and colleagues evaluated a short course in global health from Australia that sought to prepare Christian health workers for international service. This issue features three reviews. Samuel Adu-Gyamfi and his colleagues from Ghana completed an extensive systematic review of the role of missions in Sub-Saharan Africa, finding that although the scope of work changed over time, the aim of sharing the gospel motivated work in a broad scope of activities in development, education, and healthcare which continues to be relevant. Omololu Fagunwa from Nigeria provides a history lesson based on original source documents on how the 1918 influenza pandemic affected the growth of Pentecostalism in Africa. Alexander Miles, Matthew Reeve, and Nathan Grills from University of Melbourne completed a systematic literature review showing evidence of the significant effectiveness of community health workers in dealing with non-communicable diseases in India. Two commentaries offer fresh approaches to persisting healthcare issues. Richard Thomas and Niels French describe the population health model and explain how it is particularly suited to a role in the future for mission hospitals and to address a variety of global health concerns. Melody Oereke, Kenneth David, and Ezeofor Onyedikachukwu from Nigeria offer their thoughts on how Christian pharmacists can employ a model for prayer, faith, and action in their professional calling. The coronavirus pandemic has required healthcare and aid organizations to come up with creative solutions to completely novel circumstances if they were to be able to continue their ministries. Daryn Joy Go and her colleagues from International Care Ministries describe their employment of social networking technologies in the Philippines to continue their work in extreme poverty alleviation as well as spiritual nourishment despite lockdown conditions and severe limitations on travel and communication. Finally, Pieter Nijssen reviews Creating Shared Resilience: The Role of the church in a Hopeful Future, by David Boan and Josh Ayers. In our world of short-term gain and short attention spans, resilience is a commodity in tragically short supply. Pastor Nijssen’s discussion helpfully expands on an ongoing discussion of how faith and justice must be integrated in any faithful gospel ministry and how this, itself, promotes resilience in the face of crises. We call our readers’ attentions to our current call for papers, Environmental Concern and Global Health. Our stewardship of the earth and its resources was part of God’s first command to Adam and Eve and an important aspect of human flourishing throughout the Bible. That stewardship has implications for global health that deserve study and explanation. Click on the link to the call for a list of the subjects we hope to see in submissions on this topic and many others within the unique and broad scope of the journal. During this season of both widespread challenge and enduring hope, we pray for peace on earth, and good will to all people.

Research suggests that child independence is more popular in countries with greater wealth and a higher percentage of the educated population. Various research implications expect children's independence and compliance to increase over time in developing countries. This study aims to describe the independence of early childhood who comes from low-income families or at low socioeconomic environment. Using quantitative descriptive, data collection techniques are carried out through a questionnaire. The study population was 30 respondents from the ECE institution who were included in the list of low-income families in 2018, using an area sampling technique. Overall, the teacher stated that all indicators of dependence on children from low-income families had reached the high category, which was 75%. The implication of further research is that aspects of independence in physical abilities, self-confidence, responsibility, discipline, sociability, sharing, and independence in terms of emotional control in early childhood can develop better in a low socio-economic environment. Keywords: Early Childhood, Independence skills, low-socioeconomic environment References [BPS] Badan Pusat Statistik. (2019). Berita resmi statistik. Bps.Go.Id. Amini, M. (2018). Parental Involvement in Improving Independence in Early Childhood. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research (ASSEHR), 169(Icece 2017), 190–192. https://doi.org/10.2991/icece-17.2018.48 Blair, C., & Diamond, A. (2008). Biological processes in prevention and intervention: The promotion of self-regulation as a means of preventing school failure. Development and Psychopathology, 20(3), 899–911. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579408000436 Blair, C., & Raver, C. C. (2015). School Readiness and Self-Regulation: A Developmental Psychobiological Approach. Annual Reviews Psychology, 3(66), 711–731. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-015221.School Bridgett, D. J., Burt, N. M., Edwards, E. S., & Deater-deckard, K. (2015). Supplemental Material for Intergenerational Transmission of Self-Regulation: A Multidisciplinary Review and Integrative Conceptual Framework. Psychological Bulletin, 141(3), 602–654. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038662.supp Brophy-Herb, H. E., Stansbury, K., Bocknek, E., & Horodynski, M. A. (2012). Modeling maternal emotion-related socialization behaviors in a low-income sample: Relations with toddlers’ self-regulation. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 27(3), 352–364. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2011.11.005 Buckner, J. C., Mezzacappa, E., & Beardslee, W. R. (2009). Self-Regulation and Its Relations to Adaptive Functioning in Low Income Youths. 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J., Boyce, W. T., Belsky, J., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & Van Ijzendoorn, M. H. (2011). Differential susceptibility to the environment: An evolutionary- neurodevelopmental theory. Development and Psychopathology, 23(1), 7–28. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579410000611 Evans, G. W., & Kim, P. (2013). Childhood Poverty, Chronic Stress, Self-Regulation, and Coping. Child Development Perspectives, 7(1), 43–48. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12013 Fay-Stammbach, T., Hawes, D. J., & Meredith, P. (2014). Parenting Influences on Executive Function in Early Childhood: A Review. Child Development Perspectives, 8(4), 258–264. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12095 Havighurst, S. S., Wilson, K. R., Harley, A. E., Prior, M. R., & Kehoe, C. (2010). Tuning in to Kids: Improving emotion socialization practices in parents of preschool children-findings from a community trial. 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This research examines the rise of Islamic populism in Indonesia and understands it as an instrument to clear a new pathway for populism movement into popular culture. Ummi magazine is one of the religious media used to be political vehicles of stablishing constituencies, especially for the Tarbiyah movement in the Soeharto era to the current tendency to popularize the Tarbiyah identity as a new lifestyle. Historically, The Tarbiyah movement in Indonesia is a social and political movement among Indonesian Muslimah students, especially activists in the Suharto period. Muslim middle class entrepreneurs launched a campaign of ‘economic jihad. This research uses a qualitative approach by interpreting and studying the data contained in Ummi Magazine. Media studies were carried out in the January 2017 to 2018 editions. The data obtained were described and associated with the magazine's transformation as an ideological medium and Muslim women's lifestyle today. 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In Australia the “intimacy” of citizenship (Berlant 2), is often used to reinforce subscription to heteronormative romantic and familial structures. Because this framing promotes discourses of moral failure, recent political attention to sexuality and same-sex couples can be filtered through insights into coalitional affiliations. This paper uses contemporary shifts in Australian politics and culture to think through the concept of coalition, and in particular to analyse connections between sexuality and governmentality (or more specifically normative bias and same-sex relationships) in what I’m calling post-coalitional Australia. Against the unpredictability of changing parties and governments, allegiances and alliances, this paper suggests the continuing adherence to a heteronormatively arranged public sphere. After the current Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard deposed the previous leader, Kevin Rudd, she clung to power with the help of independents and the Greens, and clichés of a “rainbow coalition” and a “new paradigm” were invoked to describe the confused electorate and governmental configuration. Yet in 2007, a less confused Australia decisively threw out the Howard–led Liberal and National Party coalition government after eleven years, in favour of Rudd’s own rainbow coalition: a seemingly invigorated party focussed on gender equity, Indigenous Australians, multi-cultural visibility, workplace relations, Austral-Asian relations, humane refugee processing, the environment, and the rights and obligations of same-sex couples. A post-coalitional Australia invokes something akin to “aftermath culture” (Lambert and Simpson), referring not just to Rudd’s fall or Howard’s election loss, but to the broader shifting contexts within which most Australian citizens live, and within which they make sense of the terms “Australia” and “Australian”. Contemporary Australia is marked everywhere by cracks in coalitions and shifts in allegiances and belief systems – the Coalition of the Willing falling apart, the coalition government crushed by defeat, deposed leaders, and unlikely political shifts and (re)alignments in the face of a hung parliament and renewed pushes toward moral and cultural change. These breakdowns in allegiances are followed by swift symbolically charged manoeuvres. Gillard moved quickly to repair relations with mining companies damaged by Rudd’s plans for a mining tax and to water down frustration with the lack of a sustainable Emissions Trading Scheme. And one of the first things Kevin Rudd did as Prime Minister was to change the fittings and furnishings in the Prime Ministerial office, of which Wright observed that “Mr Howard is gone and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has moved in, the Parliament House bureaucracy has ensured all signs of the old-style gentlemen's club… have been banished” (The Age, 5 Dec. 2007). Some of these signs were soon replaced by Ms. Gillard herself, who filled the office in turn with memorabilia from her beloved Footscray, an Australian Rules football team. In post-coalitional Australia the exile of the old Menzies’ desk and a pair of Chesterfield sofas works alongside the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and renewed pledges for military presence in Afghanistan, apologising to stolen generations of Indigenous Australians, the first female Governor General, deputy Prime Minister and then Prime Minister (the last two both Gillard), the repealing of disadvantageous workplace reform, a focus on climate change and global warming (with limited success as stated), a public, mandatory paid maternity leave scheme, changes to the processing and visas of refugees, and the amendments to more than one hundred laws that discriminate against same sex couples by the pre-Gillard, Rudd-led Labor government. The context for these changes was encapsulated in an announcement from Rudd, made in March 2008: Our core organising principle as a Government is equality of opportunity. And advancing people and their opportunities in life, we are a Government which prides itself on being blind to gender, blind to economic background, blind to social background, blind to race, blind to sexuality. (Rudd, “International”) Noting the political possibilities and the political convenience of blindness, this paper navigates the confusing context of post-coalitional Australia, whilst proffering an understanding of some of the cultural forces at work in this age of shifting and unstable alliances. I begin by interrogating the coalitional impulse post 9/11. I do this by connecting public coalitional shifts to the steady withdrawal of support for John Howard’s coalition, and movement away from George Bush’s Coalition of the Willing and the War on Terror. I then draw out a relationship between the rise and fall of such affiliations and recent shifts within government policy affecting same-sex couples, from former Prime Minister Howard’s amendments to The Marriage Act 1961 to the Rudd-Gillard administration’s attention to the discrimination in many Australian laws. Sexual Citizenship and Coalitions Rights and entitlements have always been constructed and managed in ways that live out understandings of biopower and social death (Foucault History; Discipline). The disciplining of bodies, identities and pleasures is so deeply entrenched in government and law that any non-normative claim to rights requires the negotiation of existing structures. Sexual citizenship destabilises the post-coalitional paradigm of Australian politics (one of “equal opportunity” and consensus) by foregrounding the normative biases that similarly transcend partisan politics. Sexual citizenship has been well excavated in critical work from Evans, Berlant, Weeks, Richardson, and Bell and Binnie’s The Sexual Citizen which argues that “many of the current modes of the political articulation of sexual citizenship are marked by compromise; this is inherent in the very notion itself… the twinning of rights with responsibilities in the logic of citizenship is another way of expressing compromise… Every entitlement is freighted with a duty” (2-3). This logic extends to political and economic contexts, where “natural” coalition refers primarily to parties, and in particular those “who have powerful shared interests… make highly valuable trades, or who, as a unit, can extract significant value from others without much risk of being split” (Lax and Sebinius 158). Though the term is always in some way politicised, it need not refer only to partisan, multiparty or multilateral configurations. The subscription to the norms (or normativity) of a certain familial, social, religious, ethnic, or leisure groups is clearly coalitional (as in a home or a front, a club or a team, a committee or a congregation). Although coalition is interrogated in political and social sciences, it is examined frequently in mathematical game theory and behavioural psychology. In the former, as in Axelrod’s The Evolution of Cooperation, it refers to people (or players) who collaborate to successfully pursue their own self-interests, often in the absence of central authority. In behavioural psychology the focus is on group formations and their attendant strategies, biases and discriminations. Experimental psychologists have found “categorizing individuals into two social groups predisposes humans to discriminate… against the outgroup in both allocation of resources and evaluation of conduct” (Kurzban, Tooby and Cosmides 15387). The actions of social organisation (and not unseen individual, supposedly innate impulses) reflect the cultural norms in coalitional attachments – evidenced by the relationship between resources and conduct that unquestioningly grants and protects the rights and entitlements of the larger, heteronormatively aligned “ingroup”. Terror Management Particular attention has been paid to coalitional formations and discriminatory practices in America and the West since September 11, 2001. Terror Management Theory or TMT (Greenberg, Pyszczynski and Solomon) has been the main framework used to explain the post-9/11 reassertion of large group identities along ideological, religious, ethnic and violently nationalistic lines. Psychologists have used “death-related stimuli” to explain coalitional mentalities within the recent contexts of globalised terror. The fear of death that results in discriminatory excesses is referred to as “mortality salience”, with respect to the highly visible aspects of terror that expose people to the possibility of their own death or suffering. Naverette and Fessler find “participants… asked to contemplate their own deaths exhibit increases in positive evaluations of people whose attitudes and values are similar to their own, and derogation of those holding dissimilar views” (299). It was within the climate of post 9/11 “mortality salience” that then Prime Minister John Howard set out to change The Marriage Act 1961 and the Family Law Act 1975. In 2004, the Government modified the Marriage Act to eliminate flexibility with respect to the definition of marriage. Agitation for gay marriage was not as noticeable in Australia as it was in the U.S where Bush publicly rejected it, and the UK where the Civil Union Act 2004 had just been passed. Following Bush, Howard’s “queer moral panic” seemed the perfect decoy for the increased scrutiny of Australia’s involvement in the Iraq war. Howard’s changes included outlawing adoption for same-sex couples, and no recognition for legal same-sex marriages performed in other countries. The centrepiece was the wording of The Marriage Amendment Act 2004, with marriage now defined as a union “between a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others”. The legislation was referred to by the Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown as “hateful”, “the marriage discrimination act” and the “straight Australia policy” (Commonwealth 26556). The Labor Party, in opposition, allowed the changes to pass (in spite of vocal protests from one member) by concluding the legal status of same-sex relations was in no way affected, seemingly missing (in addition to the obvious symbolic and physical discrimination) the equation of same-sex recognition with terror, terrorism and death. Non-normative sexual citizenship was deployed as yet another form of “mortality salience”, made explicit in Howard’s description of the changes as necessary in protecting the sanctity of the “bedrock institution” of marriage and, wait for it, “providing for the survival of the species” (Knight, 5 Aug. 2003). So two things seem to be happening here: the first is that when confronted with the possibility of their own death (either through terrorism or gay marriage) people value those who are most like them, joining to devalue those who aren’t; the second is that the worldview (the larger religious, political, social perspectives to which people subscribe) becomes protection from the potential death that terror/queerness represents. Coalition of the (Un)willing Yet, if contemporary coalitions are formed through fear of death or species survival, how, for example, might these explain the various forms of risk-taking behaviours exhibited within Western democracies targeted by such terrors? Navarette and Fessler (309) argue that “affiliation defences are triggered by a wider variety of threats” than “existential anxiety” and that worldviews are “in turn are reliant on ‘normative conformity’” (308) or “normative bias” for social benefits and social inclusions, because “a normative orientation” demonstrates allegiance to the ingroup (308-9). Coalitions are founded in conformity to particular sets of norms, values, codes or belief systems. They are responses to adaptive challenges, particularly since September 11, not simply to death but more broadly to change. In troubled times, coalitions restore a shared sense of predictability. In Howard’s case, he seemed to say, “the War in Iraq is tricky but we have a bigger (same-sex) threat to deal with right now. So trust me on both fronts”. Coalitional change as reflective of adaptive responses thus serves the critical location of subsequent shifts in public support. Before and since September 11 Australians were beginning to distinguish between moderation and extremism, between Christian fundamentalism and productive forms of nationalism. Howard’s unwavering commitment to the American-led war in Iraq saw Australia become a member of another coalition: the Coalition of the Willing, a post 1990s term used to describe militaristic or humanitarian interventions in certain parts of the world by groups of countries. Howard (in Pauly and Lansford 70) committed Australia to America’s fight but also to “civilization's fight… of all who believe in progress and pluralism, tolerance and freedom”. Although Bush claimed an international balance of power and influence within the coalition (94), some countries refused to participate, many quickly withdrew, and many who signed did not even have troops. In Australia, the war was never particularly popular. In 2003, forty-two legal experts found the war contravened International Law as well as United Nations and Geneva conventions (Sydney Morning Herald 26 Feb. 2003). After the immeasurable loss of Iraqi life, and as the bodies of young American soldiers (and the occasional non-American) began to pile up, the official term “coalition of the willing” was quietly abandoned by the White House in January of 2005, replaced by a “smaller roster of 28 countries with troops in Iraq” (ABC News Online 22 Jan. 2005). The coalition and its larger war on terror placed John Howard within the context of coalitional confusion, that when combined with the domestic effects of economic and social policy, proved politically fatal. The problem was the unclear constitution of available coalitional configurations. Howard’s continued support of Bush and the war in Iraq compounded with rising interest rates, industrial relations reform and a seriously uncool approach to the environment and social inclusion, to shift perceptions of him from father of the nation to dangerous, dithery and disconnected old man. Post-Coalitional Change In contrast, before being elected Kevin Rudd sought to reframe Australian coalitional relationships. In 2006, he positions the Australian-United States alliance outside of the notion of military action and Western territorial integrity. In Rudd-speak the Howard-Bush-Blair “coalition of the willing” becomes F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “willingness of the heart”. The term coalition was replaced by terms such as dialogue and affiliation (Rudd, “Friends”). Since the 2007 election, Rudd moved quickly to distance himself from the agenda of the coalition government that preceded him, proposing changes in the spirit of “blindness” toward marginality and sexuality. “Fix-it-all” Rudd as he was christened (Sydney Morning Herald 29 Sep. 2008) and his Labor government began to confront the legacies of colonial history, industrial relations, refugee detention and climate change – by apologising to Aboriginal people, timetabling the withdrawal from Iraq, abolishing the employee bargaining system Workchoices, giving instant visas and lessening detention time for refugees, and signing the Kyoto Protocol agreeing (at least in principle) to reduce green house gas emissions. As stated earlier, post-coalitional Australia is not simply talking about sudden change but an extension and a confusion of what has gone on before (so that the term resembles postcolonial, poststructural and postmodern because it carries the practices and effects of the original term within it). The post-coalitional is still coalitional to the extent that we must ask: what remains the same in the midst of such visible changes? An American focus in international affairs, a Christian platform for social policy, an absence of financial compensation for the Aboriginal Australians who received such an eloquent apology, the lack of coherent and productive outcomes in the areas of asylum and climate change, and an impenetrable resistance to the idea of same-sex marriage are just some of the ways in which these new governments continue on from the previous one. The Rudd-Gillard government’s dealings with gay law reform and gay marriage exemplify the post-coalitional condition. Emulating Christ’s relationship to “the marginalised and the oppressed”, and with Gillard at his side, Rudd understandings of the Christian Gospel as a “social gospel” (Rudd, “Faith”; see also Randell-Moon) to table changes to laws discriminating against gay couples – guaranteeing hospital visits, social security benefits and access to superannuation, resembling de-facto hetero relationships but modelled on the administering and registration of relationships, or on tax laws that speak primarily to relations of financial dependence – with particular reference to children. The changes are based on the report, Same Sex, Same Entitlements (HREOC) that argues for the social competence of queer folk, with respect to money, property and reproduction. They speak the language of an equitable economics; one that still leaves healthy and childless couples with limited recognition and advantage but increased financial obligation. Unable to marry in Australia, same-sex couples are no longer single for taxation purposes, but are now simultaneously subject to forms of tax/income auditing and governmental revenue collection should either same-sex partner require assistance from social security as if they were married. Heteronormative Coalition Queer citizens can quietly stake their economic claims and in most states discreetly sign their names on a register before becoming invisible again. Mardi Gras happens but once a year after all. On the topic of gay marriage Rudd and Gillard have deferred to past policy and to the immoveable nature of the law (and to Howard’s particular changes to marriage law). That same respect is not extended to laws passed by Howard on industrial relations or border control. In spite of finding no gospel references to Jesus the Nazarene “expressly preaching against homosexuality” (Rudd, “Faith”), and pre-election promises that territories could govern themselves with respect to same sex partnerships, the Rudd-Gillard government in 2008 pressured the ACT to reduce its proposed partnership legislation to that of a relationship register like the ones in Tasmania and Victoria, and explicitly demanded that there be absolutely no ceremony – no mimicking of the real deal, of the larger, heterosexual citizens’ “ingroup”. Likewise, with respect to the reintroduction of same-sex marriage legislation by Greens senator Sarah Hanson Young in September 2010, Gillard has so far refused a conscience vote on the issue and restated the “marriage is between a man and a woman” rhetoric of her predecessors (Topsfield, 30 Sep. 2010). At the same time, she has agreed to conscience votes on euthanasia and openly declared bi-partisan (with the federal opposition) support for the war in Afghanistan. We see now, from Howard to Rudd and now Gillard, that there are some coalitions that override political differences. As psychologists have noted, “if the social benefits of norm adherence are the ultimate cause of the individual’s subscription to worldviews, then the focus and salience of a given individual’s ideology can be expected to vary as a function of their need to ally themselves with relevant others” (Navarette and Fessler 307). Where Howard invoked the “Judaeo-Christian tradition”, Rudd chose to cite a “Christian ethical framework” (Rudd, “Faith”), that saw him and Gillard end up in exactly the same place: same sex relationships should be reduced to that of medical care or financial dependence; that a public ceremony marking relationship recognition somehow equates to “mimicking” the already performative and symbolic heterosexual institution of marriage and the associated romantic and familial arrangements. Conclusion Post-coalitional Australia refers to the state of confusion borne of a new politics of equality and change. The shift in Australia from conservative to mildly socialist government(s) is not as sudden as Howard’s 2007 federal loss or as short-lived as Gillard’s hung parliament might respectively suggest. Whilst allegiance shifts, political parties find support is reliant on persistence as much as it is on change – they decide how to buffer and bolster the same coalitions (ones that continue to privilege white settlement, Christian belief systems, heteronormative familial and symbolic practices), but also how to practice policy and social responsibility in a different way. Rudd’s and Gillard’s arguments against the mimicry of heterosexual symbolism and the ceremonial validation of same-sex partnerships imply there is one originary form of conduct and an associated sacred set of symbols reserved for that larger ingroup. Like Howard before them, these post-coalitional leaders fail to recognise, as Butler eloquently argues, “gay is to straight not as copy is to original, but as copy is to copy” (31). To make claims to status and entitlements that invoke the messiness of non-normative sex acts and romantic attachments necessarily requires the negotiation of heteronormative coalitional bias (and in some ways a reinforcement of this social power). As Bell and Binnie have rightly observed, “that’s what the hard choices facing the sexual citizen are: the push towards rights claims that make dissident sexualities fit into heterosexual culture, by demanding equality and recognition, versus the demand to reject settling for heteronormativity” (141). The new Australian political “blindness” toward discrimination produces positive outcomes whilst it explicitly reanimates the histories of oppression it seeks to redress. The New South Wales parliament recently voted to allow same-sex adoption with the proviso that concerned parties could choose not to adopt to gay couples. The Tasmanian government voted to recognise same-sex marriages and unions from outside Australia, in the absence of same-sex marriage beyond the current registration arrangements in its own state. In post-coalitional Australia the issue of same-sex partnership recognition pits parties and allegiances against each other and against themselves from within (inside Gillard’s “rainbow coalition” the Rainbow ALP group now unites gay people within the government’s own party). Gillard has hinted any new proposed legislation regarding same-sex marriage may not even come before parliament for debate, as it deals with real business. Perhaps the answer lies over the rainbow (coalition). As the saying goes, “there are none so blind as those that will not see”. References ABC News Online. “Whitehouse Scraps Coalition of the Willing List.” 22 Jan. 2005. 1 July 2007 ‹http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200501/s1286872.htm›. Axelrod, Robert. The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books, 1984. 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New York: Springer-Verlag, 1986. 189-212. Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. Same-Sex: Same Entitlements Report. 2007. 21 Aug. 2007 ‹http://www.hreoc.gov.au/human_rights/samesex/report/index.html›. Kaplan, Morris. Sexual Justice: Democratic Citizenship and the Politics of Desire. New York: Routledge, 1997. Knight, Ben. “Howard and Costello Reject Gay Marriage.” ABC Online 5 Aug. 2003. Kurzban, Robert, John Tooby, and Leda Cosmides. "Can Race Be Erased? Coalitional Computation and Social Categorization." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98.26 (2001): 15387–15392. Lambert, Anthony, and Catherine Simpson. "Jindabyne’s Haunted Alpine Country: Producing (an) Australian Badland." M/C Journal 11.5 (2008). 20 Oct. 2010 ‹http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/81›. Lax, David A., and James K. Lebinius. “Thinking Coalitionally: Party Arithmetic Process Opportunism, and Strategic Sequencing.” Negotiation Analysis. Ed. H. Peyton Young. 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“Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them [...] life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.” (Garcia Marquez 165) Introduction The refugee experience is, at heart, one of rebirth. Just as becoming a new, distinctive being—biological birth—necessarily involves the physical separation of mother and infant, so becoming a refugee entails separation from a "mother country." This mother country may or may not be a recognised nation state; the point is that the refugee transitions from physical connectedness to separation, from insider to outsider, from endemic to alien. Like babies, refugees may have little control over the timing and conditions of their expulsion. Successful resettlement requires not one rebirth but multiple rebirths—resettlement is a lifelong process (Layton)—which in turn require hope, imagination, and energy. In rebirthing themselves over and over again, people who have fled or been forced from their homelands become both mother and child. They do not go through this rebirthing alone. A range of agencies and individuals may be there to assist, including immigration officials, settlement services, schools and teachers, employment agencies and employers, English as a Second Language (ESL) resources and instructors, health-care providers, counsellors, diasporic networks, neighbours, church groups, and other community organisations. The nature, intensity, and duration of these “midwives’” interventions—and when they occur and in what combinations—vary hugely from place to place and from person to person, but there is clear evidence that post-migration experiences have a significant impact on settlement outcomes (Fozdar and Hartley). This paper draws on qualitative research I did in 2012 in a regional town in New South Wales to illuminate some of the ways in which settlement aides ease, or impede, refugees’ rebirth as fully recognised and participating Australians. I begin by considering what it means to be resilient before tracing some of the dimensions of the resettlement process. In doing so, I draw on data from interviews and focus groups with former refugees, service providers, and other residents of the town I shall call Easthaven. First, though, a word about Easthaven. As is the case in many rural and regional parts of Australia, Easthaven’s population is strongly dominated by Anglo Celtic and Saxon ancestries: 2011 Census data show that more than 80 per cent of residents were born in Australia (compared with a national figure of 69.8 per cent) and about 90 per cent speak only English at home (76.8 per cent). Almost twice as many people identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander as the national figure of 2.5 per cent (Australian Bureau of Statistics). For several years Easthaven has been an official “Refugee Welcome Zone”, welcoming hundreds of refugees from diverse countries in Africa and the Middle East as well as from Myanmar. This reflects the Department of Immigration and Citizenship’s drive to settle a fifth of Australia’s 13,750 humanitarian entrants a year directly in regional areas. In Easthaven’s schools—which is where I focused my research—almost all of the ESL students are from refugee backgrounds. Defining Resilience Much of the research on human resilience is grounded in psychology, with a capacity to “bounce back” from adverse experiences cited in many definitions of resilience (e.g. American Psychological Association). Bouncing back implies a relatively quick process, and a return to a state or form similar to that which existed before the encounter with adversity. Yet resilience often requires sustained effort and significant changes in identity. As Jerome Rugaruza, a former UNHCR refugee, says of his journey from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Australia: All the steps begin in the burning village: you run with nothing to eat, no clothes. You just go. Then you get to the refugee camp […] You have a little bread and you thank god you are safe. Then after a few years in the camp, you think about a future for your children. You arrive in Australia and then you learn a new language, you learn to drive. There are so many steps and not everyone can do it. (Milsom) Not everyone can do it, but a large majority do. Research by Graeme Hugo, for example, shows that although humanitarian settlers in Australia face substantial barriers to employment and initially have much higher unemployment rates than other immigrants, for most nationality groups this difference has disappeared by the second generation: “This is consistent with the sacrifice (or investment) of the first generation and the efforts extended to attain higher levels of education and English proficiency, thereby reducing the barriers over time.” (Hugo 35). Ingrid Poulson writes that “resilience is not just about bouncing. Bouncing […] is only a reaction. Resilience is about rising—you rise above it, you rise to the occasion, you rise to the challenge. Rising is an active choice” (47; my emphasis) I see resilience as involving mental and physical grit, coupled with creativity, aspiration and, crucially, agency. Dimensions of Resettlement To return to the story of 41-year-old Jerome Rugaruza, as related in a recent newspaper article: He [Mr Rugaruza] describes the experience of being a newly arrived refugee as being like that of a newborn baby. “You need special care; you have to learn to speak [English], eat the different food, create relationships, connections”. (Milsom) This is a key dimension of resettlement: the adult becomes like an infant again, shifting from someone who knows how things work and how to get by to someone who is likely to be, for a while, dependent on others for even the most basic things—communication, food, shelter, clothing, and social contact. The “special care” that most refugee arrivals need initially (and sometimes for a long time) often results in their being seen as deficient—in knowledge, skills, dispositions, and capacities as well as material goods (Keddie; Uptin, Wright and Harwood). As Fozdar and Hartley note: “The tendency to use a deficit model in refugee resettlement devalues people and reinforces the view of the mainstream population that refugees are a liability” (27). Yet unlike newborns, humanitarian settlers come to their new countries with rich social networks and extensive histories of experience and learning—resources that are in fact vital to their rebirth. Sisay (all names are pseudonyms), a year 11 student of Ethiopian heritage who was born in Kenya, told me with feeling: I had a life back in Africa [her emphasis]. It was good. Well, I would go back there if there’s no problems, which—is a fact. And I came here for a better life—yeah, I have a better life, there’s good health care, free school, and good environment and all that. But what’s that without friends? A fellow student, Celine, who came to Australia five years ago from Burundi via Uganda, told me in a focus group: Some teachers are really good but I think some other teachers could be a little bit more encouraging and understanding of what we’ve gone through, because [they] just look at you like “You’re year 11 now, you should know this” […] It’s really discouraging when [the teachers say] in front of the class, “Oh, you shouldn’t do this subject because you haven’t done this this this this” […] It’s like they’re on purpose to tell you “you don’t have what it takes; just give up and do something else.” As Uptin, Wright and Harwood note, “schools not only have the power to position who is included in schooling (in culture and pedagogy) but also have the power to determine whether there is room and appreciation for diversity” (126). Both Sisay and Celine were disheartened by the fact they felt some of their teachers, and many of their peers, had little interest in or understanding of their lives before they came to Australia. The teachers’ low expectations of refugee-background students (Keddie, Uptin, Wright and Harwood) contrasted with the students’ and their families’ high expectations of themselves (Brown, Miller and Mitchell; Harris and Marlowe). When I asked Sisay about her post-school ambitions, she said: “I have a good idea of my future […] write a documentary. And I’m working on it.” Celine’s response was: “I know I’m gonna do medicine, be a doctor.” A third girl, Lily, who came to Australia from Myanmar three years ago, told me she wanted to be an accountant and had studied accounting at the local TAFE last year. Joseph, a father of three who resettled from South Sudan seven years ago, stressed how important getting a job was to successful settlement: [But] you have to get a certificate first to get a job. Even the job of cleaning—when I came here I was told that somebody has to go to have training in cleaning, to use the different chemicals to clean the ground and all that. But that is just sweeping and cleaning with water—you don’t need the [higher-level] skills. Simple jobs like this, we are not able to get them. In regional Australia, employment opportunities tend to be limited (Fozdar and Hartley); the unemployment rate in Easthaven is twice the national average. Opportunities to study are also more limited than in urban centres, and would-be students are not always eligible for financial assistance to gain or upgrade qualifications. Even when people do have appropriate qualifications, work experience, and language proficiency, the colour of their skin may still mean they miss out on a job. Tilbury and Colic-Peisker have documented the various ways in which employers deflect responsibility for racial discrimination, including the “common” strategy (658) of arguing that while the employer or organisation is not prejudiced, they have to discriminate because of their clients’ needs or expectations. I heard this strategy deployed in an interview with a local businesswoman, Catriona: We were advertising for a new technician. And one of the African refugees came to us and he’d had a lot of IT experience. And this is awful, but we felt we couldn't give him the job, because we send our technicians into people's houses, and we knew that if a black African guy rocked up at someone’s house to try and fix their computer, they would not always be welcomed in all—look, it would not be something that [Easthaven] was ready for yet. Colic-Peisker and Tilbury (Refugees and Employment) note that while Australia has strict anti-discrimination legislation, this legislation may be of little use to the people who, because of the way they look and sound (skin colour, dress, accent), are most likely to face prejudice and discrimination. The researchers found that perceived discrimination in the labour market affected humanitarian settlers’ sense of satisfaction with their new lives far more than, for example, racist remarks, which were generally shrugged off; the students I interviewed spoke of racism as “expected,” but “quite rare.” Most of the people Colic-Peisker and Tilbury surveyed reported finding Australians “friendly and accepting” (33). Even if there is no active discrimination on the basis of skin colour in employment, education, or housing, or overt racism in social situations, visible difference can still affect a person’s sense of belonging, as Joseph recounts: I think of myself as Australian, but my colour doesn’t [laughs] […] Unfortunately many, many Australians are expecting that Australia is a country of Europeans … There is no need for somebody to ask “Where do you come from?” and “Do you find Australia here safe?” and “Do you enjoy it?” Those kind of questions doesn’t encourage that we are together. This highlights another dimension of resettlement: the journey from feeling “at home” to feeling “foreign” to, eventually, feeling at home again in the host country (Colic-Peisker and Tilbury, Refugees and Employment). In the case of visibly different settlers, however, this last stage may never be completed. Whether the questions asked of Joseph are well intentioned or not, their effect may be the same: they position him as a “forever foreigner” (Park). A further dimension of resettlement—one already touched on—is the degree to which humanitarian settlers actively manage their “rebirth,” and are allowed and encouraged to do so. A key factor will be their mastery of English, and Easthaven’s ESL teachers are thus pivotal in the resettlement process. There is little doubt that many of these teachers have gone to great lengths to help this cohort of students, not only in terms of language acquisition but also social inclusion. However, in some cases what is initially supportive can, with time, begin to undermine refugees’ maturity into independent citizens. Sharon, an ESL teacher at one of the schools, told me how she and her colleagues would give their refugee-background students lifts to social events: But then maybe three years down the track they have a car and their dad can drive, but they still won’t take them […] We arrive to pick them up and they’re not ready, or there’s five fantastic cars in the driveway, and you pick up the student and they say “My dad’s car’s much bigger and better than yours” [laughs]. So there’s an expectation that we’ll do stuff for them, but we’ve created that [my emphasis]. Other support services may have more complex interests in keeping refugee settlers dependent. The more clients an agency has, the more services it provides, and the longer clients stay on its books, the more lucrative the contract for the agency. Thus financial and employment imperatives promote competition rather than collaboration between service providers (Fozdar and Hartley; Sidhu and Taylor) and may encourage assumptions about what sorts of services different individuals and groups want and need. Colic-Peisker and Tilbury (“‘Active’ and ‘Passive’ Resettlement”) have developed a typology of resettlement styles—“achievers,” “consumers,” “endurers,” and “victims”—but stress that a person’s style, while influenced by personality and pre-migration factors, is also shaped by the institutions and individuals they come into contact with: “The structure of settlement and welfare services may produce a victim mentality, leaving members of refugee communities inert and unable to see themselves as agents of change” (76). The prevailing narrative of “the traumatised refugee” is a key aspect of this dynamic (Colic-Peisker and Tilbury, “‘Active’ and ‘Passive’ Resettlement”; Fozdar and Hartley; Keddie). Service providers may make assumptions about what humanitarian settlers have gone through before arriving in Australia, how they have been affected by their experiences, and what must be done to “fix” them. Norah, a long-time caseworker, told me: I think you get some [providers] who go, “How could you have gone through something like that and not suffered? There must be—you must have to talk about this stuff” […] Where some [refugees] just come with the [attitude] “We’re all born into a situation; that was my situation, but I’m here now and now my focus is this.” She cited failure to consider cultural sensitivities around mental illness and to recognise that stress and anxiety during early resettlement are normal (Tilbury) as other problems in the sector: [Newly arrived refugees] go through the “happy to be here” [phase] and now “hang on, I’ve thumped to the bottom and I’m missing my own foods and smells and cultures and experiences”. I think sometimes we’re just too quick to try and slot people into a box. One factor that appears to be vital in fostering and sustaining resilience is social connection. Norah said her clients were “very good on the mobile phone” and had links “everywhere,” including to family and friends in their countries of birth, transition countries, and other parts of Australia. A 2011 report for DIAC, Settlement Outcomes of New Arrivals, found that humanitarian entrants to Australia were significantly more likely to be members of cultural and/or religious groups than other categories of immigrants (Australian Survey Research). I found many examples of efforts to build both bonding and bridging capital (Putnam) in Easthaven, and I offer two examples below. Several people told me about a dinner-dance that had been held a few weeks before one of my visits. The event was organised by an African women’s group, which had been formed—with funding assistance—several years before. The dinner-dance was advertised in the local newspaper and attracted strong interest from a broad cross-section of Easthaveners. To Debbie, a counsellor, the response signified a “real turnaround” in community relations and was a big boon to the women’s sense of belonging. Erica, a teacher, told me about a cultural exchange day she had organised between her bush school—where almost all of the children are Anglo Australian—and ESL students from one of the town schools: At the start of the day, my kids were looking at [the refugee-background students] and they were scared, they were saying to me, "I feel scared." And we shoved them all into this tiny little room […] and they had no choice but to sit practically on top of each other. And by the end of the day, they were hugging each other and braiding their hair and jumping and playing together. Like Uptin, Wright and Harwood, I found that the refugee-background students placed great importance on the social aspects of school. Sisay, the girl I introduced earlier in this paper, said: “It’s just all about friendship and someone to be there for you […] We try to be friends with them [the non-refugee students] sometimes but sometimes it just seems they don’t want it.” Conclusion A 2012 report on refugee settlement services in NSW concludes that the state “is not meeting its responsibility to humanitarian entrants as well as it could” (Audit Office of New South Wales 2); moreover, humanitarian settlers in NSW are doing less well on indicators such as housing and health than humanitarian settlers in other states (3). Evaluating the effectiveness of formal refugee-centred programs was not part of my research and is beyond the scope of this paper. Rather, I have sought to reveal some of the ways in which the attitudes, assumptions, and everyday practices of service providers and members of the broader community impact on refugees' settlement experience. What I heard repeatedly in the interviews I conducted was that it was emotional and practical support (Matthews; Tilbury), and being asked as well as told (about their hopes, needs, desires), that helped Easthaven’s refugee settlers bear themselves into fulfilling new lives. References Audit Office of New South Wales. Settling Humanitarian Entrants in New South Wales—Executive Summary. May 2012. 15 Aug. 2013 ‹http://www.audit.nsw.gov.au/ArticleDocuments/245/02_Humanitarian_Entrants_2012_Executive_Summary.pdf.aspx?Embed=Y>. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2011 Census QuickStats. Mar. 2013. 11 Aug. 2013 ‹http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/0>. Australian Survey Research. Settlement Outcomes of New Arrivals—Report of Findings. Apr. 2011. 15 Aug. 2013 ‹http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/research/_pdf/settlement-outcomes-new-arrivals.pdf>. Brown, Jill, Jenny Miller, and Jane Mitchell. “Interrupted Schooling and the Acquisition of Literacy: Experiences of Sudanese Refugees in Victorian Secondary Schools.” Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 29.2 (2006): 150-62. Colic-Peisker, Val, and Farida Tilbury. “‘Active’ and ‘Passive’ Resettlement: The Influence of Supporting Services and Refugees’ Own Resources on Resettlement Style.” International Migration 41.5 (2004): 61-91. ———. Refugees and Employment: The Effect of Visible Difference on Discrimination—Final Report. Perth: Centre for Social and Community Research, Murdoch University, 2007. Fozdar, Farida, and Lisa Hartley. “Refugee Resettlement in Australia: What We Know and Need To Know.” Refugee Survey Quarterly 4 Jun. 2013. 12 Aug. 2013 ‹http://rsq.oxfordjournals.org/search?fulltext=fozdar&submit=yes&x=0&y=0>. Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. Love in the Time of Cholera. London: Penguin Books, 1989. Harris, Vandra, and Jay Marlowe. “Hard Yards and High Hopes: The Educational Challenges of African Refugee University Students in Australia.” International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 23.2 (2011): 186-96. Hugo, Graeme. A Significant Contribution: The Economic, Social and Civic Contributions of First and Second Generation Humanitarian Entrants—Summary of Findings. Canberra: Department of Immigration and Citizenship, 2011. Keddie, Amanda. “Pursuing Justice for Refugee Students: Addressing Issues of Cultural (Mis)recognition.” International Journal of Inclusive Education 16.12 (2012): 1295-1310. Layton, Robyn. "Building Capacity to Ensure the Inclusion of Vulnerable Groups." Creating Our Future conference, Adelaide, 28 Jul. 2012. Milsom, Rosemarie. “From Hard Luck Life to the Lucky Country.” Sydney Morning Herald 20 Jun. 2013. 12 Aug. 2013 ‹http://www.smh.com.au/national/from-hard-luck-life-to-the-lucky-country-20130619-2oixl.html>. Park, Gilbert C. “’Are We Real Americans?’: Cultural Production of Forever Foreigners at a Diversity Event.” Education and Urban Society 43.4 (2011): 451-67. Poulson, Ingrid. Rise. Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, 2008. Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. Sidhu, Ravinder K., and Sandra Taylor. “The Trials and Tribulations of Partnerships in Refugee Settlement Services in Australia.” Journal of Education Policy 24.6 (2009): 655-72. Tilbury, Farida. “‘I Feel I Am a Bird without Wings’: Discourses of Sadness and Loss among East Africans in Western Australia.” Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 14.4 (2007): 433-58. ———, and Val Colic-Peisker. “Deflecting Responsibility in Employer Talk about Race Discrimination.” Discourse & Society 17.5 (2006): 651-76. Uptin, Jonnell, Jan Wright, and Valerie Harwood. “It Felt Like I Was a Black Dot on White Paper: Examining Young Former Refugees’ Experience of Entering Australian High Schools.” The Australian Educational Researcher 40.1 (2013): 125-37.

Wandering the aisles of my local Woolworths in April this year, I noticed a large number of chocolate bilbies replacing chocolate rabbits. In these harsh economic times it seems that even the Easter bunny is in danger of losing his Easter job. While the changing shape of Easter chocolate may seem to be a harmless affair, the expulsion of the rabbit from Easter celebrations has a darker side. In this paper I look at the campaign to replace the Easter bunny with the Easter bilby, and the implications this mediated conservation move has for living rabbits in the Australian ecosystem. Essential to this discussion is the premise that studies of ecology must take into account the impact of media and culture on environmental issues. Of particular interest is the role of narrative, and the way the stories we tell about rabbits determine how they are treated in real life. While I recognise that the Australian bilby’s struggle for survival is a tale which should be told, I also argue that the vilification of the European-Australian rabbit is part of the native/invasive dualism which has ceased to be helpful, and has instead become a motivator of unproductive violence. In place of this simplified dichotomous narrative, I propose an ethic of "ecological remembrance" to combat the totalising eradication of the European rabbit from the Australian environment and culture. The Bilby vs the Bunny: A Case Study in "Media Selection" Easter Bunny says, ‘Bilby, I want you to have my job.You know about sharing and taking care.I think Australia should have an Easter Bilby.We rabbits have become too greedy and careless.Rabbits must learn from bilbies and other bush creatures’. The lines above are taken from Ali Garnett and Kaye Kessing’s children’s story, Easter Bilby, co-published by the Australian Anti-Rabbit Research Foundation as part of the campaign to replace the Easter bunny with the eco-politically correct Easter bilby. The first chocolate bilbies were made in 1982, but the concept really took off when major chocolate retailer Darrell Lea became involved in 2002. Since this time Haigh’s chocolate, Cadbury, and Pink Lady have also released delicious cocoa natives for consumption, and both Darrell Lea and Haigh’s use their profits to support bilby assistance programs, creating the “pleasant Easter sensation” that “eating a chocolate bilby is helping save the real thing” (Phillips). The Easter bilby campaign is a highly mediated approach to conservation which demonstrates the new biological principle Phil Bagust has recognised as “media selection.” Bagust observes that in our “hybridised global society” it is impossible to separate “the world of genetic selection from the world of human symbolic and material diversity as if they exist in different universes” (8). The Australian rabbit thrives in “natural selection,” having adapted to the Australian environment so successfully it threatens native species and the economic productivity of farmers. But the rabbit loses out in “cultural selection” where it is vilified in the media for its role in environmental degradation. The campaign to conserve the bilby depends, in a large part, on the rabbit’s failures in “media selection”. On Good Friday 2012 Sky News Australia quoted Mike Drinkwater of Wild Life Sydney’s support of the Easter bilby campaign: Look, the reason that we want to highlight the bilby as an iconic Easter animal is, number one, rabbits are a pest in Australia. Secondly, the bilby has these lovely endearing rabbit-like qualities. And thirdly, the bilby is a beautiful, iconic, native animal that is struggling. It is endangered so it’s important that we do all we can to support that. Drinkwater’s appeal to the bilby’s “endearing rabbit-like qualities” demonstrates that it is not the Australian rabbit’s individual embodiment which detracts from its charisma in Australian society. In this paper I will argue that the stories we tell about the European-Australian rabbit’s alienation from Indigenous country diminish the species cultural appeal. These stories are told with passionate conviction to save and protect native flora and fauna, but, too often, this promotion of the native relies on the devaluation of non-native life, to the point where individual rabbits are no longer morally considerable. Such a hierarchical approach to conservation is not only ethically problematic, but can also be ineffective because the native/invasive approach to ecology is overly simplistic. A History of Rabbit Stories In the Easter Bilby children’s book the illustrated rabbit offers to make itself disappear from the “Easter job.” The reason for this act of self-destruction is a despairing recognition of its “greedy and careless” nature, and at the same time, its selfless offer to be replaced by the ecologically conscious Bilby. In this sacrificial gesture is the implicit offering of all rabbit life for the salvation of native ecosystems and animal life. This plot line slots into a much larger series of stories we have been telling about the Australian environment. Libby Robin has observed that settler Australians have always had a love-hate relationship with the native flora and fauna of the continent (6), either devaluing native plants, animals, and ecosystems, or launching into an “overcompensating patriotic strut about the Australian biota” (Robin 9). The colonising dynamic of early Australian society was built on the devaluation of animals such as the bilby. This was reflected in the introduction of feral animals by “acclimatisation societies” and the privileging of “pets” such as cats and dogs over native animals (Plumwood). Alfred Crosby has made the persuasive argument that the invasion of Australia, and other “neo-European” countries, was, necessarily, more-than-human. In his work, Ecological Imperialism, Crosby charts the historical partnership between human European colonisers in Indigenous lands and the “grunting, lowing, neighing, crowing, chirping, snarling, buzzing, self-replicating and world-altering avalanche” (194) of introduced life that they brought with them. In response to this “guilt by association” Australians have reversed the values in the dichotomous colonial dynamic to devalue the introduced and so “empower” the colonised native. In this new “anti-colonial” story, rabbits signify a wound of colonisation which has spread across and infected indigenous country. J. M. Arthur’s (130) analysis of language in relation to colonisation highlights some of the important lexical characteristics in the rabbit stories we now tell. He observes that the rabbits’ impact on the county is described using a vocabulary of contamination: “It is a ‘menace’, a ‘problem’, an ‘infestation’, a ‘nuisance’, a ‘plague’” (170). This narrative of disease encourages a redemptive violence against living rabbits to “cure” the rabbit problem in order to atone for human mistakes in a colonial past. Redemptive Violence in Action Rabbits in Australia have been subject to a wide range of eradication measures over the past century including shooting, the destruction of burrows, poisoning, ferreting, trapping, and the well-known rabbit proof fence in Western Australia. Particularly noteworthy in this slaughter has been the introduction of biological control measures with the release of the savage and painful disease Myxomatosis in late December 1950, followed by the release of the Calicivirus (Rabbit Haemorrhage Disease, or RHD) in 1996. As recently as March 2012 the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries announced a 1.5 million dollar program called “RHD Boost” which is attempting to develop a more effective biological control agent for rabbits who have become immune to the Calicivirus. In this perverse narrative, disease becomes a cure for the rabbit’s contamination of Australian environments. Calicivirus is highly infectious, spreads rapidly, and kills rabbits en masse. Following the release of Calicivirus in 1995 it killed 10 million rabbits in eight weeks (Ponsonby Veterinary Centre). While Calicivirus appears to be more humane than the earlier biological control, Myxomatosis, there are indications that it causes rabbits pain and stress. Victims are described as becoming very quiet, refusing to eat, straining for breath, losing coordination, becoming feverish, and excreting bloody nasal discharge (Heishman, 2011). Post-mortem dissection generally reveals a “pale and mottled liver, many small streaks or blotches on the lungs and an enlarged spleen... small thrombi or blood clots” (Coman 173). Public criticism of the cruel methods involved in killing rabbits is often assuaged with appeals to the greater good of the ecosystem. The Anti-Rabbit research foundation state on their Website, Rabbit-Free Australia, that: though killing rabbits may sound inhumane, wild rabbits are affecting the survival of native Australian plants and animals. It is our responsibility to control them. We brought the European rabbit here in the first place — they are an invasive pest. This assumption of personal and communal responsibility for the rabbit “problem” has a fundamental blind-spot. Arthur (130) observes that the progress of rabbits across the continent is often described as though they form a coordinated army: The rabbit extends its ‘dominion’, ‘dispossesses’ the indigenous bilby, causes sheep runs to be ‘abandoned’ and country ‘forfeited’, leaving the land in ‘ecological tatters’. While this language of battle pervades rabbit stories, humans rarely refer to themselves as invaders into Aboriginal lands. Arthur notes that, by taking responsibility for the rabbit’s introduction and eradication, the coloniser assumes an indigenous status as they defend the country against the exotic invader (134). The apprehension of moral responsibility can, in this sense, be understood as the assumption of settler indigeneity. This does not negate the fact that assuming human responsibility for the native environment can be an act of genuine care. In a country scarred by a history of ecocide, movements like the Easter Bilby campaign seek to rectify the negligent mistakes of the past. The problem is that reactive responses to the colonial devaluation of native life can be unproductive because they preserve the basic structure of the native/invasive dichotomy by simplistically reversing its values, and fail to respond to more complex ecological contexts and requirements (Plumwood). This is also socially problematic because the native/invasive divide of nonhuman life overlays more complex human politics of colonisation in Australia. The Native/Invasive Dualism The bilby is currently listed as an “endangered” species in Queensland and as “vulnerable” nationally. Bilbies once inhabited 70% of the Australian landscape, but now inhabit less than 15% of the country (Save the Bilby Fund). This dramatic reduction in bilby numbers has multiple causes, but the European rabbit has played a significant role in threatening the bilby species by competing for burrows and food. Other threats come from the predation of introduced species, such as feral cats and foxes, and the impact of farmed introduced species, such as sheep and cattle, which also destroy bilby habitats. Because the rabbit directly competes with the bilby for food and shelter in the Australian environment, the bilby can be classed as the underdog native, appealing to that larger Australian story about “the fair go”. It seems that the Easter bilby campaign is intended to level out the threat posed by the highly successful and adaptive rabbit through promoting the bilby in the “cultural selection” stakes. This involves encouraging bilby-love, while actively discouraging love and care for the introduced rabbits which threaten the bilby’s survival. On the Rabbit Free Australia Website, the campaign rationale to replace the Easter bunny with the Easter bilby claims that: Very young children are indoctrinated with the concept that bunnies are nice soft fluffy creatures whereas in reality they are Australia’s greatest environmental feral pest and cause enormous damage to the arid zone. In this statement the lived corporeal presence of individual rabbits is denied as the “soft, fluffy” body disappears behind the environmentally problematic species’ behaviour. The assertion that children are “indoctrinated” to find rabbits love-able, and that this conflicts with the “reality” of the rabbit as environmentally destructive, denies the complexity of the living animal and the multiple possible responses to it. That children find rabbits “fluffy” is not the result of pro-rabbit propaganda, but because rabbits are fluffy! That Rabbit Free Australia could construe this to be some kind of elaborate falsehood demonstrates the disappearance of the individual rabbit in the native/invasive tale of colonisation. Rabbit-Free Australia seeks to eradicate the animal not only from Australian ecosystems, but from the hearts and minds of children who are told to replace the rabbit with the more fitting native bilby. There is no acceptance here of the rabbit as a complex animal that evokes ambivalent responses, being both worthy of moral consideration, care and love, and also an introduced and environmentally destructive species. The native/invasive dualism is a subject of sustained critique in environmental philosophy because it depends on a disjunctive temporal division drawn at the point of European settlement—1788. Environmental philosopher Thom van Dooren points out that the divide between animals who belong and animals who should be eradicated is “fundamentally premised on the reification of a specific historical moment that ignores the changing and dynamic nature of ecologies” (11). Mark Davis et al. explain that the practical value of the native/invasive dichotomy in conservation programs is seriously diminished and in some cases is becoming counterproductive (153). They note that “classifying biota according to their adherence to cultural standards of belonging, citizenship, fair play and morality does not advance our understanding of ecology” (153). Instead, they promote a more inclusive approach to conservation which accepts non-native species as part of Australia’s “new nature” (Low). Recent research into wildlife conservation indicates a striking lack of evidence for the case that pest control protects native diversity (see Bergstromn et al., Davis et al., Ewel & Putz, Reddiex & Forsyth). The problematic justification of “killing for conservation” becomes untenable when conservation outcomes are fundamentally uncertain. The mass slaughter which rabbits have been subjected to in Australia has been enacted with the goal of fostering life. This pursuit of creation through destruction, of re-birth through violent death, enacts a disturbing twist where death comes to signal the presence of life. This means, perversely, that a rabbit’s dead body becomes a valuable sign of environmental health. Conservation researchers Ben Reddiex and David M. Forsyth observe that this leads to a situation where environmental managers are “more interested in estimating how many pests they killed rather than the status of biodiversity they claimed to be able to protect” (715). What Other Stories Can We Tell about the Rabbit? With an ecological narrative that is failing, producing damage and death instead of fostering love and life, we are left with the question—what other stories can we tell about the place of the European rabbit in the Australian environment? How can the meaning ecologies of media and culture work in harmony with an ecological consciousness that promotes compassion for nonhuman life? Ignoring the native/invasive distinction entirely is deeply problematic because it registers the ecological history of Australia as continuity, and fails to acknowledge the colonising impact of European settlement on the environment. At the same time, continually reinforcing that divide through pro-invasive or pro-native stories drastically simplifies complex and interconnected ecological systems. Instead of the unproductive native/invasive dualism, ecologists and philosophers alike are suggesting “reconciliatory” approaches to the inhabitants of our shared environments which emphasise ecology as relational rather than classificatory. Evolutionary ecologist Scott P. Carroll uses the term “conciliation biology” as an alternative to invasion biology which focuses on the eradication of invasive species. “Conciliation biology recognises that many non-native species are permanent, that outcomes of native-nonnative interactions will vary depending on the scale of assessment and the values assigned to the biotic system, and that many non-native species will perform positive functions in one or more contexts” (186). This hospitable approach aligns with what Michael Rosensweig has termed “reconciliation ecology”—the modification and diversification of anthropogenic habitats to harbour a wider variety of species (201). Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Mark Bekoff encourages a “compassionate conservation” which avoids the “numbers game” of species thinking where certain taxonomies are valued above others and promotes approaches which “respect all life; treat individuals with respect and dignity; and tread lightly when stepping into the lives of animals”(24). In a similar vein environmental philosopher Deborah Bird Rose offers the term “Eco-reconciliation”, to describe a mode of “living generously with others, singing up relationships so that we all flourish” (Wild Dog 59). It may be that the rabbit cannot live in harmony with the bilby, and in this situation I am unsure of what a conciliation approach to ecology might look like in terms of managing both of these competing species. But I am sure what it should not look like if we are to promote approaches to ecology and conservation which avoid the simplistic dualism of native/invasive. The devaluation of rabbit life to the point of moral inconsiderability is fundamentally unethical. By classifying certain lives as “inappropriate,” and therefore expendable, the process of rabbit slaughter is simply too easy. The idea that the rabbit should disappear is disturbing in its abstract approach to these living, sentient creatures who share with us both place and history. A dynamic understanding of ecology dissipates the notion of a whole or static “nature.” This means that there can be no simple or comprehensive directives for how humans should interact with their environments. One of the most insidious aspects of the native/invasive divide is the way it makes violent death appear inevitable, as though rabbits must be culled. This obscures the many complex and contingent choices which determine the fate of nonhuman life. Understanding the dynamism of ecology requires an acceptance that nature does not provide simple prescriptive responses to problems, and instead “people are forced to choose the kind of environment they want” (189) and then take actions to engender it. This involves difficult decisions, one of which is culling to maintain rabbit numbers and facilitate environmental resilience. Living within a world of “discordant harmonies”, as Daniel Botkin evocatively describes it, environmental decisions are necessarily complex. The entanglement of ecological systems demands that we reject simplistic dualisms which offer illusory absolution from the consequences of the difficult choices humans make about life, ecologies, and how to manage them. Ecological Remembrance The vision of a rabbit-free Australia is unrealistic. As organisation like the Anti-Rabbit Research Foundation pursue this future ideal, they eradicate rabbits from the present, and seek to remove them from the past by replacing them culturally with the more suitable bilby. Culled rabbits lie rotting en masse in fields, food for no one, and even their cultural impact in human society is sought to be annihilated and replaced with more appropriate native creatures. The rabbits’ deaths do not turn back to life in transformative and regenerative processes that are ecological and cultural, but rather that death becomes “an event with no future” (Rose, Wild Dog 25). This is true oblivion, as the rabbit is entirely removed from the world. In this paper I have made a case for the importance of stories in ecology. I have argued that the kinds of stories we tell about rabbits determines how we treat them, and so have positioned stories as an essential part of an ecological system which takes “cultural selection” seriously. In keeping with this emphasis on story I offer to the conciliation push in ecological thinking the term “ecological remembrance” to capture an ethic of sharing time while sharing space. This spatio-temporal hospitality is focused on maintaining heterogeneous memories and histories of all beings who have impacted on the environment. In Deborah Bird Rose’s terms this is a “recuperative work” which commits to direct dialogical engagement with the past that is embedded in the present (Wild Country 23). In this sense it is a form of recuperation that promotes temporal and ecological continuity. Eco-remembrance aligns with dynamic understandings of ecology because it is counter-linear. Instead of approaching the past as a static idyll, preserved and archived, ecological remembrance celebrates the past as an ongoing, affective presence which is lived and performed. Ecological remembrance, applied to the European rabbit in Australia, would involve rejecting attempts to extricate the rabbit from Australian environments and cultures. It would seek acceptance of the rabbit as part of Australia’s “new nature” (Low), and aim for recognition of the rabbit’s impact on human society as part of dynamic multi-species ecologies. In this sense ecological remembrance of the rabbit directly opposes the goal of the Foundation for Rabbit Free Australia to eradicate the European rabbit from Australian environment and culture. On the Rabbit Free Australia website, the section on biological controls states that “the point is not how many rabbits are killed, but how many are left behind”. The implication is that the millions upon millions of rabbit lives extinguished have vanished from the earth, and need not be remembered or considered. However, as Deborah Rose argues, “all deaths matter” (Wild Dog 21) and “no death is a mere death” (Wild Dog 22). Every single rabbit is an individual being with its own unique life. To deny this is tantamount to claiming that each rabbit that dies from shooting or poisoning is the same rabbit dying again and again. Rose has written that “death makes claims upon all of us” (Wild Dog 19). These are claims of ethics and compassion, a claim that “we look into the eyes of the dying and not flinch, that we reach out to hold and to help” (Wild Dog 20). This claim is a duty of remembrance, a duty to “bear witness” (Wiesel 160) to life and death. The Nobel Peace Prize winning author, Elie Wiesel, argued that memory is a reconciliatory force that creates bonds as mass annihilation seeks to destroy them. Memory ensures that no life becomes truly life-less as it wrests the victims of mass slaughter from “oblivion” and allows the dead to “vanquish death” (21). In a continent inhabited by dead rabbits—a community of the dead—remembering these lost individuals and their lost lives is an important task for making sure that no death is a mere death. An ethic of ecological remembrance follows this recuperative aim. References Arthur, Jay M. The Default Country: A Lexical Cartography of Twentieth-Century Australia. Sydney: UNSW Press, 2003. Bagust, Phil. “Cuddly Koalas, Beautiful Brumbies, Exotic Olives: Fighting for Media Selection in the Attention Economy.” “Imaging Natures”: University of Tasmania Conference Proceedings (2004). 25 April 2012 ‹www.utas.edu.au/arts/imaging/bagust.pdf› Bekoff, Marc. “First Do No Harm.” New Scientist (28 August 2010): 24 – 25. Bergstrom, Dana M., Arko Lucieer, Kate Kiefer, Jane Wasley, Lee Belbin, Tore K. Pederson, and Steven L. Chown. “Indirect Effects of Invasive Species Removal Devastate World Heritage Island.” Journal of Applied Ecology 46 (2009): 73– 81. Botkin, Daniel. B. Discordant Harmonies: A New Ecology for the Twenty-first Century. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990. Carroll, Scott. P. “Conciliation Biology: The Eco-Evolutionary Management of Permanently Invaded Biotic Systems.” Evolutionary Applications 4.2 (2011): 184 – 99. Coman, Brian. Tooth and Nail: The Story of the Rabbit in Australia. Melbourne: The Text Publishing Company, 1999. Crosby, Alfred W. Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900 – 1900. Second Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Davis, Mark., Matthew Chew, Richard Hobbs, Ariel Lugo, John Ewel, Geerat Vermeij, James Brown, Michael Rosenzweig, Mark Gardener, Scott Carroll, Ken Thompson, Steward Pickett, Juliet Stromberg, Peter Del Tredici, Katharine Suding, Joan Ehrenfield, J. Philip Grime, Joseph Mascaro and John Briggs. “Don’t Judge Species on their Origins.” Nature 474 (2011): 152 – 54. Ewel, John J. and Francis E. Putz. “A Place for Alien Species in Ecosystem Restoration.” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 2.7 (2004): 354-60. Forsyth, David M. and Ben Reddiex. “Control of Pest Mammals for Biodiversity Protection in Australia.” Wildlife Research 33 (2006): 711–17. Garnett, Ali, and Kaye Kessing. Easter Bilby. Department of Environment and Heritage: Kaye Kessing Productions, 2006. Heishman, Darice. “VHD Factsheet.” House Rabbit Network (2011). 15 June 2012 ‹http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/vhd.shtml› Low, Tim. New Nature: Winners and Losers in Wild Australia. Melbourne: Penguin, 2002. Phillips, Sara. “How Eating Easter Chocolate Can Save Endangered Animals.” ABC Environment (1 April 2010). 15 June 2011 ‹http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2010/04/01/2862039.htm› Plumwood, Val. “Decolonising Australian Gardens: Gardening and the Ethics of Place.” Australian Humanities Review 36 (2005). 15 June 2012 ‹http://www.australianhumanitiesreview.org/archive/Issue-July-2005/09Plumwood.html› Ponsonby Veterinary Centre. “Rabbit Viral Hemorrhagic Disease (VHD).” Small Pets. 26 May 2012 ‹http://www.petvet.co.nz/small_pets.cfm?content_id=85› Robin, Libby. How a Continent Created a Nation. Sydney: UNSW Press, 2007. Rose, Deborah Bird. Reports From a Wild Country: Ethics for Decolonisation. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2004. ——-. Wild Dog Dreaming: Love and Extinction. Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2011. Rosenzweig, Michael. L. “Reconciliation Ecology and the Future of Species Diversity.” Oryx 37.2 (2003): 194 – 205. Save the Bilby Fund. “Bilby Fact Sheet.” Easterbilby.com.au (2003). 26 May 2012 ‹http://www.easterbilby.com.au/Project_material/factsheet.asp› Van Dooren, Thom. “Invasive Species in Penguin Worlds: An Ethical Taxonomy of Killing for Conservation.” Conservation and Society 9.4 (2011): 286 – 98. Wiesel, Elie. From the Kingdom of Memory. New York: Summit Books, 1990.

On 19 January 1975, Australia’s first youth station 2JJ (Double Jay) launched itself onto the nation’s airwaves with a NASA-style countdown and You Only Like Me ‘Cause I’m Good in Bed by Australian band Skyhooks. Refused airtime by the commercial stations because of its explicit sexual content, this song was a clear signifier of the new station’s intent—to occupy a more radical territory on Australian radio. Indeed, Double Jay’s musical entrée into the highly restrictive local broadcasting environment of the time has gone on to symbolise both the station’s role in its early days as an enfant terrible of radio (Inglis 376), and its near 40 years as a voice for youth culture in Australia (Milesago, Double Jay). In this paper we explore the proposition that Double Jay functioned as an outlet for youth counterculture in Australia, and that it achieved this even with (and arguably because of) its credentials as a state-generated entity. This proposition is considered via brief analysis of the political and musical context leading to the establishment of Double Jay. We intend to demonstrate that although the station was deeply embedded in “the system” in material and cultural terms, it simultaneously existed in an “uneasy symbiosis” (Martin and Siehl 54) with this system because it consciously railed against the mainstream cultures from which it drew, providing a public and active vehicle for youth counterculture in Australia. The origins of Double Jay thus provide one example of the complicated relationship between culture and counterculture, and the multiple ways in which the two are inextricably linked. As a publicly-funded broadcasting station Double Jay was liberated from the industrial imperatives of Australia’s commercial stations which arguably drove their predisposition for formula. The absence of profit motive gave Double Jay’s organisers greater room to experiment with format and content, and thus the potential to create a genuine alternative in Australia broadcasting. As a youth station Double Jay was created to provide a minority with its own outlet. The Labor government committed to wrenching airspace from the very restrictive Australian broadcasting “system” (Wiltshire and Stokes 2) to provide minority voices with room to speak and to be heard. Youth was identified by the government as one such minority. The Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) contributed to this process by enabling young staffers to establish the semi-independent Contemporary Radio Unit (CRU) (Webb) and within this a youth station. Not only did this provide a focal point around which a youth collective could coalesce, but the distinct place and identity of Double Jay within the ABC offered its organisers the opportunity to ignore or indeed subvert some of the perceived strictures of the “mothership” that was the ABC, whether in organisational, content and/or stylistic terms. For these and other reasons Double Jay was arguably well positioned to counter the broadcasting cultures that existed alongside this station. It did so stylistically, and also in more fundamental ways, At the same time, however, it “pillaged the host body at random” (Webb) co-opting certain aspects of these cultures (people, scheduling, content, administration) which in turn implicated Double Jay in the material and cultural practices of those mainstream cultures against which it railed. Counterculture on the Airwaves: Space for Youth to Play? Before exploring these themes further, we should make clear that Double Jay’s legitimacy as a “counterculture” organisation is observably tenuous against the more extreme renderings of the concept. Theodore Roszak, for example, requires of counterculture something “so radically disaffiliated from the mainstream assumptions of our society that it scarcely looks to many as a culture at all” (5). Double Jay was a brainchild of the state: an outcome of the Whitlam Government’s efforts to open up the nation’s airwaves (Davis, Government; McClelland). Further, the supervision of this station was given to the publicly funded Australian national broadcaster, the ABC (Inglis). Any claim Double Jay has to counterculture status then is arguably located in less radical invocations of the term. Some definitions, for example, hold that counterculture contains value systems that run counter to culture, but these values are relational rather than divorced from each other. Kenneth Leech, for example, states that counterculture is "a way of life and philosophy which at central points is in conflict with the mainstream society” (Desmond et al. 245, our emphasis); E.D. Batzell defines counterculture as "a minority culture marked by a set of values, norms and behaviour patterns which contradict those of the dominant society" (116, our emphasis). Both definitions imply that counterculture requires the mainstream to make sense of what it is doing and why. In simple terms then, counterculture as the ‘other’ does not exist without its mainstream counterpoint. The particular values with which counterculture is in conflict are generated by “the system” (Heath and Potter 6)—a system that imbues “manufactured needs and mass-produced desires” (Frank 15) in the masses to encourage order, conformity and consumption. Counterculture seeks to challenge this “system” via individualist, expression-oriented values such as difference, diversity, change, egalitarianism, and spontaneity (Davis On Youth; Leary; Thompson and Coskuner‐Balli). It is these kinds of counterculture values that we demonstrate were embedded in the content, style and management practices within Double Jay. The Whitlam Years and the Birth of Double Jay Double Jay was borne of the Whitlam government’s brief but impactful period in office from 1972 to 1975, after 23 years of conservative government in Australia. Key to the Labor Party’s election platform was the principle of participatory democracy, the purpose of which was “breaking down apathy and maximising active citizen engagement” (Cunningham 123). Within this framework, the Labor Party committed to opening the airwaves, and reconfiguring the rhetoric of communication and media as a space of and for the people (Department of the Media 3). Labor planned to honour this commitment via sweeping reforms that would counter the heavily concentrated Australian media landscape through “the encouragement of diversification of ownership of commercial radio and television”—and in doing so enable “the expression of a plurality of viewpoints and cultures throughout the media” (Department of the Media 3). Minority groups in particular were to be privileged, while some in the Party even argued for voices that would actively agitate. Senator Jim McClelland, for one, declared, “We say that somewhere in the system there must be broadcasting which not only must not be afraid to be controversial but has a duty to be controversial” (Senate Standing Committee 4). One clear voice of controversy to emerge in the 1960s and resonate throughout the 1970s was the voice of youth (Gerster and Bassett; Langley). Indeed, counterculture is considered by some as synonymous with a particular strain of youth culture during this time (Roszak; Leech). The Labor Government acknowledged this hitherto unrecognised voice in its 1972 platform, with Minister for the Media Senator Doug McClelland claiming that his party would encourage the “whetting of the appetite” for “life and experimentation” of Australia’s youth – in particular through support for the arts (160). McClelland secured licenses for two “experimental-type” stations under the auspices of the ABC, with the youth station destined for Sydney via the ABC’s standby transmitter in Gore Hill (ABCB, 2). Just as the political context in early 1970s Australia provided the necessary conditions for the appearance of Double Jay, so too did the cultural context. Counterculture emerged in the UK, USA and Europe as a clear and potent force in the late 1960s (Roszak; Leech; Frank; Braunstein and Doyle). In Australia this manifested in the 1960s and 1970s in various ways, including political protest (Langley; Horne); battles for the liberalisation of censorship (Hope and Dickerson, Liberalisation; Chipp and Larkin); sex and drugs (Dawson); and the art film scene (Hope and Dickerson, Happiness; Thoms). Of particular interest here is the “lifestyle” aspect of counterculture, within which the value-expressions against the dominant culture manifest in cultural products and practices (Bloodworth 304; Leary ix), and more specifically, music. Many authors have suggested that music was pivotal to counterculture (Bloodworth 309; Leech 8), a key “social force” through which the values of counterculture were articulated (Whiteley 1). The youth music broadcasting scene in Australia was extremely narrow prior to Double Jay, monopolised by a handful of media proprietors who maintained a stranglehold over the youth music scene from the mid-50s. This dominance was in part fuelled by the rising profitability of pop music, driven by “the dreamy teenage market”, whose spending was purely discretionary (Doherty 52) and whose underdeveloped tastes made them “immune to any sophisticated disdain of run-of-the-mill” cultural products (Doherty 230-231). Over the course of the 1950s the commercial stations pursued this market by “skewing” their programs toward the youth demographic (Griffen-Foley 264). The growing popularity of pop music saw radio shift from a “multidimensional” to “mono-dimensional” medium according to rock journalist Bruce Elder, in which the “lowest-common-denominator formula of pop song-chat-commercial-pop-song” dominated the commercial music stations (12). Emblematic of this mono-dimensionalism was the appearance of the Top 40 Playlist in 1958 (Griffin-Foley 265), which might see as few as 10–15 songs in rotation in peak shifts. Elder claims that this trend became more pronounced over the course of the 1960s and peaked in 1970, with playlists that were controlled with almost mechanical precision [and] compiled according to American-devised market research methods which tended to reinforce repetition and familiarity at the expense of novelty and diversity. (12) Colin Vercoe, whose job was to sell the music catalogues of Festival Records to stations like 2UE, 2SER and SUW, says it was “an incredibly frustrating affair” to market new releases because of the rigid attachment by commercials to the “Top 40 of endless repeats” (Vercoe). While some air time was given to youth music beyond the Top 40, this happened mostly in non-peak shifts and on weekends. Bill Drake at 2SM (who was poached by Double Jay and allowed to reclaim his real name, Holger Brockmann) played non-Top 40 music in his Sunday afternoon programme The Album Show (Brockmann). A more notable exception was Chris Winter’s Room to Move on the ABC, considered by many as the predecessor of Double Jay. Introduced in 1971, Room to Move played all forms of contemporary music not represented by the commercial broadcasters, including whole albums and B sides. Rock music’s isolation to the fringes was exacerbated by the lack of musical sales outlets for rock and other forms of non-pop music, with much music sourced through catalogues, music magazines and word of mouth (Winter; Walker). In this context a small number of independent record stores, like Anthem Records in Sydney and Archie and Jugheads in Melbourne, appear in the early 1970s. Vercoe claims that the commercial record companies relentlessly pursued the closure of these independents on the grounds they were illegal entities: The record companies hated them and they did everything they could do close them down. When (the companies) bought the catalogue to overseas music, they bought the rights. And they thought these record stores were impinging on their rights. It was clear that a niche market existed for rock and alternative forms of music. Keith Glass and David Pepperell from Archie and Jugheads realised this when stock sold out in the first week of trade. Pepperell notes, “We had some feeling we were doing something new relating to people our own age but little idea of the forces we were about to unleash”. Challenging the “System” from the Inside At the same time as interested individuals clamoured to buy from independent record stores, the nation’s first youth radio station was being instituted within the ABC. In October 1974, three young staffers—Marius Webb, Ron Moss and Chris Winter— with the requisite youth credentials were briefed by ABC executives to build a youth-style station for launch in January 1975. According to Winter “All they said was 'We want you to set up a station for young people' and that was it!”, leaving the three with a conceptual carte blanche–although assumedly within the working parameters of the ABC (Webb). A Contemporary Radio Unit (CRU) was formed in order to meet the requirements of the ABC while also creating a clear distinction between the youth station and the ABC. According to Webb “the CRU gave us a lot of latitude […] we didn’t have to go to other ABC Departments to do things”. The CRU was conscious from the outset of positioning itself against the mainstream practices of both the commercial stations and the ABC. The publicly funded status of Double Jay freed it from the shackles of profit motive that enslaved the commercial stations, in turn liberating its turntables from baser capitalist imperatives. The two coordinators Ron Moss and Marius Webb also bypassed the conventions of typecasting the announcer line-up (as was practice in both commercial and ABC radio), seeking instead people with charisma, individual style and youth appeal. Webb told the Sydney Morning Herald that Double Jay’s announcers were “not required to have a frontal lobotomy before they go on air.” In line with the individual- and expression-oriented character of the counterculture lifestyle, it was made clear that “real people” with “individuality and personality” would fill the airwaves of Double Jay (Nicklin 9). The only formula to which the station held was to avoid (almost) all formula – a mantra enhanced by the purchase in the station’s early days of thousands of albums and singles from 10 or so years of back catalogues (Robinson). This library provided presenters with the capacity to circumvent any need for repetition. According to Winter the DJs “just played whatever we wanted”, from B sides to whole albums of music, most of which had never made it onto Australian radio. The station also adapted the ABC tradition of recording live classical music, but instead recorded open-air rock concerts and pub gigs. A recording van built from second-hand ABC equipment captured the grit of Sydney’s live music scene for Double Jay, and in so doing undercut the polished sounds of its commercial counterparts (Walker). Double Jay’s counterculture tendencies further extended to its management style. The station’s more political agitators, led by Webb, sought to subvert the traditional top-down organisational model in favour of a more egalitarian one, including a battle with the ABC to remove the bureaucratic distinction between technical staff and presenters and replace this with the single category “producer/presenter” (Cheney, Webb, Davis 41). The coordinators also actively subverted their own positions as coordinators by holding leaderless meetings open to all Double Jay employees – meetings that were infamously long and fraught, but also remembered as symbolic of the station’s vibe at that time (Frolows, Matchett). While Double Jay assumed the ABC’s focus on music, news and comedy, at times it politicised the content contra to the ABC’s non-partisan policy, ignored ABC policy and practice, and more frequently pushed its contents over the edges of what was considered propriety and taste. These trends were already present in pockets of the ABC prior to Double Jay: in current affairs programmes like This Day Tonight and Four Corners (Harding 49); and in overtly leftist figures like Alan Ashbolt (Bowman), who it should be noted had a profound influence over Webb and other Double Jay staff (Webb). However, such an approach to radio still remained on the edges of the ABC. As one example of Double Jay’s singularity, Webb made clear that the ABC’s “gentleman’s agreement” with the Federation of Australian Commercial Broadcasters to ban certain content from airplay would not apply to Double Jay because the station would not “impose any censorship on our people” – a fact demonstrated by the station’s launch song (Nicklin 9). The station’s “people” in turn made the most of this freedom with the production of programmes like Gayle Austin’s Horny Radio Porn Show, the Naked Vicar Show, the adventures of Colonel Chuck Chunder of the Space Patrol, and the Sunday afternoon comic improvisations of Nude Radio from the team that made Aunty Jack. This openness also made its way into the news team, most famously in its second month on air with the production of The Ins and Outs of Love, a candid documentary of the sexual proclivities and encounters of Sydney’s youth. Conservative ABC staffer Clement Semmler described the programme as containing such “disgustingly explicit accounts of the sexual behaviour of young teenagers” that it “aroused almost universal obloquy from listeners and the press” (35). The playlist, announcers, comedy sketches, news reporting and management style of Double Jay represented direct challenges to the entrenched media culture of Australia in the mid 1970s. The Australian National Commission for UNESCO noted at the time that Double Jay was “variously described as political, subversive, offensive, pornographic, radical, revolutionary and obscene” (7). While these terms were understandable given the station’s commitment to experiment and innovation, the “vital point” about Double Jay was that it “transmitted an electronic reflection of change”: What the station did was to zero in on the kind of questioning of traditional values now inherent in a significant section of the under 30s population. It played their music, talked in their jargon, pandered to their whims, tastes, prejudices and societal conflicts both intrinsic and extrinsic. (48) Conclusion From the outset, Double Jay was locked in an “uneasy symbiosis” with mainstream culture. On the one hand, the station was established by federal government and its infrastructure was provided by state funds. It also drew on elements of mainstream broadcasting in multiple ways. However, at the same time, it was a voice for and active agent of counterculture, representing through its content, form and style those values that were considered to challenge the ‘system,’ in turn creating an outlet for the expression of hitherto un-broadcast “ways of thinking and being” (Leary). As Henry Rosenbloom, press secretary to then Labor Minister Dr Moss Cass wrote, Double Jay had the potential to free its audience “from an automatic acceptance of the artificial rhythms of urban and suburban life. 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Introduction: This study seeks to explore health care providers’ perspectives of the traditional birth attendants’ knowledge and practices. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted in 2018 with 16 health care professionals working at various levels of maternal health care system in two purposefully selected research settings, Khorog town and Dushanbe, which have different social, economic and ethnic backgrounds. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted to gather the data. Duration of interviews ranged from 30-60 min. NVivo software for qualitative research was used to analyse the results. Results: This study has shown that health care workers have extremely negative views of the knowledge and practices of traditional birth attendants. They highlight the lack of adequate knowledge of traditional birth attendants on biomedical aspects of birth, poor skills in infections control and lack of use of clean delivery practices. They also claim that the traditional birth attendants’ practices also lead to different complications while they are woefully unprepared to recognize obstetric complications during birth. Conclusion: The study recommends providing a skilled birth attendant in every area. It also recommends avoiding a homogeneous approach to address maternal health issues in diverse countries of the Global South and reviewing maternal health care policies and programs to provide the most marginalized groups of women with skilled birth services to improve their maternal health and further decrease maternal mortality in Tajikistan.

Abstract In my lecture to the College of Medical Sciences at the University of Benin last month (Ukoli, 1986), I made bold to propose that the prevalence of parasitic diseases (as well as other communicable diseases) should be included among the indicators for monitoring and evaluating progress made towards achieving health for all by the year 2000 in the less developed countries (LDCs) prescribed by the World Health Organization. In everyone of those indicators, Nigeria falls far short of expectation. Thus, as shown by Omene, the expenditure on health in Nigeria is way below the recommended 5% of the gross national product; the resources available are not equitably distributed and primary health care is not available to the entire population; owing to the poor nutritional status of the people, the incidence of low birth weight (LBW) in infants is still very high, double the recommended 10%; infant mortality at 150/1000 is still way above the prescribed limit of 50/1000, and life expectancy at birth is less than 50 years instead of rising above 60 years. When we add to this catalogue of woes the fact that the prevalence of all the most virulent parasitic diseases is still very high, and we have made very little progress towards eradicating, or in case this is not feasible, controlling or preventing them, the conclusion is inescapable that the attainment of the slogan “health for all by the year 2000” is a pipe-dream as far as Nigeria is concerned (Ukoli, 1986). High prevalence of parasitic diseases, along with poverty, ignorance, and hunger are indisputable indices of under development. But just as explicit is the fact that these LDCs lack the material, manpower, and technological resources to grapple with and overcome these problems. Where such resources are available, they lack the capacity to mobilize them effectively or the will to formulate rational policies and the drive to ensure their successful implementation. Consequently in the case of parasitic diseases, rather than succeeding in minimizing their impact, the LDCs in tropical Africa are experiencing an increase in their prevalence and severity which thereby continue to constitute the greatest threat to the health and socio-economic status of the people (Ukoli, 1984). But even more intriguing is the fact that control of these diseases is within our reach; in fact all that is needed to be known for the successful application of the various control measures is already common knowledge. Thus the salient features of the parasites and their intermediate hosts and vectors which enhance the spread of the diseases and whose manipulation will procure control have been known for decades, and have been successfully exploited in eradicating the diseases in the advanced countries. Admittedly, changes in the socio-economic status of the people in these countries, which find expression in improved sanitation, better nutrition, and increased awareness of the aetiology of the diseases, have contributed significantly towards their eradication and control. In tropical Africa, parasitologists have made significant contributions, through research, to knowledge about our environment and its parasitic fauna and their hosts. However, such research does not appear to have resulted in the development of fresh insights into the problems nor has it provided a new thrust for the generation of novel and original ideas for control. It is as if all our efforts have ended up merely characterizing our local conditions and at best corroborating, verifying, and reinforcing the already available knowledge forming the basis of well-established control strategies (Ukoli, 1988). Moreover, many studies conducted on problems of disease, whether they achieve breakthroughs or not, are likely to remain mere academic exercises with little practical or policy impact, for the simple reason that we are yet to evolve effective ways of managing and utilizing research findings

Abstract Objective: To evaluate the hypothesis that a perinatal educational dietary intervention focused on ‘eating for the gut microbiota’ improves diet quality of pregnant women pre- and postnatally. Design: The Healthy Parents, Healthy Kids study is a prospectively registered randomised controlled trial designed to evaluate the efficacy of a dietary intervention in altering the maternal and infant gut microbiota and improving perinatal diet quality. Eligible pregnant women were randomised to receive dietary advice from their healthcare provider or to additionally receive a three session dietary intervention. Dietary data were collected at gestation weeks 26, 31, 36 and postnatal week 4. Outcome measures were diet quality, dietary variety, prebiotic and probiotic food intakes, energy, fibre, saturated fat and discretionary food intakes. Between-group differential changes from baseline before and after birth in these dietary measures were assessed using generalised estimating equations. Setting: Melbourne, Australia. Participants: Healthy pregnant women from gestation week 26. Results: Forty-five women were randomised (twenty-two control, twenty-three intervention). Compared with the control group, the intervention group improved diet quality prior to birth (5·66 (95 % CI 1·65, 9·67), Cohen’s d: 0·82 (se 0·33)). The intervention improved dietary variety (1·05 (95 % CI 0·17, 1·94), d: 0·66 (se 0·32)) and increased intakes of prebiotic (0·8 (95 % CI 0·27, 1·33), d: 0·91 (se 0·33)) and probiotic foods (1·05 (95 % CI 0·57, 1·53), d: 1·3(se 0·35)) over the whole study period compared with the control group. Conclusion: A dietary intervention focused on ‘eating for the gut microbiota’ can improve aspects of perinatal diet quality during and after pregnancy.

Fertility is often seen on the figures and biological sides. Seeing fertility goes beyond both of these will be <br />useful to explore the wishes of each actor , how they relate to each other and to the community , and how the values and aspects of sociological and psychological that is attached in such activities. The study explored how the relationship between gender relations and fertility work ; especially because until now there is no generic theory agreed to this issue . This study used qualitative methods to explore and gain an understanding of how women give birth as related parties with the other actors . The framework of this study were made by utilizing research - research that has been done before , namely the concept of female autonomy ( Mason and Smith , 2003) and the concept of the determinant ( Bongaarts , 1978) . The concept is referred to aspects of women's autonomy is the power of women to make household economic decisions , the power of women to make decisions about family size , women freedom of movement , individual attitudes toward gender attitude of the community , and the movement of women in decision-making ( Mason and Smith , 2003 . Determinants required for connecting between socio - economic variables - culture with fertility because after all , there are facts that can not be denied that fertility is the result of biological activity . The results showed that although the values at the community level suggested to have the number of children that a lot , to a certain extent , the women in the study area can control the number of children they have. This control works through Desired fertility and the determinants , namely : the use of contraception and delay the age of marriage is influenced by women's autonomy and power as proposed by Mason and Smith ( 2003) . Women's autonomy and power in question is the power of women in economic decision-making , decision-making power of women in family size , their physical freedom of movement , the size of the gender attitudes at the community level , and their space in household decisionmaking . The conclusion of this study indicate that in the study area , the use of contraception is more influential in affecting fertility than the actual delay marriage age. <br /> Keywords : Gender Relationships, Fertility, Aspects of Women's Autonomy and Power , Desired Fertility, Actual Fertility, Reuters Determinants <br />

Abstract Background Video-reflexive ethnography (VRE) has been used to record aspects of patient care which are then shared with staff to drive self-identified improvements. Interpersonal interactions between patients and hospital staff are key to high-quality, patient-centred care and mostly occur randomly throughout a patient’s hospital stay. One of the most common types of hospital admission is for women giving birth. Aims To assess the feasibility of adapting the VRE methodology to capture naturally occurring interactions between patients and health staff over an extended period during hospital admission, and to assess whether the approach would yield useful interaction data. Participants Twelve women, who had a planned caesarean section at 37+ weeks, were considered low risk (no known medical or obstetric complication) and were admitted to a postnatal unit after giving birth, and the staff who attended them. Methods This study took place in a large hospital in Sydney, Australia, where approximately 2200 women give birth each year. Continuous unattended video recordings were made during each woman’s hospital stay to capture interactions with hospital staff. The recordings were reviewed to determine what kinds of interaction data could be obtained. Results In order to recruit 12 eligible women, we needed to invite 45 to participate. The estimated recruitment period of 3–4 months had to be extended to 8 months. A fixed video camera was successfully installed in the hospital room of each woman and a remote control provided. A total of 246.5 h of video recordings was obtained, of which 38 h (15.5%) involved interpersonal interactions with staff. Two women reported negative responses from staff about being video recorded. Both quantitative and qualitative data could be obtained from the recordings. Conclusion Video recordings of interpersonal interactions between patients and staff in an in patient hospital care setting can be obtained and can provide unique insights into the complexity of healthcare delivery. However, significant contextual barriers can exist to engaging staff in quality improvement initiatives that are not part of their usual healthcare activities.