Social Inclusion and Integrative Practices

This paper is a reflection on sustainable integrative practices across the public sector, and is grounded in the direct experience of one of the authors, who held thepost of the South Australian Social Inclusion Commissioner for the period 2002-2011. The discussion draws on case examples to explore the mechanisms that were used to embed integrative practices into the workings of government agencies. Fundamentally this is an exercise in the use of power and this is explored

Social Inclusion and Integrative Practices

© 2014 by the authors; licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY).With the passage of time valuable lessons have been learnt about both effective practices for program and system integration and the sizable barriers, including the challenges in sustaining constructive integration. This paper is a reflection on sustainable integrative practices and is grounded in the direct experience of one of the authors, who held the post of the South Australian Social Inclusion Commissioner. We reflect upon the structure and mechanism of the South Australian Social Inclusion Initiative (2002–2011) as well as using a case study of a successful integrative program of the Social Inclusion Initiative, a program in South Australia’s School Retention Action Plan 2004 Making the Connections (South Australian Social Inclusion Board, 2004) that was implemented to improve school retention. The case study draws out salient factors of clear rationale, coordination, collaboration, communication, team work and trust as skills and ingredients to bring about integration in policy and programs. While the integration literature affirms that these ingredients are primary skills for the development of an integrative framework, we also assert that they are not enough for successful and sustained integration. Absent from much of the literature is a discussion about the use of power and the manner in which horizontal integrative work occurs. We take up this theme to draw out some implications for analysis of sustainable integrative practices

Mechanically Derived Narrative through Perception of Video Game Characters

In this research paper composed for WRTC 200: Introduction to Studies in Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication, Cappo uses industry-related articles and academic studies to demonstrate how various interactive design choices in video games serve to influence the impression players feel toward a game\u27s world and its characters. Thorough and analytical, the piece serves as a guiding example of how interactive elements of a video game can work constructively with its storytelling to create an enjoyable and immersive experience

The Yongala's "Halo of Holes" - systematic bioturbation close to a shipwreck

Large-scale systematic bioturbation is documented in 30 m of water depth around the Yongala shipwreck in the Great Barrier Reef. The "Halo of Holes" contains over 1,200 individual depressions with diameters of up to 10 m, tightly packed in a concentric, three-quarter ring around the wreck. Two distinct zones in this halo consist of either only shallow or only deep holes. Deep holes (up to 1.5 m depth) show signs of ongoing bioturbation. Shallow holes support diverse sessile faunal assemblages of sponges, soft corals, and hard corals in an otherwise flat seafloor dominated by marine plants. The holes are most likely of biogenic origin, but the animal(s) responsible for these earthworks are unknown to date. The bioturbators are ecosystem engineers, creating a habitat for assemblages that are absent elsewhere on the adjacent seafloor. The previously undocumented halo of holes and its biota indicate that the "ecosystem wreck" extends further beyond the spatial confines of the hull of a wreck than previously considered

Chemical distribution of Cr (VI) applied in dilute solutions to a sandy loam Argiudolls

Thesis (M.S.)--Michigan State University. Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, 1988Includes bibliographical references (pages 40-41

Assessing Fish and Motile Fauna around Offshore Windfarms Using Stereo Baited Video

There remains limited knowledge of how offshore windfarm developments influence fish assemblages, particularly at a local scale around the turbine structures. Considering the existing levels of anthropogenic pressures on coastal fish populations it is becoming increasingly important for developers and environmental regulators to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing fish assemblages. Improving our ability to assess such fish populations in close proximity to structures will assist in increasing this knowledge. In the present study we provide the first trial use of Baited Remote Underwater Stereo-Video systems (stereo BRUVs) for the quantification of motile fauna in close proximity to offshore wind turbines. The study was conducted in the Irish Sea and finds the technique to be a viable means of assessing the motile fauna of such environments. The present study found a mixture of species including bottom dwellers, motile crustaceans and large predatory fish. The majority of taxa observed were found to be immature individuals with few adult individuals recorded. The most abundant species were the angular crab (Goneplax rhomboides) and the small-spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula). Of note in this study was the generally low abundance and diversity of taxa recorded across all samples, we hypothesise that this reflects the generally poor state of the local fauna of the Irish Sea. The faunal assemblages sampled in close proximity to turbines were observed to alter with increasing distance from the structure, species more characteristic of hard bottom environments were in abundance at the turbines (e.g. Homarus gammarus, Cancer pagarus, Scyliorhinus spp.) and those further away more characteristic of soft bottoms (e.g. Norwegian Lobster). This study highlights the need for the environmental impacts of offshore renewables on motile fauna to be assessed using targeted and appropriate tools. Stereo BRUVs provide one of those tools, but like the majority of methods for sampling marine biota, they have limitations. We conclude our paper by providing a discussion of the benefits and limitations of using this BRUV technique for assessing fauna within areas close to offshore windfarms

Relative influence of environmental factors on the timing and occurrence of multi-species coral reef fish aggregations

Reef configuration and hydrodynamics were identified as the principle physical drivers behind coral reef fish aggregations on a mid-shelf patch reef in the northern section of the Great Barrier Reef (-16.845°, 146.23°). The study was carried out over a six-year period at a large reef pass on the oceanic margin of the northern Great Barrier Reef. Over this period (February 2006 –December 2012) tidal state, moon phase and surface seawater temperature were monitored. The timing of sampling was organised to assess variation in physical environment at daily, monthly, seasonal and annual time scales. Over these time scales, temporal patterns of occurrence of 10 species of coral reef fish from 5 families representing 5 defined trophic groups were monitored. The study incorporated 1,357 underwater visual census counts involving 402,370 fish and these estimates were collated with data on tidal state, water temperature, lunar and seasonal periodicity. Aggregated boosted regression trees analysed the univariate responses of fish abundance and species richness to the variation in the physical environment of the reef pass. Flood tides or when water flows from open water through the pass and into the Moore Reef lagoon had 2.3 times as many fish and 1.75 times as many species compared to counts made on ebb tides. Fish abundance was highest in late winter and spring months (Austral calendar), but notably when water temperatures were below the long-term mean of 27°C. Multivariate regression trees and Dufrêne-Legendre indicator predicted 4 out of 10 times the occurrence of all 10 species at any temporal scale ranging from hours to years. Flood tides were the principle driver underlying the occurrence of all 10 species regardless of their trophic classification and produced distinct seasonal assemblages, indicative of fishes aggregating to forage and reproduce

Belonging home: Capabilities, belonging and mental health recovery in low resourced settings

Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. There are significant barriers to the development of a ‘balanced model’ of mental health in low-income countries. These include gaps in the evidence base on effective responses to severe mental health issues and what works in the transition from hospital to home, and a low public investment in primary and community care. These limitations were the drivers for the formation of the non-government organization, YouBelong Uganda (YBU), which works to contribute to the implementation of a community-based model of mental health care in Uganda. This paper overviews an intervention protocol developed by YBU, which is a combined model of parallel engagement with the national mental hospital in Kampala, Uganda, movement of ‘ready for discharge’ patients back to their families and communities, and community development. The YBU programme is theoretically underpinned by a capabilities approach together with practical application of a concept of ‘belonging’. It is an experiment in implementation with hopes that it may be a positive step towards the development of an effective model in Uganda, which may be applicable in other countries. Finally, we discuss the value in joining ideas from social work, sociology, philosophy, public health and psychiatry into a community mental health ‘belonging framework’.The YouBelong Home intervention is being refined through a trial development project ‘Curtailing Hospital Readmissions of Persons with Severe Mental Illness in Africa (CHaRISMA)’, funded under the UK Joint Global Health Trials (JGHT) by the UK Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for International Development, the Medical Research Council and Wellcome