Recent chaos over federal tax proposals and state complaints over funding reinforce the need for a stronger consensus approach to Federation reform, according to the first Australian Constitutional Values Survey of federal and state politicians.

Results from the Future of Australia’s Federation (Parliamentarians) Survey, conducted by a Griffith University-led team over the last quarter of 2015, reveal:

Project leader, Professor A J Brown of Griffith’s Centre for Governance and Public Policy, said the results show the Prime Minister’s tax plan was ‘more than just a random thought bubble, and actually represented a genuine option’.

‘More importantly, these results confirm that where that plan ended up is both logical, and historic, in terms of locking in ongoing federal government commitment to the reform discussion.’

‘With Labor MPs supporting federal reform just as, or more strongly than the Coalition, at state and federal level, the question becomes whether both sides of politics will commit to a stronger, ongoing federation reform process — irrespective of who wins the 2016 election,’ Professor Brown said.

Conference

The survey reports the views of 201 sitting MPs across all parties, and all federal, State and Territory parliaments. It parallels related surveys including the nationwide Australian Constitutional Values Survey, last conducted in 2014 and due to be fielded again in coming months.

Results from both surveys will be profiled at the important pre-election conference, A People’s Federation for the 21st Century?’, being held in Brisbane on 16-17 June.

Other key results:

Data release: www.griffith.edu.au/federalism
June conference: www.griffith.edu.au/sir-samuel-griffith-legacy-series

The crucial role of big data in analysing visitor experience and tracking the popularity of tourist destinations will be examined at a tourism networking event hosted by theGriffith Institute for Tourism.

“New trends and ways of doing tourism are emerging by the day and it is very important that the tourism industry takes advantage of what the digital age has to offer,” GIFT Director, Professor Susanne Becken (right), said.

SusanneB“The collection and analysis of information has long been at the core of the tourism industry, and the insights to be drawn from big data to identify new patterns of visitor behaviour and manage tourism more efficiently are both valuable and extensive.

“Social media analysis, for example, is already vital for tourist operators and marketers looking ahead. They can identify trends and shifts in visitor behaviour and experience which can inform future campaigns and initiatives.”

Associate Professor Bela Stantic, Director of Griffith University ‘Big Data and Smart Analytics’ lab will deliver a keynote address on big data and the tourism industry at the networking event on Friday, April 15 at Griffith’s South Bank campus.
The event, which will bring together industry representatives from across the sector, will take place the Queensland College of Art in South Bank, starting at 5pm.

WHAT: Big Data — Big Deal (hosted by the Griffith Institute for Tourism)

WHO: Associate Professor Bela Stantic

WHEN: Friday, April 15, 5pm

WHERE: Level 7, Webb Centre, QCA, South Bank, Brisbane

Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing Higher Degree Research student member, Jessica Blomfield, won an Australian Government Endeavour Postgraduate Scholarship in 2015 to travel to the United States of America to conduct research as a part of her PhD studies into sustainability professionals. We caught up with Jess recently to discuss her time there…

PhD Research in the USA: An update from Jess Blomfield

University of Colorado Boulder campus (image courtesy of Jess Blomfield)

University of Colorado Boulder campus (image courtesy of Jess Blomfield)

From June to December in 2015, my PhD candidature was based at the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO, U.S.A….[where]I was hosted by the Centre for Education on Social Responsibility within the Leeds School of Business.

My PhD explores the emotions of professionals working as change agents for sustainability within organisations. Being at the University of Colorado facilitated my access to a large number of sustainability professionals, as both the university and the town of Boulder itself are hubs for sustainabiltiy research, practice and innovation. I conducted a number of interviews with sustainability professionals, and attended sustainability and social impact conferences. Data collection in this context has informed my research with a wide range of experiences relating to the emotional dimension of working in sustainability, including stress, emotional regulation and strategies for success in the role. Drawing these insights into my research will maximise outcomes for improving the emotional resilience, performance and retention of sustainability change agents to progress sustainability in Australia.

When in Rome!: pedal power is the preferred means of transport in Boulder, CO, USA

When in Rome!: pedal power is the preferred means of transport in Boulder, Colorado (image courtesy of Jess Blomfield, pictured above)

There was also lots to learn about and experience beyond the research tasks.

I was very fortunate to be able to take a research methods course with Professor Russell Cropanzano and gain insights into the culture of academia in the U.S. The local mountain landscape also had many outdoor activities and adventures to offer, including hiking and skiing. It was a wonderful opportunity, and thanks to my supervisors Professor Peter Jordan and Associate Professor Ashlea Troth, as well as WOW, for supporting me to undertake this great experience.

If you are interested to find out more about the Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships, collaboration opportunities with the University of Colorado, or see more pictures, please let me know ([email protected]).

(This article was authored by Jess Blomfield).

By Dr Chris Irwin, Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University.

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians wants to see blood alcohol limits for Australian drivers drop from .05% to .02% and then zero.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a good argument for lowering the blood alcohol driving limit in Australia to zero. It sends a very clear message that alcohol and driving just don’t mix — and they don’t. Alcohol influences brain function, behaviour and performance on a range of tasks and there’s certainly good evidence that alcohol can impair a person’s ability to do complex tasks like driving a motor vehicle.

But a zero-tolerance approach is unlikely to curb the behaviour of individuals who choose to drink then drive.

How many road accidents involve alcohol?

Historically, road toll statistics have been used to support a hard line against drink drivers. In the 1990s, about one-third of all fatal traffic accidents on Australian roads were associated with drivers having an illegal blood alcohol concentration (BAC).

Our most recent crash data continue to highlight the dangers of combining alcohol and driving, though the proportion of fatalities linked to alcohol has declined. Alcohol was implicated in around 15% of fatal crashes in New South Wales between 2013-2015 and more than 20% in Queensland between 2014-2015.

The most catastrophic accidents involving alcohol are associated with mid- to high-range drink-driving.

Queensland crash data for 2011 show that 76% of all drink drivers involved in fatal crashes had a BAC between .10% and .24% (between two and almost five times the legal BAC limit). Only 4.4% (two cases) of fatal crashes involved a driver with an alcohol limit below .05%.

Fatal crash data from NSW show that, in 2012, only five out of the 49 drivers (where a BAC was registered) had a level below the legal limit. Of these, three were aged 17-20 years (and were likely to be on their P plates, where zero alcohol legislation already exists).

So most people who die drink-driving (or cause other casualties) are well over the legal BAC limit. Perhaps it’s because these people never cared about the legal driving limit in the first place. Or maybe they only care about themselves, not the safety of other road users.

A zero-tolerance alcohol approach is unlikely to influence this irresponsible behaviour.

The case for and against

Of course, you could argue that a zero-tolerance approach may stop people from ending up over the limit, because they would choose not to drink then drive in the first place.

One of the strongest reasons for a zero drink-driving alcohol limit would be to provide a “no room for error” approach. The effects of alcohol are not uniform across all individuals and it can be difficult to judge your own BAC after having a few drinks. Yet this is what we expect people to do: have one or two drinks and predict if they are below the legal limit before hopping behind the wheel.

Many factors influence a person’s BAC after drinking. The amount of alcohol or type of drink consumed, the person’s age, gender and weight, their drinking history and whether they have eaten are all potential factors. Even when all of these factors are controlled for in research studies, people still often report different ratings of intoxication and impairment at the same BAC level.

A zero-alcohol approach would certainly save the confusion.

But millions of people do the right thing each and every day and a move to zero tolerance would clearly affect all the people who drink responsibly and drive home safely.

Fatigue, lack of sleep, or dehydration also have the potential to affect cognitive skills to similar levels as a person blowing .05%. Fatigue is implicated in around 17% of all fatal vehicle accidents.

But it seems inconceivable to enforce a minimum number of hours of sleep or a certain hydration status before driving (both of which could be objectively determined at the road side) across the entire population.

Instead, we ask people to take responsibility for their own actions and ensure that they aren’t driving tired.

The same goes for alcohol.

 

This article first appeared on The Conversation athttps://theconversation.com/booze-and-driving-dont-mix-but-a-zero-blood-alcohol-limit-isnt-the-answer-57270

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By Rebecca Turner

Selling genotyping solutions for human and agricultural biology research and routine screening is all in a day’s work for Cerissa French.

Based in Berlin, Germany, the Griffith University Bachelor of Biomedical Science graduate now works for Affymetrix, a leader in genomics analysis.

Genotyping is the process of determining differences in the genetic make-up (genotype) of an individual by examining the individual’s DNA sequence and comparing it to another individual’s sequence or a reference sequence.

“I am solely responsible for the sales of a specialist and high throughput genotyping portfolio called Axiom which has both human and agricultural applications.

“Working with distributors in the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe and Russia, I assist the distributors to sell my product by providing them with sales and marketing support including visiting customers and giving seminars, as well as training their teams on the technology and sales arguments.

Understanding the applications

“One of the biggest challenges in my role is understanding all of the different applications in genotyping, especially in the agricultural world which is quite different from where I have traditionally sold before.

“I have to tailor my style to these customers’ expectations scientifically and culturally as different cultures and market conditions make it difficult to have a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

“I try to overcome this by really taking on board the information the distributors can give me about the customers they work with.”

Cerissa finds that travelling as often as she does can prove quite challenging from a physical and mental perspective, however she sees the travel as an adventure.

“I like it when I can try the cuisine of the country or see something that is at least, not the inside of a lab!

“It’s so long ago since I studied at Griffith, but what I really liked about the biomedical science degree was the down-to-earth and approachable nature of the academic staff.

“I found the subjects engaging and at the time we did a lot of laboratory pracs which I think is so important in a science degree.”

Undertaking the Bachelor of Biomedical Science, says Cerissa, set her up with her first job as a research assistant, with the qualification certainly facilitating a fantastic career so far.

“Affymetrix has just been bought out by Thermo Fisher, which is a huge organisation. I’m hopeful there will be some career advancement opportunities.

“My goal is to get back into a leadership position in the next 1-­2 years, or perhaps take a sideways step into a marketing role,” she says.

“Eventually, I will probably come back to Australia where I hope my international experience will enable me to have the pick of a variety of roles.”

byLynne Weathered – Director Griffith University Innocence Project

Many times, people have said to me “Everyone in prison says they are innocent.”The truth is, some are. We now know a little about how wrongful convictions occur — incorrect eyewitness identifications; false confessions; unreliable scientific evidence; misconduct; incentivised testimony; false accusations and more.

There are 337 DNA-based exonerations in the United States to date.[1] These people have between them, spent over 4500 years in prison.[2] In almost 50 per cent of the DNA exonerations in the United States, the real perpetrator has been uncovered through that same DNA testing.[3] And while the wrongfully convicted innocent people were in prison, the real perpetrators went on to commit further violent crimes.

Wrongful conviction is a hidden phenomenon — a thing that cannot be measured. After all, how do you do a test for wrongful conviction? Some wrongfully convicted people will be fortunate enough to have their innocence identified through DNA testing or other newly uncovered and highly probative evidence of innocence. But other individuals will remain wrongfully incarcerated because evidence of their innocence is unavailable, lost or destroyed, or they have simply no opportunity or means to pursue ‘justice’.

University-based innocence projects are one part of a larger group, many of whom are members of the Innocence Network, [4] that investigate claims of wrongful conviction – and where evidence of innocence becomes available through that investigation, attempt to have those wrongful convictions overturned.

There are three essential ingredients to university-based innocence projects: lawyers, academics and students. It is the students who offer the unique resource — a resource that enables the projects to operate as they do. My students between them dedicate well over a thousand hours each semester to investigate the cases allocated to them — all under the watchful supervision of lawyers and academics.

While the task is difficult, the learning experience for students and the proximity to the real impact of the law allows them an opportunity to realise first hand why and how things can go wrong within the criminal justice system, and the importance of their roles — and everybody’s role, within the criminal justice system.

Students also get to see that convictions — and claims of innocence — are not always black and white. In many cases and often in part due to the lack of discovery powers that would enable claims of innocence to be fully investigated, many questions will remain unanswered. Many claims left unresolved.

Reform is needed so that we can better identify and correct wrongful convictions. While innocence organisations offer an essential service, Australia needs a bigger response – such as the Criminal Cases Review Commission in the United Kingdom. Australia may have a good criminal justice system, but we need to be humble enough to recognise that it makes mistakes. It is not infallible. Nobody wins when an innocent person is in prison.

[1] Home Page (2013) Innocence Project <http://www.innocenceproject.org/ > at 9 September 2013.

[2] Factsheet: DNA Exonerations Nationwide (2013) Innocence Project <http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/DNA_Exonerations_Nationwide.php> at 9 September 2013.

[3] Ibid.

[4] See Innocence Network. Membership in the Innocence Network. Retrieved 6 March, 2008, from http://www.innocencenetwork.org/docs/criteria_web.pdf

Griffith’s Institute for Glycomics have made a promising discovery in the treatment and prevention of human parainfluenza virus.

Institute Director Professor Mark von Itzstein and his team have shown that two existing drugs readily available on the market can work together to more effectively treat the virus.

Currently no therapies or vaccines are available to treat or prevent human parainfluenza virus (hPIV), the second most prevalent cause of acute respiratory tract infection in infants in the world.

Professor von Itzstein said his team’s research showed the drug Suramin, an antiparasitic drug used to treat human sleeping sickness, when combined with the anti-influenza virus drug Relenza had a much higher ability to block the infection.

Professor von Itzstein co-discovered Relenza 20 years ago. It was the world’s first anti-flu drug.

“This study offers a potentially exciting avenue for the treatment of parainfluenza infection by using a combining and repurposing approach of well-established approved drugs,” he said.

“Together they complement each other to inhibit parainfluenza growth and may mean it can be prescribed as a lower dosage of each for treatment.

The research is published in Nature journal Scientific Reports, titled ‘A dual drug regimen synergistically block human parainfluenza virus infection’.

Professor von Itzstein said his team discovered the potential of Suramin to be used in parainfluenza treatment during screening tests of a wide range of approved drugs, currently used to treat a variety of other diseases.

The research was undertaken in collaboration with Professor Ralf Altmeyer from the Institute Pasteur Shanghai-Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai and joint PhD student Benjamin Bailly with other Institute for Glycomics researchers Larissa Dirr, Patrice Guillon and Ibrahim El-Deeb.

The Institute collaborates with leading scientists around the world to build a critical mass around multidisciplinary research to control a wide-range of medical conditions such as cancer, diabetes, infectious diseases, inflammation and immune disorders.

The Institute’s unique research expertise makes it the only one of its kind in Australia and only one of a handful in the world.

Griffith University is the only Queensland university to be ranked on all major university rankings[1]; in the top 400 globally and in the top 50 world universities under the age of 50.

The latest Times Higher Education 150 Under 50 Rankings has placed Griffith at 48, a climb of 34 places from last year’s position of 82.

This impressive rise follows last month’s QS Subject Rankings in which Griffith placed in the top 100 institutions worldwide in nine subject areas with Griffith Nursing ranked 29 in the world. Griffith scored in 37 subject areas — confirming its status as one of Australia’s most comprehensive research and teaching universities.

Vice Chancellor and President of Griffith University, Professor Ian O’Connor said the latest ranking provided further recognition of Griffith’s position as one of Australia’s leading universities.

“This is confirmation of Griffith’s growing influence as a leading institution of research and teaching excellence,”Professor O’Connor said.

“Griffith is now in the top 50 in both the Times Higher Education and QS (37) Top 50 Under 50, one of two Queensland universities to achieve this distinction.”

“In addition, the University is now in the top 400 overall on all major world rankings.”

In January, Griffith was placed 102 in a list of 800 of the world’s most international universities in the Times Higher Education rankings and second in Queensland.

In October 2015 it was named among the world’s top 300 universities in the Times Higher Education World Rankings for 2015-2016. A total of 13 performance indicators were considered for the Times HE rankings including research, citations, teaching, international outlook and industry engagement.

[1] The three major world rankings are the Academic Ranking of World Universities, QS World University Rankings and Times HE World University Rankings.

A 2011 survey of 8737 Australian academic staff and the alignment and differences between their expected and actual workloads, was the subject of a Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing seminar delivered by Professor David Peetz on Tuesday (5 April).

The duties of academics are traditionally made up of teaching, research, and service to their institution in varying combinations. Analysing responses from two questions collected as part of a larger Australian Research Council Linkage project focusing on the gendered nature of employment and career patterns in Australian universities, David and co-authors Gillian Whitehouse (UQ), Janis Bailey, Glenda Strachan and Kaye Broadbent, highlight the hours per week respondents’ usually worked in order to meet their employment terms, and the percentage of time they were expected to, then actually spent on, fulfilling their tasks in these three areas.

Coming as no surprise to the academic readership(!), 50 percent reported doing more service/ administration tasks than their employment contract specified, just as 33 percent did more teaching than was expected of them. Having surveyed across multiple university faculties, comparisons among disciplines revealed the latter overloads to be more common in the law/ justice, humanities/ arts, and (possibly) business areas, while the biological sciences, medical/ health and performing/ visual arts experienced more service overloads. Analysing the effect that work overloads in one area had upon those in the other two, 61 percent were also found to be doing less research than expected.

But where research overload was present, it commonly occurred in business, the physical sciences, agriculture and urban development.

Education and social sciences reported no significant differences generally, and engineering staff typically reported congruence between expectations and actual time spent on their tasks.

Information and communication technology was a mixed bag noted David.

The team put forward several conclusions, acknowledging the gendered nature of work overload in the data, and the higher instances of overload in the employment classifications of Lecturer and Senior Lecturer for teaching, and in service/ administration at Associate Professor and Professor levels (where more managerial responsibilities are created).

Adds Professor Peetz:

“There has either been an increase in [the] demand[s on respondents] in one or more of the [workload] areas…or inadequate recognition of these demands (which may themselves be invisible to university management), or both. [Essentially], the practical impact of university pressure on teaching and service has decreased the relative time available to [conduct] research.”

Griffith University staff and students may contact the Centre for access to a recording of the seminar: [email protected].

While we take easy access to music from all over the world for granted, there are serious concerns about the sustainability of global musical diversity.

A team of international researchers led by Griffith University has developed a new approach to understand the mechanics of music survival at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

“The initial research project was conceived seven years ago with the International Music Council and nine other partners to better understand the dynamics of musical change and sustainability, and to counteract this threat and the loss of music cultures,” Lead Chief Investigator Professor Huib Schippers of the Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre said.

“It was one of the largest music research projects ever funded by the Australian Research Council, bringing together more than 100 international scholars to address a complex issue which has been placed high on the international agenda by organisations like UNESCO.

“We investigated nine music cultures across four continents, ranging from Australian Aboriginal music to Mexican Mariachi, from Western Classical Opera to Indian ragas.

The launch of the Sustainable Futures research project.

Professor Huib Schippers (fourth from left) at the launch of the Sustainable Futures research project.

“What we found is that music cultures operate much like ecosystems, which invites a dynamic approach to sustainability rather than treating musical styles like artefacts.”

Sound Futures

A key outcome was the website www.soundfutures.org, which provides an overview of the history, background and approach of the project, summaries of the nine case studies as well as additional audio-visual material, contributions and resources.

Now the research is moving to a second phase — in partnership with the world’s largest museum and research complex, Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. An application is currently being considered by the Australian Research Council, with results due mid-year.

According to Professor Huib Schippers, Sound Futures will take up where the first project left off — to find practical strategies to empower communities across the world to build musical futures on their own terms.

“Sound Futures proposes to pilot the findings of the first phase by working closely with seven communities in Indigenous Australia, Cambodia, Tanzania, China, Easter Island, Oman and Bhutan, in order to test and refine the model through action research,” he said.

Professor Schippers visited Smithsonian inMarch for a consultancy to highlight key findings from the initial project, and consider ways the sequel project could optimally support music cultures around the world.