bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Aboriginal Culture in a Victorian School
Authors: Barry G.
Published: November 2015

On Friday July 7, Jungai Day was held at Bell Primary School, Preston, to mark the beginning of N.A.D.O.C. week for 1978. Bell has an enrolment of just under 500 and has a high and expanding migrant population.

In early 1977, the first Aboriginal child arrived at the school, to add to the already complex nature of the school’s ethnic structure. Children from other Aboriginal families soon followed as the Housing Commission pursued its policy of providing houses that would match the finances of Aboriginal people.

The Aboriginal children made an immediate impact on the school. For some teachers and children, it was their first encounter with Aboriginal people. The children also brought their own problems, apart from those usually faced by any child starting at a new school.

It would hardly be overstating the case to say that the Aboriginal families would not have accepted the houses that they did, if they had not been in dire straits financially. The houses generally were small, cold, and inadequately furnished.

During their first winter at the school, the children were absent for much of the time, due to illnesses that were almost certainly related to the quality of the housing. The long breaks in the children’s attendances, however, were also indicative of a negative attitude to school, an attitude that proved very difficult to change as the children were away so often.

The situation didn’t really begin to improve until Pam Pederson arrived at the school to work as a teacher aide. Pam filled a crucial liaison role between the school and the Aboriginal families, as well as being a focal point of support for the Aboriginal children within the school.
Trendy Experimentation or Cultural Enrichment?
Authors: Buschenhofen Paul
Published: November 2015

An evaluation of the principles and aims of bi-lingual education, with special reference to Yuendumu School, Northern Territory.

Having sat himself down excitedly, Johnny, a little European pre-schooler, waits expectantly yet somewhat apprehensively for his teacher to appear. It is the first day of school, and Johnny has not met his teacher yet, but he knows she is a Warlpiri.

Here she comes –

“Ngurrju mayinkili jalanguju! Wardinyi jarri kamanyarra. Ngajurna Nangala, ngaka marda kapurna nyarra yirdiji miliapinyi nyurrurlaju. Ngaka marda kapunkulu pinarri jarrimi nyampuku walyaku kijankulurla palkajarrija.

Kala kanpa marda kanyirni wita turaki manyu karrinjaku, kala kapunpa yijardu pinarrijarri nyampurlaju warrki yijardu.

Thus little Johnny is confronted and bombarded with an unknown, incomprehensible language which only receives a vestige of meaning through the teacher’s reassuring gestures and prompting voice inflections.

How is it that Johnny finds himself in this position? Some years ago, when the view was still widely accepted that Johnny, being English (European), belonged to a race of such low intelligence that he was impossible to educate, he would not have been here at all.
What Trainee Teachers and Teachers Should Know About Aboriginal Children.
Authors:   N.S.W. Aboriginal Education Consultative Group
Published: November 2015

The New South Wales Aboriginal Education Consultative Group feels that more emphasis needs to be placed on the training of teachers in regards to Aboriginal education.

Many first year teachers are sent to country areas with a relatively high percentage of Aboriginal students. In the main, these teachers have had little or no contact with Aboriginal children or parents.
S.C.F. Kindergarten, Robinvale
Authors: Merlin M.
Published: November 2015

The Aboriginal people in Robinvale do not want separate schools, classes and housing. Some of the more dependent ones need extra help, but the capable ones are proud of succeeding on their own merits as people.

However, the children do have problems at school. For this reason the Save the Children Fund has set up a kindergarten for three-year-old children. All the Aboriginal children attend four days a week; even itinerant families and visitors bring their three-year-olds along. They may stay with the children, leave them, come back early, join in the program, or just watch, any day and every day. Two Aboriginal aides take a major part in running the program, with a kindergartner.

Non-Aboriginal children are welcome. They attend one or two days a week, and their families are also welcome. Visiting parents are introduced to one another, and encouraged to act as guests to whom all the children play host.

As the Aboriginal children attend more often, they get to know the program routines, the songs, stories, puzzles, games and equipment better. They are the confident ones, the helpers, the messengers.
All’s Well at Milingimbi
Authors: McClay D. , Harris S.
Published: November 2015

One day a teacher came to me declaring he was totally unable to teach oral English to his Grade 1 class. A young teacher in trouble. Of course I must give a demonstration lesson. I sat the children on chairs in a circle and started out with the patter, “I’m David, you’re Fred”, “I’m David, you’re Jane”, “I’m David, you’re Bill”. As we proceeded I noticed one lad, even by this early stage, was attempting hand-stands on his chair. “Come on. Stop that nonsense and sit down”, I growled, after my quieter pleadings had been ignored. The little five-year-old, knowing virtually no English, stopped, looked me straight in the eye, then grinning, gave himself three light pats on the bottom and sat down. I got out of that lesson as fast as I could, hoping the teacher was satisfied with the demonstration. He wasn’t.
Petrol Sniffing I: What You Should Know About It
Authors: Brady M. , Morice R. , Swift H.
Published: November 2015

Aboriginal communities all over Australia from time to time have to deal with their young people sniffing petrol. It seems to be a ‘craze’, like playing knucklebones or yo-yos. Suddenly everyone is doing it, and all the parents get worried. Then, sometimes, it suddenly stops happening – the kids get more interested in going out bush with the older people, or perhaps someone gets sick, or they might burn themselves with the petrol, and this frightens the others.

When kids sniff petrol they see ‘pictures’, feel dizzy and funny in the head, a little bit drunk, and they like to have those feelings. Young people (and older people) everywhere sometimes take drugs or drink alcohol to help them feel ‘high’. They do this sometimes when they feel depressed or angry, and it seems to help those feelings. Kids use petrol because it is available everywhere and is easy to get. But there is a big problem with petrol which makes it different from other things. It has LEAD in it, to make car engines run better – and lead is very harmful to people, especially children.
Elliott Health Program
Authors: Dowd T. , Sharp G.
Published: November 2015

Elliott is a small township in the Northern Territory situated on the Stuart Highway 260 kilometres north of Tennant Creek and 415 kilometres south of Katherine. It is on a flat tableland in a generally arid region. The town clusters around a police station, post office and store, clinic, school, supermarket, hotel, roadhouse and three petrol stations. The local church is the Australian Inland Mission.

About 50 non-Aboriginal people live in the town. Most of these are employed by government departments. While some Aboriginal families also live in Elliott, most of the Aboriginal population, which varies from 200–400 people, has settled in one of two villages to the north and south of town.

One hundred children attend the local school; more than 90% of these are of Aboriginal descent. Attendance figures for 1979–1980 indicate that mean attendance rates are 83% and 85% respectively; thus attendance at Elliott Primary School is uncharacteristically high when compared with the rest of the Northern Territory (Shimpo, 1978). Two Aboriginal teaching assistants and five non-Aboriginal staff teach combined classes from pre-school to year 7.

In this setting the Elliott Health Program developed out of the concerted and co-ordinated efforts of the school and local community health centre.
The Secondary Mathematics Program at St Therese’s School, Bathurst Island, N.T.
Authors: Kelly S.
Published: November 2015

At St Therese’s Girls’ School we have initiated a transition from a post-primary program to a secondary program. Part of this change has been a re-thinking and reorganization of the mathematics program.

There are 40 students in the secondary section. In the past they were taught in three different classes – Grades 8, 9 and 10. One teacher taught each class and the secondary section was organized like a primary school. Now the secondary section is organized along different lines, but it is not the purpose of this paper to explain the organization of the secondary section. The purpose of this paper is to explain the philosophy, approach, and some of the content of the secondary mathematics program.

It would seem that in the past the philosophy behind most post-primary programs prompted teachers to engage their classes in one of two activities. Either the class would spend the bulk of its day engaged in some sort of manual study, or else the teacher would engage the class in studies that were aimed at catching up with the Aboriginal students’ non-Aboriginal counterparts. The philosophy behind both approaches saw the Aboriginal students as inferior.

The philosophy behind both the mathematics program at St Therese’s, and the secondary program in general, is based on what I believe to be a far more truthful reality. I believe that it is not acceptable to infer that Aboriginal students are inferior and to organize their schooling around either manual studies or alternatively academic studies aimed at catching up to their European-Australian counterparts.
Aboriginal Educator – Swan Hill Technical School
Authors: Bugeja L.
Published: November 2015

I am an Aboriginal educator based at the Swan Hill Technical School. I started work as an Aboriginal educator in the first term of school in 1982.

My duties involve liaising with Aboriginal students, parents, teachers and the community. I liaise with the students to find out if they have any problems at home or school. If they have problems we discuss them and think of ways to overcome them. I like to walk into classes such as Home Economics, and Woodwork – it is easy for them to talk and I don’t interrupt them too much. I also like to speak to the students out of class, usually in my office or in the school grounds.
My New Lifestyle
Authors: Dixon P.
Published: November 2015

It is twenty-five years since I left school. At the moment I’m doing an eighteen month training program to be an Addiction Worker. As part of the evaluation of the training program I have been asked to write down my thoughts and feelings about my training.

Some people involved in the program have suggested to me that teachers might be interested in my early childhood experiences – growing up on a reserve and going to an all Aboriginal school.

As I look at it now, I think that education is so important to Aboriginal people. I have one son attending primary school and one has just left high school. I hope my story will help teachers understand why it is hard sometimes for Aboriginal parents to communicate with them.

I was born in Kempsey and raised on Bellbrook Reserve. I lived there with my family (eight sisters and three brothers) and most of my aunts and uncles also lived there at that time. I had a good, happy upbringing, my family were all very close. In my school days my teachers were kind but didn’t really teach me much. A lot of what I’m learning now I should have learnt then. The teachers in those days were getting paid for doing nothing. That makes me angry now – the teachers, especially on the reserve (unless the government had a policy not to teach us) didn’t think it was worth teaching Aboriginal kids.

The teacher on the reserve was also the manager, and his wife the matron. They didn’t want to let us learn anything – we had to do everything for them (washing, cleaning, carting wood) but they never wanted to show us how to do things for ourselves.
Do Aboriginal Pupils have Negative Self-Concepts?
Authors: Chadbourne R.
Published: November 2015

In this article I would like to question one of the explanations offered to help account for the relatively low academic achievement of Aboriginal pupils, namely that they are handicapped by negative self-concepts. The connection between self-concept and school success itself seems plausible enough. For instance, students with negative self-concepts may tend to adopt low occupational horizons which, in turn, can undermine one type of motivation for academic achievement. Similarly, if pupils perceive schooling as a race then lack of self-confidence could lead them to take the attitude, “Why bother, I’m not good enough to win a place to university anyway.” Moreover, as Jackson (1960) points out, classrooms are very judgmental places where the behaviour and work of children is constantly evaluated by teachers and peers. As a result in many learning situations the student “is risking error, judgment, disapproval, censure, rejection and, in extreme cases, even punishment” (Canfield and Wells, 1976:7). If insecure and defensive, pupils may find such an atmosphere very threatening and consequently be inhibited by a fear of failure. Also, it may be suggested, unless children are self-sufficient they may experience difficulty coping with cold, distant, formal teacher-pupil relationships.

What is more open to dispute, however, is whether or not Aboriginal children have negative self-concepts. Fanshawe (1976) observes that there is insufficient experimental data to enable this issue to be resolved conclusively on empirical grounds. And within the literature on the education of socially disadvantaged children there are opposing views that can be related to differences in ideology.
How Effective is Tutorial Assistance for Aboriginal Students?
Authors: Rendall P.
Published: November 2015

This report is a limited evaluation of the Tutorial Assistance program within the Aboriginal Secondary Grants Scheme.

Achievement of Aboriginal secondary students receiving tuition was analysed according to several criteria, including sex and the type of school attended. The major findings were:

Tutored Aboriginal students had significantly higher achievement than untutored students, in both English and Mathematics.

Aboriginal students in boarding schools had significantly higher achievement than those in state schools, regardless of tutoring.

There were no significant differences between male and female students.

It could not be concluded that tutorial assistance caused the superior performance of tutored students. Student motivation was a highly possible intervening factor, and there are probably many others.

In addition, various solutions to the problem of underachievement by Aboriginal students were ranked according to their effectiveness as perceived by people in the tutorial program. Three solutions were judged equally preferable and viable:

Employing more Aboriginal teachers, aides and counsellors.

Providing tutorial assistance to Aboriginal students.

Sensitising non-Aboriginal teachers to the problems faced by Aboriginal students.
The Irrelevance of Literacy
Authors: Fesl E.
Published: November 2015

A research report published last year has shaken the very rationale for Aboriginal literacy programs. Eve Fesl says that for the first time, Aborigines have had the chance to say what they want, and that their views are very different from those who have sought to educate them.

Copies of the report, Bala Bala: Some Literacy and Educational Perceptions of Three Aboriginal Communities are available from Australian Government Publishing Service bookshops in all States.

There was incredulity in education circles late last year when Bala Bala: Some Literacy and Educational Perceptions of Three Aboriginal Communities reported that many Aborigines rejected literacy.

The project, instigated by Anglo-Australians, began with the assumptions of an Anglo value system. There was an assumption that, just as literacy in English had aided, for example, the peasant classes of England in their efforts towards upward social mobility, it would also be the panacea of Aboriginal social ills. That Aborigines might not concur was never questioned.

Even non-Aborigines on the steering committee, who had some inkling that literacy would not be warmly embraced by all Aborigines, were surprised at an overall rejection of English literacy per se.

Yet Aborigines were not surprised, and if one cares to look closely into the past, one sees many abandoned literacy programs – testimony that Aborigines have never wanted them.
‘Action and No Action’ – Aboriginal Children’s Classification of Films in an Isolated Community
Authors: Thompson D.H.
Published: November 2015

Films are a significant social event in many isolated Aboriginal communities. It has been argued, however, that they are a disruptive influence on the transmission of traditional culture (Shimpo, 1978) and provide inappropriate models for behaviour (Thompson, 1983).

This paper examines a small group of Aboriginal children’s perception and understanding of films in an isolated, traditionally oriented Aboriginal community. It focuses on the way in which a small group of Aboriginal informants classify films and attempts to examine the basis for some of the classifications. Finally, some conclusions are drawn about the extent to which the use of particular types of film classification can give an insight into the isolated community audiences’ knowledge and understanding of the social realities in the wider world outside the isolated community.
Methanol – Killer!
Authors: Mitchell Joan
Published: November 2015

One of the most distressing intoxicants for Aboriginal people is methanol. This occurs in the spirit provided for duplicators used in schools. The spirit duplicators are cheap, versatile, and can print on different colours, so they are deservedly popular. But from time to time the local people sample the duplicating fluid, which is widely known to produce a big high, and to intoxicate like alcohol (ethanol). Many of these people have been lucky enough to wake up with a bad hangover. Others have become blind, or even died.
Torres Strait Islander Students in Queensland Mainland Schools – Part 1 – Language Background
Authors: Shnukal A.
Published: November 2015

(This is the first of two articles, based on a paper delivered at the 1982 conference of the Applied Linguistic Association of Australia, entitled: “Language maintenance among Torres Strait Islanders living on the Australian mainland.” It deals with the language backgrounds of most Torres Strait Islander children attending mainstream Queensland schools. The second part, which will appear in the next issue, discusses some of the language difficulties experienced in the classroom by many of these children).
Towards an Understanding of the Significance of “The Dreamtime” to Aboriginal People
Authors: O’Keefe E.A.
Published: November 2015

To traditional Aborigines their whole concept of life, whether it is physical or spiritual survival, is centred on their belief in the Dreamtime. The Dreamtime was the period of creation when the Aborigines’ life-style was planned and the Aborigines’ entire life centred on the need to live in the style prescribed by the mythical Dreamtime ancestors.

An understanding of the Dreamtime is essential to an understanding of traditional Aboriginal culture. Stanner (1979, 23–40) describes the Dreaming as pervading every aspect of life from social organization to food gathering. Not only is it the period of creation when the mythical ancestors roamed the earth, but it is also the life spirit which ties man, society and nature, both past and present, to the living now.

R.M. Berndt (1980) describes the dreaming thus:

The Dreaming therefore constituted a particular view of life, of the place of human beings within a preordained scheme or patterning symbolising a three-sided relationship between mythic beings, nature and people. Each was dependent on the others. People were part of nature, part of particular mythic beings, in social and personal terms.

(Berndt, 1980, 14–15)

Not only did traditional Aborigines believe in the Dreaming, they lived it. It is the Dreaming which provides the blueprint for life.

Central to the belief in the Dreaming is the belief in the mythical beings. These beings were part human and part animal. They roamed the earth in the Dreamtime using super-human powers to create all natural features.
Maternal elaborative reminiscing mediates the effect of child maltreatment on behavioral and physiological functioning
Authors: Valentino Kristin , Hibel Leah C. , Cummings E. Mark , Nuttall Amy K. , Comas Michelle , McDonnell Christina G.
Published: November 2015

Theoretical and empirical evidence suggest that the way in which parents discuss everyday emotional experiences with their young children (i.e., elaborative reminiscing) has significant implications for child cognitive and socioemotional functioning, and that maltreating parents have a particularly difficult time in engaging in this type of dialogue. This dyadic interactional exchange, therefore, has the potential to be an important process variable linking child maltreatment to developmental outcomes at multiple levels of analysis. The current investigation evaluated the role of maternal elaborative reminiscing in associations between maltreatment and child cognitive, emotional, and physiological functioning. Participants included 43 maltreated and 49 nonmaltreated children (aged 3–6) and their mothers. Dyads participated in a joint reminiscing task about four past emotional events, and children participated in assessments of receptive language and emotion knowledge. Child salivary cortisol was also collected from children three times a day (waking, midday, and bedtime) on 2 consecutive days to assess daily levels and diurnal decline. Results indicated that maltreating mothers engaged in significantly less elaborative reminiscing than did nonmaltreating mothers. Maternal elaborative reminiscing mediated associations between child maltreatment and child receptive language and child emotion knowledge. In addition, there was support for an indirect pathway between child maltreatment and child cortisol diurnal decline through maternal elaborative reminiscing. Directions for future research are discussed, and potential clinical implications are addressed.
Child maltreatment, callous–unemotional traits, and defensive responding in high-risk children: An investigation of emotion-modulated startle response
Authors: Dackis Melissa N. , Rogosch Fred A. , Cicchetti Dante
Published: November 2015

Child maltreatment is associated with disruptions in physiological arousal, emotion regulation, and defensive responses to cues of threat and distress, as well as increased risk for callous unemotional (CU) traits and externalizing behavior. Developmental models of CU traits have focused on biological and genetic risk factors that contribute to hypoarousal and antisocial behavior, but have focused less on environmental influences (Blair, 2004; Daversa, 2010; Hare, Frazell, & Cox, 1978; Krueger, 2000; Shirtcliff et al., 2009; Viding, Fontaine, & McCrory, 2012). The aim of the present investigation was to measure the independent and combined effects of child maltreatment and high CU traits on emotion-modulated startle response in children. Participants consisted of 132 low-income maltreated (n= 60) and nonmaltreated (n= 72) children between 8 and 12 years old who attended a summer camp program. Acoustic startle response (ASR) was elicited in response to a 110-dB 50-ms probe while children viewed a slideshow of pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant IAPS images. Maltreatment status was assessed through examination of Department of Human Services records. CU traits were measured using counselor reports from the Inventory of Callous and Unemotional Traits (Frick, 2004), and conduct problems were measured using counselor and child self-report. We found no significant differences in emotion-modulated startle in the overall sample. However, significant differences in ASR by maltreatment status, maltreatment subtype, and level of CU traits were apparent. Results indicated differential physiological responses for maltreated and nonmaltreated children based on CU traits, including a pathway of hypoarousal for nonmaltreated/high CU children that differed markedly from a more normative physiological trajectory for maltreated/high CU children. Further, we found heightened ASR for emotionally and physically neglected children with high CU and elevated antisocial behavior in these children. Results provide further support for differential trajectories by which experience and biology may influence the development of antisocial behavior in youth and highlight potential avenues for intervention.
Harsh parent–child conflict is associated with decreased anti-inflammatory gene expression and increased symptom severity in children with asthma
Authors: Ehrlich Katherine B. , Miller Gregory E. , Chen Edith
Published: November 2015

Asthma is a chronic respiratory disorder that affects over 7 million children in the United States. Evidence indicates that family stressors are associated with worsening of asthma symptoms, and some research suggests that these stressful experiences engender changes in children's immune systems in ways that exacerbate airway inflammation and contribute to both acute and chronic asthma symptoms. We examined the association between observed experiences of parent–child conflict and the expression of signaling molecules involved in the transduction of anti-inflammatory signals that regulate airway inflammation and obstruction. Fifty-seven children and their parents participated in a conflict task, and coders rated interactions for evidence of harsh and supportive behaviors. Children reported on their perceptions of parental support and reported on their daily asthma symptoms for 2 weeks. We collected peripheral blood in children to measure leukocyte expression of messenger RNA for the glucocorticoid receptor and the β2-adrenergic receptor. Analyses revealed that harsh conflict behaviors were associated with decreased expression of both messenger RNAs and more severe asthma symptoms. Neither supportive behaviors nor perceived parental support was associated with gene expression or asthma symptoms. These findings suggest that harsh interactions with parents are associated with downregulation of key anti-inflammatory signaling molecules and difficulties breathing in children with asthma. Children with asthma who are also victims of maltreatment may be particularly susceptible to transcriptional changes in immune cells that could worsen asthma over time.
Posterior structural brain volumes differ in maltreated youth with and without chronic posttraumatic stress disorder
Authors: De Bellis Michael D. , Hooper Stephen R. , Chen Steven D. , Provenzale James M. , Boyd Brian D. , Glessner Christopher E. , MacFall James R. , Payne Martha E. , Rybczynski Robert , Woolley Donald P.
Published: November 2015

Magnetic resonance imaging studies of maltreated children with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) suggest that maltreatment-related PTSD is associated with adverse brain development. Maltreated youth resilient to chronic PTSD were not previously investigated and may elucidate neuromechanisms of the stress diathesis that leads to resilience to chronic PTSD. In this cross-sectional study, anatomical volumetric and corpus callosum diffusion tensor imaging measures were examined using magnetic resonance imaging in maltreated youth with chronic PTSD (N= 38), without PTSD (N= 35), and nonmaltreated participants (n= 59). Groups were sociodemographically similar. Participants underwent assessments for strict inclusion/exclusion criteria and psychopathology. Maltreated youth with PTSD were psychobiologically different from maltreated youth without PTSD and nonmaltreated controls. Maltreated youth with PTSD had smaller posterior cerebral and cerebellar gray matter volumes than did maltreated youth without PTSD and nonmaltreated participants. Cerebral and cerebellar gray matter volumes inversely correlated with PTSD symptoms. Posterior corpus callosum microstructure in pediatric maltreatment-related PTSD differed compared to maltreated youth without PTSD and controls. The group differences remained significant when controlling for psychopathology, numbers of Axis I disorders, and trauma load. Alterations of these posterior brain structures may result from a shared trauma-related mechanism or an inherent vulnerability that mediates the pathway from chronic PTSD to comorbidity.
Child maltreatment, impulsivity, and antisocial behavior in African American children: Moderation effects from a cumulative dopaminergic gene index
Authors: Thibodeau Eric L. , Cicchetti Dante , Rogosch Fred A.
Published: November 2015

A model examining the effects of an increasing number of maltreatment subtypes experienced on antisocial behavior, as mediated by impulsivity and moderated by a polygenic index of dopaminergic genotypes, was investigated. An African American sample of children (N= 1,012,Mage = 10.07) with and without maltreatment histories participated. Indicators of aggression, delinquency, and disruptive peer behavior were obtained from peer- and counselor-rated measures to form a latent variable of antisocial behavior; impulsivity was assessed by counselor report. Five genotypes in four dopaminergic genes (dopamine receptors D4, D2, known asDRD4, DRD2; dopamine active transporter 1, known asDAT1; and catechol-O-methyltransferase, known asCOMT) conferring heightened environmental sensitivity were combined into one polygenic index. Using structural equation modeling, a first-stage, moderated-mediation model was evaluated. Age and sex were entered as covariates, both as main effects and in interaction with maltreatment and the gene index. The model had excellent fit: χ2(32,N= 1,012) = 86.51,p< .001; comparative fit index = 0.982, Tucker–Lewis index = 0.977, root mean square error of approximation = 0.041, and standardized root mean square residual = 0.022. The effect of maltreatment subtypes on antisocial behavior was partially mediated by impulsivity (β = 0.173,p< .001), and these relations were moderated by the number of differentiating dopaminergic genotypes. Specifically, a significant Gene × Environment interaction (β = 0.016,p= .013) indicated that the relation between maltreatment and impulsivity was stronger as children evinced more differentiating genotypes, thereby strengthening the mediational effect of impulsivity on antisocial behavior. These findings elucidate the manner by which maltreated children develop early signs of antisocial behavior, and the genetic mechanisms involved in greater vulnerability for maladaptation in impulse control within the context of child maltreatment.
Childhood maltreatment and methylation of FK506 binding protein 5 gene (FKBP5)
Authors: Tyrka Audrey R. , Ridout Kathryn K. , Parade Stephanie H. , Paquette Alison , Marsit Carmen J. , Seifer Ronald
Published: November 2015

A growing body of evidence suggests that alterations of the stress response system may be a mechanism by which childhood maltreatment alters risk for psychopathology. FK506 binding protein 51 (FKBP5) binds to the glucocorticoid receptor and alters its ability to respond to stress signaling. The aim of the present study was to examine methylation of the FKBP5 gene (FKBP5), and the role of an FKBP5 genetic variant, in relation to childhood maltreatment in a sample of impoverished preschool-aged children. One hundred seventy-four families participated in this study, including 69 with child welfare documentation of moderate to severe maltreatment in the past 6 months. The children, who ranged in age from 3 to 5 years, were racially and ethnically diverse. Structured record review and interviews in the home were used to assess a history of maltreatment, other traumas, and contextual life stressors; and a composite variable assessed the number exposures to these adversities. Methylation of two sites in intron 7 of FKBP5 was measured via sodium bisulfite pyrosequencing. Maltreated children had significantly lower levels of methylation at both CpG sites (p < .05). Lifetime contextual stress exposure showed a trend for lower levels of methylation at one of the sites, and a trend for an interaction with the FKBP5 polymorphism. A composite adversity variable was associated with lower levels of methylation at one of the sites as well (p < .05). FKBP5 alters glucocorticoid receptor responsiveness, and FKBP5 gene methylation may be a mechanism of the biobehavioral effects of adverse exposures in young children.
Caucasian Myths – Ancient and Modern
Authors: Spalding Ian
Published: November 2015

All of us concerned with the education of Aboriginal children must be concerned also with the attitudes held by non-Aboriginal Australians towards Aboriginals. All of us who teach in schools teach about Aboriginals. Our own attitudes will be revealed in what we teach and how we teach. Do we in the schools help to perpetuate the ancient and modern myths discussed below by Mr. Spalding?
Secondary School Aboriginal Girls Fashion Parade at Maitland
Authors: Howlett Eric D.
Published: November 2015

The Maitland Area School on central Yorke Peninsula, about one hundred miles from Adelaide, caters for students aged from five to sixteen or seventeen years. Of the five hundred and seventy students who attend, approximately eighty are part-Aboriginal children from the Point Pearce community some twelve miles away. About half of these are secondary students.

Two years ago a secondary student from Point Pearce spent a year at a Maori college in New Zealand and then returned to Maitland to complete his fourth year P.E.B. Certificate. He is now undertaking his matriculation studies in Adelaide. Because of the obvious success of this project, the scheme is being continued this year. Although some very generous support has been given by various airline companies and other organizations, the Point Pearce Aboriginal community has a major responsibility in raising funds to cover the cost of the student’s board and other geheral living requirements.

Earlier this year, in April, as a result of an idea of one of the school staff members, it was decided to arrange a public fashion parade by the secondary Aboriginal girls as a fund-raising activity for the New Zealand project. The girls and their parents liked the idea and planning commenced.
A Health Education Program for Aboriginals
Authors: Stevens Sister N.
Published: November 2015

Readers will be interested in the approach being taken by the West Australian Department of Public Health in offering health services to Aboriginal people.
An Investigation into the Nature of Art Education for Aboriginal Children
Authors: Collins J.M. , Fielding R.
Published: November 2015

This paper is concerned with the art education of Aboriginal children. An attempt has been made to look at the situation as it exists, particularly in relation to fringe-dwelling Aboriginal children. This has been accomplished by means of a questionnnaire and direct teaching and observation of Aboriginal children on Palm Island and library research. The authors made a number of comparisons with data from research carried out overseas on similar groups, although they realise that no dogmatic conclusions can be made concerning Aboriginal children without further research in Australia.
Designing the Multilateral Trading System: Voting Equality at the International Trade Organization
Authors: KAYA AYSE
Published: November 2015

Through detailed archival analysis, this paper examines states' voting rights and representation in the International Trade Organization (ITO), which remains an under-analyzed aspect of the post-war multilateral trading system. The paper shows that the US designers of the ITO preferred and pursued formal voting equality because they reasoned it served the institution's intended functions and purposes better than weighted voting. But, as the negotiations undermined US priorities, particularly on balance of payment (BOP) questions, the designers presented a proposal for mirroring the IMF's weighted voting at the ITO. They, however, returned to their original proposal of voting equality when the ultimate draft of the ITO reflected their key preferences without resorting to weighted voting. By closely tracing the drafters' thinking throughout the evolution of the negotiations, the paper contributes to understanding the design of multilateral institutions as well as US behavior in the creation of the post-war multilateral system.
Session-by-session outcome monitoring in CAMHS: clinicians’ beliefs
Authors: James Kirsty , Elgie Sarah , Adams Joanna , Henderson Tracey , Salkovskis Paul
Published: November 2015

The Children and Young People's Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (CYP IAPT) programme emphasizes the meaningful contribution session-by-session routine outcome monitoring (ROM) can make to clinical practice and its importance in highlighting services’ effectiveness. Two studies on issues related to the implementation of ROM in children's services were conducted. Study 1 was qualitative; 12 Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) professionals participated in focus groups. Themes identified included the idea that ROM could provide objectivity, could be collaborative and empowering. Concerns included how measures may adversely influence therapeutic sessions and how the information may be used by the service. These themes were used to develop a questionnaire about professionals’ experience of and views on session-by-session ROM. In Study 2, 59 professionals from four CAMHS teams completed the questionnaire. It was found that only 6.8% reported ‘almost always’ utilizing session-by-session ROM. Detailed analysis of questionnaire responses suggested two subscales reflecting the perceived negative and positive impact of session-by-session ROM. It was found that clinicians who currently use session-by-session ROM hold stronger positive and negative beliefs than clinicians who do not. This study suggests that session-by-session ROM is not currently routine practice within CAMHS and highlights the importance of considering how this practice can be best implemented within this setting with reference to clinician attitudes.
Topologically protected elastic waves in phononic metamaterials
Authors: Mousavi S. Hossein , Khanikaev Alexander B. , Wang Zheng
Published: November 2015

Surface waves in topological states of quantum matter exhibit unique protection from backscattering induced by disorders, making them ideal carriers for both classical and quantum information. Topological matters for electrons and photons are largely limited by the range of bulk properties, and the associated performance trade-offs. In contrast, phononic metamaterials provide access to a much wider range of material properties. Here we demonstrate numerically a phononic topological metamaterial in an elastic-wave analogue of the quantum spin Hall effect. A dual-scale phononic crystal slab is used to support two effective spins for phonons over a broad bandwidth, and strong spin–orbit coupling is realized by breaking spatial mirror symmetry. By preserving the spin polarization with an external load or spatial symmetry, phononic edge states are shown to be robust against scattering from discrete defects as well as disorders in the continuum, demonstrating topological protection for phonons in both static and time-dependent regimes.
Top consumer abundance influences lake methane efflux
Authors: Devlin Shawn P. , Saarenheimo Jatta , Syväranta Jari , Jones Roger I.
Published: November 2015

Lakes are important habitats for biogeochemical cycling of carbon. The organization and structure of aquatic communities influences the biogeochemical interactions between lakes and the atmosphere. Understanding how trophic structure regulates ecosystem functions and influences greenhouse gas efflux from lakes is critical to understanding global carbon cycling and climate change. With a whole-lake experiment in which a previously fishless lake was divided into two treatment basins where fish abundance was manipulated, we show how a trophic cascade from fish to microbes affects methane efflux to the atmosphere. Here, fish exert high grazing pressure and remove nearly all zooplankton. This reduction in zooplankton density increases the abundance of methanotrophic bacteria, which in turn reduce CH4 efflux rates by roughly 10 times. Given that globally there are millions of lakes emitting methane, an important greenhouse gas, our findings that aquatic trophic interactions significantly influence the biogeochemical cycle of methane has important implications.
Localized reconstruction of subunits from electron cryomicroscopy images of macromolecular complexes
Authors: Ilca Serban L. , Kotecha Abhay , Sun Xiaoyu , Poranen Minna M. , Stuart David I. , Huiskonen Juha T.
Published: November 2015

Electron cryomicroscopy can yield near-atomic resolution structures of highly ordered macromolecular complexes. Often however some subunits bind in a flexible manner, have different symmetry from the rest of the complex, or are present in sub-stoichiometric amounts, limiting the attainable resolution. Here we report a general method for the localized three-dimensional reconstruction of such subunits. After determining the particle orientations, local areas corresponding to the subunits can be extracted and treated as single particles. We demonstrate the method using three examples including a flexible assembly and complexes harbouring subunits with either partial occupancy or mismatched symmetry. Most notably, the method allows accurate fitting of the monomeric RNA-dependent RNA polymerase bound at the threefold axis of symmetry inside a viral capsid, revealing for the first time its exact orientation and interactions with the capsid proteins. Localized reconstruction is expected to provide novel biological insights in a range of challenging biological systems.
Flexible CNT-array double helices Strain Sensor with high stretchability for Motion Capture
Authors: Li Cheng , Cui Ya-Long , Tian Gui-Li , Shu Yi , Wang Xue-Feng , Tian He , Yang Yi , Wei Fei , Ren Tian-Ling
Published: November 2015

Motion capture is attracting more and more attention due to its potential wide applications in various fields. However, traditional methods for motion capture still have weakness such as high cost and space consuming. Based on these considerations, a flexible, highly stretchable strain sensor with high gauge factor for motion capture is fabricated with carbon nanotube (CNT) array double helices as the main building block. Ascribed to the unique flexible double helical CNT-array matrix, the strain sensor is able to measure strain up to 410%, with low hysteresis. Moreover, a demonstration of using this strain sensor for capture hand motion and to control a mechanical hand in real time is also achieved. A model based on finite difference method is also made to help understand the mechanism of the strain sensors. Our work demonstrates that strain sensors can measure very large strain while maintaining high sensitivity and the motion capture based on this strain sensor is expected to be less expensive, more convenient and accessible.
Comparative genomic and transcriptional analyses of the carbohydrate-active enzymes and secretomes of phytopathogenic fungi reveal their significant roles during infection and development
Authors: Lyu Xueliang , Shen Cuicui , Fu Yanping , Xie Jiatao , Jiang Daohong , Li Guoqing , Cheng Jiasen
Published: November 2015

Our comparative genomic analysis showed that the numbers of plant cell wall (PCW)- and fungal cell wall (FCW)-degradation-associated carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) in necrotrophic and hemibiotrophic fungi are significantly larger than that in most biotrophic fungi. However, our transcriptional analyses of CAZyme-encoding genes inMelampsora larici-populina,Puccinia graminisandSclerotinia sclerotiorumshowed that many genes encoding PCW- and FCW-degradation-associated CAZymes were significantly up-regulated during the infection of both necrotrophic fungi and biotrophic fungi, indicating an existence of a universal mechanism underlying PCW degradation and FCW reorganization or modification, which are both intimately involved in necrotrophic and biotrophic fungal infection. Furthermore, our results showed that the FCW reorganization or modification was also related to the fungal development. Additionally, our transcriptional analysis of the secretome ofS. sclerotiorumshowed that many secreted protein-encoding genes were dramatically induced during infection. Among them, a small, cysteine-rich protein SsCVNH was experimentally confirmed to be essential for the virulence and sclerotial development, indicating that the small secreted proteins might also play crucial roles as potential effectors in host-non-specific necrotrophic fungi.
Glaucumolides A and B, Biscembranoids with New Structural Type from a Cultured Soft Coral Sarcophyton glaucum
Authors: Huang Chiung-Yao , Sung Ping-Jyun , Uvarani Chokkalingam , Su Jui-Hsin , Lu Mei-Chin , Hwang Tsong-Long , Dai Chang-Feng , Wu Shwu-Li , Sheu Jyh-Horng
Published: November 2015

Glaucumolides A (1) and B (2), novel biscembranes composed of an unprecedented α,β-unsaturated ε-lactone, along with the known metabolites ximaolide A (3) and isosarcophytonolide D (4), were isolated from the cultured soft coral Sarcophyton glaucum. The structures of the new metabolites were determined by extensive spectroscopic analyses. Compounds 1 and 2 were shown to exhibit cytotoxicity against a limited panel of cancer cell lines. In anti-inflammation assay, compounds 1 and 2 displayed strong inhibition of superoxide anion generation and elastase release in human neutrophils stimulated by fMLP/CB. Furthermore, both 1 and 2 were shown to significantly inhibit the accumulation of the pro-inflammatory inducible nitric oxide synthase protein and compounds 1−3 were found to effectively reduce the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 protein, in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophage cells.
Highly sensitive image-derived indices of water-stressed plants using hyperspectral imaging in SWIR and histogram analysis
Authors: Kim David M. , Zhang Hairong , Zhou Haiying , Du Tommy , Wu Qian , Mockler Todd C. , Berezin Mikhail Y.
Published: November 2015

The optical signature of leaves is an important monitoring and predictive parameter for a variety of biotic and abiotic stresses, including drought. Such signatures derived from spectroscopic measurements provide vegetation indices – a quantitative method for assessing plant health. However, the commonly used metrics suffer from low sensitivity. Relatively small changes in water content in moderately stressed plants demand high-contrast imaging to distinguish affected plants. We present a new approach in deriving sensitive indices using hyperspectral imaging in a short-wave infrared range from 800 nm to 1600 nm. Our method, based on high spectral resolution (1.56 nm) instrumentation and image processing algorithms (quantitative histogram analysis), enables us to distinguish a moderate water stress equivalent of 20% relative water content (RWC). The identified image-derived indices 15XX nm/14XX nm (i.e. 1529 nm/1416 nm) were superior to common vegetation indices, such as WBI, MSI and NDWI, with significantly better sensitivity, enabling early diagnostics of plant health.