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Objective: To determine impact of undertaking an international educational program during a nurse's or midwife's pre-registration program on subsequent practice, focusing on how nurses and midwives were transformed personally through participation in such programs. Background: Participation in international educational programs has been reported to enhance nursing and midwifery students' personal and professional development, however long-term impacts remain unclear. This paper presents findings drawn from a larger grounded theory study. Study design and Methods: Charmaz's grounded theory methodology was used to elicit experiences from 13 general nurses, two mental health nurses, three midwives and four dual qualified nurse/midwives across eight different countries. Data analysis led to the creation of three categories, with this paper reporting on the category of Developing as a Person. Findings: Participation in international educational programs can be transformative for nurses and midwives with long-lasting impacts, contributing positively to their personal growth and development. Discussion: The study findings underscore significant long-term impacts of international educational programs for nurses and midwives. These outcomes highlight the importance of incorporating international experiences into healthcare education. Conclusion: By providing opportunities for healthcare professionals to engage with diverse settings and populations, organisations and educational institutions can foster the development of well-rounded and globally competent practitioners. Implications for research, policy, and practice: The study's findings hold significant implications for research, policy, and practice in healthcare education. To deepen our understandings, additional longitudinal research across diverse countries is warranted. Policymakers have an opportunity to acknowledge the positive impact of these programs on the personal growth and development of nurses and midwives, potentially leading to the integration of global competency requirements into licensure programs. In order to provide comprehensive education, educational institutions should consider the inclusion of study abroad opportunities, cultural exchanges, and global clinical placements within nursing and midwifery curricula. What is already known about the topic? • International educational programs are widely used as a way of developing nursing and midwifery students' cultural understandings. • Previous studies have reported on short-term impacts of international educational programs. What this paper adds: • Long-term impacts of participation in an international educational program on nurses and midwives are described. • Personal development and subsequent transformations occur for nurses and midwives as a result of participation in international educational programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have found that many post-secondary music students suffer from physical and mental health issues. However, researchers have mainly studied these problems at the individual level, with little investigation of how music students' work is shaped by the coordinating effects of policies, texts, and discourses at and beyond their local site. This paper describes a protocol for an international project that will explore the health of music students in the context of their daily work. Using an institutional ethnography approach, we will examine the social organization of music students' work at three universities: two in Canada and one in Australia. This will be the first set of studies that use institutional ethnography specifically for the purpose of understanding how the social organization of music students' work shapes their health. Data will be collected using several methods common to institutional ethnography: interviews, focus groups, observations, and collecting texts. Data analysis will begin during the data collection process and proceed in two fluid stages. The first stage will involve a detailed investigation of the pertinent work activities at each music school. The second will involve linking that work to specific social relations within and beyond the institution. After data analysis has been completed at all three sites, findings will be compared to one another to identify commonalities and differences in how students' work is organized. Findings of the entire project may inform policy-making and lead to positive change at the institutions studied, as well as others where similar social organization may occur. The novel approach described here will provide opportunities to expand current knowledge about music students' work and health beyond what has been learned through approaches that focus on students' individual behaviours and attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will identify existing models of professional regulatory reform that could ensure a single licensing process that results in multi-jurisdictional licensure. The paper will also distinguish models or ad hoc arrangements that fail to achieve such a result. This is a timely topic in Canada because its professional regulatory framework is being examined for modernization. The Canadian professional regulatory framework for health care providers is a legacy of the Constitution of 1867. It can be characterized as a Federation of 13 different jurisdictional systems with each province or territory having exclusive jurisdiction over regulation of its health professionals. This results in differing entry to practice requirements, standards of practice, classes or categories of registration and transfer criteria for eligibility from other provinces. The United States nursing state board regulators, the Australian Commonwealth, and their state governments have moved from their original regulatory frameworks to modern ones. Their models are more supportive of mobility, cross-border virtual care, education, and health provider professional development and well-being. Aside from recent discussions in the 4 Canadian Atlantic provinces, there has been little will, effort, or advancement to modernize the regulatory framework in Canada to support multi-jurisdictional licensure. This paper aims to briefly describe 6 existing models that support multijurisdictional licensure. In the fall of 2022, the 4 Atlantic Premiers (akin to state Governors in the US) asked each of their medical regulatory authority (akin to State Medical Boards) to develop a licensing system such that physicians could practice in all 4 Atlantic provinces without the need to acquire multiple licenses. Two models will be discussed that meet this recently stated objective of the Atlantic Premiers while the others do not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Primary healthcare services have principal responsibility for providing child and youth wellbeing and mental health services, but have lacked appropriate measurement instruments to assess the wellbeing of Indigenous children and youth or to evaluate the effectiveness of programs and services designed to meet their needs. This review assesses the availability and characteristics of measurement instruments that have been applied in primary healthcare services in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States (CANZUS countries) to assess the wellbeing of Indigenous children and youth. Methods: Fifteen databases and 12 websites were searched in December 2017 and again in October 2021. Pre-defined search terms pertained to Indigenous children and youth, CANZUS country names, and wellbeing or mental health measures. PRISMA guidelines were followed, with eligibility criteria guiding screening of titles and abstracts, and selected full-text papers. Results are presented based on the characteristics of documented measurement instruments assessed according to five desirability criteria: development for Indigenous youth populations, adherence to relational strength-based constructs, administration by child and or youth self-report, reliability and validity, and usefulness for identifying wellbeing or risk levels. Results: Twenty-one publications were found that described the development and or use by primary healthcare services of 14 measurement instruments, employed across 30 applications. Four of the 14 measurement instruments were developed specifically for Indigenous youth populations, four focused solely on strength-based wellbeing concepts but none included all Indigenous wellbeing domains. Conclusion: There is a diversity of measurement instruments available, but few fit our desirability criteria. Although it is possible that we missed relevant papers and reports, this review clearly supports the need for further research to develop, refine or adapt instruments cross-culturally to measure the wellbeing of Indigenous children and youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysia is expected to be an ageing country by 2030 when 15% of her populace will be in the category of the elderly. The elderly will face various issues and challenges, such as finance along with abuse and neglect. Generally, like in other disputes, the legal mechanism is the resort for resolution. However, litigation is less preferred in this type of cases as it does not address the emotional distress suffered by the parties involved. As such, litigation is not a suitable method as it may break the relationship between the parties. Conversely, mediation, a non-adjudicative dispute resolution mechanism, is considered a potential method of dispute settlement since it is effective in addressing the issues in a family conflict involving the elderly. Due to its effectiveness, the application of mediation as a means of resolving disputes has gained global attention. Considering its effectiveness, some countries, such as Australia and Canada, apply mediation in resolving family issues involving the elderly. The use of mediation in family disputes is not new in Malaysia, however, it is yet to be applied in elderly family disputes. The objective of this article is to explore the scope of the application of mediation in elderly family issues. As such, this study adopts the qualitative approach of research where primary and secondary sources of data were gleaned from various statutes as well as existing literature, respectively. In order to underline the potential of mediation in dispute resolution, the experiences of Australia and Canada have been shared in this article. The finding indicates that due to its intrinsic excellence and usefulness, mediation can excel in resolving the disputes related to the elderly. Therefore, the paper recommends embracing mediation as a feasible dispute settlement mechanism involving the elderly in a family setting in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Inequitable access to primary health care (PHC) remains a problem for most western countries. Failure to scale up effective interventions has been due, in part, to a failure to share the logic and essential elements of successful programs. The aim of this paper is to describe what we learned about improving access to PHC for vulnerable groups across multiple sites through use of a common theory-based program logic model and a common evaluation approach. This was the IMPACT initiative. Methods: IMPACT's evaluation used a mixed methods design with longitudinal (pre and post) analysis of six interventions. The analysis for this paper included four of the six sites that met study criteria. These sites were located in Canada (Alberta, Quebec and Ontario) and Australia (New South Wales). Using the overarching logic model, unexpected findings were reviewed, and alternative explanations were considered to understand how the mechanisms of each intervention may have contributed to results. Results: Each site addressed their local access problem with different strategies and from different starting points. All sites observed changes in patient abilities to access PHC and provider access capabilities. The combination of intended and observed consequences for consumers and providers was different at each site, but all sites achieved change in both consumer ability and provider capability, even in interventions where there was no activity targeting provider behaviors. Discussion: The model helped to identify, explore and synthesize intended and unintended consequences of four interventions that appeared to have more differences than similarities. Similar outcomes for different interventions and multiple impacts of each intervention on abilities were observed, implying complex causal pathways. Conclusions: All the interventions were a low-cost incremental attempt to address unmet health care needs of vulnerable populations. Change is possible; sustaining change may be more challenging. Access to PHC requires attention to both patient abilities and provider characteristics. The logic model proved to be a valuable heuristic tool for defining the objectives of the interventions, evaluating their impacts, and learning from the comparison of 'cases'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: International and migrant students face specific challenges which may impact their mental health, well-being and academic outcomes, and these may be gendered experiences. The purpose of this scoping review was to map the literature on the challenges, coping responses and supportive interventions for international and migrant students in academic nursing programs in major host countries, with a gender lens. Methods: We searched 10 databases to identify literature reporting on the challenges, coping responses and/or supportive interventions for international and migrant nursing students in college or university programs in Canada, the United-States, Australia, New Zealand or a European country. We included peer-reviewed research (any design), discussion papers and literature reviews. English, French and Spanish publications were considered and no time restrictions were applied. Drawing from existing frameworks, we critically assessed each paper and extracted information with a gender lens. Results: One hundred fourteen publications were included. Overall the literature mostly focused on international students, and among migrants, migration history/status and length of time in country were not considered with regards to challenges, coping or interventions. Females and males, respectively, were included in 69 and 59% of studies with student participants, while those students who identify as other genders/sexual orientations were not named or identified in any of the research. Several papers suggest that foreign-born nursing students face challenges associated with different cultural roles, norms and expectations for men and women. Other challenges included perceived discrimination due to wearing a hijab and being a 'foreign-born male nurse', and in general nursing being viewed as a feminine, low-status profession. Only two strategies, accessing support from family and other student mothers, used by women to cope with challenges, were identified. Supportive interventions considering gender were limited; these included matching students with support services' personnel by sex, involving male family members in admission and orientation processes, and using patient simulation as a method to prepare students for care-provision of patients of the opposite-sex. Conclusion: Future work in nursing higher education, especially regarding supportive interventions, needs to address the intersections of gender, gender identity/sexual orientation and foreign-born status, and also consider the complexity of migrant students' contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Drug reimbursement decisions are often made based on a price set by the manufacturer. In some cases, this price leads to public and scientific debates about whether its level can be justified in relation to its costs, including those related to research and development (R&D) and manufacturing. Such considerations could enter the decision process in collectively financed health care systems. This paper investigates whether manufacturers' costs in relation to drug prices, or profit margins, are explicitly mentioned and considered by health technology assessment (HTA) organisations. Method: An analysis of reimbursement reports for cancer drugs was performed. All relevant Dutch HTA-reports, published between 2017 and 2019, were selected and matched with HTA-reports from three other jurisdictions (England, Canada, Australia). Information was extracted. Additionally, reimbursement reports for three cases of expensive non-oncolytic orphan drugs prominent in pricing debates in the Netherlands were investigated in depth to examine consideration of profit margins. Results: A total of 66 HTA-reports concerning 15 cancer drugs were included. None of these reports contained information on manufacturer's costs or profit margins. Some reports contained general considerations of the HTA organisation which related prices to manufacturers' costs: six contained a statement on the lack of price setting transparency, one mentioned recouping R&D costs as a potential argument to justify a high price. For the case studies, 21 HTA-reports were selected. One contained a cost-based price justification provided by the manufacturer. None of the other reports contained information on manufacturer's costs or profit margins. Six reports contained a discussion about lack of transparency. Reports from two jurisdictions contained invitations to justify high prices by demonstrating high costs. Conclusion: Despite the attention given to manufacturers' costs in relation to price in public debates and in the literature, this issue does not seem to get explicit systematic consideration in the reimbursement reports of expensive drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Oxycodone is a widely used opioid analgesic, which is involved in cancer pain and non-cancer pain. This study is intended to understand the publication characteristics of oxycodone research field and assess the quality of pertinent articles from 1998 to 2017. Methods. Oxycodone-related publications from 1998 to 2017 were retrieved from the Web of Science (WOS) and PubMed database. These papers were coded across several categories, such as total number, journals, countries, institutions, authors and citations reports. And the analysis of co-occurrence keywords was handled by VOSviewer software. Results. According to search strategies, a total of 2659 articles on oxycodone were published in world from 1998 to 2017 in WOS. Among the top 10 most productive organizations, six of them were American institutes, two of them were pharmaceutical enterprises and the other three were Finnish, Australian and Canadian institutes, which is similar with the distribution by country/region. Drewes AM from Denmark published most articles and PAIN MEDICINE is the most productive journal in oxycodone area. Meanwhile, clinical studies occupy a dominant position during the past 20 years. The 10 most cited papers were listed. Among these articles, 8 of them are reviews and 2 of those are meta-analysis. And the last decade (2008–2017) displayed that the newest keywords focus on "double-blind", "randomized controlled trial" and "neuropathic pain". Conclusions. The findings provided a comprehensive overview of oxycodone research. In view of the adverse effects of oxycodone, high-quality oxycodone studies both in basic studies and clinical trials need to be completed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ascochyta lentis causes ascochyta blight in lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) and yield loss can be as high as 50%. With careful agronomic management practices, fungicide use, and advances in breeding resistant lentil varieties, disease severity and impact to farmers have been largely controlled. However, evidence from major lentil producing countries, Canada and Australia, suggests that A. lentis isolates can change their virulence profile and level of aggressiveness over time and under different selection pressures. In this paper, we describe the first genome assembly for A. lentis for the Australian isolate Al4, through the integration of data from Illumina and PacBio SMRT sequencing. The Al4 reference genome assembly is almost 42 Mb in size and encodes 11,638 predicted genes. The Al4 genome comprises 21 full-length and gapless chromosomal contigs and two partial chromosome contigs each with one telomere. We predicted 31 secondary metabolite clusters, and 38 putative protein effectors, many of which were classified as having an unknown function. Comparison of A. lentis genome features with the recently published reference assembly for closely related A. rabiei show that genome synteny between these species is highly conserved. However, there are several translocations and inversions of genome sequence. The location of secondary metabolite clusters near transposable element and repeat-rich genomic regions was common for A. lentis as has been reported for other fungal plant pathogens [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deliberates on the nature of justice in Indigenous engagement with settler-colonial legality. I use the case law-based evidence from the three jurisdictions, Australia, Brazil, and Canada, to reflect on the abstract and material representations of Indigenous environmental justice in contemporary settler-colonial societies. There are two elements at play here. While some of the constituent elements of 'Indigenous environmental justice' may remain undefined in the legal system, they function as an invitation to the courts for interpreting them widely. How far has this been used, and in what manner speaks to the nature of juridical engagement with indigeneity? Second, the need for certainty and procedural integrity within the legal interpretation often belies the assumption of neutrality. This is pronounced when political and historical questions are antecedents to the legal questions to be determined by a court. Settler colonial nations illustrate this contradiction by laying bare the past and present historical injustices that accompany Indigenous rights and sovereignty. To think about 'justice' in these cases requires principle-led juridical innovations. I argue that courts are yet to recognize their key role in identifying and remedying the violence scripted by the law on Indigenous people. While it may be a difficult and complex task to develop a radical jurisprudence without violating the separation of power, courts continue to be the final altars of justice with a wide range of creative and untapped powers. The responsibility to articulate Indigenous environmental justice as a legal principle in the Anthropocene1 calls for deploying those powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Increasing numbers of primary care practitioners in refugee resettlement countries are providing care to refugees. Access to trained interpreters is a priority for these practitioners, but there are many barriers to the implementation of interpreted consultations in routine care. There is a lack of international, theoretically informed research. The purpose of this paper is to understand barriers to interpreter use in primary care consultations in four resettlement countries using Normalisation Process Theory. Method: We conducted a cross-sectional online survey with networks of primary care practitioners (PCPs) who care for refugees in Australia, Canada, Ireland and the US (n = 314). We analysed qualitative data from the survey about barriers to interpreter use (n = 178). We completed an inductive thematic analysis, iteratively developed a Normalisation Process Theory (NPT)-informed coding frame and then mapped the emergent findings onto the theory's construct about enacting interpreted consultations. Results: In all four countries, the use of an interpreter presented communication and interaction challenges between providers and patients, which can impede the goals of primary care consultations. Primary care practitioners did not always have confidence in interpreted consultations and described poor professional practice by some interpreters. There was variation across countries, and inconsistency within countries, in the availability of trained interpreters and funding sources. Conclusion: There are shared and differential barriers to implementation of interpreted consultations in a consistent and sustained way in the four countries studied. These findings can be used to inform country-specific and international level policies and interventions focusing on improving skills and resources for interpreted consultations to improve implementation of interpreted primary care consultations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Indigenous children living in high income countries have a consistently high prevalence of mental health problems. We aimed to identify psychosocial risk and protective factors for mental health in this setting. Methods: A systematic review of studies published between 1996 and 2016 that quantitatively evaluated the association between psychosocial variables and mental health among Indigenous children living in high income countries was conducted. Psychosocial variables were grouped into commonly occurring domains. Individual studies were judged to provide evidence for an association between a domain and either good mental health, poor mental health, or a negligible or inconsistent association. The overall quality of evidence across all studies for each domain was assessed using the Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) guidelines. Results: Forty-seven papers were eligible (mainland US 30 [64%], Canada 8 [17%], Australia 7 [15%], Hawaii 4 [9%]), including 58,218 participants aged 4-20 years. Most papers were cross-sectional (39, 83%) and measured negative mental health outcomes (41, 87%). Children's negative cohesion with their families and the presence of adverse events appeared the most reliable predictors of increased negative mental health outcomes. Children's substance use, experiences of discrimination, comorbid internalising symptoms, and negative parental behaviour also provided evidence of associations with negative mental health outcomes. Positive family and peer relationships, high self-esteem and optimism were associated with increased positive mental health outcomes. Conclusions: Quantitative research investigating Indigenous children's mental health is largely cross-sectional and focused upon negative outcomes. Indigenous children living in high income countries share many of the same risk and protective factors associated with mental health. The evidence linking children's familial environment, psychological traits, substance use and experiences of discrimination with mental health outcomes highlights key targets for more concerted efforts to develop initiatives to improve the mental health of Indigenous children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: People living in rural and remote communities commonly experience significant health disadvantages. Geographical barriers and reduced specialist and generalist services impact access to care when compared with metropolitan context. Innovative models of care have been developed for people living with chronic diseases in rural areas with the goal of overcoming these inequities. The aim of this paper was to describe the characteristics and outcomes of studies investigating innovative models of care for people living with chronic disease in rural areas of developed countries where a metropolitan comparator was included.Methods: An integrative systematic review was undertaken. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method was used to understand the empirical and theoretical data on clinical outcomes for people living with chronic disease in rural compared with metropolitan contexts and their models of care in Australia, New Zealand, United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.Results: Literature searching revealed 620 articles published in English between 1st January 2000 and 31st March 2019. One hundred sixty were included in the review including 68 from the United States, 59 from Australia and New Zealand (5), 21 from Canada and 11 from the United Kingdom and Ireland. 53% (84) focused on cardiovascular disease; 27% (43) diabetes mellitus; 8% (12) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; and 13% (27) chronic kidney disease. Mortality was only reported in 10% (16) of studies and only 18% (29) reported data on Indigenous populations.Conclusions: This integrated review reveals that the published literature on common chronic health issues pertaining to rural and remote populations is largely descriptive. Only a small number of publications focus on mortality and comparative health outcomes from health care models in both urban and non-urban populations. Innovative service models and telehealth are together well represented in the published literature but data on health outcomes is relatively sparse. There is significant scope for further directly comparative studies detailing the effect of service delivery models on the health outcomes of urban and rural populations. We believe that such data would further knowledge in this field and help to break the deadly synergy between increased rurality and poorer outcomes for people with chronic disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Since the early 90s, patient navigation programs were introduced in the United States to address inequitable access to cancer care. Programs have since expanded internationally and in scope. The goals of patient navigation programs are to: a) link patients and families to primary care services, specialist care, and community-based health and social services (CBHSS); b) provide more holistic patient-centred care; and, c) identify and resolve patient barriers to care. This paper fills a gap in knowledge to reveal what is known about motivators and factors influencing implementation and maintenance of patient navigation programs in primary care that link patients to CBHSS. It also reports on outcomes from these studies to help identify gaps in research that can inform future studies.Methods: This scoping literature review involved: i) electronic database searches; ii) a web site search; iii) a search of reference lists from literature reviews; and, iv) author follow up. It included papers from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and/or Western Europe published between January 1990 and June 2013 if they discussed navigators or navigation programs in primary care settings that linked patients to CBHSS.Results: Of 34 papers, most originated in the United States (n = 29) while the remainder were from the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Motivators for initiating navigation programs were to: a) improve delivery of health and social care services; b) support and manage specific health needs or specific population needs, and; c) improve quality of life and wellbeing of patients. Eleven factors were found to influence implementation and maintenance of these patient navigation programs. These factors closely aligned with the Diffusion of Innovation in Service Organizations model, thus providing a theoretical foundation to support them. Various positive outcomes were reported for patients, providers and navigators, as well as the health and social care system, although they need to be considered with caution since the majority of studies were descriptive.Conclusions: This study contributes new knowledge that can inform the initiation and maintenance of primary care patient navigation programs that link patients with CBHSS. It also provides directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stakeholder engagement is increasingly common in health research, with protocols for engaging multiple stakeholder groups becoming normative in patient-centered outcomes research. Previous work has focused on identifying relevant stakeholder groups with whom to work and on working with stakeholders in evidence implementation. This paper draws on the expertise of a team from four countries-Canada, Australia, the UK, and the USA-to provide researchers with practical guidance for carrying out multi-stakeholder-engaged projects: we present a list of questions to assist in selecting appropriate roles and modes of engagement; we introduce a matrix to help summarize engagement activities; and we provide a list of online resources. This guidance, matrix, and list of resources can assist researchers to consider more systematically which stakeholder groups to involve, in what study roles, and by what modes of engagement. By documenting how stakeholders are paired up with specific roles, the matrix also provides a potential structure for evaluating the impact of stakeholder engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing entrepreneurial discourses have been dominated by white middle-class androcentric approach, giving little space to the discussions of racism and sexism experienced by minority women entrepreneurs. This paper aims to fill this gap through an examination of the experiences of Asian immigrant women entrepreneurs in Canada and Australia using an intersectional approach. The key research question addressed in the paper is to what extent, and in what ways, do racism and sexism impact on the entrepreneurial experiences of Asian immigrant women entrepreneurs and what strategies do they use in managing discrimination to protect themselves and their businesses? Four main strategies were derived from our findings, namely, creating a comfortable niche, playing the mainstream card, swallowing the pain, and resisting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid urbanisation and infrastructure development projects have increased infinite property regeneration and construction projects in the developed countries. This study aims to examine the current construction waste management literature, including key authors, university networks, and relevant information systems, considering four selected countries, including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This paper uses a set of novel metrics, query-based search, and social network analysis techniques for evaluating a dataset of 2337 papers published in a decade by authors from different countries investigating the topic of recycling and reuse of construction and demolition waste in order to identify prominent researchers, influential universities, collaboration practices, and research trends. The dataset of publications is collected from Scopus and analysed using a set of network analysis techniques and statistical analysis. An additional dataset of keywords was collected from the Twitter pages of engineering firms and other relevant industry organisations to assess any possible connection between industry interests and research trends. In order to present a solid analysis of the current investigations in the field, a scientometric analysis along with a rigor statistical method was adopted to carefully identify trends, detailed sub-topics, and the materials investigated in the literature. A probit regression model for testing differences between countries in recycling practices was utilised in the STATA environment. The findings show a set of network analysis and clusters that can help scholars to set their future studies based on the current advances and limitations identified in the literature. Within the dataset, 42% of publications referred to concrete waste, whilst only 2.2% included glass, 2.5% included brick, 4.3% included steel and none included wood, which shows the most common building materials have not been fully covered in the literature. Only 48 publications, or 7.4% of the dataset, originated from the three selected concrete-focused journals. It was also found that information systems appeared in the database lately; however, there is less discussion in the literature on how the integration of Geographic Information System (GIS), Buidling Information Model (BIM), 3D Printing and geo-spatial data analysis can help waste management in the field of construction. The bibliographic analysis of the selected cases shows that universities in Canada and the US exhibit more evidence of domestic collaboration and industry partnerships than universities in Australia and the UK. Additionally, there is evidence to suggest that publications with at least one industry co-author are more likely to address the issue of regulation. The outcome of this paper enables academics, engineers, and regulators to predict research trends, improve industry collaborations and utilise information systems and assign more research resources to address the identified gaps in the literature. • Developed a network of 1408 authors within the dataset and apply Total Publications metrics. • Examined the collaboration of 529 institutions within Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US. • Utilised a probit regression model for testing differences between countries in recycling practices. • Visualised an online GIS-based dashboard of landfills and recycling facilities using geo-spatial data. • Identified gaps in two different directions of material technology and management systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Healthcare organisations serve clients from diverse Indigenous and other ethnic and racial groups on a daily basis, and require appropriate client-centred systems and services for provision of optimal healthcare. Despite advocacy for systems-level approaches to cultural competence, the primary focus in the literature remains on competency strategies aimed at health promotion initiatives, workforce development and student education. This paper aims to bridge the gap in available evidence about systems approaches to cultural competence by systematically mapping key concepts, types of evidence, and gaps in research. Methods: A literature search was completed as part of a larger systematic search of evaluations and measures of cultural competence interventions in health care in Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Seventeen peer-reviewed databases, 13 websites and clearinghouses, and 11 literature reviews were searched from 2002 to 2015. Overall, 109 studies were found, with 15 evaluating systems-level interventions or describing measurements. Thematic analysis was used to identify key implementation principles, intervention strategies and outcomes reported. Results: Twelve intervention and three measurement studies met our inclusion criteria. Key principles for implementing systems approaches were: user engagement, organisational readiness, and delivery across multiple sites. Two key types of intervention strategies to embed cultural competence within health systems were: audit and quality improvement approaches and service-level policies or strategies. Outcomes were found for organisational systems, the client/practitioner encounter, health, and at national policy level. Discussion and implications: We could not determine the overall effectiveness of systems-level interventions to reform health systems because interventions were context-specific, there were too few comparative studies and studies did not use the same outcome measures. However, examined together, the intervention and measurement principles, strategies and outcomes provide a preliminary framework for implementation and evaluation of systems-level interventions to improve cultural competence. Identified gaps in the literature included a need for cost and effectiveness studies of systems approaches and explication of the effects of cultural competence on client experience. Further research is needed to explore the extent to which cultural competence improves health outcomes and reduces ethnic and racially-based healthcare disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increasing support from international organizations and the research community for stepping beyond infant or child mortality as the most common child level social indicator and progressing towards an international measure of child development. The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is a teacher-completed measure of children's developmental health at school entry, which to date has been used in more than a dozen countries. The EDI includes five developmental domains (Physical Health and Well-being, Social Competence, Emotional Maturity, Language and Cognitive Development and Communication Skills and General Knowledge) and 16 subdomains. This paper examines the EDI's psychometric properties in four English-speaking countries (Canada, Australia, United States and Jamaica) by evaluating both the internal consistency and factor structures, as well as exploring the association between the EDI's Language and Cognitive Development Domain and a direct assessment of children's receptive vocabulary (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, PPVT). Overall, the factor loadings and internal consistencies of domains and subdomains were similar across the countries. The comparisons of the Language and Cognitive Development Domain with the PPVT showed high specificity and low sensitivity. The results of this paper indicate that the EDI, a measure of children's developmental status at school entry, demonstrates similar psychometric properties in a number of countries, thus building the evidence for the instrument to be added to the limited array of internationally comparable child social indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on a statutory provision common to Australian, New Zealand and Canadian personal property securities legislation which requires a grantor of a security interest generally to have 'rights in the collateral' before a security interest can attach to that collateral. It analyses the extent to which a particular construction of that provision, initially developed by Canadian courts and commentators in the context of certain lease transactions and now applied in New Zealand, may and should colour construction of the equivalent Australian legislation. The paper argues that 'new learning', which holds the interest of a lessee sufficient to enable a security interest to attach to leased goods, is capable of achievement through different reasoning to that currently adopted by New Zealand courts. Such reasoning has significant implications for understanding when a security interest may attach to personal property more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to outline some of the key issues related to migrant workers, work, public policy and HRM while introducing the five articles included in the special issue. Design/methodology/approach - The paper reports on the issue which is made up of articles that present research based on surveys, interviews and longitudinal census data. Findings - It is evident that high-performing economies attract migrants from lower-performing economies. However, with influxes of migrant labour there are a number of challenges that need to be met at the organisational and policy levels. Research limitations/implications - The indications are that some economies are beginning to slow and this means that migrant flows will also slow or reverse. The implications for migrant-dependent sectors and countries are not clear, although all five papers indicate areas for further research. Practical implications - Each article includes practical implications depending on the sector, skill and country being examined. Practical implications include the role of day labour centres as HR mediators between organisations and employees, the need for culturally sensitive and tailored training programs to assist professional migrants and the need for policies geared towards the assimilation of migrants and return migrants in order to assist their integration into the labour market. Originality/value - The five articles presented here represent a wide range of approaches, skill levels and sectors within the five counties examined: the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, and Finland. Some, such as the US paper which includes the first national survey of day labour worker centres, present findings from a highly under-represented area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lone parents and their children experience higher than average levels of adverse health and social outcomes, much of which are explained by high rates of poverty. Many high income countries have attempted to address high poverty rates by introducing employment requirements for lone parents in receipt of welfare benefits. However, there is evidence that employment may not reduce poverty or improve the health of lone parents and their children.Methods: We conducted a systematic review of qualitative studies reporting lone parents' accounts of participation in welfare to work (WtW), to identify explanations and possible mechanisms for the impacts of WtW on health and wellbeing. Twenty one bibliographic databases were searched. Two reviewers independently screened references and assessed study quality. Studies from any high income country that met the criteria of focussing on lone parents, mandatory WtW interventions, and health or wellbeing were included. Thematic synthesis was used to investigate analytic themes between studies.Results: Screening of the 4703 identified papers and quality assessment resulted in the inclusion of 16 qualitative studies of WtW in five high income countries, USA, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand, covering a variety of welfare regimes. Our synthesis found that WtW requirements often conflicted with child care responsibilities. Available employment was often poorly paid and precarious. Adverse health impacts, such as increased stress, fatigue, and depression were commonly reported, though employment and appropriate training was linked to increased self-worth for some. WtW appeared to influence health through the pathways of conflict and control, analytical themes which emerged during synthesis. WtW reduced control over the nature of employment and care of children. Access to social support allowed some lone parents to manage the conflict associated with employment, and to increase control over their circumstances, with potentially beneficial health impacts.Conclusion: WtW can result in increased conflict and reduced control, which may lead to negative impacts on mental health. Availability of social support may mediate the negative health impacts of WtW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2006, Ontario made history by passing legislation to address licensing barriers experienced by internationally educated professionals. While registration requirements have been slow to change, regulators demonstrate increasing openness to alternative ways that individuals can develop or demonstrate professional competencies. This paper reviews acceptable alternatives for meeting academic requirements in 38 Ontario professions and compares local experience requirements and alternatives for three professions in Canada and Australia. Acceptable alternatives improve flexibility and remove artificial barriers by focusing on competency. However, ongoing investment is needed from regulators and government to ensure that alternative routes to licensing are accessible, affordable, and sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THIS CHAPTER seeks to move the discussion of labour and politics beyond the contest of political ideologies in the movement and the constraints of the liberal democratic state. To explain the different political histories of the Australian and Canadian movements we use a model with three dimensions: the changing balance between labour and politics; the different social forces that labour seeks to represent; and the different conceptions of politics that labour holds. After a discussion of the literature on labour and politics in the two countries, the paper applies this model to distinguish two periods, a formative period up to the early 1920s, in which labour entered politics. and the period from the 1920s to the 1950s when parties or governments took politics into the labour movement. The model enables us to characterize the politics of the Australian Labor Party as a form of class-based labourism, with significant moments of working-class socialism. We characterize the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation/New Democratic Party as a form of populist socialism. The paper concludes with some insights gained from using a common model in a comparative exercise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THIS PAPER examines labour process developments within Canada and Australia during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. In contrast to traditional labour process studies, which have focused upon the development of sophisticated forms of managerial control within modem industry, this comparative analysis stresses the much simpler forms of labour control that existed within Canadian and Australian rural and urban workplaces. The paper explores the reasons underlying differences in labour process developments, and argues for the need to broaden labour process analysis in order to take account of spatial and geographic variations in working life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NO PERSUASIVE ACCOUNT of labour in Australia and Canada can ignore the impact that immigration has wrought on the composition of the working class and preoccupations of workers, unions, and the varied political parties they have sponsored. Highlighting both similarities and differences between countries, the paper explores the paradoxical relationship that immigration has had with the labour movements of Australia and Canada. Although immigrants have been a critical source of union recruits, new ideas, and leaders (this being especially true for British skilled men), their presence was also long a source of concern, chauvinism, and division within predominantly white, Anglo-Celtic, and male-dominated union movements that adopted exclusionary policies, particularly regarding Asian and continental European workers. A more recent shift towards non-racist and inclusive policies unfortunately has not obliterated labour segmentation along racial and ethnic lines, especially job ghettos for immigrant women. Meanwhile, global restructuring and the loss of hard-earned union protections have increased immigrant workers' historic vulnerability. In explaining differences in the two countries -for example, Australia's greater 'success' at restricting non-white immigration before 1945 and Canada's earlier experience with a racially diverse work force - the paper cautions against easy generalizations, pointing instead to a series of historically contingent factors (such as 'accidents' of geography and differing political developments) that on some occasions led to rather different outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In both Canada and Australia the conduct of public inquiries draws heavily from the expertise of the legal profession, with judges frequently serving as commissioners and inquiry hearings often reproducing the popular imagery of a courtroom. Despite this affinity between public inquiries and the legal profession, however, jurisprudential and academic authorities repeatedly stress that public Inquiries are non-adjudicative. Indeed, the received wisdom is that the investigative focus of public inquiries justifies their divergence from the procedural and substantive commitments of adjudication. This paper challenges that assumption. It argues that the service of judges as inquiry commissioners should be premised on their fidelity to the basic value of adjudication, a commitment necessary both to honour the due process rights of inquiry participants and the constitutional principle of separation of powers. Drawing from constitutional jurisprudence, practical examples of judicial service on inquiry commissions in Canada and Australia, and an understanding of adjudicative processes from the perspectives of their participants, I propose an analytic method to resolve the unique dilemmas faced by judges as inquiry commissioners. This method speaks directly to the ethics of judges, reinforcing a connection between their skills, procedural methods, and commitment to honour the basic principles of a just legal system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many people migrate to Australia and other parts of the world for many reasons. Modern secular democracies such as ours, the United States, Canada, India and most of Europe hold the promise to potential migrants of freedom of religious practice and speech. In an increasingly pluralistic world, many states are finding it difficult to interpret their own constitutional provisions to accommodate increasing numbers of migrants, whose numbers are now such that their voices are being heard in their requests for accommodation where once a strong majority religious view held sway and was the only voice heard in the development of public policy. This paper will explore the new world, particularly in Europe and North America, where migration policies have encouraged, not only new citizens, but new ways of thinking that challenge the long standing status quo. Should secular constitutions, often written long ago in a much different context, change to accommodate the new plurality, or are these constitutions flexible enough to do so already? Are the new diaspora now an agent for change? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This paper examines how negative experiences with the health-care system create a lack of confidence in receiving medical care in seven countries: Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Methods The empirical analysis is based on data from the Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey 2007, with nationally representative samples of adults aged 18 and over. For the analysis of the experience of cost barriers and confidence in receiving medical care, we conducted pairwise comparisons of group percentages as well as country-wise multivariate logistic regression models. Results Individuals who have experienced cost barriers show a significantly lower level of confidence in receiving safe and quality medical care than those who have not. This effect is most pronounced in the United States, where people who have foregone necessary treatment because of costs are four times as likely to lack confidence as individuals without the experience of cost barriers (adjusted odds ratio 4.00). In New Zealand, Germany, and Canada, individuals with the experience of cost barriers are twice as likely to report low confidence compared with those without this experience (adjusted odds ratios of 1.95, 2.19 and 2.24, respectively). In the Netherlands and UK, cost barriers are only a marginal phenomenon. Conclusions The fact that the experience of financial barriers considerably lowers confidence indicates that financial incentives, such as private co-payments, have a negative effect on overall public support and therefore on the legitimacy of health-care systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reviews the role of the Commonwealth in responding to natural disasters in Australia and argues that the Commonwealth can and should legislate to define its role, powers and responsibilities. In the absence of legislation governments may be able to rely on non-statutory authority to manage emergencies but it is considered prudent to ensure that the necessary powers are enshrined in legislation, before a disaster strikes. Examples from Canada and the United States are given to show how these federated states have approached the need to empower their federal governments to respond to an emergency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Appropriation of indigenous voice and/or subject appropriation (as defined by James O. Young and Susan Haley) in a literary space of the two multicultural postcolonial locations, Canada and Australia, lays bare a very uneasy palimpsest of postcoloniality. Conflation of two different views, that of literary works being the constructs of possible worlds (mimesis), i.e. the space of textual freedom, and literary works being limited by postcolonial ethics especially when they attempt to map the cultural space of the postcolonial other, reveals the setbacks of postcolonial hybridity turning it into a possible minefield. The implications of alleged freedom of creative act is discussed in the context of cultural appropriation leading to various literary "borrowings" and "hoaxes", and the function of Native/Aboriginal author by showing various views coming from Canadian and Australian Indigenous literati and scholars who most ardently oppose to the outsider's appropriation of Indigenous imagery. The quote from Thomas King's seminal short story in the title of the paper serves as a metaphor for a doublebind effect of careless appropriation of Indigenous stories by non-Indigenous writers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Three case–control studies each nested within a cohort of petroleum workers assessed exposure to benzene in relation to risk of haematopoietic cancers. These studies have each been updated and the cases will be pooled to derive a more powerful study. The benzene exposure of new leukemia cases and controls was estimated in accordance with each respective study''s original methods. An essential component of the process of pooling the data was comparison and rationalisation of the exposure estimates to ensure accuracy and consistency of approach. This paper describes this process and presents comparative estimates before and after appropriate revision took place. The original petroleum industry studies, in Canada, the UK and Australia, were conducted at different points in time by different study teams, but the industry used similar technology in similar eras in each of these countries. Methods: A job history for each subject giving job title, dates of starting and leaving the job and location of work, was assembled. For each job or task, the average benzene exposure (Base Estimate (BE) in ppm) was derived from measurements collected at applicable worksites. Estimates of exposure intensity (workplace exposure estimates (WE)) were then calculated for each line of work history by adjusting the BEs for site- and era-specific exposure-related variables such as loading technology and percentage benzene in the product. To ensure that the exposure estimates were comparable among the studies, the WEs were allocated to generic Job Categories, e.g. Tanker Driver (by technology used e.g. bottom loading), Motor Mechanic. The WEs were stratified into eras, reflecting technological changes in the industry. The arithmetic mean (AM), geometric mean (GM) and range of the stratified WEs were calculated, by study, for each generic Job Category. These were then compared. The AMs of the WEs were regarded as substantially similar if they were within 20% in all three studies in one era or for at least two studies in two eras. If the AM of the WE group differed by more than 20%, the data were examined to see whether the difference was justified by differences in local exposure conditions, such as an enclosure versus open work area. Estimates were adjusted in the absence of justification for the difference. Results: Reconciliation of differences resulted in changes to a small number of underlying BEs, particularly the background values, also the BEs attributed to some individuals and changes to the allocation of jobs between Job Categories. Although the studies covered some differing sectors of the industry and different time periods, for 22 Job Categories there was sufficient overlap, particularly in the downstream distribution sector, to make comparisons possible. After adjustment 12 Job Categories were judged to be similar and 10 were judged to be justifiably different. Job-based peak and skin exposure estimates were applied in a uniform way across the studies and a single approach to scoring the certainty of the exposure estimates was identified. Conclusions: The revised exposure estimates will be used in the pooled analysis to examine the risk of haematopoietic cancers and benzene exposure. This exercise provided an important quality control check on the exposure estimates and identified similarly exposed Job Categories that could be grouped for risk assessment analyses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: The use of prescription anti-obesity medication (AOM) is becoming increasingly common as treatment options grow and become more accessible. However, AOM may not be without a wide range of potentially negative impacts on patient functioning and well being. The Treatment Related Impact Measure (TRIMWeight) is an obesity treatment-specific patient reported outcomes (PRO) measure designed to assess the key impacts of prescription anti-obesity medication. This paper will present the validation findings for the TRIM-Weight. Methods: The online validation battery survey was administered in four countries (the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Canada). Eligible subjects were over age eighteen, currently taking a prescription AOM and were currently or had been obese during their life. Validation analyses were conducted according to an a priori statistical analysis plan. Item level psychometric and conceptual criteria were used to refine and reduce the preliminary item pool and factor analysis to identify structural domains was performed. Reliability and validity testing was then performed and the minimally importance difference (MID) explored. Results: Two hundred and eight subjects completed the survey. Twenty-one of the 43 items were dropped and a five-factor structure was achieved: Daily Life, Weight Management, Treatment Burden, Experience of Side Effects, and Psychological Health. A-priori criteria for internal consistency and test-retest coefficients for the total score and all five subscales were met. All pre-specified hypotheses for convergent and known group validity were also met with the exception of the domain of Daily Life (proven in an ad hoc analysis) as well as the 1/2 standard deviation threshold for the MID. Conclusion: The development and validation of the TRIM-Weight has been conducted according to well-defined principles for the creation of a PRO measure. Based on the evidence to date, the TRIM-Weight can be considered a brief, conceptually sound, valid and reliable PRO measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The narrator of Christopher Koch's 1958 novel The Boys in the Island claims for Tasmania "a different soul", distinct from that of the Australian mainland to the north, in the same breath in which he claims for the island "a different weather". Observations of the distinctiveness of island geography and weather - and of the quality of the light - are recurrent in narratives set not only in Tasmania, but also on those islands to which Tasmania itself acts as a 'mainland'. This paper surveys a range of texts, including Koch's The Boys in the Island, Joanna Murray-Smith's Truce, and my own The Alphabet of Light and Dark, in which a Tasmanian island functions both as a setting for the protagonist's idealized childhood and as a metaphor for the protagonist's "true self". It explores the representation of islands in these texts, examining how a specific tradition of writing about Tasmania intersects with a broader tradition of writing about islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVES: To examine the associations among cigarette design features and tar yields of leading cigarette brands sold in the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. METHODS: Government reports and numbers listed on packs were used to obtain data on International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/Federal Trade Commission (FTC) yields for the tar of 172 cigarette varieties sold in the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. We used standardised methods to measure the following 11 cigarette design parameters: filter ventilation, cigarette pressure drop, filter pressure drop, tobacco rod length, filter length, cigarette diameter, tipping paper length, tobacco weight, filter weight, rod density and filter density. RESULTS: Filter ventilation was found to be the predominant design feature accounting for the variations between brands in ISO/FTC tar yields in each of the four countries. After accounting for filter ventilation, design parameters such as overwrap length, tobacco weight and rod density played comparatively minor roles in determining tar yields. CONCLUSIONS: Variation in ISO/FTC tar yields are predicted by a limited set of cigarette design features, especially filter ventilation, suggesting that governments should consider mandatory disclosure of cigarette design parameters as part of comprehensive tobacco product regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the issues surrounding decolonization. This paper highlights the historiography of decolonization. It also discusses the imperial history which shaped the varied governing bodies. The processes of changing a national anthem and a national flag after a country has been freed from its colonizers are briefly discussed giving in example the oddities in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Dates and symbols become national pride and symbolizes independence from colonizing rulers.

Abstract: Worldwide 30 food plants deliver 95% of human daily intake of plant food calories and around 300 other plant species are delivering the last 5%. These some 300 food plants are likely to be considered traditional in Europe, while the nearly 7000 other plant species traditionally used in the human food supply in other parts of the world may be considered novel in Europe. Novel food regulation is already in force in the European Community, Australia/New Zealand and in Canada where the novel plant foods need to go through a premarket assessment procedure. This paper propose criteria and definitions to be used in determining novelty of a plant food and also propose a safety assessment approach for novel plant food with no or limited documented history of safe consumption. A 2-step management procedure is recommended for a smooth introduction of fruits and vegetables; first to establish the novelty and second to define and commit resources for the safety assessment. The procedure builds upon the use of a worldwide network of global, regional, local and ethnobotanical positive lists for food plants to guide the decision on novelty at the first step and to enable the safety assessment at the second step. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objective: To systematically review and critically appraise the economic evaluations of one to one interventions to reduce sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and teenage conceptions. Design: Systematic review. Data Sources: Search of four electronic bibliographic databases from 1990 to January 2006. Search keywords included teenage, pregnancy, adolescent, unplanned, unwanted, cost benefit, cost utility, economic evaluation, cost effectiveness and all terms for STIs, including specific diseases. Review Methods: We included studies that evaluated a broad range of one to one interventions to reduce STIs. Outcomes included major outcomes averted, life years and quality adjusted life years (QALY). All studies were assessed against quality criteria. Results: Of 3,190 identified papers, 55 were included. The majority of studies found one to one interventions to be either cost saving or cost effective, although one highlighted the need to target the population to receive post-exposure prophylaxis to reduce transmission of HIV. Most studies used a static approach that ignores the potential re-infection of treated patients. Conclusion: One to one interventions have been shown to be cost saving or cost effective but there are some limitations in applying this evidence to the UK policy context. More UK research using dynamic modelling approaches and QALYs would provide improved evidence, enabling more robust policy recommendations to be made about which one to one interventions are cost effective in reducing STIs in the UK setting. The results of this review can be used by policy makers, health economists and researchers considering further research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper uses time series techniques to estimate the points in time when Argentina started to lose ground with Australia, Canada and the OECD. Based on my estimates Argentina started to fall behind Australia in 1899 and behind Canada in 1896, earlier than the dates maintained by previous scholars. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The global expansion of access to higher education has increased demand for information on academic quality and has led to the development of university ranking systems or league tables in many countries of the world. A recent UNESCO/CEPES conference on higher education indicators concluded that cross-national research on these ranking systems could make an important contribution to improving the international market for higher education. The comparison and analysis of national university ranking systems can help address a number of important policy questions. First, is there an emerging international consensus on the measurement of academic quality as reflected in these ranking systems? Second, what impact are the different ranking systems having on university and academic behavior in their respective countries? Finally, are there important public interests that are thus far not reflected in these rankings? If so, is there a needed and appropriate role for public policy in the development and distribution of university ranking systems and what might that role be? This paper explores these questions through a comparative analysis of university rankings in Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of rapid technological and economic expansion throughout the world, society is confronted with new requirements. For the success of the medical practice, even with the rapid changes in technology and the medical field, practitioners involved in the use of patients' information are obliged to continue to behave ethically This paper reviews the ethical challenges raised in the use of patients' information for medical and other purposes. It also discusses the values underlining the ethical issues and their importance in the use of patients' information in the doctor and patient context The issues surrounding the use of patients' information such as secrecy and confidentiality are raised and potential problems in the area, policy issues which must be addressed by those concerned with the confidentiality and secrecy of health information and the germane legal issues are also discussed. Moreover, this is a review of the current status of the health care information ethics with particular reference to the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia and developing countries. Finally, it concludes that the emerging field of health care information ethics will require careful thought and insights from an international collection of ethicists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper seeks to identify common features in the fertility patterns of the English-speaking world and provide a model basis for comparison of fertility between countries and over time. Attention is focused on the heterogeneity within the fertility patterns of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States, similar to that reported earlier for the UK and the Irish Republic. The recent age-specific fertility patterns of these countries display a marked 'bulge' in fertility of women under age 25. A mixture model with two-component: Hadwiger functions provides a suitable fit. The heterogeneity thus suggested is shown to be related to differences in the timing of births by marital status, and its magnitude is related to the proportion of births outside marriage. Additionally, there is some evidence that, in the United States, and to a lesser extent in New Zealand, this heterogeneity in fertility patterns may be explained by ethnic differences in the timing and number of births. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand have witnessed an increased over-representation of minority groups who are exposed to the criminal justice system. For many years in Australia, young First Nations males have been over-represented in the juvenile justice system in all states and territories. Many of these young males have disengaged from their schooling early, some through deliberate exclusion from the education system and others by choice. However, the choices for many young First Nations males may not be as clear cut as first might seem. This paper shows that over-representation in the juvenile justice system may be as a direct result of racial profiling, surveillance and over-policing of First Nations peoples within Australia. The literature addresses the ways in which young First Nations males experience these phenomena from an early age, and the long-term effects and consequences that can arise from these occurrences. An analysis of the current research both internationally and within Australia is thus conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THE AIM OF THIS PAPER is to identify and explain the main differences in the structures and strategies of the national union movements in Australia and Canada during the 20th century. Parallel historical narratives reveal that the differences between the two union movements ebbed and waned. They were most similar to each other in the 19th century and after the 1960s, while there was more convincing evidence of divergence in the intennediate period. Following Ross Martin, the explanation offered for these trends emphasises the relationships between unions, political parties and the state. The earlier growth of mass unionism and the political strategies adopted in Australia after their defeats in the 1890s produced more sympathetic state policies (specifically compulsory arbitration from around the turn of the century), which allowed Australian unions to prosper in ways which Canadian unions did not begin to enjoy until the 1940s. At the same time, differences in the types of state policies in the two countries subsequently affected both the structure of unions, Canadian unions being more fragmented at national level than their Australian counterparts, and the strategies they employed, Canadian unions relying more on decentralized collective bargaining compared to the more centralized arbitration approach of Australian unions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patient safety in primary care is an emerging field of research with a growing evidence base in western countries but little has been explored in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCC) including the Sultanate of Oman. This study aimed to review the literature on the safety culture and patient safety measures used globally to inform the development of safety culture among health care workers in primary care with a particular focus on the Middle East. Methods: A systematic review of the literature. Searches were undertaken using Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL and Scopus from the year 2000 to 2014. Terms defining safety culture were combined with terms identifying patient safety and primary care. Results: The database searches identified 3072 papers that were screened for inclusion in the review. After the screening and verification, data were extracted from 28 papers that described safety culture in primary care. The global distribution of the articles is as follows: the Netherlands (7), the United States (5), Germany (4), the United Kingdom (1), Australia, Canada and Brazil (two for each country), and with one each from Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The characteristics of the included studies were grouped under the following themes: safety culture in primary care, incident reporting, safety climate and adverse events. The most common theme from 2011 onwards was the assessment of safety culture in primary care (13 studies, 46%). The most commonly used safety culture assessment tool is the Hospital survey on patient safety culture (HSOPSC) which has been used in developing countries in the Middle East. Conclusions: This systematic review reveals that the most important first step is the assessment of safety culture in primary care which will provide a basic understanding to safety-related perceptions of health care providers. The HSOPSC has been commonly used in Kuwait, Turkey, and Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a large body of research showing that psychological treatment can be effectively delivered via the internet, and Digital Mental Health Services (DMHS) are now delivering those interventions in routine care. However, not all attempts to translate these research outcomes into routine care have been successful. This paper draws on the experience of successful DMHS in Australia and Canada to describe ten lessons learned while establishing and delivering internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (ICBT) and other mental health services as part of routine care. These lessons include learnings at four levels of analysis, including lessons learned working with (1) consumers, (2) therapists, (3) when operating DMHS, and (4) working within healthcare systems. Key themes include recognising that DMHS should provide not only treatment but also information and assessment services, that DMHS require robust systems for training and supervising therapists, that specialist skills are required to operate DMHS, and that the outcome data from DMHS can inform future mental health policy. We also confirm that operating such clinics is particularly challenging in the evolving funding, policy, and regulatory context, as well as increasing expectations from consumers about DMHS. Notwithstanding the difficulties of delivering DMHS, we conclude that the benefits of such services for the broader community significantly outweigh the challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: At present, over 215 million people live outside their countries of birth, many of which are referred to as diaspora-those that live in host countries but maintain strong sentimental and material links with their countries of origin, their homelands. The critical shortage of Human Resources for Health (HRH) in many developing countries remains a barrier to attaining their health system goals. Usage of medical diaspora can be one way to meet this need. A growing number of policy-makers have come to acknowledge that medical diaspora can play a vital role in the development of their homeland's health workforce capacity. To date, no inventory of low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) medical diaspora organizations has been done. This paper intends to develop an inventory that is as complete as possible, of the names of the LMIC medical diaspora organizations in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia and addresses their interests and roles in building the health system of their country of origin.Methods: The researchers utilized six steps for their research methodology: (1) development of rationale for choosing the four destination countries (the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia); (2) identification of low- and middle-income countries (LMIC); (3) web search for the name of LMIC medical diaspora organization in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia through the search engines of PubMed, Scopus, Google, Google Scholar, and LexisNexis; (4) development of inclusion and exclusion criteria and creation of a medical diaspora organizations' inventory list (Table 1) and corresponding maps (Figures 1, 2, and 3). Using decision criteria, reviewers narrowed the number to a final 89 organizations; (5) synthesis of information to collect the general as well as the unique roles the medical diaspora organizations play in building health systems; and (6) developing inventory of respective LMIC governments' diaspora offices (Table 2) to identify units/departments that facilitate diaspora's work.Result: In total, the authors found 89 medical diaspora organizations in 4 main countries: in the United States of America 60, in the United Kingdom 24, in Australia 3, and in Canada 2. These medical diaspora organizations tend to have three focuses: providing healthcare services, training, and when needed humanitarian aid to their home country; creating a social or professional network of migrant physicians (i.e., simply to bring together people with an ethnic and professional commonality) and; supplying improved and culturally sensitive healthcare to the migrant population within the host country. Sixty-eight LMIC countries have established a diaspora office within their government office. It is also equally important to note that many policy-makers may lack knowledge of models for medical diaspora engagement or of valuable lessons learned by other governments about working with diaspora.Conclusions: The medical diaspora remains an underutilized resource in both health systems policy formulation and program implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Indigenous peoples in developed countries have reduced life expectancies, particularly from chronic diseases. The lack of access to and take up of palliative care services of Indigenous peoples is an ongoing concern. Objectives: To examine and learn from published studies on provision of culturally safe palliative care service delivery to Indigenous people in Australia, New Zealand (NZ), Canada and the United States of America (USA); and to compare Indigenous peoples' preferences, needs, opportunities and barriers to palliative care. Methods: A comprehensive search of multiple databases was undertaken. Articles were included if they were published in English from 2000 onwards and related to palliative care service delivery for Indigenous populations; papers could use quantitative or qualitative approaches. Common themes were identified using thematic synthesis. Studies were evaluated using Daly's hierarchy of evidence-for-practice in qualitative research. Results: Of 522 articles screened, 39 were eligible for inclusion. Despite diversity in Indigenous peoples' experiences across countries, some commonalities were noted in the preferences for palliative care of Indigenous people: to die close to or at home; involvement of family; and the integration of cultural practices. Barriers identified included inaccessibility, affordability, lack of awareness of services, perceptions of palliative care, and inappropriate services. Identified models attempted to address these gaps by adopting the following strategies: community engagement and ownership; flexibility in approach; continuing education and training; a whole-of-service approach; and local partnerships among multiple agencies. Better engagement with Indigenous clients, an increase in number of palliative care patients, improved outcomes, and understanding about palliative care by patients and their families were identified as positive achievements. Conclusions: The results provide a comprehensive overview of identified effective practices with regards to palliative care delivered to Indigenous populations to guide future program developments in this field. Further research is required to explore the palliative care needs and experiences of Indigenous people living in urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the rural physician movement in Australia. He suggests that Canadian rural physicians follow the Australian approach of creating action-oriented policy papers. He recommends that rural doctors and medical personnel collaborate to influence government policy as did the Australians with their National Rural Health Alliance.