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Housing is a major concern for many international students. This is especially so in those countries where students are mostly dependent on the private market for their accommodation. Australia is one such country, and is one of the world's major destinations for international students. This article analyses governmental failure to address problems relating to international student housing affordability and conditions. Using theory on 'policy inaction' to frame the analysis, we draw on 20 interviews with policy stakeholders to explain the Australian government's reliance on: (1) market-based housing provision for international students, and (2) a longstanding policy preference not to provide support. Interviewees were widely critical of the lack of action to address international student housing problems and understood inaction in relation, rather than in opposition, to the dominance of market-based action in housing and higher education. However, analysis of stakeholder perspectives also illuminates how policy-making action benefiting some emerges as inaction for others left behind or overlooked by the status quo. The interview data points to the need for government to overhaul its policy framework, and in doing so, to collaborate with higher education providers in revising the market-based regulatory approach. The main implications for theory and policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Disparities between metropolitan and non‐metropolitan health workforce must be addressed to reduce inequities in health care access. Understanding factors affecting early career practitioners' choice of practice location can inform workforce planning. Objective: To investigate influences on rural practice location preferences of recent graduates. Design: Cross‐sectional analysis linked university enrolment, Graduate Outcomes Survey (GOS) and Australian Health Professional Regulation Agency (Ahpra) principal place of practice (PPP) for 2018 and 2019 nursing and allied health graduates from two Australian universities. Chi‐squared tests and logistic regression compared rural versus urban PPP and locational preference. Findings: Of 2979 graduates, 1295 (43.5%) completed the GOS, with 63.7% (n = 825) working in their profession and 84.0% of those (n = 693) in their preferred location. Ahpra PPP data were extracted for 669 (81.1%) of those working in their profession. Most reported influences were 'proximity to family/friends' (48.5%), 'lifestyle of the area' (41.7%) and 'opportunity for career advancement' (40.7%). Factors most influential for rural PPP were 'cost of accommodation/housing' (OR = 2.26, 95% CI = 1.23–4.17) and 'being approached by an employer' (OR = 2.10, 95% CI = 1.12–3.92). Having an urban PPP was most influenced by 'spouse/partners employment/career' (OR = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.30–0.93) and 'proximity to family/friends' (OR = 0.41, 95% CI = 0.24–0.72). Discussion: While the findings add strength to the understanding that graduates who originated from a rural area are most likely to take up rural practice in their preferred location, varied social and professional factors are influential on decision‐making. Conclusions: It is imperative to recruit students from non‐metropolitan regions into health professional degrees, as well as addressing other influences on choice of practice location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is motivated by my personal wish to pay tribute to my beloved grandfather, who passed away during the COVID-19 pandemic while I was stranded in Australia. Relying on an evocative autoethnography of a grandson, a father, a PhD candidate and graduate, and a researcher, and in reference to the concepts of place-making theories such as time-space expansion, I tried to embrace my experience of grief and loss as well as to make sense of my feelings of distance, impermanence, and death during this chaotic period. The story I will tell below chronicles my emotional and spiritual journey from the moment I first learned of my grandfather’s illness (early 2020) until the time after his passing (October 2021). I have found out that during this process of attempting to converse with, heal, and take care of myself, I have transcended the physical-social aspects of place and touched on spiritual space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Reproductive abuse is a poorly understood form of violence against women. It is defined as a deliberate attempt to interfere with or control a women's reproductive choices and is usually perpetrated by a male intimate partner. Reproductive abuse is associated with a range of poor health outcomes for women, increasing the likelihood that they will visit a healthcare provider. Despite this, there is a dearth of evidence to inform best practice in health settings, particularly research that highlights the voices of survivors. Qualitative studies to date have focused on intimate partner or sexual violence more broadly, yet it is likely that reproductive abuse presents its own nuance in terms of a supportive response. In this paper, we address this gap by reporting qualitative data from 14 women who self-identified as survivors of reproductive abuse. Findings suggest that healthcare providers have an important role to play in responding to reproductive abuse, focusing on taking the problem seriously, reinforcing that the behaviour is wrong, asking about other forms of violence and addressing women's needs and priorities for contraception and reproductive autonomy. This study has important implications for the development of best practice guidelines for healthcare providers responding to reproductive abuse in female patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the linguistic landscapes (LL) literature there is frequent mention of the viewing of public locales by passers-by, owners, and tourists, who necessarily enter and exit locales in different ways, times, and conditions. This paper extends our understanding of the viewing of LL by investigating the discursive constructions of the bathroom of a shared home through the voices of its residents: six Vietnamese international students studying in Australia. When the residents of the home were asked to reflect on their perceptions of language in this locale, the findings show that they attend to the inscriptions on the artifacts, the linguistic activities that take place within the locale, or see no LL whatsoever because of the ways they construct the locale. The findings suggest that linguists need to give more consideration to the types of linguistic activities that occur in a locale in exploration of how individuals view their LL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Share housing is changing. Once considered a form of short-term housing and a lifestyle choice for young adults fresh out of the family home, share housing is increasingly playing a broader role into advanced adulthood. Recent work has claimed the emergence of Generation Rent; however, the reconfiguration of housing experiences is illustrated not only by renting but also by an increase in house sharing and the emergence of 'Generation Share' within the renting cohort. We know surprisingly little about share housing and its increasingly important role in housing. This paper draws upon exploratory research conducted on share housing in Sydney, Australia, and argues that share housing as traditionally understood is changing. Share housing has a widening demographic and it is driven primarily by economic factors. Despite this, the social affordances offered by share housing are highly valued. Share housing therefore offers us a unique lens into changing housing pathways and values and provokes us to think of ways to produce more socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Place is a concept used to explore how people ascribe meaning to their physical and social surrounds, and their emotional affects. Exploring the university as a place can highlight social relations affecting Australian Indigenous students' sense of belonging and identity. We asked what university factors contribute to the development of a positive sense of place for these students. Findings are presented from two Australian universities, based on focus groups with Indigenous students, and interviews with Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff. Students prioritized relationships with academics as a key theme, stressing academic's flexibility and understanding enabled their persistence at university. Students situationally manage self-identification, requiring academics to engage effectively with diverse students, but staff felt they required further professional development. We argue that academics can 'make' university places in their pedagogies and mentoring roles, but require universities to recognize this pedagogical caring as a legitimate and valued element of their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Limited studies of patient survival and alcoholic relapse following transplantation for alcoholic liver disease have been described in Australian populations. Aim To describe these outcomes in an Australian population, to determine the association between harmful alcoholic relapse and patient survival, and to examine pre-transplant variables associated with harmful relapse. Methods Single centre, retrospective review of consecutive patients transplanted at the South Australian Liver Transplant Unit. Relapse was identified by an independent investigator using case note review and confidential patient questionnaire. Results A total of 87 patients (median age 52 years, 84% male, median Model for End-Stage Liver Disease ( MELD) score 18) was included in the study with a median follow-up time of 50 months. The 1-, 3- and 5-year survival of patients was 93.1, 87.4 and 82.0% respectively. Two deaths were directly attributable to graft failure due to alcohol. Fourteen (16%) patients fulfilled criteria for harmful relapse and 18 (21%) patients experienced any form of relapse to alcohol. Harmful relapse was associated with increased mortality (hazard ratio ( HR) 3.2, 95% confidence interval ( CI) 1.1-9.7, P = 0.041). Only two factors were independently associated with harmful relapse on multivariate analysis; prior alcohol rehabilitation ( HR 8.4, 95% CI 2.5-28.4, P = 0.001) and single versus married status ( HR 0.09, 95% CI 0.02-1.2, P = 0.019). Conclusion Good patient survival outcomes were seen for this South Australian population. Harmful alcohol relapse occurs in a minority of patients and rarely results in direct graft loss. Modifiable pre-transplant factors that predict harmful relapse were not identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

An instrumented sphere was passed with tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum) through sorting, grading, and packing operations in 15 commercial facilities in Queensland, north-east Australia. The sphere is a tomato-sized, electronic device that contains an accelerometer for measuring the size of impacts in gravitational force, "g". It proved to be well suited to studies of tomato handling lines where impacts were found to mainly occur at transition zones between different mechanical components. Nearly 50% of large impacts greater than 160g occurred as the instrumented sphere moved onto ramps. The most direct route for first class fruit between bin-tip and carton entailed passage through an average of 25 sites that generated impacts averaging 91g, but the majority of these were unlikely to cause serious injury to the variety 'Tempest'. Laboratory tests using a pendulum impact-rig correlated incidence of injury to drop-heights and impact acceleration, and 'Tempest' was found to tolerate impacts that would generally be considered extreme for fresh produce in most handling situations. For mature-green fruit, severity of internal bruising generally increased with increasing drop-height, and drops above 60 cm onto steel caused injury that was considered commercially important. Coloured fruit (with more than 75% of the surface showing pink-to-red) were less prone to internal bruising and surface splitting than mature-green fruit. Fruit size had no effect on severity of internal bruise development but larger fruit were more likely to split than smaller fruit following large drops onto a steel surface. Based on these results it seems that packing-line managers could operate equipment more quickly when handling coloured fruit compared with mature-green. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]