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Background/Introduction: Literacy difficulties have significant long-term impacts on individuals, and therefore early identification and intervention are critical. Access to experienced professionals who conduct standardized literacy assessments with children is limited in rural and remote areas. The emerging literature supports the feasibility of using telepractice to overcome barriers to accessing specialist literacy assessment. The current study sought to determine the feasibility and reliability of telepractice assessments, using consumer-grade technology, in children with reading difficulties., Materials and Methods: Thirty-seven children, aged 8 to 12 years, with reading difficulties, attended a multidisciplinary reading clinic. Children completed literacy assessments delivered via a web-based application by a remotely located research assistant. A teacher was stationed with the child and coscored the assessments. Scores and qualitative observations of the two assessors were compared., Results: Spearman's correlation analyses revealed strong agreement between telepractice- and face-to-face-rated scores (r = 0.79-0.99). Bland-Altman plots indicated excellent agreement between derived scores. Parents reported a high degree of comfort with the telepractice assessments. Clinicians reported the audio and video quality was sound in most cases., Discussion/conclusions: Web-based technology can enable remote delivery of literacy assessments. The technology has the potential to increase the availability of assessments to meet the needs of children who live remotely, in a timely manner and at their family's convenience.

Use of Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) has rapidly increased in Australia, USA, and Europe in recent years as an efficient means of recycling stormwater or treated sewage effluent for non-potable and indirect potable reuse in urban and rural areas. Yet aquifers have been relied on knowingly for water storage and unwittingly for water treatment for millennia. Hence if 'leading edge' is defined as 'the foremost part of a trend; a vanguard', it would be misleading to claim managed aquifer recharge as a leading edge technology. However it has taken a significant investment in scientific research in recent years to demonstrate the effectiveness of aquifers as sustainable treatment systems to enable managed aquifer recharge to be recognised along side engineered treatment systems in water recycling. It is a 'cross-over' technology that is applicable to water and wastewater treatment and makes use of passive low energy processes to spectacularly reduce the energy requirements for water supply. It is robust within limits, has low cost, is suitable from village to city scale supplies, and offers as yet almost untapped opportunities for producing safe drinking water supplies where they do not yet exist. It will have an increasingly valued role in securing water supplies to sustain cities affected by climate change and population growth. However it is not a universal panacea and relies on the presence of suitable aquifers and sources of water together with effective governance to ensure human health and environment protection and water resources planning and management. This paper describes managed aquifer recharge, illustrates its use in Australia, outlining economics, guidelines and policies, and presents some of the knowledge about aquifer treatment processes that are revealing the latent value of aquifers as urban water infrastructure and provide a driver to improving our understanding of urban hydrogeology.

Background: To investigate prospectively over one year, the extent to which greater exposure to negative life events, greater use of more negative coping strategies, and less use of positive coping strategies and an optimistic thinking style, predicts the onset of depressive symptoms among adolescents., Methods: A prospective longitudinal study of 5,634 adolescents (Mean Age=13.1, SD=0.5) enrolled in Year 8 at secondary school. Standard questionnaires were used to assess depressive symptoms and the predictor variables., Results: Over a one-year period, there was an independent and statistically significant relationship between transition to a CES-D score above the recommended cut-off score and i) greater exposure to negative life events and use of negative coping strategies, and ii) less use of positive coping strategies and an optimistic thinking style. Among males who experienced a higher number of negative life events, the impact on depressive symptoms was greater among those who made more use of negative coping strategies., Limitations: Self-report questionnaires completed by adolescents were employed to evaluate all the variables in the study. Only two assessment points were available. Ten percent of adolescents did not complete the follow-up assessment., Conclusions: Particularly among females, early adolescence is marked by increased susceptibility to depressive symptoms. Helping young adolescents to adopt more positive coping strategies and optimistic thinking styles may reduce their risk for the onset of depressive symptoms. This may be particularly important for young males who experience high levels of adverse life events and utilise negative coping strategies.