Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chelsea Reynolds, Casual Academic/Clinical Educator and Clinical Psychologist, College of Education, Psychology and Social Work, Flinders University

It’s one of the most pervasive messages about technology and sleep. We’re told bright, blue light from screens prevents us falling asleep easily. We’re told to avoid scrolling on our phones before bedtime or while in bed. We’re sold glasses to help filter out blue light. We put our phones on “night mode” to minimise exposure to blue light.

But what does the science actually tell us about the impact of bright, blue light and sleep? When our group of sleep experts from Sweden, Australia and Israel compared scientific studies that directly tested this, we found the overall impact was close to meaningless. Sleep was disrupted, on average, by less than three minutes.

We showed the message that blue light from screens stops you from falling asleep is essentially a myth, albeit a very convincing one.

Instead, we found a more nuanced picture about technology and sleep.

What we did

We gathered evidence from 73 independent studies with a total of 113,370 participants of all ages examining various factors that connect technology use and sleep.

We did indeed find a link between technology use and sleep, but not necessarily what you’d think.

We found that sometimes technology use can lead to poor sleep and sometimes poor sleep can lead to more technology use. In other words, the relationship between technology and sleep is complex and can go both ways.

How is technology supposed to harm sleep?

Technology is proposed to harm our sleep in a number of ways. But here’s what we found when we looked at the evidence:

• bright screen light – across 11 experimental studies, people who used a bright screen emitting blue light before bedtime fell asleep an average of only 2.7 minutes later. In some studies, people slept better after using a bright screen. When we were invited to write about this evidence further, we showed there is still no meaningful impact of bright screen light on other sleep characteristics including the total amount or quality of sleep

• arousal is a measure of whether people become more alert depending on what they’re doing on their device. Across seven studies, people who engaged in more alerting or “exciting” content (for example, video games) lost an average of only about 3.5 minutes of sleep compared to those who engaged in something less exciting (for example, TV). This tells us the content of technology alone doesn’t affect sleep as much as we think

• we found sleep disruption at night (for example, being awoken by text messages) and sleep displacement (using technology past the time that we could be sleeping) can lead to sleep loss. So while technology use was linked to less sleep in these instances, this was unrelated to being exposed to bright, blue light from screens before bedtime.

Which factors encourage more technology use?

Research we reviewed suggests people tend to use more technology at bedtime for two main reasons:

• to “fill the time” when they’re not yet sleepy. This is common for teenagers, who have a biological shift in their sleep patterns that leads to later sleep times, independent of technology use.

• to calm down negative emotions and thoughts at bedtime, for apparent stress reduction and to provide comfort.

There are also a few things that might make people more vulnerable to using technology late into the night and losing sleep.

We found people who are risk-takers or who lose track of time easily may turn off devices later and sacrifice sleep. Fear of missing out and social pressures can also encourage young people in particular to stay up later on technology.

What helps us use technology sensibly?

Last of all, we looked at protective factors, ones that can help people use technology more sensibly before bed.

The two main things we found that helped were self-control, which helps resist the short-term rewards of clicking and scrolling, and having a parent or loved one to help set bedtimes.

Why do we blame blue light?

The blue light theory involves melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep. During the day, we are exposed to bright, natural light that contains a high amount of blue light. This bright, blue light activates certain cells at the back of our eyes, which send signals to our brain that it’s time to be alert. But as light decreases at night, our brain starts to produce melatonin, making us feel sleepy.

It’s logical to think that artificial light from devices could interfere with the production of melatonin and so affect our sleep. But studies show it would require light levels of about 1,000-2,000 lux (a measure of the intensity of light) to have a significant impact.

Device screens emit only about 80-100 lux. At the other end of the scale, natural sunlight on a sunny day provides about 100,000 lux.

What’s the take-home message?

We know that bright light does affect sleep and alertness. However our research indicates the light from devices such as smartphones and laptops is nowhere near bright or blue enough to disrupt sleep.

There are many factors that can affect sleep, and bright, blue screen light likely isn’t one of them.

The take-home message is to understand your own sleep needs and how technology affects you. Maybe reading an e-book or scrolling on socials is fine for you, or maybe you’re too often putting the phone down way too late. Listen to your body and when you feel sleepy, turn off your device.

Chelsea Reynolds is affiliated with Flinders University with academic status, is a member of the Australasian Sleep Association, and is a co-founder of the digital CBTi program, Bedtime Window.

– ref. How much does your phone’s blue light really delay your sleep? Relax, it’s just 2.7 minutes – https://theconversation.com/how-much-does-your-phones-blue-light-really-delay-your-sleep-relax-its-just-2-7-minutes-236066

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Donald Rothwell, Professor of International Law, Australian National University

Is Palestine a state? This long-standing unresolved question has gained considerable diplomatic, legal and political traction this year as Israel’s war in Gaza has ground on with no end in sight.

This week, Muslim leaders pressed again for Australia to recognise Palestinian statehood. They said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had told them it would be a first-term priority for Labor.

The Greens have also signalled they are likely to move a motion for a vote on Palestinian statehood in parliament.

For Australia, as well as other nations that have yet to recognise Palestine (for example, the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Japan, France, Germany and Canada), the prevailing narrative is that statehood will be achieved at some point in the future, once appropriate agreements are made and criteria are met by the Palestinian people and their representatives.

However, for most parts of the world, Palestine statehood is not a question for the future. It’s already a reality.

Armenia and Slovenia became the most recent states to officially recognise Palestine in June, following Norway, Ireland and Spain the month before.

This brought the global tally of states recognising Palestine to 148 of the 193 United Nations member states. These numbers are steadily growing, edging closer to the 165 UN members that recognise Israel.

Despite the majority view supporting Palestinian statehood, Palestine remains an “observer state” at the UN, without the rights and privileges of full membership.

But is this lack of formal recognition consistent with international law?

Requirements of a state

There is debate among international lawyers about the criteria that must be met for an entity to become a state. However, the most popular test is enshrined in the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States.

This test requires prospective states to possess four key attributes:

• a defined territory
• a permanent population
• a government
• the ability to enter into relations with other states.

Let’s go through them one by one, starting with the more straightforward criteria, both of which appear to be satisfied.

A permanent population

Prior to the current Gaza conflict, the population of the Palestinian territories was estimated at more than 5 million people.

The ability to enter into relations with other states

The countries that have recognised Palestine are conducting diplomatic relations with its representatives. Palestine has dozens of embassies around the world. It also has missions in states that have yet to formally recognise it.

Palestine is also a participating member in international organisations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.

The other two criteria require slightly closer inspection.

Defined territory

There has been a long-running dispute between Israel and Palestine about where their borders should be drawn.

There are many competing claims, including:

• the borders enshrined in the UN Partition Plan of 1947
• the “Green Line” of the Armistice Agreements of 1949 (sometimes referred to as the pre-1967 borders)
• the post-1967 borders, when Israel occupied Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights following the Six-Day War
• the status quo of the much-diminished Palestinian territories of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

An agreement on defined territories that would be acceptable to both Israel and the Palestinians has therefore been elusive in negotiations on a possible “two-state solution”.

However, for the purposes of international law, it is not necessary that borders be undisputed before a state can be recognised. A number of states have been recognised (and admitted to the UN) despite ongoing border disputes, most notably following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

A government

The Palestinian Authority (PA) was created in the 1990s as an interim governing body to represent the Palestinian territories. However, its legitimacy has been in question since no elections – either presidential or parliamentary – have been held in the territories since 2006.

Additionally, the governance of the Palestinian territories has been divided since 2007, when Hamas took control of Gaza and the Palestinian Authority retained authority over the West Bank.

The Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), meanwhile, purports to represent Palestinians on the global stage. The PLO, in fact, sits in the UN as the representative of the observer state of Palestine.

While these competing claims may add a level of complexity to the issue, the requirement for a state to possess a government has been applied generously in the past. When South Sudan gained independence in July 2011, for example, a UN peacekeeping mission was quickly established to help the fledgling government bring stability and rule of law to the country.

If a similar interpretation was adopted here – particularly supported by evidence the Palestinian Authority is fulfilling the basic functions of a government in the West Bank – then it is likely this criterion could also be partially satisfied.

Of course, the PA does not have control over Gaza. However, the International Court of Justice has deemed the Palestinian territories, including Gaza, to be occupied by Israel because it still exercises effective control over them.

UN membership off the table – for now

A vote on Palestinian statehood has come before both the UN General Assembly and Security Council this year.

While 143 states – including Australia – voted in favour of Palestine gaining full UN membership in the General Assembly, the approval of the Security Council is ultimately required.

The most recent vote in the Security Council was blocked in April by the United States, which has veto power as a permanent council member. Until the US position shifts, full UN membership for Palestine is effectively off the table.

However, few international lawyers would stipulate that UN membership is required for statehood. It is instead a seal of approval from the global community that an entity has passed its entrance exam.

Switzerland only became a UN member in 2002, yet there was never any question that it was a true state before that.

Whether a state of Palestine exists is a question of both law and fact. On the analysis presented here, it appears both have been met.

Donald Rothwell receives funding from Australian Research Council

Sarah Krause does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Palestine has been recognised by more than 140 nations – but not yet Australia. So, what exactly defines a ‘state’? – https://theconversation.com/palestine-has-been-recognised-by-more-than-140-nations-but-not-yet-australia-so-what-exactly-defines-a-state-236584

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Patterson, Associate Professor, School of Nursing, University of Wollongong

As you read this, draw your attention to your jaw. Are you aware of any sensations? Are there areas of tension? Does your jaw feel tight or relaxed?

Now imagine releasing any tension. What would that feel like?

Next, bring your awareness back to your breathing and back to this article.

This may seem familiar. You might have scanned areas of your body before, checked where you may be carrying tension and been prompted to see if you can release it.

This is just one example of approaches to build awareness of mind and body – and the connection between the two. Exercises like this involve recognising physical sensations, how your body is feeling, what it is experiencing, and even exploring the physiological connection to the psychological.

As you scan your body, you may notice emotions – perhaps anxiety, stress or sadness – arising in connection to bodily tension.

The idea of this connection is behind what are known as “somatic therapies”.

A focus on the mind-body connection

Somatic therapies (from the Greek word for body – soma) focus on the connection between the mind and body, which makes it different to other psychotherapies.

More traditional mental health approaches, such as cognitive behaviour therapy, raise awareness of the mind and its connection to behaviours. They often use talking to explore the mind, its emotions and thoughts, and prompt people to recognise and address negative thought and behaviour patterns.

Somatic therapies, in contrast, privilege the body. They are therapeutic approaches based on the understanding that physical and psychological connections exist, and that emotions and psychological experiences can manifest and be expressed as bodily sensations.

But somatic therapies go further than understanding that emotions like stress can affect physical health. Instead, people are guided to bring awareness to their body and how emotions are experienced as physical sensations in the body – then explore how this may be released through physical means.

What it looks like

Consider the tension in someone’s jaw identified in an awareness exercise like the one at the start of this article. Somatic therapies can help people safely explore the sensations’ connection to emotion, or a traumatic experience. Then, through exercises like breathwork or body movement activities such as stretching, posture adjustment or even jumping, people release tension.

Somatic or mind-body therapies are used by a variety of health-care and mental-health professionals, most commonly in the treatment of anxiety and trauma experiences and conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

However, these are still alternative therapies with limited research evidence to demonstrate clinical effectiveness. Most evidence in this emerging field is linked to a particular type of somatic therapy known as “somatic experiencing”.

A defined approach

Somatic experiencing was developed by American psychotherapist Peter Levine over several decades. It is described as “bottom-up processing” that directs the client’s attention:

to internal sensations, both visceral (interoception) and musculo-skeletal (proprioception and kinesthesis), rather than primarily cognitive or emotional experiences.

These bodily sensations are seen as the manifestation of post-traumatic stress experiences, which have accumulated in the body at a neurological level as a “body memory”. Levine theorises that this incomplete acute stress response (when someone is stuck in fight, flight or freeze mode) can lead to ongoing dysregulation in the body’s stress and relaxation systems.

But people can learn to recognise and release this stored trauma. According to practitioners the technique can help people release, recover and become more resilient.

Traumatic memories are targeted by gradually developing more and more tolerance for unpleasant sensations and their connection to emotions.

Over a series of sessions, clients are taken through a stepped model to build awareness of body sensations associated with a traumatic event or cumulative stress, learn to tolerate the difficult sensation, and then release it.

A 2020 literature review of somatic experiencing studies indicated early but promising indications it may be effective in reducing traumatic stress and as a treatment for PTSD. The authors concluded more randomised and controlled studies were needed.

Read more:
The Body Keeps the Score: how a bestselling book helps us understand trauma – but inflates the definition of it

But could it work for you?

The effectiveness of psychotherapies are often in part driven by a participant’s connection to and engagement with the theory and practice. What works for some may not work for others. Somatic therapies with their unique focus on mind-body connection may be an alternative therapy people wish to explore.

Early evidence and personal stories show some positive outcomes. However somatic therapy does not yet have conclusive research evidence to back its effectiveness.

As always, consult your health professional and seek trusted information and health advice.

If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Somatic therapies may build awareness of the mind-body connection to treat trauma. Could they could help you? – https://theconversation.com/somatic-therapies-may-build-awareness-of-the-mind-body-connection-to-treat-trauma-could-they-could-help-you-236345

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amanda Reilly, Senior Lecturer in Commercial Law, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

A new law giving Australian workers the “right to disconnect” – to refuse contact from their employers outside their working hours (unless that refusal is unreasonable) – comes into effect this month.

The legislation is a response to growing awareness of the health and safety costs of stress and overwork associated with constant connectivity. A number of other countries, including France and Belgium, have also recognised such a right, or are considering doing so.

But New Zealand is not. Its regulation of working time is comparatively rudimentary compared to more comprehensive regulation in other countries, although the Minimum Wage Act limits working time to 40 hours a week unless the parties agree otherwise.

New Zealand should consider the right to disconnect for workers. But this needs to go beyond limits on when employers can actively contact workers. The government also needs to tackle employers’ ability to use newly developed technology to spy on, track and record everything workers do in their time off.

Constant surveillance is now a core feature of algorithmic management software. This gathers data from work-from-home laptops, biometric scanners, workers’ smartphones, AI searches of social media, worker-driven vehicles, and even internet-of-things-enabled employee badges.

These devices don’t necessarily stop recording when the worker leaves the workplace or stops work for the day.

Harms of 24/7 spying

Workers who are subject to 24/7 surveillance cannot truly disconnect from the workplace. Research has shown the perception of constant surveillance is bad for mental health and wellbeing. Misuse of this information by spying bosses, nosy co-workers, bullies or stalkers unquestionably harms workers.

Moreover, the data gathered from workers’ homes, smartphones, vehicles and biometrics can be commodified and resold to third-party data brokers.

These brokers are largely unregulated and operate well outside New Zealand’s borders or control. This means there are few real limits on who could purchase and use this information.

New Zealand lags in worker protection

New Zealand law does little to protect workers from these privacy invasions and employer demands.

Not only does the law barely limit working time, the protection provided by the Privacy Act against intrusive data collection is more limited than is generally understood. While other countries specifically regulate privacy in the context of employment, New Zealand does not.

Instead, under the generic principles of the law, New Zealand employers may collect personal information where necessary for a “lawful purpose” connected with workers’ functions or activities.

Employers don’t have to make sure employees know and explicitly consent to their data being collected. They just have to take “reasonable steps” to make sure workers know why it’s being collected and who will receive it.

Information can be used for purposes other than that for which it was originally collected, provided the individual consents. Information may also be disclosed to third parties on the same terms.

Global standards for workers

All of this falls behind the emerging global standards for worker privacy protection. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) does not allow employers to rely on employee “consent” to surveillance practices. This framework recognises the economic power that employers have over workers.

The EU is also looking to ban the processing of certain sorts of personal data for “platform workers” (Uber drivers, for example), including a prohibition on collecting data while the worker is not working.

New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory require active notice of filming and sound recording when workers are working at home, and do not permit passive covert surveillance without a court order. In Portugal the law expressly forbids permanent connection either through images or sounds.

The United States has begun consideration of the Stop Spying Bosses Act, which would prohibit employers from collecting after-hours data. And California has put in place some specific regulation around workers rights regarding their workplace data.

New Zealand’s weak penalties for interference with privacy stand in stark contrast to the penalties levied by the French Data Protection Agency. Amazon France was recently fined €32 million for breaches of the GDPR.

Opportunity is knocking

New Zealand’s government has a range of other employment law reforms on its agenda, including reform of occupational health and safety law, reviewing access to personal grievances, and changing the legal definition of “employee”.

But the right to disconnect does not appear to be a priority.

New Zealand can benefit from watching other countries as they respond to rapidly changing technologies. When the time is right, the government should implement rules giving workers a true right to disconnect and privacy outside the workplace.

Amanda Reilly is affiliated with the New Zealand Privacy Foundation as Co-Convener of the Working group on Privacy and Employment but the views expressed in this article are personal.

Joshua A.T. Fairfield is a member of the Working Group on Privacy and Employment associated with the New Zealand Privacy Foundation. His views expressed here are personal.

– ref. The right to disconnect from work – and employer surveillance – is growing globally. Why is NZ lagging? – https://theconversation.com/the-right-to-disconnect-from-work-and-employer-surveillance-is-growing-globally-why-is-nz-lagging-236307

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University

Pornography has been in the news a lot this year. It was at the centre of discussions for addressing violence against women back in May. Deepfake pornography has also been in the headlines.

Now the New South Wales government has announced the first state-led inquiry into the “impacts of harmful pornography”. The negative framing of the inquiry risks revisiting old arguments, rather than advancing the debate and policies.

Much of this debate has centred around the potential harm to teenagers, but very few people have interviewed teens about it. As part of our research, we asked teens about their experiences of porn and found many have a nuanced understanding of the risks, but also the benefits.

Filling an information vacuum

In our project, we asked 108 parents and teenagers from Australia, Greece, Norway and Ireland what they thought of online sexual content. We spoke to 50 Australian teens (aged 11–17) through interviews and focus groups about their perceptions of pornography.

We found teens hold very mixed views about both porn and sexting. Some of these views were positive.

For example, many young people recognise some benefit to being able to access pornography as a source of knowledge, particularly when sex is not discussed in schools.

Sixteen-year-old Miles said accessing porn can be useful:

A lot of people don’t know a lot [about sex] – but at this point I’d say, it would be good for under 16s [accessing porn] just because of the lack of actual education that you get at school about it.

Teens also sense both educators and parents’ discomfort with discussing sex and porn. Seventeen-year-old Warren said:

Talking to other people about [sex], it’s pretty awkward, but if I’m just watching it, I learn better.

Porn may offer more accessible and explicit representations of sex and bodies that schools cannot. Caris (aged 15) believed porn could be a good resource to learn about “pleasure [and] self-pleasure”. They said porn can assist with “learning what to do”.

Fourteen-year-old Tiffany agreed it could be instructive:

It can help you figure out what you may like, or not like, your […] preferences.

Copying what they see

Clearly, such perspectives are not without risk. Other teens recognised potentially harmful impacts of porn such as a lack of condom use displayed, objectification of women, no consent negotiated on screen, and concerns that others may copy acts they see in porn. Twelve-year-old Levi said:

In those videos they never really go over consent, they just go straight into doing it. I feel like it would harm you in those ways, if you aren’t educated otherwise.

Tiffany said:

A lot of people know that this is unrealistic but there are some that think, ‘oh my gosh, that’s what everyone should be like’, which can be harmful to quite a few people.

In our new study, we recommend that policy-makers and researchers should listen to teens, giving more importance to their firsthand experiences over secondhand statements. Secondhand statements tend to repeat warnings teens hear from others. Their actual experiences may be different from those represented in the media. Examples of experiences include Lauren’s perspective (aged 13):

It can be shocking at first and it shows the bad side and everything, so learning it in class would be better. I know a lot of people would make it uncomfortably cringey but I think it’s way better than just finding it online and just getting a real shock first ‘cause at least you’re prepared […]

How harmful is porn?

While pornography is often noted as harmful, the actual extent of harm caused by pornography is unclear.

Some systematic reviews argue links between pornography and sexual violence are inconsistent and lack causal links.

Even research on the relationship between pornography and acceptance of rape myths have been contradictory.

In our study, teens believed for the most part that the adults in their lives overstated the harms. For instance Nicola, 16, said:

It’s fine as long as it’s ethically made – obviously with the people paid and no sex trafficking.

While funding and resources have been allocated towards age verification to regulate and protect young people, teens believed attention was better directed towards education. Miles, 16, said:

I think the best protective measure for young people will be education. It’s not taught very well, it’s not taught enough. The quantity and quality of it is not there.

This is especially the case when discussions of sex may be avoided in certain households. Levi said:

Not everyone gets taught by their parents for some reason or another. So I feel like [a] certain amount, everyone should have the access to the knowledge […]

Porn literacy over bans

While movements towards teaching consent education are a welcome addition to the sexuality and relationships curriculum, teens clearly require more comprehensive information about sex than is currently offered to them.

For instance, when asked to rate their sexuality education in school in a survey conducted by True Relationships in Queensland, the average rating by school students was 3.5 out of ten.

Clear causal evidence of harm should be established before prohibitive policies are established, particularly given the evidence of possible benefits.

We need porn literacy that compliments media literacy, and which does not simply refer to all porn as “unrealistic” sex. It should help young people reach informed decisions about what they may have sought out, or been shown by their peers.

Ideally, developing porn literacy could be a part of discussions about sex framed in more balanced ways that respond to teens’ lived experiences. This is particularly important when young people appear to crave more explicit representations and knowledge of sex and cannot find such information elsewhere, particularly for minority groups.

Young people should be provided with the tools to decide what is best for them personally. Teens believed education could prove more useful than age-verification measures and restrictions. Opportunities for teens to openly discuss sex and tease out these issues for themselves, in a two-way discussion with people they trust, are crucial. This means support and training for educators and parents are equally important in tackling these issues effectively.

Discussions about porn, which start before adolescence, can help teens critically consider what they see represented in pornography. Teens will be more resilient and able to critique what they consume if they are prepared for what they may see online.

This paper is an outcome of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project Adolescents’ perceptions of harm from accessing online sexual content (DP 190102435). As such, funding was received from the Australian Research Council. We would like to acknowledge fellow Co-Chief Investigator Associate Professor Debra Dudek and Dr Harrison W. See for their significant contributions. We would also like to recognise Carmen Jacques and Kelly Jaunzems for their work.

Giselle is also part of a not-for-profit Relationships and Sexuality education advocacy group, Bloom-Ed, whose views are not expressed here.

Lelia Green receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC). She is a Co-Chief Investigator on the Discovery Project ‘Adolescents’ perceptions of harm from accessing online sexual content’ (DP 190102435). As such, funding was received from the Australian Research Council (2019-2023). Lelia also acknowledges significant in-kind support from the School of Arts and Humanities at Edith Cowan University. All views expressed are her own, in collaboration with co-author Giselle Woodley. Other co-Investigators on this ARC project are Associate Professor Debra Dudek (ECU), Emeritus Professor Brian O’Neill (Technology University, Dublin), Professor Liza Tsaliki (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Professor Elisabeth Staksrud (University of Oslo) and Kjartan Ólafsson (University of Iceland).

– ref. Calls to ban ‘harmful pornography’ are rife. Here’s what teens actually think about porn – https://theconversation.com/calls-to-ban-harmful-pornography-are-rife-heres-what-teens-actually-think-about-porn-236410

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karin Hammarberg, Senior Research Fellow, Global and Women’s Health, School of Public Health & Preventive Medicine, Monash University

We hear a lot about women’s biological clock and how age affects the chance of pregnancy.

New research shows men’s fertility is also affected by age. When dads are over 50, the risk of pregnancy complications increases.

Data from more than 46 million births in the United States between 2011 and 2022 compared fathers in their 30s with fathers in their 50s.

While taking into account the age of the mother and other factors known to affect pregnancy outcomes, the researchers found every ten-year increase in paternal age was linked to more complications.

The researchers found that compared to couples where the father was aged 30–39, for couples where the dad was in his 50s, there was a:

• 16% increased risk of preterm birth
• 14% increased risk of low birth weight
• 13% increase in gestational diabetes.

The older fathers were also twice as likely to have used assisted reproductive technology, including IVF, to conceive than their younger counterparts.

Dads are getting older

In this US study, the mean age of all fathers increased from 30.8 years in 2011 to 32.1 years in 2022.

In that same period, the proportion of men aged 50 years or older fathering a child increased from 1.1% to 1.3%.

We don’t know the proportion of men over 50 years who father children in Australia, but data shows the average age of fathers has increased.

In 1975 the median age of Australian dads was 28.6 years. This jumped to 33.7 years in 2022.

How male age affects getting pregnant

As we know from media reports of celebrity dads, men produce sperm from puberty throughout life and can father children well into old age.

However, there is a noticeable decline in sperm quality from about age 40.

Female partners of older men take longer to achieve pregnancy than those with younger partners.

A study of the effect of male age on time to pregnancy showed women with male partners aged 45 or older were almost five times more likely to take more than a year to conceive compared to those with partners aged 25 or under. More than three quarters (76.8%) of men under the age of 25 years impregnated their female partners within six months, compared with just over half (52.9%) of men over the age of 45.

Pooled data from ten studies showed that partners of older men are also more likely to experience miscarriage. Compared to couples where the male was aged 25 to 29 years, paternal age over 45 years increased the risk of miscarriage by 43%.

Older men are more likely to need IVF

Outcomes of assisted reproductive technology, such as IVF, are also influenced by the age of the male partner.

A review of studies in couples using assisted reproductive technologies found paternal age under 40 years reduced the risk of miscarriage by about 25% compared to couples with men aged over 40.

Having a male under 40 years also almost doubled the chance of a live birth per treatment cycle. With a man over 40, 17.6% of treatment rounds resulted in a live birth, compared to 28.4% when the male was under 40.

How does male age affect the health outcomes of children?

As a result of age-related changes in sperm DNA, the children of older fathers have increased risk of a number of conditions. Autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders and leukaemia have been linked to the father’s advanced years.

A review of studies assessing the impact of advanced paternal age reported that children of older fathers have increased rates of psychiatric disease and behavioural impairments.

But while the increased risk of adverse health outcomes linked to older paternal age is real, the magnitude of the effect is modest. It’s important to remember that an increase in a very small risk is still a small risk and most children of older fathers are born healthy and develop well.

Improving your health can improve your fertility

In addition to the effects of older age, some chronic conditions that affect fertility and reproductive outcomes become more common as men get older. They include obesity and diabetes which affect sperm quality by lowering testosterone levels.

While we can’t change our age, some lifestyle factors that increase the risk of pregnancy complications and reduce fertility, can be tackled. They include:

• smoking
• recreational drug taking
• anabolic steroid use
• heavy alcohol consumption.

Get the facts about the male biological clock

Research shows men want children as much as women do. And most men want at least two children.

Yet most men lack knowledge about the limitations of female and male fertility and overestimate the chance of getting pregnant, with and without assisted reproductive technologies.

We need better public education, starting at school, to improve awareness of the impact of male and female age on reproductive outcomes and help people have healthy babies.

For men wanting to improve their chance of conceiving, the government-funded sites Healthy Male and Your Fertility are a good place to start. These offer evidence-based and accessible information about reproductive health, and tips to improve your reproductive health and give your children the best start in life.

Karin Hammarberg works for the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority which manages the Your Fertility program.

– ref. Men have a biological clock too. Here’s what’s more likely when dads are over 50 – https://theconversation.com/men-have-a-biological-clock-too-heres-whats-more-likely-when-dads-are-over-50-236892

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Llewelyn Hughes, Professor of Public Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

Since the 1990s, the economic agenda of governments across much of the world has been dominated by the Washington Consensus. This is a series of policy recommendations centred on privatisation of state businesses, deregulation of industries, liberalisation of trade, and opening economies to foreign direct investment.

As a result, industrial policies – where governments actively shaped the structure of economic activities towards a public purpose – fell into disuse in many parts of the world.

Now, after decades in the doldrums, industrial policy is back – with a green twist. The United States, European Union and Australia are spending hugely in a bid to respond to climate change, while trying to make domestic industries more competitive. There’s also a clear geopolitical aspect – Western nations are trying to reduce their reliance on China in the name of economic security.

Australia’s new industrial policy, Future Made in Australia is being debated in parliament. Amongst other things, it will use public funding to help homegrown industries benefit from the global low-carbon energy transition. The plan supports the creation of new industries such as green hydrogen and the expansion of existing ones, such as the manufacture of solar panel components and mining of critical minerals important to the green transition.

Returning to industry policy has not gone unquestioned. The Productivity Commission, an independent federal advisory body, recently argued we should be cautious about this approach to stimulating the economy because it’s hard for governments to identify where Australian companies and industries can compete – and failed public investment could make us less well off.

Green stimulus, as far as the eye can see

Australia did not move first. Green industrial policies are surging around the world. The International Monetary Fund has counted more than 2,500 worldwide as of 2023, largely in developed countries.

Across the Asia Pacific, governments never really gave up using industry policies. In particular, China’s government has supported its industry heavily and over a long period. This is one reason why China’s producers are now so dominant in green tech sectors such as solar photovoltaics.

What is genuinely new is how the US, Germany and other Western nations are embracing green industrial policies. The US Inflation Reduction Act announced by President Joe Biden in 2022 contained around A$560 billion in green stimulus, following the European Union’s 2020 Green Deal.

But can governments pick winners?

The Productivity Commission is worried the government will struggle to use subsidies and tax incentives to successfully support selected industries. Can we really pick winners? What if we fail?

These are important questions to answer. But we should remember we have been picking winners for decades in one sense, even during the era of untrammelled globalisation.

Australia has benefited from decades of international trade and investment in carbon-intensive bulk commodities such as coal and gas. But the picture of our true competitiveness is distorted by the lack of an effective carbon price. Would Australia have exported $65 billion of thermal coal last year if global policies fully accounted for the environmental damage done by burning coal?

Regardless, as our major trading partners go green, demand for these carbon-intensive products will fall. The key question is not if, but how fast?

In the absence of an international price on greenhouse gas emissions, green policies are necessarily going to be a patchwork of subsidies and other kinds of incentives.

So the question is not really whether to get into the industry policy game, but how to do it right.

Read more:
Climate holdout Japan drove Australia’s LNG boom. Could the partnership go green?

What do best practice policies look like?

Picking winners is hard. That doesn’t mean green industrial policies will fail.

We need to look at this as an information problem. Let’s say you want to identify how Australia could best compete and contribute to global value chains for emerging products, such as low-carbon steel or offshore wind turbines. Neither governments nor industry have all the information needed to make the best choices. That means collaboration is key.

The first and best response focuses on enabling governments, industries, and communities to better work together in identifying our strengths, and collaborate on an ongoing basis. It’s also useful to do detailed analysis of industrial processes and capabilities, as we did recently for the solar industry.

Research also indicates we are more likely to succeed in areas related to our existing strengths. But Australia is weakly diversified, meaning we have a lot riding on the success of a few industries such as iron ore, coal and gas.

This suggests there is real benefit to building new capabilities and industries by spending on research and innovation. The amount we spend on public research and development in the energy sector is low by international standards.

Importantly, this approach to industry policy relies on having governments with greater ability to do things rather than outsourcing. Reinvesting in government capacity to act is going to be essential.

But green industrial policy doesn’t mean retreating into protectionism. Throughout the transition to low-carbon energy, we will remain highly interdependent with our trading partners.

In low-carbon steel, for example, our ability to carve out a niche in emerging supply chains will rely in large part on collaborating with trade partners regionally and globally.

Try, fail, iterate, succeed

For many years now, scholars have forecast the retreat of globalisation. The new era of global competition centred on green industrial policies is unlikely to be reversed soon.

The Productivity Commission has contributed to the debate by noting that designing and implementing good policy is hard.

Caution is important. But so is seizing the moment, as governments and industry scramble to benefit from the transition to low carbon economies.

Llewelyn Hughes has received funding from a variety of different government and non-government sources, and sits on the Board of Directors of the Australia Japan Innovation Fund, and the Clean Energy Transition Advisory Committee of the Australia Japan Business Cooperation Committee.

– ref. Yes, it’s difficult for governments to pick green industry winners – but it’s essential Australia tries – https://theconversation.com/yes-its-difficult-for-governments-to-pick-green-industry-winners-but-its-essential-australia-tries-236144

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Schulz, Senior Lecturer, School of Education, University of Adelaide

Since the start of this school year, we have been surveying teachers in South Australia about sexist views among students. This is part of our research into how online worlds are shaping Australian schooling.

In May, we reported the first round of our research. We found South Australian teachers were experiencing a rise in sexist and other anti-social views among students, similar to those reported interstate and overseas.

Teachers in our as yet unpublished study spoke of an alarming increase in misogynistic, homophobic, racist, and sexist language and behaviours, mostly by boys and young men targeting girls and young female teachers. This is prompting some women to leave the profession.

A new theme to emerge from our research is bystander inaction. This is when school leaders, other teachers, or parents downplay what is happening or do nothing or little in response.

Read more:
‘Make me a sandwich’: our survey’s disturbing picture of how some boys treat their teachers

Our study

Between February and May this year, we advertised an anonymous survey on the Teachers of Adelaide Facebook group. This involves teachers from public, private co-ed and single-sex schools.

The survey called for short-answer responses to questions about sexism, racism, homophobia or other anti-social behaviours and language.

We received 160 responses. Almost 80% of the responses were from female teachers, who were mostly from high schools. On top of this, we did ten interviews with teachers who responded, who were willing to talk at further length.

Teachers are not prepared to help

Some female teachers in our study experienced abuse and harassment by students when they were on their own. But it sometimes occurred around other female staff or teachers.

One female teacher who has been in the profession for 14 years told us how a Year 11 boy backed her into a corner of the staff room.

And the other staff members, they didn’t know what to do because he was stronger than all of us.

Other teachers spoke about how they had no training or preparation to deal with this kind of behaviour. One female teacher said:

I don’t think my teaching degree prepared me for any of this […]. It was a bit of a culture shock going into a school.

Another female teacher said teacher education and professional development did not acknowledge “you could possibly be the victim of sexual harassment as a teacher”. She added “that really pisses me off to be honest”.

It’s different for male teachers

A male interviewee described stepping into a senior high school classroom after the female teacher for that class had resigned due to the behaviour of male students.

She was having sexually suggestive things said to her by her students and it was not really dealt with appropriately. And she got to the point where she felt sick even thinking about coming to work […].

But as this male teacher explained, male students did not treat him the same way.

So, I just walk into the room, and they’re like, yeah, that’s the […] authority figure. It’s a man.

Other male teachers said gender-based harassment and abuse was too big an issue for them to tackle as part of their already busy and complex jobs. As one told us:

the scale of the problem is too big, and it’s really tangential as far as our duties go.

School leaders are not helping

Female teachers are telling us some school leaders (which include principals and deputy principals) are not treating these issues seriously.

In one school, a female teacher left after being told by students as young as Year 7 she “looked like a porn star”. A female colleague told us how

she told the principal that she was being sexually harassed, the principal just said, ‘Well, just because you said it’s harassment, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is’.

Other respondents talked about a “hush hush” response from schools when teachers left due to student behaviour.

anything that’s challenging, [the principal is] like, ‘No, we’re not discussing that. I’ll have a discussion in private with you’.

In other industries – where the harassment of women has been ignored or covered up – this has been referred to as “institutional gaslighting”.

Parents are ignoring warnings

When there is a behavioural issue with a student, one of the first steps a teacher can take is to talk to the parents. But teachers in our study said parents often did not believe their sons could behave this way. As one female teacher described it, there is

a lot of eye rolling like, I can’t believe you’re treating this as an issue.

Another female teacher told us:

usually I get the response from the parent, ‘Not my boy. My boy would not do that. My boy would not have those values’.

The same teacher continued:

I’m just wondering how many parents really know their sons and have been prepared to sit down and talk about consent with their children, have been prepared to sit down and talk about respect with their children?

Read more:
We research online ‘misogynist radicalisation’. Here’s what parents of boys should know

What can we do?

Bystander inaction to harassment and abuse of women and girls is not new. Research shows it thrives within cultures and systems where there is poor understanding of gender equity and little recognition we are all responsible for preventing or responding to this behaviour.

In Australia, we have a decades’ long policy vacuum around gender equity in schooling. So our systems are ill-equipped and reluctant to deal with this issue, despite warnings schools are becoming breeding grounds for gender-based violence and teachers are leaving.

We now have mandatory consent education, but as our research indicates, this is not being delivered consistently or effectively across schools.

Education around gender must be part of teaching degrees and a central component of the Australian Curriculum. And all of us in the community – including parents – need to take responsibility for the way men and boys treat women and girls.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. ‘Not my boy.’ When teachers are harassed by students, some schools and parents fail to help – https://theconversation.com/not-my-boy-when-teachers-are-harassed-by-students-some-schools-and-parents-fail-to-help-237122

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charlie Huang, Co-leader, Sustainable Global Business Operations and Development Research Group, School of Management, RMIT University

Australia is at the forefront of efforts to turn steelmaking green.

Earlier this year Australian iron ore producers Rio Tinto teamed up with Australian steelmaker BlueScope to develop “near-zero emission-intensity” pathways for making steel from Pilbara iron ore.

Renewable electricity and hydrogen would replace coking coal.

Iron ore miner Fortescue and a company started by two former Fortescue executives are developing plans to make low-emissions iron using competing technologies.

But Australia, the world’s biggest iron ore exporter, won’t have the field to itself.

Africa, a continent with boundless high-quality iron ore, is poised to become one of the world’s biggest producers of low-emissions steel, rivalling China.

Africa is blessed with sun, wind, iron ore of the necessary quality, and (importantly) a domestic demand for steel set to grow ten-fold.

Green steel is difficult

Global green steel production emits 2.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, about 8% of global energy emissions, or 10% when emissions from the electricity used to make steel are included.

While it is possible to make steel in ways that don’t emit carbon, replacing thermal coal with zero-emissions electricity, and coking coal with electricity and hydrogen, it is expensive and may not be commercial until the 1930s.

Management consultant McKinsey & Company believes green steel is unlikely to be cost-competitive with traditional steel manufacture backed by carbon capture and storage until 2050.

One of the reasons green steel would be expensive to make at scale is that it requires so-called green hydrogen. Although hydrogen can be made from water and zero-emissions electricity using electrolysis, at the moment less than 0.1% of hydrogen is made that way.

Africa has the energy and the right kind of iron

Africa, known as the “sun continent” has on one measure the greatest potential for solar electricity production in the world, nearly 40% of the global total. Importantly, the solar electricity it is able to produce is stable, varying little throughout the year.

Africa is also blessed with enough wind to power its current electricity demands 250 times over. It also has an impressive potential for hydroelectricity, 90% of which is untapped, the largest unexploited capacity in the world.

As well as the potential sources of power needed to make green hydrogen and steel, Africa is blessed with unusually large quantities of high-quality iron ore.

An iron content of 65% is needed for the so-called “direct reduction” process that removes the need for coking coal, and Africa has the world’s largest undeveloped iron ore deposit of that quality – 2.4 billion tonnes – at the Simandou mine operated by Rio Tinto and Singapore’s Winning Consortium in Guinea.

China is helping fund a 600-kilometre railway to get the iron ore to the coast.

Longer term, it will make more sense to turn this iron ore into green iron and steel within Africa where energy is abundant instead of exporting it 20,000 kilometres to China for processing.

The carbon miles saved will themselves reduce emissions.

Africa will become a large market

And Africa itself is likely to become the fastest-growing market for steel.

The steel use per person in Africa in 2023 was only 24 kilograms, which is only about one-tenth of the world average of 219 kilograms.

A move toward the world average as Africa develops would see it become an enormous and growing market for steel, which can be easily supplied with green steel made in Africa for the rest of the world.

Domination far from certain

The vision faces challenges. The world governance indicators prepared by the World Bank give the 54 African countries an average score of -0.7 on a scale that ranges from -2.5 (weak) to +2.5 (strong). Australia’s average score is positive at +1.5. The better the governance, the more likely a nation is to attract investment.

A related challenge is infrastructure, particularly power infrastructure, communications infrastructure and transport infrastructure.

More than 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity. The uptake of information communications technology is low (43% compared to a global average of 66%) as is the density of roads (10 kilometres per 100 square kilometres compared to the global average of 24).

If Africa can overcome these challenges, it has the opportunity to use its population, energy resources and high-quality iron ore to dominate steel production during the second half of this century.

Australia, also blessed with energy resources, but with lesser-quality iron ore and a lower population, might find itself a supporting player.

Charlie Huang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Australia won’t have ‘green steel’ to itself. Africa is poised to become a global hub – https://theconversation.com/australia-wont-have-green-steel-to-itself-africa-is-poised-to-become-a-global-hub-233651

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joy McEntee, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Creative Writing and Film, University of Adelaide

This piece contains spoilers.

In Alien: Romulus, Rain Carradine (Caylee Spaeny) and her android “brother” Andy (David Jonsson) are marginalised and exploited by their mining colony. They join a group of young people who stage a raid on an abandoned space station in the hope of stealing equipment so they can planet hop to a better world.

But in the Alien universe, space vessels are never abandoned for no reason. The group soon find themselves falling victim, one by one and in gruesome ways, to science fiction’s most ferocious predator.

That much is to be taken as read the minute you buy your ticket for any of the movies in the Alien franchise. And there is another thing you can take for granted: the Alien franchise has always been about women, and it has always been about mothers.

Each entry has taught us how to think about women and mothers, and about the wave of feminism – or the backlash to feminism – contemporary with its making. Unfortunately, this latest contribution to the series seems to not be interested in feminist politics at all.

Riding the waves of feminism

As the Alien franchise has evolved, so has its relation to waves of feminism, particularly in the way it recruits ideas about reproductive choice.

Alien (1979) is the product of Second Wave feminism. One of the achievements of 1970s feminism was winning women the right to reproductive choice. Alien gives us an androgynous action heroine who resists motherhood in all its forms. Ripley (Signourney Weaver) first encounters the alien via its monstrous “children”, the facehuggers.

One of these eventually hatches into a ferocious, full-grown xenomorph, which Ripley must battle. She survives, but only by the skin of her teeth.

In her foundational work The Monstrous-Feminine, cinema scholar Barbara Creed said Aliens uses the grotesque body of the alien mother to explore those physical and psychological reminders of our debt to our mothers we would rather distance ourselves from.

There are two mothers in Alien: the alien mother, who remains off screen, and “Mother”, the shipboard computer. Computers and androids are never quite to be trusted in Alien films. As it turns out, Mother’s prime directive is to bring back the alien lifetime for the sinister Weyland-Yutani corporation. The crew are expendable. Ripley must fight Mother to escape.

In Aliens (1986), Ripley encounters the alien mother, and becomes the adoptive mother of a human girl, Newt, who she must protect from the alien mother.

This pitting of good mother against bad mother may seem a wholesome development. However, it represented a step backward in terms of the film’s feminist credentials: it aligned Ripley with traditional patriarchal models of motherhood during an era of anti-feminist backlash.

As feminist scholar Tania Modleski said, Aliens registers the simultaneous co-optation and disavowal of feminism during this era of backlash:

the heroine is shown to be capable and strong, but only so that she may […] vanquish an image of the maternal as monstrous and filthy, deserving of destruction.

Then, in Alien: Resurrection (1997), by means of genetic experiments, Ripley becomes the mother of a monstrous alien-human hybrid as medicine and technology encroached on human reproduction in the era of in vitro fertilisation.

As films in the Alien franchise progress, Ripley and the women who succeed her are driven back towards motherhood. Their exercise of reproductive choice is made monstrous, or denied altogether. While the first film had strong feminist credentials, these became weaker with each subsequent film.

The Alien films fit into the genre of “gynaehorror”: a class of filmmaking which exploits physically disgusting and psychologically disturbing images of motherhood to acknowledge women’s power – but that acknowledgement is fearful.

This trajectory reaches its climax in the DIY caesarean of Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) in Prometheus (2012), and ends bitterly in Covenant (2017) when Daniels (Catherine Waterson) becomes an incubator for alien foetuses.

The Alien films are contradictory. On one hand, Ripley and her successors model bracing action heroism that seems exemplary of feminist empowerment; on the other hand, the films are reactionary against the key claims of feminism, particularly concerning reproductive choice.

Alien: Romulus

Directed by Fede Álvarez, Alien: Romulus comes in the wake of Fourth Wave feminism, including calls for greater inclusion of diverse people and the #MeToo movement. But here, feminism is notably absent. Young women’s greater sexual and reproductive agency and assertiveness barely seem to register and the film’s star turn belongs not to a woman, but to a man.

One of the group is a hapless, listless young mother barely out of her teens (Isabella Merced). Her pregnancy is exploited to make her death more harrowing. But not before monstrous pregnancy returns forcibly. She has her human pregnancy hijacked by alien DNA.

Álvarez’s version is less about mothers than about siblings. The drama leans heavily on the relationship between Rain and Andy, with themes of love, betrayal and abandonment. Jonsson gets as much airtime, and a more interesting role, than Spaeny.

As Rain Carradine, Spaeny has her share of Ripley moments, but she would have to toughen up considerably to stand toe-to-toe with Weaver. Ripley’s iconic lines are taken from her by Andy.

So what do we learn about women from this entry in the Alien franchise? That they continue important as alien incubators, as pretexts for gynaehorror, but otherwise they are important chiefly in their relationships with men.

This is a step backwards in terms of Ripley’s legacy. As critic Peter Bradshaw asks, “Did we need another Alien film?”

I suspect not, or at least, not this one.

Joy McEntee does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. The Alien films have always been contradictory in their feminism – but Alien: Romulus avoids the issue entirely – https://theconversation.com/the-alien-films-have-always-been-contradictory-in-their-feminism-but-alien-romulus-avoids-the-issue-entirely-229004

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Price, Professor of Astrophysics, Monash University

Giant black holes in the centres of galaxies like our own Milky Way are known to occasionally munch on nearby stars.

This leads to a dramatic and complex process as the star plunging towards the supermassive black hole is spaghettified and torn to shreds. The resulting fireworks are known as a tidal disruption event.

In a new study published today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, we have produced the most detailed simulations to date of how this process evolves over the span of a year.

A black hole tearing apart a sun

American astronomer Jack G. Hills and British astronomer Martin Rees first theorised about tidal disruption events in the 1970s and 80s. Rees’s theory predicted that half of the debris from the star would remain bound to the black hole, colliding with itself to form a hot, luminous swirl of matter known as an accretion disc. The disc would be so hot, it should radiate a copious amount of X-rays.

But to everyone’s surprise, most of the more than 100 candidate tidal disruption events discovered to date have been found to glow mainly at visible wavelengths, not X-rays. The observed temperatures in the debris are a mere 10,000 degrees Celsius. That’s like the surface of a moderately warm star, not the millions of degrees expected from hot gas around a supermassive black hole.

Even weirder is the inferred size of the glowing material around the black hole: several times larger than our Solar System and expanding rapidly away from the black hole at a few percent of the speed of light.

Given that even a million-solar-mass black hole is just a bit bigger than our Sun, the huge size of the glowing ball of material inferred from observations was a total surprise.

While astrophysicists have speculated the black hole must be somehow smothered by material during the disruption to explain the lack of X-ray emissions, to date nobody had been able to show how this actually occurs. This is where our simulations come in.

A slurp and a burp

Black holes are messy eaters – not unlike a five-year-old with a bowl of spaghetti. A star starts out as a compact body but gets spaghettified: stretched to a long, thin strand by the extreme tides of the black hole.

As half of the matter from the now-shredded star gets slurped towards the black hole, only 1% of it is actually swallowed. The rest ends up being blown away from the black hole in a sort of cosmic “burp”.

Simulating tidal disruption events with a computer is hard. Newton’s laws of gravity don’t work near a supermassive black hole, so one has to include all the weird and wonderful effects from Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

But hard work is what PhD students are for. Our recent graduate, David Liptai, developed a new do-it-Einstein’s-way simulation method which enabled the team to experiment by throwing unsuspecting stars in the general direction of the nearest black hole. You can even do it yourself.

The resultant simulations, seen in the videos here, are the first to show tidal disruption events all the way from the slurp to the burp.

They follow the spaghettification of the star through to when the debris falls back on the black hole, then a close approach that turns the stream into something like a wriggling garden hose. The simulation lasts for more than a year after the initial plunge.

It took more than a year to run on one of the most powerful supercomputers in Australia. The zoomed-out version goes like this:

What did we discover?

To our great surprise, we found that the 1% of material that does drop to the black hole generates so much heat, it powers an extremely powerful and nearly spherical outflow. (A bit like that time you ate too much curry, and for much the same reason.)

The black hole simply can’t swallow all that much, so what it can’t swallow smothers the central engine and gets steadily flung away.

When observed like they would be by our telescopes, the simulations explain a lot. Turns out previous researchers were right about the smothering. It looks like this:

The new simulations reveal why tidal disruption events really do look like a solar-system-sized star expanding at a few percent of the speed of light, powered by a black hole inside. In fact, one could even call it a “black hole sun”.

Daniel Price is very grateful for funding from the Australian Research Council, otherwise his research would disappear into a black hole.

– ref. Watch a star get destroyed by a supermassive black hole in the first simulation of its kind – https://theconversation.com/watch-a-star-get-destroyed-by-a-supermassive-black-hole-in-the-first-simulation-of-its-kind-237032

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edward Musole, PhD Law Candidate, University of New England

As remote work became standard around the world during the COVID pandemic, employee surveillance rapidly intensified. Companies started deploying software to electronically monitor their employees’ web browsing history, emails and webcams – all in the name of ensuring continued productivity.

While the worst of the pandemic is behind us, the intense digital surveillance of workers continues. And it is set to increase even more with the growing popularity of brain-monitoring neurotechnology which is already used in mining, finance and other industries.

This technology is capable of measuring brain waves and making inferences about a person’s mental state, such as whether they are tired or unfocused. The United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office predicts it will be common in workplaces by the end of the decade. By then, the market for neurotechnology devices is expected to be worth more than US$24 billion.

This presents major privacy concerns for workers in Australia – especially as there are no current privacy law provisions protecting employee data generated from neurotechnology. This is something the Australian government should urgently fix as it prepares to introduce draft privacy reforms into federal parliament this month.

Neurotechnology: coming to a brain near you

Neurotechnology has long been used in the field of medicine. Perhaps the most successful and well known example are cochlear implants, which can restore hearing.

But neurotechnology is now becoming increasingly widespread. It is also becoming more sophisticated.

Earlier this year, tech billionaire Elon Musk’s firm Neuralink implanted the first human patient with one of its computer brain chips, known as “Telepathy”. These chips are designed to enable people to translate thoughts into action. More recently, Musk revealed a second human patient had one of his firm’s chips implanted in their brain.

But there are less invasive and more accessible types of neurotechnology now available. These use sensors attached to a person’s head to monitor their brain activity.

Examples include SmartCaps, which measure fatigue in real time to reduce the risk of workplace accidents, and Emotiv headsets which can be used for everything from interactive gaming to scientific research.

Apple is also developing the next generation of wireless headphones which are capable of monitoring brain waves.

Devices such as these are already used in workplaces across industries such as mining, finance and sport.

Combining neurotechnology with artificial intelligence (AI) for data analysis provides employers with even deeper insights into employee behaviour in and around the workplace.

Privacy problems

Neurotechnology can have a range of positive impacts, such as assisting people with a disability. But it also raises major privacy concerns, which are set to grow as more workplaces adopt the technology.

For example, there is a risk brainwave data could be shared with third parties to personalise advertisements depending on someone’s mood or energy levels. It can also fuel “neurodiscrimination”. This refers to employers making employment decisions such as whether to fire somebody based on their brainwave data, which could contain signs of cognitive decline.

These concerns are heightened by a glaring gap in Australia’s current privacy laws – especially as they relate to employees.

These laws govern how companies lawfully collect and use their employees’ personal information.

However, they do not currently contain provisions that protect some of the most personal information of all: data from our brains.

A path forward

Some international jurisdictions have already recognised the serious risks to privacy associated with neurotechnology.

For example, in June the US state of Colorado passed legislation which safeguarded the collection of brain data. Under this law, brain data is considered sensitive and cannot be used without the owner’s consent.

Chile has also been a pioneer when it comes to protecting peoples’ brain data.

In 2021, its parliament passed a new law aimed at protecting its citizens’ “brain rights”. In particular, this law safeguards personal identity, free will and mental privacy. At the same time, the country also passed a constitutional amendment which enshrined “brain rights” into its national document.

These laws were put into practice last year, when Chile’s supreme court ordered the neurotechnology company Emotiv to delete all brain data collected from a national senator.

As the Australian government prepares to introduce sweeping reforms to privacy legislation this month, it should take heed of these international examples and address the serious privacy risks presented by neurotechnology used in workplaces.

In particular, these provisions should cover the collection, processing and use of brain data in workplaces.

The government can implement other reforms too.

For example, it could give the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner greater power to monitor compliance with neurorights and enforce any breaches. It could also develop adequate training provisions for employees and employers looking to use neurotechnology combined with artificial intelligence in the workplace. This would help promote more ethical uses of these emerging technologies.

Without reforms such as these, the Australian government risks leaving Australians vulnerable to having data from their own brains used against them.

Edward Musole does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Neurotechnology is becoming widespread in workplaces – and our brain data needs to be protected – https://theconversation.com/neurotechnology-is-becoming-widespread-in-workplaces-and-our-brain-data-needs-to-be-protected-236800

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yuvisthi Naidoo, Senior Research Fellow, Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW Sydney

When we think of the concept of the family, a specific version often springs to mind: a mother, a father and children, usually two or three. It’s the version of society our policies and systems are built around.

But Australia’s families are far more diverse. Some are multigenerational, some are sole-parent, some are blended. We need to understand how families have evolved over time and what that means for the social fabric of our country.

Our new research, released today, charts years of data to map out what families have looked like historically and what they look like now. We also looked at how these families function, including income, wealth, labour division and care responsibilities.

Charting change over time

Families are the primary social environment in which we are cared for. As such, they play a fundamental role in our development and in making a thriving society.

Of the six million children and young people, aged 0–19 years, currently growing up in Australia, the majority learn and develop with the care and support of families. More than two and a half million families are raising children under the age of 15.

Our understanding of who counts as family has expanded enormously over the past 50 years. But too often, we assume families are nuclear. Research too is guilty of examining “families” without exploring variation. If any different forms of family are explored, they typically divide families into couple-parent and sole-parent families.

Shining a spotlight on family diversity is essential to ensuring that policies, systems and society are supportive and inclusive of the many ways children and young people grow up. We need to change the way we think about family.

Our team, in partnership with Uniting NSW.ACT, will report annually over the next decade to chart the diversity of families, how this changes over time, and the implications for policy and practice. Our first report analyses the 2022 wave of Housing Income and Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) data and the 2021 Census to examine these issues.

We found while the majority of children live in couple-parent (69%) and sole-parent (11%) families, 12% of children live in step/blended families, 6% live in multigenerational families, and around 1% live in foster families or families made up of other kin.

We also found First Nations families are more likely to live in multigenerational (9%), step and/or blended (27%), sole-parent (23%), or foster and other kin (6%) families.

Care, wealth and labour

Our analysis of ten years of the Census shows this diverse mix of families has been a consistent part of the Australian population over time.

As well as nurturing children and supporting young adults as they establish themselves in the world, we found families provide care during times of ill-health and disability. Unsurprisingly, multigenerational families are likely to provide this kind of care, because they are living with older adults with care needs.

But this was also the case for sole-parent families, step/blended families and foster and other kin families. All these family types are at least twice as likely to provide care than couple families.

We know the cost of living is affecting many families. However, our research suggests that couple families, on the whole, have higher incomes (around 1.5 times more) and higher levels of wealth, and are more likely to be able to cope with rising costs than other families.

Sole-parent families, step/blended families, multigenerational families and foster and other kin families have lower incomes and are more likely to experience financial hardship, with close to 20% reaching out to friends, family and community for financial help.

Across all family types, we found that old patterns around the gendered division of labour are still in force. Women continue to do more housework and more child-rearing than men. Women have this in common across all family types.

What’s more, the majority of women (more than two-thirds) report they believe they are doing more than their fair share. Most men, on the other hand, (again, around two-thirds) feel their contributions are about right. Men heading sole-parent families are the main exception to this pattern.

These findings challenge conventional notions of family structure and underscore the importance of inclusive support systems policies that recognise and address the multifaceted needs of families. For example, some family assistance programs base access to supports on household incomes, assuming an increase in resources will benefit all families equally, without considering the number of people in the household or the complexity of caring roles they may hold.

Why does this matter?

Greater understanding of family diversity is important in public debate, policy development and service delivery.

By thinking about “children and young people and the people who are raising them”, we have developed a new typology of families, which includes: step/blended, multigenerational, and foster and other kin families – groups that are rarely included in quantitative research.

The higher care responsibilities of these family types, combined with access to fewer financial resources, shows the importance of ensuring our policies and programs understand more about the many kinds of families who live in Australia. The findings show there is work to do to ensure that conditions and opportunities are equal for all families.

At the same time, old challenges about women’s uneven greater share of work raising children, and caring for the homes in which we live, continue to need our focused attention to redress gender imbalances.

Importantly, the research also uncovers areas of hope. Despite the obvious challenges many families face, the resilience and care within families is clear. Satisfaction with relationships with children and between siblings is high across all family types.

In the next decade we hope to build a compelling narrative that provides a rich evidence base on how family practices, relationships, needs and circumstances change.

A better understanding of the rich of tapestry of families and family life in which children and young people are raised in Australia will compel us to look more closely in the design of our policies and systems to disrupt entrenched disadvantage and secure the futures of the next generation.

Yuvisthi Naidoo receives funding from Uniting NSW.ACT

Ilan Katz receives funding from Uniting NSW.ACT

Megan Blaxland receives funding from Uniting NSW.ACT.

– ref. What does family look like in Australia? It’s more diverse than you think – https://theconversation.com/what-does-family-look-like-in-australia-its-more-diverse-than-you-think-236499

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Belinda Lawford, Postdoctoral research fellow in physiotherapy, The University of Melbourne

Most people with knee osteoarthritis can control their pain and improve their mobility without surgery, according to updated treatment guidelines from the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care.

So what is knee osteoarthritis and what are the best ways to manage it?

More than 2 million Australians have osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is the most common joint disease, affecting 2.1 million Australians. It costs the economy A$4.3 billion each year.

Osteoarthritis commonly affects the knees, but can also affect the hips, spine, hands and feet. It impacts the whole joint including bone, cartilage, ligaments and muscles.

Most people with osteoarthritis have persistent pain and find it difficult to perform simple daily tasks, such as walking and climbing stairs.

Is it caused by ‘wear and tear’?

Knee osteoarthritis is most likely to affect older people, those who are overweight or obese, and those with previous knee injuries. But contrary to popular belief, knee osteoarthritis is not caused by “wear and tear”.

Research shows the degree of structural wear and tear visible in the knee joint on an X-ray does not correlate with the level of pain or disability a person experiences. Some people have a low degree of structural wear and tear and very bad symptoms, while others have a high degree of structural wear and tear and minimal symptoms. So X-rays are not required to diagnose knee osteoarthritis or guide treatment decisions.

Telling people they have wear and tear can make them worried about their condition and afraid of damaging their joint. It can also encourage them to try invasive and potentially unnecessary treatments such as surgery. We have shown this in people with osteoarthritis, and other common pain conditions such as back and shoulder pain.

This has led to a global call for a change in the way we think and communicate about osteoarthritis.

Read more:
How long does back pain last? And how can learning about pain increase the chance of recovery?

What’s the best way to manage osteoarthritis?

Non-surgical treatments work well for most people with osteoarthritis, regardless of their age or the severity of their symptoms. These include education and self-management, exercise and physical activity, weight management and nutrition, and certain pain medicines.

Education is important to dispel misconceptions about knee osteoarthritis. This includes information about what osteoarthritis is, how it is diagnosed, its prognosis, and the most effective ways to self-manage symptoms.

Health professionals who use positive and reassuring language can improve people’s knowledge and beliefs about osteoarthritis and its management.

Many people believe that exercise and physical activity will cause further damage to their joint. But it’s safe and can reduce pain and disability. Exercise has fewer side effects than commonly used pain medicines such as paracetamol and anti-inflammatories and can prevent or delay the need for joint replacement surgery in the future.

Many types of exercise are effective for knee osteoarthritis, such as strength training, aerobic exercises like walking or cycling, Yoga and Tai chi. So you can do whatever type of exercise best suits you.

Increasing general physical activity is also important, such as taking more steps throughout the day and reducing sedentary time.

Weight management is important for those who are overweight or obese. Weight loss can reduce knee pain and disability, particularly when combined with exercise. Losing as little as 5–10% of your body weight can be beneficial.

Pain medicines should not replace treatments such as exercise and weight management but can be used alongside these treatments to help manage pain. Recommended medicines include paracetamol and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

Opioids are not recommended. The risk of harm outweighs any potential benefits.

What about surgery?

People with knee osteoarthritis commonly undergo two types of surgery: knee arthroscopy and knee replacement.

Knee arthroscopy is a type of keyhole surgery used to remove or repair damaged pieces of bone or cartilage that are thought to cause pain.

However, high-quality research has shown arthroscopy is not effective. Arthroscopy should therefore not be used in the management of knee osteoarthritis.

Joint replacement involves replacing the joint surfaces with artificial parts. In 2021–22, 53,500 Australians had a knee replacement for their osteoarthritis.

Joint replacement is often seen as being inevitable and “necessary”. But most people can effectively manage their symptoms through exercise, physical activity and weight management.

The new guidelines (known as “care standard”) recommend joint replacement surgery only be considered for those with severe symptoms who have already tried non-surgical treatments.

I have knee osteoarthritis. What should I do?

The care standard links to free evidence-based resources to support people with osteoarthritis. These include:

• education, such as a decision aid and four-week online course
• self-directed online exercise and yoga programs
• weight management support
• pain management strategies, such as MyJointPain and painTRAINER.

If you have osteoarthritis, you can use the care standard to inform discussions with your health-care provider, and to make informed decisions about your care.

Belinda Lawford receives funding from Arthritis Australia, MRFF, and Medibank. She is a Steering Committee Member of the Osteoarthritis Research Society International Rehabilitation Group, and also an Editorial Board member for Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy. Some of the consumer resources recommended in this article have been developed by her research team.

Giovanni Ferreira receives funding from the NHMRC.

Joshua Zadro receives funding from the NHMRC and MRFF. He is also an Editorial Board member for Journal of Physiotherapy.

Rana Hinman receives funding from NHMRC, MRFF & Medibank. Some of the consumer resources recommended in this article have been developed by her research team. She is also an Editorial Board member for Journal of Physiotherapy.

– ref. Do you have knee pain from osteoarthritis? You might not need surgery. Here’s what to try instead – https://theconversation.com/do-you-have-knee-pain-from-osteoarthritis-you-might-not-need-surgery-heres-what-to-try-instead-236779

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erin Kelly, Lecturer and PhD Candidate, Discipline of Sport and Exercise Science, University of Canberra

Picture a gym ten years ago: the weights room was largely a male-dominated space, with women mostly doing cardio exercise. Fast-forward to today and you’re likely to see women of all ages and backgrounds confidently navigating weights equipment.

This is more than just anecdotal. According to data from the Australian Sports Commission, the number of women participating in weightlifting (either competitively or not) grew nearly five-fold between 2016 and 2022.

Women are discovering what research has long shown: strength training offers benefits beyond sculpted muscles.

Health benefits

Osteoporosis, a disease in which the bones become weak and brittle, affects more women than men. Strength training increases bone density, a crucial factor for preventing osteoporosis, especially for women negotiating menopause.

Strength training also improves insulin sensitivity, which means your body gets better at using insulin to manage blood sugar levels, reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes. Regular strength training contributes to better heart health too.

There’s a mental health boost as well. Strength training has been linked to reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Improved confidence and body image

Unlike some forms of exercise where progress can feel elusive, strength training offers clear and tangible measures of success. Each time you add more weight to a bar, you are reminded of your ability to meet your goals and conquer challenges.

This sense of achievement doesn’t just stay in the gym – it can change how women see themselves. A recent study found women who regularly lift weights often feel more empowered to make positive changes in their lives and feel ready to face life’s challenges outside the gym.

Strength training also has the potential to positively impact body image. In a world where women are often judged on appearance, lifting weights can shift the focus to function.

Instead of worrying about the number on the scale or fitting into a certain dress size, women often come to appreciate their bodies for what they can do. “Am I lifting more than I could last month?” and “can I carry all my groceries in a single trip?” may become new measures of physical success.

Lifting weights can also be about challenging outdated ideas of how women “should” be. Qualitative research I conducted with colleagues found that, for many women, strength training becomes a powerful form of rebellion against unrealistic beauty standards. As one participant told us:

I wanted something that would allow me to train that just didn’t have anything to do with how I looked.

Society has long told women to be small, quiet and not take up space. But when a woman steps up to a barbell, she’s pushing back against these outdated rules. One woman in our study said:

We don’t have to […] look a certain way, or […] be scared that we can lift heavier weights than some men. Why should we?

This shift in mindset helps women see themselves differently. Instead of worrying about being objects for others to look at, they begin to see their bodies as capable and strong. Another participant explained:

Powerlifting changed my life. It made me see myself, or my body. My body wasn’t my value, it was the vehicle that I was in to execute whatever it was that I was executing in life.

This newfound confidence often spills over into other areas of life. As one woman said:

I love being a strong woman. It’s like going against the grain, and it empowers me. When I’m physically strong, everything in the world seems lighter.

Feeling inspired? Here’s how to get started

1. Take things slow

Begin with bodyweight exercises like squats, lunges and push-ups to build a foundation of strength. Once you’re comfortable, add external weights, but keep them light at first. Focus on mastering compound movements, such as deadlifts, squats and overhead presses. These exercises engage multiple joints and muscle groups simultaneously, making your workouts more efficient.

2. Prioritise proper form

Always prioritise proper form over lifting heavier weights. Poor technique can lead to injuries, so learning the correct way to perform each exercise is crucial. To help with this, consider working with an exercise professional who can provide personalised guidance and ensure you’re performing exercises correctly, at least initially.

3. Consistency is key

Like any fitness regimen, consistency is key. Two to three sessions a week are plenty for most women to see benefits. And don’t be afraid to occupy space in the weights room – remember you belong there just as much as anyone else.

4. Find a community

Finally, join a community. There’s nothing like being surrounded by a group of strong women to inspire and motivate you. Engaging with a supportive community can make your strength-training journey more enjoyable and rewarding, whether it’s an in-person class or an online forum.

Are there any downsides?

Gym memberships can be expensive, especially for specialist weightlifting gyms. Home equipment is an option, but quality barbells and weightlifting equipment can come with a hefty price tag.

Also, for women juggling work and family responsibilities, finding time to get to the gym two to three times per week can be challenging.

If you’re concerned about getting too “bulky”, it’s very difficult for women to bulk up like male bodybuilders without pharmaceutical assistance.

The main risks come from poor technique or trying to lift too much too soon – issues that can be easily avoided with some guidance.

Erin Kelly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Strength training has a range of benefits for women. Here are 4 ways to get into weights – https://theconversation.com/strength-training-has-a-range-of-benefits-for-women-here-are-4-ways-to-get-into-weights-221307

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Balanzategui, Associate Professor in Media, RMIT University

It’s almost ten years since Netflix and Stan first started offering streaming services in Australia.

This has been a decade of transformation for our local screen industries – and the implications for younger audiences in particular can’t be underestimated. For today’s children, streaming and watching television “on-demand” are the norm.

We’re now at a crossroads, on the cusp of the second decade of streaming in Australia. Earlier this year, a parliamentary inquiry interrogating commercial arrangements between US-based global streaming services such as Netflix and YouTube and television manufacturers resulted in changes to the way internet-connected smart TV devices are regulated.

These changes are designed to ensure Australian providers such as ABC, SBS and commercial networks are available and easy to find on smart TV interfaces.

In other areas, however, the government’s promises have not resulted in policy action.

The government previously committed to introducing a quota or expenditure system to ensure a certain amount of local content was available on subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD) services by July 2024. But July has come and gone with no developments, despite calls for urgent action from the screen industry. An upcoming summit and conference will also explore the issue.

Although the Australian government has recognised that the local children’s content sector in particular requires targeted solutions, the only policy change so far has been the removal of quotas for this content on commercial broadcasters. This resulted in a decrease of more than 84% in hours screened on commercial broadcasters between 2019 and 2022.

There is currently no concrete requirement for any broadcaster or streamer in Australia to screen a certain amount of local kids’ content.

Do Aussie kids access local content?

While there has been much anxiety about the reduction in local children’s content production, there has been little focus on whether children are actually able to access the local content available to them on streaming platforms.

Our audience research with children aged seven to nine found content “discoverability” should be regarded as a pressing policy priority.

We interviewed 37 children and their parents, and observed children using streaming platforms to select and watch the content of their choice. We also observed the children watching with their parents to see how parental coviewing might influence children’s choices.

Among other things, we found:

• Netflix and YouTube were by far the most popular platform choices among our participants

• only 17% of kids gravitated to Australian content while streaming independently

• only 9% gravitated to Australian content while watching with their parents. In tandem with our interviews, this suggests parents are not necessarily encouraging children to watch local content.

The Americanisation of TV in Australia

The children in our study explained how a diet of mainly US content impacted them. One nine-year-old girl told us:

[I wish there was more Australian stuff] because sometimes I wouldn’t know what they’re talking about because they would say something a different way than how Australians would say it and then it would kind of get me confused and I would have to go on Google or something.

Consider also the following conversation with a different child:

Researcher: Do you wish there were more Australian shows on the streaming platforms?

Nine-year-old girl: Yeah because most of them are like, American, and when I was six or seven I would just watch all the American stuff. And then I started to say ‘diaper’ and then my Dad kept correcting me. […] They would say ‘gas station’ instead of ‘petrol station’ and stuff like that.

Children were also often confused about what Australian content was. They struggled to identify it across various streaming platforms, unless the images in front of them had stereotypical images of Australiana such as kangaroos or the outback.

Researcher: Do you like watching Australian TV shows?

Seven-year-old girl: I don’t even know what the Australian TV shows are.

Researcher: How would you know if something was Australian?

Seven-year-old girl I don’t know.

The ABC’s platforms were the third most popular choice among the children, and were often associated with Australian content. This highlights the important cultural role the ABC plays in providing children access to local content.

Researcher: And which streaming platform is the easiest to use?

Nine-year-old girl: Probably ABC ME. Because its mainly all Australian, and only a few of them aren’t – and you know that if you just scroll a little bit, you’re gonna find a good kids’ show.

Netflix and YouTube set kids’ expectations

Our young participants valued the interfaces and algorithmic personalisation of Netflix and YouTube, but didn’t understand how these may be shaping their content choices and habits (or narrowing their access to Australian content).

The children often assumed the content they watched across Netflix and YouTube was American. In some cases, even when their favourite shows were Australian, they assumed they must be American.

Eight-year-old boy: I watch a lot of American. […] I do like American shows a lot, but not really Australian shows.

Researcher: But what about Little Lunch and InBESTigators? [two shows the child had previously identified as favourites].

Eight-year-old boy: Little Lunch is definitely American.

Researcher: No, that one’s an Australian show!

Eight-year-old boy: [Physically recoils. Shocked pause] Well… InBESTigators is American!

Researcher: InBESTigators is Australian too!

Eight-year-old boy: [Shocked pause] WHAT!?

Supporting access to Australian content

Our research shows the issues surrounding Australian kids’ TV go deeper than a reduction in production. Children also need to be able to find the Australian content available to them on streaming platforms, which requires changes to the way this content is labelled and displayed.

Australian content helps children understand and reflect on their place in local culture. If children don’t develop appetites for this content at a young age, they may never seek it out as they grow into teenagers and adults – so the implications for our culture now and into the future are potentially significant.

Jessica Balanzategui receives funding from the Australian Children’s Television Foundation. This broader project is based at Swinburne University of Technology in collaboration with RMIT University.

Djoymi Baker receives funding from The Australian Children’s Television Foundation. The project Australian Children’s Television Cultures is based at Swinburne University of Technology in collaboration with RMIT University.

Georgia Clift receives funding from The Australian Children’s Television Foundation. The project Australian Children’s Television Cultures is based at Swinburne University of Technology in collaboration with RMIT University.

– ref. ‘I don’t even know what the Australian TV shows are’: how streaming has changed kids’ viewing in Australia – https://theconversation.com/i-dont-even-know-what-the-australian-tv-shows-are-how-streaming-has-changed-kids-viewing-in-australia-236874

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christos Venetis, Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Big Data Research in Health, UNSW Sydney

During in vitro fertilisation (IVF), a number of different embryos are produced from eggs and sperm. Then, embryologists choose which one of the embryos is most likely to lead to a successful pregnancy and transfer it to the patient.

Embryologists make this choice by using their expertise to apply a set of widely accepted principles based on the appearance of the embryo. In recent years there has been a lot of interest in using various artificial intelligence (AI) techniques in this process.

We developed one such AI system and tested it in a study of more than 1,000 IVF patients. Our system chose the same embryo as a human expert in about two-thirds of cases, and had an overall success rate only marginally lower. The results are published in Nature Medicine.

Can deep learning help IVF?

Over the past few years, with colleagues in Sweden, we have been developing software to identify which embryos will have the best chance of IVF success. Our system uses deep learning, an AI method for finding patterns in large amounts of data.

While we were developing our system, we carried out retrospective studies comparing the system’s choices with past real-world decisions made by embryologists. These early results suggested the deep learning system might do an even better job than a human expert. So the next step was to test the system properly with a randomised trial.

Our trial involved 1,066 patients at 14 fertility clinics in Australia and Europe (Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom). For each patient, both the deep learning system and a human expert selected an embryo to be implanted. Then, a random choice was made of which of the two to use.

This study is the first randomised controlled trial ever performed of a deep learning system in embryo selection. Deep learning may have many medical applications, but this is so far one of only a few prospective randomised trials of the technology in any area of healthcare.

What we found

What we found in the study was that there was virtually no difference between the
two approaches. The clinical pregnancy rate (the likelihood of a fetal heart being
seen after transfer of the first embryo) was 46.5% when the deep learning system
chose the embryo and 48.2% when the embryologist chose the embryo.

In other words, there was very little difference. Indeed, 65.8% of the time, the deep learning system chose the same embryo as the embryologist. However, we also found that the artificial intelligence system did the task of embryo selection ten times more quickly than the embryologist.

One aim of our study was to prove the “non-inferiority” of our deep learning system. This is common in medical research, as we always want to make sure that a proposed new technique doesn’t lead to worse results that the existing standard.

Despite the fact the deep learning system produced very similar results to those of human experts, our study did not quite clear the hurdle of proving “non-inferiority”.

As it happened, the overall success rates in the study were much higher than we had expected. This changed the statistics of the situation, and meant we would have needed a much larger study – with almost 8,000 patients – to prove the new method is non-inferior.

No significant differences

A number of ethical concerns have previously been raised about deep learning in embryo selection. One of these concerns is a potential alteration of the sex ratio – that is, ending up with more male or female embryos – through biased selection by the deep learning model.

However, we found no alteration in the sex ratio as a result of deep learning embryo selection.

We concluded from our study that there is no significant difference for the pregnancy rate between having an embryo chosen by a deep learning system or having the embryo chosen by an experienced embryologist.

It seems from this that the use of a deep learning tool for embryo selection will not radically change the outcome (as it mostly chooses the same embryo) for a patient undergoing IVF. However, the use of a reliable automated tool of this sort may make embryology laboratories more efficient and consistent.

A further conclusion from this study is that randomised trials, which take years to conduct, may not be the optimum approach for studying rapidly advancing technologies such as this. Our future work in evaluating this technology will need to examine alternative, but still clinically valid, approaches to this subject.

_The author would like to acknowledge the work of Peter Illingworth in writing this article and the research it reports. _

Christos Venetis has been an Early Career Fellow of NHMRC (2018-2021; GNT1127216), has received consulting fees, unrestricted research funding, lecture payments and travel expenses from pharmaceutical firms with a commercial portfolio in IVF. He has previously (until June 2022) held shares in Virtus Health, a commercial IVF company. He is currently an employee of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece and also a Senior Deputy of the Coordination Committee of the Special Interest Group Reproductive Endocrinology of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology.

– ref. Can AI pick IVF embryos as well as a human? First randomised controlled trial shows promise – https://theconversation.com/can-ai-pick-ivf-embryos-as-well-as-a-human-first-randomised-controlled-trial-shows-promise-236485

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Marriott, Professor of Taxation, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

Despite long being considered one of the least corrupt countries – ranked third in the world by Transparency International – New Zealand is lagging behind when it comes to handling white-collar crime.

This can be loosely defined as financially motivated crime committed by individuals, businesses and government professionals. Recent cases in New Zealand have included uncompetitive procurement processes, ponzi schemes disguised as financial services, or large scale mortgage fraud.

But just 1% of the complaints made to New Zealand’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) result in prosecutions.

Corruption and white-collar crime are increasingly under the microscope overseas. The European Union is currently negotiating the final version of a new directive on combating corruption. The World Bank has launched a set of anti-corruption initiatives.

Closer to home, Australia recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC). The NACC is tasked with detecting, investigating and reporting serious corruption in the public sector.

Funding for the NACC is roughly comparable to New Zealand’s SFO, accounting for population size. But the SFO is tasked with investigating and prosecuting the most serious and complex financial fraud, including bribery and corruption, across both the public and private sectors. The NACC only investigates the public sector.

Complex cases

The SFO focuses on complex financial fraud that is usually outside the capability of other agencies such as the Commerce Commission, Inland Revenue and the Ministry of Social Development to investigate and prosecute. The office typically has 30 to 40 investigations open at a time.

However, these cases are complex – often comprising of more than one million documents. They are time-consuming to prosecute and can take years to conclude.

Cases also usually involve millions of dollars. In 2022-23, the SFO completed six trials and concluded 24 investigations, obtaining convictions for fraud valuing NZ$32 million.

The SFO receives around a thousand complaints yearly, a 100% increase from ten years earlier. But over the past six years, fewer than 1% of complaints resulted in an SFO prosecution.

Referring corruption to Police

So where do the other 99% of complaints to the SFO go?

The Police’s Financial Crime Group has several core functions relating to analysing financial intelligence, restraining criminally acquired assets and investigating money laundering.

I asked the SFO how many referrals (of complaints or cases) they made to the police over the past three years. I also asked the police how many referrals they received from the SFO over the same period.

The agencies provided different data, but it is somewhere between five and nine referrals. This means there is a huge gap between the number of complaints to the SFO and the number of offences either investigated or prosecuted by the SFO, or passed on to the police.

Of the five the police reported, four were the subject of Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act investigations. And two of these four resulted in restraining orders issued in the High Court.

Not enough

The key obstacles for both agencies are limited funding and resources, rather than an absence of corruption.

SFO funding remained largely static between 2013 and 2020, at around $10-12 million, but increased to $16 million in 2023. Some of the increased funding allowed the SFO to expand its operations.

However, as crimes become more complex and require more investigative resources, this has not resulted in an increased number of investigations or prosecutions.

A 2022 Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) review of police management of fraud allegations found several agencies have responsibilities relating to fraud.

But the review also found these different agencies operate “within narrow parameters”, and police “end up being the lead agency for the vast majority of fraud investigations, even though their investigative staff are not generally qualified, trained or experienced in dealing with complex financial matters”.

The review acknowledged frauds may not always be pursued “on the basis that the resources required to reach a possible outcome are not justified given other priorities”.

In addition, the IPCA documents its concern that “those processes are applied to fraud much more readily than to other types of cases which are not necessarily more serious, nor more susceptible to resolution”.

Time to take corruption seriously

So, is New Zealand doing enough to combat corruption and white-collar crime? In short, no. The government must signal that it takes corruption seriously by properly funding agencies to investigate and prosecute financial fraud.

Sitting on its laurels because the country is perceived to have little corruption is not enough. New Zealand needs to take these sorts of crimes seriously – not only as a deterrent to potential fraudsters, but also for their victims.

Lisa Marriott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. NZ’s white-collar crime gap: just 1% of serious fraud complaints result in prosecution – https://theconversation.com/nzs-white-collar-crime-gap-just-1-of-serious-fraud-complaints-result-in-prosecution-236477

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Juan Diaz-Granados, Lecturer, Australian Catholic University

Monday August 26 is when the government’s updated Fair Work legislation comes into force.

The new laws will offer new rights to so-called “gig workers” who take on jobs through platforms such as Uber, Menulog and Lyft.

Most gig workers aren’t currently classified as employees, meaning they miss out on rights such as sick leave, annual leave and minimum pay rates.

The new law empowers the Fair Work Commission to set minimum standards for a new category of workers known as “employee-like workers” – workers who get work through digital platforms used for things such as food delivery, ride share and personal care.

Until now, the law has recognised only two categories of workers: employees and independent contractors.

The law creating the new category of employee-like workers also creates a new category for the companies operating the platforms through which the workers obtain work: “digital labour platform operators”.

Many (but not all) of the rights of employees

The new law allows employee-like workers and their representatives to apply to the Fair Work Commission for minimum standards orders tailored to their work.

Among the things that can be included in the orders are payment terms, record-keeping and insurance.

But, significantly, the Commission will not be able to set minimum standards for things such as overtime rates and rostering arrangements.

The government says this is to ensure the standards benefit workers without “requiring them to forego the flexibility they value”.

What employee-like workers will also get is protection from “unfair deactivation” and unfair contract terms, and the rights to seek collective agreements and to ask the Fair Work Commission to resolve disputes.

The Commission won’t treat claims of unfair deactivation or unfair contract terms in quite the same way as it treats unfair dismissal cases.

The procedures are to be “quick, flexible and informal”, allowing the Commission to order reactivation, but not compensation, which is explicitly prohibited.

There’s much that’s unclear

There is an awful lot that won’t become clear for some time, including the extent to which platform operators will become liable for the things done by and that happen to their employee-like workers.

Would, for example, Uber be liable for an assault on a passenger perpetrated by one of its drivers? Would Uber Eats be liable for a “workplace accident” that injured one of its delivery riders?

They are questions the Fair Work Commission will have to work through, and the answers aren’t obvious.

While the Commission is ideally set up to adjudicate disputes between workers and employers, it might not be the optimal body to adjudicate disputes involving platforms where the traditional employee-employer relationship doesn’t fit.

Nevertheless, the new rules starting on Monday are a step forward.

Gig workers are often drawn from vulnerable populations, such as international students and culturally diverse communities, who deserve protection.

The success of the new law is in the hands of the Commission. It will have to treat both gig workers and the platforms that engage them without bias, ensuring a “fair go all round” for both.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. ‘Gig workers’ get minimum standards from Monday. Here’s what will change – https://theconversation.com/gig-workers-get-minimum-standards-from-monday-heres-what-will-change-237016

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brian Stone Jr., Professor of Environmental Planning, Georgia Institute of Technology

As intense heat breaks records around the world, a little-reported fact offers some hope for cooling down cities: Under even the most intense periods of extreme heat, some city blocks never experience heat wave temperatures.

How is this possible?

Civilizations have recognized the power of cities to heat themselves up and cool themselves for centuries. City architects in ancient Rome called for narrowing streets to lessen late afternoon temperatures. Narrow streets were found to cool the air by limiting the area exposed to direct sunlight.

The whitewashed architecture of the Greek Isles demonstrates another long-practiced strategy. Light-colored walls and roofs can help cool cities by reflecting incoming sunlight.

In hot and humid regions of the southern U.S., Thomas Jefferson proposed another approach to cooling: Have all new settlements employ a checkerboard pattern of heavily vegetated city blocks interspersed among dense construction. That could promote cooling through convective air movement between cool and warm zones.

As I explore in my recent book, “Radical Adaptation: Transforming Cities for a Climate Changed World,” modern cities unintentionally elevate their own temperatures, creating what is known as the “urban heat island effect.”

How cities heat themselves up

Cities elevate their temperature in four key ways:

• Developers cut down trees to make space for buildings and cars. When tree canopies disappear, that lessens shading and the release of cooling water vapor from leaves via transpiration.

• Urban construction then amplifies the heat. Asphalt, concrete and dark roofing materials all absorb heat from the Sun and heat up the environment around them.

• Absorbed solar energy is compounded by copious amounts of waste heat emitted from industrial processes, vehicle tailpipes and building air conditioning systems.

• In zones of the city occupied by tall buildings, radiant energy released from streets and parking lots is trapped in the concrete canyons, further elevating temperatures.

In combination, these four drivers of the urban heat island effect can raise urban temperatures by 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit (5.6 to 11 degrees Celsius) on a hot summer afternoon – a significant, human-driven shift in the weather that can become a serious health risk for anyone lacking air conditioning.

Coupled with the design of the built environment, the natural topography of a city can further accentuate temperature differences from one neighborhood to another. The hills and fog patterns of San Francisco, for example, consistently partition the city’s neighborhoods into distinct climate zones. And the extensive use of yard irrigation systems in hot and arid climates can yield urban temperatures lower than the surrounding desert, sometimes referred to as urban cool islands.

Simple steps for cooling cities down

Understanding the extent to which cities can heat themselves up offers powerful tools for cooling them down as human-driven global warming raises the baseline temperature.

First, it is essential that cities sharply reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to stop fueling the global-scale phenomenon of climate change. Globally, urban areas, with their industries, vehicles and buildings, account for more than 70% of greenhouse gas emissions from energy use, and their populations are growing quickly. Even globally coordinated reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will require many decades to measurably slow warming trends, so cities will still need to adapt.

Cities can also slow the pace of urban heat island-driven warming trends by taking sometimes simple steps. Research shows that the health benefits of urban heat island reduction could be substantial.

At the Georgia Tech Urban Climate Lab, my colleagues and I partner with city governments to estimate the cooling potential of urban heat management – sets of strategies designed to reverse the urban heat island effect. To do this, we measure the direct health benefits of actions such as expanding tree cover and other green infrastructure and using cool materials for roads and roofs.

Our work shows that planting trees across just half of the space available to support tree canopy – such as along streets, within parking lots and in residential yards – could lower summer afternoon temperatures by 5-10 F (2.8-5.6 C), reducing heat-related deaths by 40%-50% in some neighborhoods.

In recognition of these substantial benefits, New York City set and met a goal of planting 1 million trees across its five boroughs.

Cool roofing material and light-colored surfaces can also help lower the temperature. If you wear a black shirt in the Sun on a hot day, you’ll heat up more than if you wear a white shirt. Similarly, light-colored construction materials, roof coatings and shingles will reflect more incoming solar heat than dark ones, and absorb less of that heat. It’s particularly effective in the heat of the day when the Sun’s radiation is strongest.

To leverage this cooling effect, Los Angeles in 2013 became the first major city to require cool roofs on all new homes.

What cities can do now

Aggressive strategies to increase green tree cover across cities, a rapid transition to cool roofing materials, and even replacing some on-street parking lanes and other underutilized impervious areas with bioswales filled with vegetation, can substantially reduce urban temperatures. In so doing, that can increase a city’s resilience to rising temperatures.

Urban heat risk assessments we conducted in numerous U.S. cities, including Atlanta; Dallas; Louisville, Kentucky; and San Francisco, show that a combination of urban heat management strategies could lower neighborhood temperatures by more than 10 F (5.6 C) on hot days and reduce heat-related premature deaths by 20%-60%.

A cooler city is a safer city, and one very much within communities’ power to create.

Brian Stone Jr. does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Ancient Rome had ways to counter the urban heat island effect – how history’s lessons apply to cities today – https://theconversation.com/ancient-rome-had-ways-to-counter-the-urban-heat-island-effect-how-historys-lessons-apply-to-cities-today-234546

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Clift, Lecturer in Law, The University of Melbourne

Western Australia Senator Linda Reynolds is already embroiled in a bruising defamation fight against her former staffer Brittany Higgins. Now, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is reportedly considering suing independent MP Zali Steggall after she told him to “stop being racist”.

It has become impossible to miss the fact that our political class – including some who invoke freedom of speech while disparaging others – is remarkably keen on defamation litigation in response to actual or perceived slights.

It’s rarely a good look when the powerful sue the less powerful. It is an especially bad look for a democracy when politicians, who enjoy not just power but privileged access to communication platforms, pursue legal avenues likely to bankrupt all but the best-resourced defendants.

The freedom to speak one’s mind

Flawed democracies such as Singapore are rightly condemned for leveraging defamation law and compliant courts against political dissent.

While Australia’s situation is less problematic, our defamation laws historically favour reputation over freedom of speech.

An oft-cited case in contrast is the United States, where politicians and other public figures can succeed in defamation only if they prove the publisher knew they were communicating a falsehood, or were reckless (careless to a very high degree) as to the truth.

Statements of opinion – for instance, that Donald Trump is racist – are practically never in violation of the law. In the words of the US Supreme Court:

it is a prized American privilege to speak one’s mind, although not always with perfect good taste, on all public institutions.

The US approach is based on the classical liberal idea that “the fitting remedy for evil counsels is good ones”: speech should generally be free, and public debate in the marketplace of ideas will sort out right and wrong.

Putting conditions on free speech

The argument for free speech without guardrails may be losing traction in a post-truth world. Many modern audiences, willingly or not, occupy echo chambers and filter bubbles in which biases are reinforced rather than challenged.

It is almost as if the High Court of Australia foresaw this in a 1997 defamation case where it held that Australia’s Constitution did not require total freedom of political communication. Reasonable limits were appropriate because widespread irresponsible political communication could damage the political fabric of the nation.

Read more:
Robert Irwin wanted to sue One Nation for using his likeness. We don’t really have laws for that

Although the High Court reached its conclusion via textual interpretation of the Constitution rather than deeper philosophical musings, the court’s position reflects modern preoccupations with how speech should be regulated in a democracy.

But the political appetite for defamation litigation in this country suggests the law has not yet struck the right balance.

The point of defamation law

Recent reforms to defamation law have tried to eliminate frivolous lawsuits by introducing a threshold requirement of serious harm to reputation. A better approach may have been to presume that all defamation is trivial.

Unlike other civil wrongs, which often result in physical injury or property damage, defamation’s effect on a person’s reputation is intangible.

Unfairly tarnished reputations can usually be repaired by a public apology and correction, perhaps aided by nominal compensation for hurt feelings and to deter further defamation.

It is therefore a mystery why courts and legislatures have allowed defamation proceedings to become some of the most complex and expensive civil claims around, and why damages are so large.

A high-profile case can easily generate millions of dollars in legal costs on both sides, dwarfing the final award which might itself run to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Taiwan offers a useful contrast. There, although politicians can sue for defamation, proceedings are relatively simple and damages are much smaller – one might say proportionate to the harm done.

Under both approaches, the successful litigant, whether it be the publisher or the person whose reputation has suffered, is vindicated. Surely that is the point.

Where only the wealthy can afford to assert their rights, and where vindication of reputation takes a back seat to airing grievances, punishing opponents and enriching lawyers, defamation law is in a state of dysfunction.

Should pollies sue?

It’s sometimes said that politicians should not be able to sue for defamation at all because they themselves can say what they like under the protection of parliamentary privilege, immune from defamation and other speech laws.

Parliamentarians do enjoy that protection, but its personal benefit is secondary. Parliamentary privilege, like courtroom privilege, exists because the nature of democratic (and judicial) deliberation requires that anything can be said.

If a politician steps outside parliament and repeats a defamatory statement first made within its walls, they are vulnerable to being sued. David Leyonhjelm learned this the hard way, and Steggall may, too.

It’s reasonable that politicians should also have rights of action in defamation. But those rights must be constrained according to what is appropriate in a democratic society.

A way to better align defamation law with democratic expectations may be to return cases to the state courts and reinstate juries to a prominent role. Currently, the overwhelming majority of cases are brought in the Federal Court, where they are decided by a judge sitting alone.

If a public figure claims their reputation has been tarnished in the eyes of the community, we should test that factual claim with members of that community under the legal guidance of a judge. That might make for a welcome injection of common sense.

Brendan Clift does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. With more lawsuits potentially looming, should politicians be allowed to sue for defamation? – https://theconversation.com/with-more-lawsuits-potentially-looming-should-politicians-be-allowed-to-sue-for-defamation-237026

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By C Raina MacIntyre, Professor of Global Biosecurity, NHMRC L3 Research Fellow, Head, Biosecurity Program, Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 10–20% of people suffer from long COVID after they recover from the initial COVID infection.

Common symptoms include fatigue, shortness of breath and “brain fog”, but more than 200 different symptoms have been linked to long COVID. The condition affects daily functioning and can be debilitating.

Our research, published today, estimated the economic burden of long COVID in Australia. We calculated long COVID cost the Australian economy almost A$10 billion in 2022 alone.

What is long COVID?

The WHO defines long COVID as the continuation or development of new symptoms three months after the initial COVID infection, where these symptoms last for at least two months with no other explanation.

We’re still learning about what causes long COVID, but persistent symptoms can be explained by the diverse effects of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID) on different parts of the body. For example, the virus can affect the heart, blood vessels and lungs.

Research suggests long COVID is linked to persistence of the virus in the body long after infection, and this in turn causes dysfunction of the immune system.

SARS-CoV-2 can also affect the brain and cognition, especially executive function, which is the ability to plan, monitor and execute goals. This can result in difficulty performing work tasks and other activities of daily living among people with long COVID.

What we did

We used Australian data to estimate infections in 2022 and modelled long COVID and recovery rates across all age groups to understand the burden of long COVID.

We then used this data in a mathematical model to estimate economy-wide labour supply losses in 2022 and to determine the decline in real gross domestic product (GDP). Economic losses occur because people affected by long COVID may be unable to work, or work at reduced capacity, for a period of time.

We found that at a peak in September 2022, up to 1,374,805 people (5.4% of Australians) were living with long COVID following a single infection. Allowing for recovery from long COVID, up to 3.4% would still be living with long COVID after 12 months.

We estimated long COVID resulted in more than 100 million hours of lost labour in 2022. These lost employment hours translate to an economic cost of roughly $9.6 billion, equivalent to 0.5% of GDP for 2022.

Working-age adults between 30 and 49 were most affected. The estimated labour loss was greatest for people aged 30–39 (27.5 million hours, or 26.9% of total labour loss) who saw the highest overall numbers with long COVID of any age group. People aged 40–49 followed close behind, with an estimated 24.5 million hours lost, or 23.9% of total labour loss.

Higher numbers of long COVID in these younger age groups are likely because they experience more COVID infections, possibly because they are more mobile and mix more with others.

We did not include losses incurred by healthy employees who could not work due to caring for others with COVID or long COVID. Further, we only considered a single COVID infection, and the risk of developing long COVID thereafter. But we didn’t consider the risk from reinfections, which increase the likelihood of long COVID. Therefore our research likely underestimates the impact of long COVID.

Long COVID affects people of all ages, and can occur regardless of the severity of their COVID infection. Widespread and ongoing COVID infections means if even only a small percentage of people develop long COVID, this is still a very large number of people.

By way of comparison, 2% of Australians have coronary heart disease, which is the leading cause of illness and death in Australia (and the world). Even if only 3.4% of people have ongoing long COVID, this imposes very large public health and economic costs.

And unlike coronary heart disease, which disproportionately affects older people, our study suggests the impact of long COVID is highest in working-age adults, which is why the economic impacts are so great.

A global trend

Many countries including the United States and the United Kingdom are experiencing similar economic losses due to long COVID, with rising numbers of people unable to work.

Recent estimates indicate roughly 400 million people around the world have had long COVID. The condition may be costing US$1 trillion annually – equivalent to about 1% of the global economy.

The weight of evidence around long COVID and its impact on population health has experts calling for the condition to be factored into policy decisions.

What can we do?

In Australia, it’s primarily the immediate outcomes of acute COVID, such as hospitalisation and death, which are used to determine eligibility for antivirals and the importance of vaccines. Healthy people under 70 are not eligible for subsidised antivirals, while vaccines are restricted for children and adult booster rates are low.

But there’s strong evidence vaccines reduce the likelihood of long COVID, and some evidence antivirals may also lower the risk. Long COVID should therefore be factored into Australian policy and guidance on antivirals and vaccines.

Other measures that reduce the risk of COVID infection will also reduce long COVID risk. These include a focus on safe indoor air, and mask use in high-risk, crowded places during COVID epidemics, especially in health-care and aged-care settings.

Finally, we need to consider how to support those with long COVID who can’t work. Long COVID is the sting in the tail of SARS-CoV-2, and planning proactively for it will reduce the impacts on society.

C Raina MacIntyre receives funding from NHMRC (L3 Investigator grant and Centre for Research Excellence) and MRFF (Aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2 experimentally and in an intensive care setting) currently. She currently receives funding from Sanofi for research on influenza and pertussis. She has been on the WHO COVID-19 Vaccine Composition Technical Advisory group (2021-2024). She is the director of EPIWATCH®️, which is a UNSW, Kirby Institute initiative.

Long Chu receives funding from multiple organizations. However, he has received no external funding for this research or for any of his research related to COVID-19.

Quentin Grafton receives funding from multiple organizations, including the Australian Research Council. However, he has received no external funding for this research or for any of his research related to COVID-19.

Tom Kompas receives funding from the Australian Research Council and several other organisations. However, he has received no external or direct funding for any of his research on COVID-19 or Long COVID.

Valentina Costantino does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Long COVID cost the Australian economy almost $10 billion in 2022 – new research – https://theconversation.com/long-covid-cost-the-australian-economy-almost-10-billion-in-2022-new-research-236948

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stuart Marshall, Associate Professor, Department of Critical Care, The University of Melbourne

The current shortage of sterile intravenous (IV) fluids is a serious ongoing concern for doctors across Australia. During surgery, these sterile fluids are essential to administer drugs and hydrate patients intravenously (via the veins).

But supplies of two of the most common solutions are critically low.

The Australian government has recently moved to coordinate supplies of IV fluids to increase manufacturing and ensure distribution. Despite this, supplies are not expected to return to normal levels until the end of the year.

So, what will this mean for surgery in Australia? And are there any alternatives?

Why do we need IV fluids for surgery?

IV fluids are used before, during and after surgery to maintain blood volume and the body’s normal functions. They also combat dehydration, which can happen in a number of ways.

Before surgery, patients may become dehydrated from illnesses that cause vomiting or diarrhoea. They are also asked to stop eating and drinking for several hours before surgery. This is to minimise the risk of stomach contents being regurgitated and inhaled into the lungs – a complication that can cause injury or death. But it can also make them more dehydrated.

During surgery, the body continues to lose fluid through normal processes such as sweating and making urine. But some aspects of surgery also exacerbate dehydration, for example, through blood loss or when internal organs are exposed and lose more fluid through evaporation.

After the operation, IV fluids may be required for some days. Many patients may still be unable to eat and drink until the function of the gut returns to normal.

Multiple research studies, including a trial of 3,000 patients who underwent major abdominal surgery, have demonstrated the importance of adequate fluid therapy throughout all stages of surgery to avoid kidney damage.

Apart from hydration, these sterile fluids – prepared under strict conditions so they contain no bacteria or viruses – are used in surgery for other reasons.

Anaesthetists commonly use fluid infusions to slowly deliver medications into the bloodstream. There is some evidence this method of maintaining anaesthesia, compared to inhalation, can improve patients’ experience of “waking up” after the procedure, such as being clearer headed and having less nausea and vomiting.

Surgeons also use sterile fluids to flush out wounds and surgical sites to prevent infection.

Are there workarounds?

Fluid given intravenously needs to closely resemble the salts in the blood to prevent additional problems. The safest and cheapest options are:

• isotonic saline, a solution of water with 0.9% table salt
• Hartmann’s solution (compound sodium lactate), which combines a range of salts such as potassium and calcium.

Both are in short supply.

One way to work around the shortage is to minimise how much IV fluid is used during the procedure. This can be achieved by ensuring those admitted to surgery are as well hydrated as possible.

Many people presenting for minor surgery can safely drink water up until an hour or so before their operation. A recent initiative termed “sip ‘til send” has shown it is safe for patients to drink small amounts of fluid until the operating theatre team “sends” for them from the waiting room or hospital ward.

However, this may not be appropriate for those at higher risk of inhaling stomach contents, or patients who take medications including Ozempic, which delay the stomach emptying. Patients should follow their anaesthetist’s advice about how to prepare for surgery and when to stop eating and drinking.

Large research trials have also helped establish protocols called “enhanced recovery after surgery”. They show that using special hydrating, carbohydrate-rich drinks before surgery can improve patients’ comfort and speed up healing.

These protocols are common in major bowel surgery in Australia but not used universally. Widespread adoption of these processes may reduce the amount of IV fluids needed during and after large operations, and help patients return to normal eating and drinking earlier. Medications reducing nausea and vomiting are now also routinely administered after surgery to help with this.

What will the shortage mean for surgeries?

The Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists has advised anaesthetists to reduce the consumption of fluid during operations where there might be limited or minimal benefit. This means that the fluid will only be used for people who need it, without a change to the quality and safety of anaesthetic care for any patient.

Even with these actions, there is still a chance that some planned surgeries may need to be postponed in the coming months.

If needed, these cancelled operations will likely be ones requiring large volumes of fluid and ones that would not cause unacceptable risks if delayed. Similar to cancellations during the height of the COVID pandemic, emergency operations and surgery for cancers are unlikely to be affected.

Monitoring of the supplies and ongoing honest and open dialogue between senior health managers and clinicians will be crucial in minimising the disruption to surgical services.

Stuart Marshall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Australia’s IV fluids shortage will likely last all year. Here’s what that means for surgeries – https://theconversation.com/australias-iv-fluids-shortage-will-likely-last-all-year-heres-what-that-means-for-surgeries-237009

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leonora Risse, Associate Professor in Economics, University of Canberra

Australia’s gender pay gap – a key measure of economic inequality between men and women – has fallen to a record low of 11.5%.

That’s down from 13% this time last year, the steepest annual fall since 2016. Ten years ago, it was almost 19%.

The latest figures are great news for our economy and our society – evidence we’re getting better at recognising and fairly valuing women’s capabilities and contributions.

More opportunities are now open to women in the workforce, helping them gain and retire with greater financial independence than in previous decades.

But national averages don’t tell the whole story. While gender pay gaps have fallen in some industries, they’ve also been rising in others.

Today, August 19, is equal pay day. This marks the 50 extra days past the end of the last financial year that Australian women would need to work for their earnings to match those of their male colleagues.

This offers us a timely opportunity to reflect on what exactly has driven this year’s improvement – and where we still have work to do.

Read more:
Now you’re able to look up individual companies’ gender pay gaps

Women’s earnings picking up pace

We calculate the gender pay gap by comparing the average weekly ordinary-time, full-time earnings for men and women.

In dollar terms, women are now earning $231.50, or 11.5%, less than men, on average, in their weekly full-time pay packet.

The recent narrowing is being driven by women’s average earnings growth picking up pace. This contrasts with earlier periods in which the narrowing of the gap tended to be due to a slowdown in the growth of men’s earnings.

What’s behind the improvement?

While changes in the gender pay gap reflect a range of economy-wide factors, the Albanese government has been quick to attribute the recent fall to the various targeted actions it has taken since coming to office.

Let’s look at whether and how these actions have played a role.

First, the government sought to make wage information more transparent. It banned pay secrecy clauses and now requires the gender pay gaps of all large companies in Australia to be publicly reported.

These reforms took effect from 2023, targeting private companies. The gender pay gap in the private sector, though higher to begin with, has fallen more swiftly than that of the public sector, suggesting these actions have had an effect.

Second, the government targeted gender-patterned biases in industrial relations – including the legacy effects of past decisions – and instilled gender equity as a new objective of Australia’s Fair Work Act.

The Fair Work Commission is now required to take gender equity into account in its wage deliberations, including its minimum wage decision.

The government also introduced multi-employer bargaining in an attempt to strengthen workers’ bargaining capacity in female-concentrated sectors.

The effects of these changes will continue to flow across the workforce as the Fair Work Commission undertakes its review of modern awards, prioritising those affecting female-concentrated industries.

And third, further addressing the historical undervaluation of “women’s work”, the government directly addressed low pay in female-concentrated sectors by supporting a pay rise for aged care workers.

Targeting the low pay and under-valuation of an industry that is about 87% female helped fuel the downward momentum in the overall gender pay gap.

The government’s recently announced pay rise for early childhood education and care workers – a workforce that is around 95% female – will also target gender patterns in low pay once they come into effect.

These government actions have been essential for undoing the gender biases embedded in existing systems. And they have complemented other initiatives that have taken effect in the past year, such as the Respect At Work Act, requiring employers to proactively stamp out sexual harassment.

But there is still a way to go to keep closing the gender gaps across all parts of the workforce.

Falling in some industries, rising in others

Breaking down the gender pay gap in earnings by sector paints a more varied picture.

In industries like construction, public administration and safety, and retail trade, it has fallen notably over the past two years.

But it remains high in industries like healthcare and social assistance, at over 20%, and finance and insurance at 18%.

In some industries, the gap has actually increased over the past two years. In arts and recreation services, as well as electricity, gas, waste and water services, it’s been continually rising.

That could reflect a bigger shift

It’s important to interpret these figures carefully. In some instances, a widening of the gender pay gap can reflect a positive shift in an industry’s makeup, if it reflects more women joining a male-dominated sector at entry level, and growing a pipeline of senior women for the future.

That’s why the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) gives organisations a chance to explain these dynamics in their employer statements, which are published on the WGEA website alongside organisations’ gender pay gaps.

Over time, the entry of more women at the junior level can flow through to more gender balance as these women progress to senior and decision-making roles.

The real test will be to ensure – by fostering more gender equitable, inclusive and respectful work cultures and systems – that they do.

Leonora Risse receives research funding from the Trawalla Foundation and the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia. She is a member of the Economic Society of Australia and the Women’s in Economics Network. She serves as an Expert Panel Member on gender pay equity for the Fair Work Commission.

– ref. Australia’s gender pay gap has hit a record low – but we still have work to do – https://theconversation.com/australias-gender-pay-gap-has-hit-a-record-low-but-we-still-have-work-to-do-236894

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Simpson, Senior Lecturer, International Studies, University of South Australia

After two tumultuous weeks in Thai politics, the country has a new prime minister and new opposition party in parliament. The sweeping changes have demonstrated yet again the power of the Constitutional Court over Thailand’s fragile democratic institutions.

The political intrigue began on August 7 when the court dissolved the progressive Move Forward Party, the main opposition party in parliament following its surprising showing in the 2023 national elections.

Two days later, the party reconstituted itself as the People’s Party and announced it would continue to lead the opposition.

Then, on August 14, the Constitutional Court disqualified Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin of the Pheu Thai party from holding the post, and removed him from office.

And two days after that decision, the parliament duly elected Pheu Thai leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra as his replacement. She is the third member of her family to serve as prime minister after her father, Thaksin Shinawatra (2001–06), and aunt, Yingluck Shinawatra (2011–14).

Unfortunately, these kinds of incidents have become normalised in Thailand. They demonstrate the extent to which conservative forces in the country continue to use various tools of “lawfare”, including the Constitutional Court, to target opposition politicians and parties and stifle the will of the people.

Despite these setbacks to Thailand’s democracy, the country is changing fast. It is becoming more progressive and less submissive to military and monarchy authority.

So, these latest manoeuvres by the country’s gerontocracy may not be a show of strength after all. Rather, as one Thai politics expert put it, these moves may be the “last gasp” of the conservative old guard that has long dominated Thai politics and society.

Revolving door of prime ministers

Over the last two decades, five prime ministers from the Pheu Thai party and its predecessors have been forced from office.

Thaksin Shinawatra was removed in a military coup in September 2006 and his party was later dissolved by the Constitutional Court.

Yingluck Shinatwatra led another successor party to a win at the 2011 elections, but she, too, was removed from power by the Constitutional Court in 2014, followed by another military coup.

With Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s elevation to prime minister last week, the powerful Shinawatra family has made a stunning return to the top of Thai politics. However, this may not be quite the triumphant re-establishment of a family political dynasty that Thaksin Shinawatra expects.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra is just 37 years old and inexperienced. And despite the fact the economy showed some growth in the first quarter of this year, her government faces significant economic challenges, such as high levels of household and corporate debt and an economic slowdown in the US and China.

Thaksin Shinawatra also remains in the cross-hairs of the conservative military establishment. After spending 15 years in self-imposed exile to avoid facing charges he contends were politically motivated, he returned to Thailand last year after Pheu Thai took power.

He was then indicted in June for allegedly insulting the monarchy during a media interview in 2015.

Another new progressive party dissolved

Perhaps the more concerning development in recent days, however, was the Constitutional Court’s decision to dissolve the progressive Move Forward party, which had won the most seats in parliament in last year’s election.

Progressive politicians have fallen afoul of the court a number of times in recent years.

In the 2019 elections, for example, Future Forward, a brand new progressive political party led by a young, charismatic politician, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, stunned observers by winning 80 seats. The court, however, soon disqualified Thanathorn from parliament and dissolved the party.

The party reconstituted itself as Move Forward under the leadership of another young leader, Pita Limjaroenrat, and it did even better in the 2023 elections, winning 151 seats in the House of Representatives.

The court, however, suspended Pita and dissolved his party over its attempts to reform the anti-democratic lese majeste law. It also banned the party’s leadership, including Pita, from politics for ten years.

The party’s remaining MPs will be able to stay in parliament under the banner of the People’s Party, though nearly 40 are now under investigation for alleged ethics violations, including its new leader, Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut.

Read more:
Explainer: why was the winner of Thailand’s election blocked from becoming prime minister?

What does this mean for Thai democracy?

There now appear to be three distinct centres of political power in Thailand:

• Thaksin Shinawatra and the Pheu Thai party
• the military-monarchy complex and their associated parties
• the new progressive People’s Party.

While Pita warned against the continued use of “lawfare” to muzzle the opposition in an essay for The Economist earlier this month, there is some room for optimism.

It appears much of the population has moved on from the nepotism and rampant self-interest that has long defined Thai politics. According to a recent poll, nearly half of respondents said their preferred prime minister would be Pita (47%), while Paetongtarn was favoured by just 10.5% and Srettha just 8.7%.

The People’s Party is also offering a much more democratic vision for Thailand, based on integrity and reforming the lese majeste law. (Its leader, Natthaphong, has acknowledged, though, that the party must now “think carefully about how to amend it”.)

The party’s electoral march towards government looks difficult to stop. It’s likely Move Forward’s win in the 2023 election will turn into a landslide for the People’s Party at the next election.

The historical obedience and submission to the monarchy and military in Thai society is gradually being whittled away, as older, conservative voters are being replaced by those who want a more democratic and responsive government.

In recent years, there has also been some improvement in Thailand for personal freedoms — notably the legalisation of same-sex marriage and cannabis. The pressure to expand and consolidate basic political freedoms within a multi-party democracy will only increase.

Thailand is not an authoritarian regime – unlike its neighbours Myanmar and Laos – and at some point in the not-too-distant future, the rapidly changing Thai society may well force the military-monarchy complex to cede power for good.

Adam Simpson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Thailand’s democracy has taken another hit, but it won’t halt the march toward a more progressive society – https://theconversation.com/thailands-democracy-has-taken-another-hit-but-it-wont-halt-the-march-toward-a-more-progressive-society-236949

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben McCann, Associate Professor of French Studies, University of Adelaide

Alain Delon’s death at the age of 88 brings down the curtain of one of postwar European cinema’s most important film stars.

Known for his striking “movie star” look – chiselled features, piercing blue eyes – and magnetic screen presence, Delon portrayed characters who seemed on the surface to be effortless and suave.

He was often described as feline. But this outward gracefulness often masked a morally dubious, anti-hero persona. Beneath the sharp suits lay icy steel.

A breakthrough role

Born in 1935 in Sceaux, a wealthy Paris suburb, Delon had a difficult childhood, marked by his parents’ divorce, a disrupted schooling and an unhappy stint in the French Navy.

After being spotted by a talent scout at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival, Delon’s breakthrough came in 1960 with the French film Purple Noon, directed by René Clément.

In this adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr Ripley, Delon played the role of Tom Ripley, a charming but morally ambiguous forger and identity thief.

Setting the standard for future screen versions of Ripley (played by the likes of Matt Damon and Andrew Scott), Delon’s performance was widely acclaimed and established him as a rising star.

Rarely had audiences seen such a cool, enigmatic and morally compromised character. Highsmith was particularly impressed.

A 1960s icon

What followed was a glittering range of roles.

He collaborated twice with the great Italian director Luchino Visconti on Rocco and His Brothers (1960) and The Leopard (1963). Both films were critical successes, further solidifying Delon’s reputation as a leading actor.

In The Leopard, Delon plays Tancredi Falconeri, a young and charming Sicilian nobleman. His chemistry with Claudia Cardinale is one of the film’s highlights.

He moved effortlessly between genres, from crime dramas and thrillers to romantic films and period pieces. In the psychological thriller La Piscine (The Swimming Pool, 1969), Delon starred alongside Romy Schneider.

A year later came Borsalino, a popular gangster film in which Delon starred alongside his great friend Jean-Paul Belmondo.

While deeply rooted in French culture, Delon’s appeal transcended national borders. He became a global star, beloved not only in Europe but also in places like Japan, where he had a huge fan base.

The anti-hero archetype

But Delon’s most remarkable performance came in Le Samouraï (1967). Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, Delon played Jef Costello, a stoic, methodical hitman, in a performance that became a benchmark for the “cool” anti-hero archetype in cinema.

It is widely regarded as a masterpiece of minimalist cinema and has had a significant influence on the crime and thriller genres.

Michael Fassbender in The Killer (2023), Forest Whitaker in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) and Ryan Gosling in Drive (2011) all owe a debt to Delon’s “angel of death” portrayal of the silent hitman. Delon wore a trench coat and fedora in the film: his costume has been endlessly analysed and much imitated.

Delon worked again with Melville in Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle, 1970) and Un Flic (A Cop, 1972), plus other great European auteurs like Michelangelo Antonioni, Louis Malle and Jean Luc-Godard, for whom he played twins in Nouvelle Vague (New Wave, 1990).

And don’t forget his role as Klein in Joseph Losey’s gripping Mr Klein (1976), a film set in wartime Paris with Delon playing an art dealer who begins to realise there is another Klein who is Jewish and a Gestapo target. The police begin to investigate him, suspecting he might be the man they are looking for.

It was the clinching proof, wrote film critic David Thomson, that Alain Delon “matters” as an actor.

His final role in 2008 was a memorable one: Julius Caesar in Asterix at the Olympic Games.

He received an honorary Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019, recognising his contributions to cinema over several decades. After suffering a stroke in 2019, Delon withdrew from public life.

A complicated off-screen life

That withdrawal only fuelled press gossip over his complicated personal life.

Delon’s relationship with Austrian actress Romy Schneider had captivated the public’s imagination. The two met on the set of the film Christine in 1958 and became engaged. Their breakup in 1963 reportedly devastated Schneider.

He later had relationships with the French singer Dalida and Swedish star Ann-Marget, before settling down with French actress Mireille Darc. She was his companion and occasional co-star from 1968 to 1982.

His outspoken political views often scandalised France (he once said he supported France’s far-right party).

More recently, his personal life was marked by controversies, including legal issues involving his four children. His son Anthony (also an actor) spoke publicly about the difficulties he faced growing up in his father’s shadow.

Another son, Alain-Fabien, also had a troubled relationship with his father, including a long estrangement. Delon’s final years were beset by squabbles and accusations among the family; at one point, his children accused Delon’s assistant of abuse and harassment.

What will endure is the “Delon style”, both on and off the screen. He influenced fashion, cultural attitudes and the concept of the “modern man” during the 1960s and 1970s.

Back in April, the New Yorker posed a rhetorical question about Delon: can a film star ever be too good-looking? Look at the towering achievement of Delon’s films and you’ll have your answer.

Ben McCann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Alain Delon was an enigmatic anti-hero, and France’s most beautiful male movie star – https://theconversation.com/alain-delon-was-an-enigmatic-anti-hero-and-frances-most-beautiful-male-movie-star-237011