Edith Cowan University

About: Edith Cowan University is a education organization based out in Perth, Western Australia, Australia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 4040 authors who have published 13529 publications receiving 339582 citations. The organization is also known as: Edith Cowan & ECU.

Eccentric utilization ratio: effect of sport and phase of training.

Abstract: The eccentric utilization ratio (EUR), which is the ratio of countermovement jump (CMJ) to static jump (SJ) performance, has been suggested as a useful indicator of power performance in athletes. The purpose of the study was to compare the EUR of athletes from a variety of different sports and during different phases of training. A total of 142 athletes from rugby union, Australian Rules Football, soccer, softball, and field hockey were tested. Subjects performed both CMJ and SJ on a force plate integrated with a position transducer. The EUR was measured as the ratio of CMJ to SJ for jump height and peak power. The rugby union, Australian Rules Football, and hockey athletes were tested during off-season and preseason to provide EUR data during different phases of training. For men, EUR for soccer, Australian Rules Football, and rugby was greater than softball (effect size range, 0.83-0.92). For women, EUR for soccer was greater than field hockey and softball (0.86- 1.0). There was a significant difference between the jump height and peak power method for the Australian Rules Football, rugby, and field hockey tests conducted preseason (p < 0.05). For field hockey, there was a significant increase in EUR from off-season to preseason. Athletes in sports such as soccer, rugby union, and Australian Rules Football appear to have higher EUR values, which reflects the greater reliance on stretch shortening activities in these sports. It does appear that EUR can be used to track changes in training with the values significantly increasing from off-season to preseason. The EUR provides the practitioner with information about the performance of athletes and appears to be sensitive to changes in the type of training being undertaken.

A Research Note on the Effects of Gender and Task Complexity on an Audit Judgment

Abstract: This study examines the effects of gender and task complexity on the accuracy of audit judgments. Because research in cognitive psychology and marketing suggests that females may be more accurate decision makers in complex decision tasks, we hypothesize that there will be a significant interaction between gender and task complexity on the accuracy of an audit judgment. A 2×2 full factorial experiment (males/females by high‐/low‐task complexity) was carried out. The number and consistency of cues was manipulated to create the high‐ and low‐complexity conditions. Participants were required to judge whether an inventory balance was fairly presented based on case material that contained a material misstatement in the inventory account balance. The results support the hypothesis.

High-School Students' Informal Reasoning and Argumentation about Biotechnology: An Indicator of Scientific Literacy?.

Abstract: The aim of this research was to explore Australian high‐school students’ argumentation and informal reasoning about biotechnology. Data were obtained from semi‐structured interviews with 10 Year‐8 students (12–13 years old), 14 Year‐10 students (14–15 years old) and 6 Year‐12 students (16–17 years old) from six metropolitan high schools in Perth, Western Australia. The transcripts were analysed using both Toulmin’s argumentation pattern and informal reasoning patterns (rational, emotive, and intuitive) as frameworks. The notion of scientific literacy was used as the basis of the theoretical framework to examine the data. Most students used no data or only simple data to justify their claims. Students of all year groups used intuitive and emotive informal reasoning more frequently than rational. Rational informal reasoning was associated with more sophisticated arguments.

Factors associated with suicidal thoughts in a large community study of older adults

Abstract: Background Thoughts about death and self-harm in old age have been commonly associated with the presence of depression, but other risk factors may also be important. Aims To determine the independent association between suicidal ideation in later life and demographic, lifestyle, socioeconomic, psychiatric and medical factors. Method A cross-sectional study was conducted of a community-derived sample of 21290 adults aged 60-101 years enrolled from Australian primary care practices. We considered that participants endorsing any of the four items of the Depressive Symptom Inventory - Suicidality Subscale were experiencing suicidal thoughts. We used standard procedures to collect demographic, lifestyle, psychosocial and clinical data. Anxiety and depressive symptoms were assessed with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Results The 2-week prevalence of suicidal ideation was 4.8%. Male gender, higher education, current smoking, living alone, poor social support, no religious practice, financial strain, childhood physical abuse, history of suicide in the family, past depression, current anxiety, depression or comorbid anxiety and depression, past suicide attempt, pain, poor self-perceived health and current use of antidepressants were independently associated with suicidal ideation. Poor social support was associated with a population attributable fraction of 38.0%, followed by history of depression (23.6%), concurrent anxiety and depression (19.7%), prevalent anxiety (15.1%), pain (13.7%) and no religious practice (11.4%). Conclusions Prevalent and past mood disorders seem to be valid targets for indicated interventions designed to reduce suicidal thoughts and behaviour. However, our data indicate that social disconnectedness and stress account for a larger proportion of cases than mood disorders. Should these associations prove to be causal, then interventions that succeeded in addressing these issues would contribute the most to reducing suicidal ideation and, possibly, suicidal behaviour in later life.