Restoring Meaning to Supervision Through a Peer Consultation Group in Rural Australia

The establishment of a cross-discipline peer consultation group in regional Australia is described. A research project, which explored the impact of the peer consultation on participants, using pre-group and post-group evaluation surveys along with data from an externally facilitated group evaluation session is discussed. Key findings reveal the value of access to varied modes of supervision; the importance of supervision not feeling like being subjected to surveillance; and the contribution that positive experiences of peer consultation have for our participants' well-being. The potential for improved connection and mutual benefits for practice and academia in sponsorship of professional peer consultation by regional universities also emerges from this research. The effectiveness of contemporary workplace counselling supervision arrangements, and of what, precisely, the enjoyment of engaging in case discussions in peer consultation groups is constituted are areas for more exploration.     

Linking taxation and social protection: Evidence on redistribution and poverty reduction in Ethiopia

Although redistribution results from the simultaneous effects of taxes and transfers, analyses of their distributional effects in low‐income countries have largely been undertaken from singular perspectives. This article jointly assesses the distributional effect of taxes and transfers (through social protection) using Ethiopia as a case study. We find that Ethiopia's flagship social protection programme is more effective than income taxation in achieving poverty reduction, while neither policy achieves a sizeable reduction in overall inequality. We also find that Ethiopia does not currently have the capacity to close the poverty gap or to fully fund its main safety net programme using domestic income sources alone.     

Predation of artificial bird nests in suburban gardens of KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa

As urbanization increases, the identification of nest predators becomes important for avian conservation and management of urban wildlife communities. We investigated bird nest predation using artificial nests in urban areas of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province of South Africa. From June 2013 through February 2014 we installed seventy-five artificial nests in 25 suburban gardens in the Ethekwini and Msunduzi municipalities of KZN. Euplectes spp. nests were used and baited with two quail-sized, hand-made, silicon eggs. These were placed in residential gardens and monitored by camera traps for 2-weeks in winter, spring and summer respectively. Generally bird nesting occurs throughout the year in KZN’s subtropical climate, with some avoidance during the autumn season. Therefore, experiments were not conducted during autumn, as fresh nests were not available for use. Overall the rate of predation on artificial nests was 25 % (n = 19), with vervet monkeys Ceropithecus aethiops pygerythrus predating 20 % (n = 17) of the nests while domestic cats Felis catus predated 3 % (n = 2) of nests. Nest predation was significantly higher in the winter season, with 79 % of depredations occurring in winter (n = 15), 16 % in spring (n = 3) and 5 % in summer (n = 1), and in areas with less canopy cover. Our results suggest that vervet monkeys may have a negative impact on nesting birds in urban environments, however, in order to assess the rate of predation experiments on natural nests coupled with information on fledgling success is deemed necessary to investigate avian population declines.     

A citizen science survey: perceptions and attitudes of urban residents towards vervet monkeys

A diversity of indigenous and alien wildlife persists in suburbia, and provides residents with the opportunity to experience wildlife. Suburban gardens may serve as refugia and foraging grounds for many primate species allowing them to populate within a largely urbanized landscape. However, this has led to the increasing human interactions with them, resulting in conflict. Our study investigated the perceptions of suburban residents towards urban vervet monkeys Cercopithecus aethiops pygerythrus within the Msunduzi and Ethekwini municipalities, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. We assessed how these related to the monkeys’ presence, activities and interactions in residential gardens, and the value of wildlife to residents. Assessment was conducted through an online questionnaire survey. General attitudes of residents to vervet monkeys were canvassed by assessing the respondents’ level of active engagement in wildlife watching within their properties. We analyzed 603 surveys submitted online using logistic regression and ordinal regression models. We ascertained that vervet monkeys were disliked by 29% of residents due to their aggressiveness, destructive behaviour in gardens and households, and perceived threat to native wildlife. Frequency and duration of foraging vervet monkeys in residents’ gardens was influenced by the presence of pet dogs, fruiting trees, tall trees (>2 m), ratio of indigenous to alien vegetation of gardens, residency type, and active and passive food provisioning. Despite conflict, the majority of respondents appreciated urban wildlife (67%) and actively engaged in wildlife watching (88%), emphasizing the importance of incorporating human dimension values into the management of urban biodiversity. Our study highlights the value of citizen science in providing mechanisms for identifying priority management and conservation efforts at the highly complex human-wildlife interface in an urbanized landscape.     

Risk‐Informed Regulation and Safety Management of Nuclear Power Plants—On the Prevention of Severe Accidents

There are four operating nuclear power plant (NPP) units in Finland. The Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) power company has two 840 MWe BWR units supplied by Asea‐Atom at the Olkiluoto site. The Fortum corporation (formerly IVO) has two 500 MWe VVER 440/213 units at the Loviisa site. In addition, a 1600 MWe European Pressurized Water Reactor supplied by AREVA NP (formerly the Framatome ANP—Siemens AG Consortium) is under construction at the Olkiluoto site. Recently, the Finnish Parliament ratified the government Decision in Principle that the utilities' applications to build two new NPP units are in line with the total good of the society. The Finnish utilities, Fenno power company, and TVO company are in progress of qualifying the type of the new nuclear builds. In Finland, risk‐informed applications are formally integrated in the regulatory process of NPPs that are already in the early design phase and these are to run through the construction and operation phases all through the entire plant service time. A plant‐specific full‐scope probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) is required for each NPP. PRAs shall cover internal events, area events (fires, floods), and external events such as harsh weather conditions and seismic events in all operating modes. Special attention is devoted to the use of various risk‐informed PRA applications in the licensing of Olkiluoto 3 NPP.     

Physical workload and thoughts of retirement

The aim of this paper is to present Finnish employees' opinions on continuing work until retirement pension and after the age of 63, and to find out if physical workload is related to these opinions. Altogether 39% of men and 40% of women had never had thoughts of early retirement, and 59% claimed (both men and women) that they would consider working beyond the age of 63. Own health (20%); financial gain such as salary and better pension (19%); meaningful, interesting and challenging work (15%); flexible working hours or part-time work (13%); lighter work load (13%); good work community (8%); and good work environment (6%) were stated as factors affecting the decision to continue working after the age of 63. Employees whose work involved low physical workload had less thoughts of early retirement and had considered continuing work after the age of 63 more often than those whose work involved high physical loads. Own health in particular was stated as a reason to consider continuing work by employees whose work was physically demanding.     

Examining Gambling-Related Crime Reports in the National Finnish Police Register

The aim of this study is to examine the connection between gambling and criminal activity in the National Finnish Police Register. First, a method was created that enabled the search for gambling-related police reports in the National Finnish Police Register. The method is based on finding gambling-related police reports by using gambling-related headwords. Second, all police reports from 2011 that included any mention of gambling were read through (n = 2,233). Suspected gambling-related of crimes (n = 737) were selected from these reports. Those suspected gambling-related crimes were then described and categorized into six different categories: suspected online-related crimes; suspected crimes that were related to lifestyle-gaming; suspected crimes that involved a gambler as a victim of a crime; criminal activity related to problem gambling; casino-connected crimes, and intimate partnership violence resulting from gambling problems. This study, being the first in Finland, generated information on the connection between gambling and criminal activity from the perspective of police reports. Moreover, the study highlights methodological issues that are involved in studying police reports.