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User-avatar bond profiles : how do they associate with disordered gaming?

- Stavropoulos, Vasileios, Gomez, Rapson, Mueller, Astrid, Yucel, Murat, Griffiths, Mark

  • Authors: Stavropoulos, Vasileios , Gomez, Rapson , Mueller, Astrid , Yucel, Murat , Griffiths, Mark
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Addictive Behaviors Vol. 103, no. (2020), p.
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  • Description: Aims: The avatar constitutes the in-game representation of the gamer. Although aspects of the user-avatar bond (UAB) have been associated with disordered gaming, there is a need for clearer understanding concerning the impact of potential UAB profiles. Methods: To address this need, the present study recruited a normative sample of 1022 World of Warcraft (WoW) players (Mage = 28.55 years, SD = 9.90). Participants completed the User-Avatar Questionnaire (to assess UAB aspects such as identification, immersion, and compensation), the Proteus-Effect Scale (to assess transference of the avatar's behaviour in real life), and the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale–Short-Form (to assess disordered gaming). Results: Latent class analysis indicated the existence of three UAB profiles, ‘differentiated gamers’ (DGs), ‘identified gamers’ (IGs) and ‘fused gamers’ (FGs). The DGs were characterized by low scores across all UAB aspects. The IGs did not report significant Proteus Effect (PE) or immersion behaviours, and despite being more identified with their avatar, did not significantly compensate through it. The FGs presented with higher PE, immersion, and compensation, although they did not significantly identify with their avatars, possibly due to having idealized them. Disordered gaming behaviours were significantly lower for the DGs and sequentially higher for the IGs and the FGs. Preoccupation and mood modification behaviours related to gaming disorder were distinctively associated with FGs. Conclusion: Disordered gaming assessment and treatment implications of the UAB profiles are discussed. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd
  • Description: Murat Yucel has received funding from Monash University , and Australian Government funding bodies such as the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC; including Fellowship #APP1117188 ), the Australian Research Council (ARC), and the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. He has also received philanthropic donations from the David Winston Turner Endowment Fund, Wilson Foundation, as well as payment from law firms in relation to court and/or expert witness reports. The funding sources had no role in the design, management, data analysis, presentation, or interpretation and write-up of the data.

Links in the chain: British slavery, Victoria and South Australia

- Coventry, C. J.

  • Authors: Coventry, C. J.
  • Date: 2019
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Before/Now : Journal of the collaborative Research Centre in Australian History (CRCAH) Vol. 1, no. 1 (2019), p. 27-56
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  • Description: Beneficiaries of British slavery were present in colonial Victoria and provincial South Australia, a link overlooked by successive generations of historians. The Legacies of British Slave-ownership database, hosted by University College, London, reveals many people in these colonies as having been connected to slave money awarded as compensation by the Imperial Parliament in the 1830s. This article sets out the beneficiaries to demonstrate the scope of exposure of the colonies to slavery. The list includes governors, jurists, politicians, clergy, writers, graziers and financiers, as well as various instrumental founders of South Australia. While Victoria is likely to have received more of this capital than South Australia, the historical significance of compensation is greater for the latter because capital from beneficiaries of slavery, particularly George Fife Angas and Raikes Currie, ensured its creation. Evidence of beneficiaries of slavery surrounds us in the present in various public honours and notable buildings.

Conflict and conservation : sharing the costs and benefits of tiger (Panthera tigris) conservation in communities adjacent to tiger reserves in Nepal

- Bhattarai, Babu

  • Authors: Bhattarai, Babu
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
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  • Description: Human wildlife conflict (HWC) is a highly studied but unresolved aspect of wildlife management. To further knowledge on HWC, this study used a multidisciplinary approach to investigate HWC implications for local people living adjacent to two key tiger conservation reserves in Nepal. The study also assessed the potential to redistribute financial benefits accruing from predator conservation to those bearing costs through associated HWC. Secondary data and anecdotal reports suggest that local people experience significant direct and indirect costs from predator conservation through livestock losses following attacks by common leopards and Bengal tigers, and additionally, crop losses due to their prey species plus two mega herbivores (elephant and one-horned rhinoceros). To investigate this situation, data regarding HWC incidents and costs were sourced through interviews with 422 local households, direct observations, and stakeholder interviews. Collected data included livestock loss (5-year time-period) and crop loss (1-year time-period). Complementary direct observation data collated livestock loss and crop damage for 12 months. Interviews were conducted also with park visitors (N=387) and tourism business owners (N=74). Results showed that tigers are involved in significantly fewer depredation events compared to leopards. Leopards predominantly killed small to medium livestock whereas tigers selected both small to medium and large sized livestock. Livestock depredation events occurred more frequently in livestock corrals relative to forest zones or crop fields. Rates of livestock losses per household per year self-reported during interviews with local people were found higher when compared to those observed by direct measurement. Prey species of tigers and leopards (most often wild boar and chital) were involved in more frequently in crop raiding events, and caused more crop damage, when compared that caused by mega herbivores. Quantities of crops lost per household were lowest in communities where effective physical barriers to wildlife were present. Park visitors and tourism business owners indicated willingness to pay for conservation of tigers and for compensation of farmers for the losses caused by tigers and their prey species. Study findings support several key recommendations proposed to mitigate negative HWC effects in the study area. These include financial support for local communities to build predator proof livestock corrals and establishment of effective physical barriers at the park borders. A dedicated tariff for park visitors and a levy for tourism business owners are also recommended to fund ongoing predator conservation and support financial compensation for local farmers affected by HWC.
  • Description: Doctor of Philosophy

Efficacy of a transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral intervention for eating disorder psychopathology delivered through a smartphone app: a randomized controlled trial

- Linardon, Jake, Shatte, Adrian, Rosato, John, Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, Matthew

  • Authors: Linardon, Jake , Shatte, Adrian , Rosato, John , Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, Matthew
  • Date: 2022
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Psychological Medicine Vol. 52, no. 9 (2022), p. 1679-1690
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  • Description: Abstract Background Although effective treatments exist for diagnostic and subthreshold-level eating disorders (EDs), a significant proportion of affected individuals do not receive help. Interventions translated for delivery through smartphone apps may be one solution towards reducing this treatment gap. However, evidence for the efficacy of smartphones apps for EDs is lacking. We developed a smartphone app based on the principles and techniques of transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral therapy for EDs and evaluated it through a pre-registered randomized controlled trial. Methods Symptomatic individuals (those who reported the presence of binge eating) were randomly assigned to the app ( n = 197) or waiting list ( n = 195). Of the total sample, 42 and 31% exhibited diagnostic-level bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder symptoms, respectively. Assessments took place at baseline, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks post-randomization. Analyses were intention-to-treat. The primary outcome was global levels of ED psychopathology. Secondary outcomes were other ED symptoms, impairment, and distress. Results Intervention participants reported greater reductions in global ED psychopathology than the control group at post-test ( d = −0.80). Significant effects were also observed for secondary outcomes ( d 's = −0.30 to −0.74), except compensatory behavior frequency. Symptom levels remained stable at follow-up. Participants were largely satisfied with the app, although the overall post-test attrition rate was 35%. Conclusion Findings highlight the potential for this app to serve as a cost-effective and easily accessible intervention for those who cannot receive standard treatment. The capacity for apps to be flexibly integrated within current models of mental health care delivery may prove vital for addressing the unmet needs of people with EDs.

Review of Nepal's protected area laws in relation to human wildlife conflict

- Bhattarai, Babu, Wright, Wendy, Morgan, Damian

  • Authors: Bhattarai, Babu , Wright, Wendy , Morgan, Damian
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Protected Areas: Management, Benefits and Social Impacts p. 167-198
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  • Description: Laws and policies are critical in facilitating positive or negative outcomes where humans and wildlife have potential to interact. This chapter provides a historical overview of Nepal's protected areas and reviews the Nepalese conservation laws to explore whether they, through enactment, have the capacity to reduce the frequency and consequently the impact of human wildlife conflict (HWC). This chapter also provides useful insights for the formulation of new conservation laws, or the revision of existing conservation laws, to prevent and mitigate HWC. Nepal's conservation laws were formulated in the early 1970s, when modern protected areas were first being established in the country. Initially, Nepal followed the Yellowstone Model, an exclusionary approach involving the removal of local people from areas within the boundaries of the new National Parks. The intent was to separate humans and protected areas, measures that are often commended as effective in reducing interactions between humans and wildlife. Over time, the gradual relaxation of strict rules of exclusion, including the granting of rights to local people to access resources inside protected areas, have encouraged a move towards a coexistence approach. This later approach (coexistence) condoned, or at least allowed for, more contact between humans and wildlife, and may have increased the potential for HWC. Subsequent amendments to the conservation laws-including provisions for wildlife population management-may have gone some way toward reducing HWC; however, these amendments lack clarity and have been poorly implemented. This article recommends active implementation of laws that may reduce interactions between humans and wildlife and suggests improved compensation policies for wildlife damage. © 2021 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Managing human-tiger conflict : Lessons from Bardia and Chitwan National Parks, Nepal

- Bhattarai, Babu, Wright, Wendy, Morgan, Damian, Cook, Simon, Baral, Hem

  • Authors: Bhattarai, Babu , Wright, Wendy , Morgan, Damian , Cook, Simon , Baral, Hem
  • Date: 2019
  • Type: Text , Journal article , Review
  • Relation: European Journal of Wildlife Research Vol. 65, no. 3 (2019), p. 1-12
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  • Description: Successful conservation outcomes for the tiger (Panthera tigris) have been achieved in Nepalese protected areas. However, an unwelcome consequence of greater tiger numbers is the increased prevalence of human-tiger conflict (HTC), particularly in buffer zone areas adjacent to key tiger reserves, which are heavily utilised by farming communities. HTC events may manifest as attacks by tigers on livestock or people, or as people harming tigers. Since 1994, 12 and 99 fatal tiger attacks on people were reported in and near Bardia and Chitwan National Parks, respectively; and since 1979, 34 tigers from these Parks have been killed due to HTC. HTC presents major threats to local people and to the continuing success of tiger conservation programmes. Conservation authorities in Nepal are implementing innovative solutions to prevent and mitigate HTC. These include financial compensation for damage caused by tigers and locally based community projects and programmes focussed on changing livestock husbandry practises, raising awareness of tiger ecology among local residents and supporting families to reduce their reliance on park resources. While these approaches have been successful in mitigating HTC and its effects in Nepal, further developments and refinements are required. This paper provides a synthesis of published and unpublished reports of HTC, in order to demonstrate the magnitude of the problem faced in Nepal. A critical summary of current management practises adopted in two of Nepal’s key tiger reserves is intended to provide a tool for managers to target their efforts towards methods likely to achieve success.
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