Ecosciences precinct and resource centre

In Brisbane, Wilson Landscape Architects has created two interior landscapes that contribute to the health, wellbeing and behaviour of those who work there.

Unlocking risk allocation and equitable conversion : reform of the passing of risk in the sale of land

The principles relating to the passing of risk under a contract for the sale of real property would seem to have been long settled. The rule under the general law is that the risk of loss of the subject matter under a contract for the sale of real property passes to the buyer upon the creation of a valid and binding contract. This article considers the origin of that rule, how it developed with the growth of equity, and advances the view that it is anomalous in a modern context of property dealings. In doing so, the article adverts to the variety of statutory mechanisms used to subvert the rule, few of which are of practical value. It concludes that the rule is outmoded in many respects and suggests a number of reforms which might be implemented nationally to bring consistency and simplicity to the issue of damage or destruction of improvements which are the subject of a land contract.

Composite SaaS placement and resource optimization in Cloud computing using evolutionary algorithms

Software as a Service (SaaS) is gaining more and more attention from software users and providers recently. This has raised many new challenges to SaaS providers in providing better SaaSes that suit everyone needs at minimum costs. One of the emerging approaches in tackling this challenge is by delivering the SaaS as a composite SaaS. Delivering it in such an approach has a number of benefits, including flexible offering of the SaaS functions and decreased cost of subscription for users. However, this approach also introduces new problems for SaaS resource management in a Cloud data centre. We present the problem of composite SaaS resource management in Cloud data centre, specifically on its initial placement and resource optimization problems aiming at improving the SaaS performance based on its execution time as well as minimizing the resource usage. Our approach differs from existing literature because it addresses the problems resulting from composite SaaS characteristics, where we focus on the SaaS requirements, constraints and interdependencies. The problems are tackled using evolutionary algorithms. Experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and the scalability of the proposed algorithms.

Strategizing public sector human resource management : the implications of working network

Networks have come to the fore as a means by which government can achieve its strategic objectives, particularly when addressing complex or “wicked” issues. Such joined-up arrangements differ in their operations from other forms of organizing as they require collaborative effort to deliver the collaborative advantage. Strategic Human Resource Management is concerned with the matching of human resource practices to the strategic direction of organizations. It is argued that the strategic direction of government has been towards network involvement and that, as a result, a reconfiguration of Human Resource Management practices is needed to support this new direction. Drawing on eight network case studies findings are presented in relation to the roles government is expected to play in networks and conclusions are drawn about what types of human resource management practices would best support those roles. Implications for Strategic Human Resource Management are posited.

Career paths in the third sector : implications for human resource management

My interest in career paths in the third sector came from three early observations. First, the majority of workers appear to be women, in fact 77% of community sector community services in NSW (O'Donnell, 1985). Second, when asked about their career, most workers express the opinion that they have none. Third, when I examined the individual career paths of community sector workers I was struck by the stop and start nature of their paid work. Even, or perhaps especially, well qualified workers would move out of a position after about two years often to a more difficult position in a new area, with little or no salary increase and little prospect of future promotion. Indeed, there appears to be little career path available. These observations raise a number of important questions, some of which will be explored in this paper. What is the structure of the third sector labour market? What is the staff structure of third sector organisations? Is it true that career paths are unavailable, either within organisations or within the sector? If none exists, why do workers stay in the field? What motivates them? If there is a high turnover of staff, is this the reason? What are the implications of all this? If some sort of career path does exist, why do workers deny having a career? What do we mean by `career' anyway?

Adaptive subcarrier allocation in multiuser OFDM system using forced cost based decisions

Subcarrier allocation scheme for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing(OFDM) based multiuser system is proposed. Most previous algorithms use greedy approach as a subcarrier allocation scheme until a conflict occurs or as an initial first round allocation with improvement steps carried out in next rounds. Our algorithm uses information obtained by the forced costs of a system that incur by a current allocation to make assignment decisions. This algorithm does not rely on greedy approach and therefore can also be considered as a substitute for first layer Greedy algorithms. Simulation results show that for two user case this algorithm gives better or equal allocation 80-90 percent of the time when compared with the greedy allocation.

Waving or drowning? Managing resource constraints in entrepreneurial firm with bricolage as a response to the global financial crisis

These are challenging times for new entrepreneurial firms. The development of the Global Financial Crisis shook the very foundations of global markets and institutions that most firms relied on to do business (Claessens, et al., forthcoming). In the midst of institutional flux and resource constraints, entrepreneurial firms, which have been shown to make a range of contributions to the economy (van Praag & Versloot 2007) faced increasing constraints. The Australian Federal Government quickly implemented the Green Loan program in response to the financial crisis. Unfortunately, the green loans program was flawed with obsolete processes and information (Faulkner, 2011), further constraining new firms. Prior research provides few clues regarding how resource-constrained entrepreneurial firms deal with these institutional flaws within institutional change and how they might overcome these challenges and prosper. One promising theory that evaluates behavioural responses to constraints and institutional flaws is bricolage (Levi Strauss, 1967). Bricolage aligns with notions of resourcefulness: defined here as “making do by applying combinations of the resources at hand to new problems and opportunities” (Baker and Nelson 2005: 333). Using three case studies, we consider how institutional flaws impact firm behaviours and illustrate the use of bricolage in attempts to reinforce, shape and change the GL program further extending bricolage domains of Baker and Nelson (2005).

Impact of wind power development on transmission planning at Midwest ISO

The Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (MISO) has experienced significant amounts of wind power development within the last decade. The MISO footprint spans the majority of the upper Midwest region of the country, from the Dakotas to Indiana and as far east as Michigan. These areas have a rich wind energy resource. States in the MISO footprint have passed laws or set goals that require load serving entities to supply a portion of their load using renewable energy. In order to meet these requirements, significant investments are needed to build the transmission infrastructure necessary to deliver the power from these often remote wind energy resources to the load centers. This paper presents some of the transmission planning related work done at MISO which was largely influenced by current and future needs for increased wind power generation in the footprint. Specifically, topics covered are generator interconnection, long-term planning coordination, and cost-allocation for new transmission lines.

Generator interconnection procedures at the Midwest ISO

The Midwestern US is a wind-rich resource and wind power is being developed in this region at a very brisk pace. Transporting this energy resource to load centers invariably requires massive transmission lines. This issue of developing additional transmission to support reliable integration of wind on to the power grid provides a multitude of interesting challenges spanning various areas of power systems such as transmission planning, real-time operations and cost-allocation for new transmission. The Midwest ISO as a regional transmission provider is responsible for processing requests to interconnect proposed generation on to the transmission grid under its purview. This paper provides information about some of the issues faced in performing interconnection planning studies and Midwest ISO's efforts to improve its generator interconnection procedures. Related cost-allocation efforts currently ongoing at the Midwest ISO to streamline integration of bulk quantities of wind power in to the transmission grid are also presented.

Workflow resource pattern modelling and visualization

Workflow patterns have been recognized as the theoretical basis to modeling recurring problems in workflow systems. A form of workflow patterns, known as the resource patterns, characterise the behaviour of resources in workflow systems. Despite the fact that many resource patterns have been discovered, people still preclude them from many workflow system implementations. One of reasons could be obscurityin the behaviour of and interaction between resources and a workflow management system. Thus, we provide a modelling and visualization approach for the resource patterns, enabling a resource behaviour modeller to intuitively see the specific resource patterns involved in the lifecycle of a workitem. We believe this research can be extended to benefit not only workflow modelling, but also other applications, such as model validation, human resource behaviour modelling, and workflow model visualization.

Regulation of land access for resource development: A coal seam gas case study from Queensland

A number of regulatory statutes provide for agreements with landowners which are given extended effect, that is, are binding upon the landowner’s successors (‘statutory agreements’). Several Queensland statutes require a project proponent to enter into a statutory agreement with a landowner before a resource development activity can be carried out on private land or by accessing private land. Provisions of Queensland’s Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004 make certain types of statutory agreements binding upon successors and assigns of the landowner, but do not clearly prescribe the nature and contents of an agreement, nor require that the agreement be recorded on the land title or petroleum register. If statutory agreements are to be used for such purposes, their purpose and content should be more clearly defined by statute and they should be recorded on a searchable register.

A new technique for optimal allocation and sizing of capacitors and setting of LTC

An iterative based strategy is proposed for finding the optimal rating and location of fixed and switched capacitors in distribution networks. The substation Load Tap Changer tap is also set during this procedure. A Modified Discrete Particle Swarm Optimization is employed in the proposed strategy. The objective function is composed of the distribution line loss cost and the capacitors investment cost. The line loss is calculated using estimation of the load duration curve to multiple levels. The constraints are the bus voltage and the feeder current which should be maintained within their standard range. For validation of the proposed method, two case studies are tested. The first case study is the semi-urban 37-bus distribution system which is connected at bus 2 of the Roy Billinton Test System which is located in the secondary side of a 33/11 kV distribution substation. The second case is a 33 kV distribution network based on the modification of the 18-bus IEEE distribution system. The results are compared with prior publications to illustrate the accuracy of the proposed strategy.

Children's Literature Digital Resource (CLDR)

Children’s Literature Digital Resources incorporates primary texts published from white settlement to 1945, including children’s and young adult fiction, poetry, short stories, and picture books. This collection is supported by selected secondary material. The objective is to provide a centralised access point for information about Australian children's literature and writers and a growing body of full-text primary resources. Four key aims are: * To establish an important digital facility for research, teaching, and information provision around Australian children’s literature; * To provide access to a wide range of high-quality full-text data, both primary and secondary resources; * To provide access to essential library and research information infrastructure and facilities for established and emerging researchers in the fields of Humanities and Education; To enable research while preserving important heritage material. The collection contains texts digitised for AustLit through cooperation with various Australian libraries. The collection includes children’s and young adult fiction, poetry, picture books, short stories, and critical articles relating to relevant primary texts. Authors of primary sources include Irene Cheyne, E. W. Cole, Richard Rowe, Lillian M. Pyke, and Dorothy Wall. Secondary sources include critical works by Clare Bradford, Heather Scutter, Kerry White, Sharyn Pearce, and Marcie Muir. These full-text materials are keyword searchable (both within individual texts and across the CLDR corpus) and can be downloaded for research purposes. As well as digitising primary and secondary material, the project locates and provides pathways to existing online resources or internet publications to enhance AustLit's Children's Literature subset. These resources include both primary and secondary texts.

A comparison of safety climate and safety outcomes between construction and resource functions in a large case study organisation

The research described in this paper forms part of an in-depth investigation of safety culture in one of Australia’s largest construction companies. The research builds on a previous qualitative study with organisational safety leaders and further investigates how safety culture is perceived and experienced by organisational members, as well as how this relates to their safety behaviour and related outcomes at work. Participants were 2273 employees of the case study organisation, with 689 from the Construction function and 1584 from the Resources function. The results of several analyses revealed some interesting organisational variance on key measures. Specifically, the Construction function scored significantly higher on all key measures: safety climate, safety motivation, safety compliance, and safety participation. The results are discussed in terms of relevance in an applied research context.