A model for engaging and evaluating innovative cross-sectoral education reform : case studies from Queensland, Australia

This paper will explore how a general education can contribute successfully to vocational outcomes using both Participatory Action Research (PAR) and Program Theory methodology. The paper will focus on the development aspects of ‘marrying’ vocational and general education including engagement processes, student, teacher, institute and employer preparation and the pathway possibilities that emerge. Successful cases presented include the: Healthy Futures program (pathways into the Health and Allied industries); Accounting Pathways program (simultaneously studying a general Accounting subject and a Certificate III vocational qualification); and Sustainable Sciences initiative (development of a vocational qualification that focuses on the emerging renewable energy industry and is linked to school science programs). The case studies have been selected because they are unique in character and application and can be used as a basis for future program development in other settings or curriculum areas.

The rediscovery of traditional urbanism at Melrose Arch

Contemporary urban form, particularly in the cities of South Africa, lacks distinction and quality. The majority of developments are conceived as private and dislocated initiatives, surveiled enclaves with gated access being the only conduit to the outside world. Any concern for a positive contribution to the matrix of public activity is seldom a consideration. The urban form responds to the perception that traffic systems are paramount to the successful flux of the city in satisfying the escalating demands of vehicular movement. In contrast many of the urban centres around the world, the great historical centres of Europe, Americas and the Sub-Continent are admired and considered the ultimate models in urban experience. The colonnades, bazaars and boulevards hosting an abundance of street activity are the characteristics of such centres and are symptomatic of a city growth based on pedestrian movement patterns, an urbanism supportative of human interaction and exchange, a form which has nurtured the existence of a public realm. Through the understanding of the principles of traditional urbanism we may learn that the modernist paradigm of a contemporary suburbia has resulted in disconnected and separate land uses with isolated districts where a reliance on the car is essential rather than optional.

Towards an understanding of Australian genre cinema and entertainment : beyond the limitations of ‘Ozploitation’ discourse

While Australian cinema has produced popular movie genres since the 1970s, including action/adventure, road movies, crime, and horror movies, genre cinema has occupied a precarious position within a subsidised national cinema and has been largely written out of film history. In recent years the documentary Not Quite Hollywood (2008) has brought Australia’s genre movie heritage from the 1970s and 1980s back to the attention of cinephiles, critics and cult audiences worldwide. Since its release, the term ‘Ozploitation’ has become synonymous with Australian genre movies. In the absence of discussion about genre cinema within film studies, Ozploitation (and ‘paracinema’ as a theoretical lens) has emerged as a critical framework to fill this void as a de facto approach to genre and a conceptual framework for understanding Australian genres movies. However, although the Ozploitation brand has been extremely successful in raising the awareness of local genre flicks, Ozploitation discourse poses problems for film studies, and its utility is limited for the study of Australian genre movies. This paper argues that Ozploitation limits analysis of genre movies to the narrow confines of exploitation or trash cinema and obscures more important discussion of how Australian cinema engages with popular movies genres, the idea of Australian filmmaking as entertainment, and the dynamics of commercial filmmaking practises more generally.

Recent advances in dermal wound healing : biomedical device approaches

Successful repair of wounds and tissues remains a major healthcare and biomedical challenge in the 21st Century. In particular, chronic wounds often lead to loss of functional ability, increased pain and decreased quality of life, and can be a burden on carers and health-system resources. Advanced healing therapies employing biological dressings, skin substitutes, growth factor-based therapies and synthetic a cellular matrices, all of which aim to correct irregular and dysfunctional cellular pathways present in chronic wounds, are becoming more popular. This review focuses on recent advances in biologically inspired devices for would healing and includes a commentary on the challenges facing the regulatory governance of such products.

Development of rapid and highly resolving combinatorial genotyping schemes for Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli

Campylobacter jejuni followed by Campylobacter coli contribute substantially to the economic and public health burden attributed to food-borne infections in Australia. Genotypic characterisation of isolates has provided new insights into the epidemiology and pathogenesis of C. jejuni and C. coli. However, currently available methods are not conducive to large scale epidemiological investigations that are necessary to elucidate the global epidemiology of these common food-borne pathogens. This research aims to develop high resolution C. jejuni and C. coli genotyping schemes that are convenient for high throughput applications. Real-time PCR and High Resolution Melt (HRM) analysis are fundamental to the genotyping schemes developed in this study and enable rapid, cost effective, interrogation of a range of different polymorphic sites within the Campylobacter genome. While the sources and routes of transmission of campylobacters are unclear, handling and consumption of poultry meat is frequently associated with human campylobacteriosis in Australia. Therefore, chicken derived C. jejuni and C. coli isolates were used to develop and verify the methods described in this study. The first aim of this study describes the application of MLST-SNP (Multi Locus Sequence Typing Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) + binary typing to 87 chicken C. jejuni isolates using real-time PCR analysis. These typing schemes were developed previously by our research group using isolates from campylobacteriosis patients. This present study showed that SNP + binary typing alone or in combination are effective at detecting epidemiological linkage between chicken derived Campylobacter isolates and enable data comparisons with other MLST based investigations. SNP + binary types obtained from chicken isolates in this study were compared with a previously SNP + binary and MLST typed set of human isolates. Common genotypes between the two collections of isolates were identified and ST-524 represented a clone that could be worth monitoring in the chicken meat industry. In contrast, ST-48, mainly associated with bovine hosts, was abundant in the human isolates. This genotype was, however, absent in the chicken isolates, indicating the role of non-poultry sources in causing human Campylobacter infections. This demonstrates the potential application of SNP + binary typing for epidemiological investigations and source tracing. While MLST SNPs and binary genes comprise the more stable backbone of the Campylobacter genome and are indicative of long term epidemiological linkage of the isolates, the development of a High Resolution Melt (HRM) based curve analysis method to interrogate the hypervariable Campylobacter flagellin encoding gene (flaA) is described in Aim 2 of this study. The flaA gene product appears to be an important pathogenicity determinant of campylobacters and is therefore a popular target for genotyping, especially for short term epidemiological studies such as outbreak investigations. HRM curve analysis based flaA interrogation is a single-step closed-tube method that provides portable data that can be easily shared and accessed. Critical to the development of flaA HRM was the use of flaA specific primers that did not amplify the flaB gene. HRM curve analysis flaA interrogation was successful at discriminating the 47 sequence variants identified within the 87 C. jejuni and 15 C. coli isolates and correlated to the epidemiological background of the isolates. In the combinatorial format, the resolving power of flaA was additive to that of SNP + binary typing and CRISPR (Clustered regularly spaced short Palindromic repeats) HRM and fits the PHRANA (Progressive hierarchical resolving assays using nucleic acids) approach for genotyping. The use of statistical methods to analyse the HRM data enhanced sophistication of the method. Therefore, flaA HRM is a rapid and cost effective alternative to gel- or sequence-based flaA typing schemes. Aim 3 of this study describes the development of a novel bioinformatics driven method to interrogate Campylobacter MLST gene fragments using HRM, and is called ‘SNP Nucleated Minim MLST’ or ‘Minim typing’. The method involves HRM interrogation of MLST fragments that encompass highly informative “Nucleating SNPS” to ensure high resolution. Selection of fragments potentially suited to HRM analysis was conducted in silico using i) “Minimum SNPs” and ii) the new ’HRMtype’ software packages. Species specific sets of six “Nucleating SNPs” and six HRM fragments were identified for both C. jejuni and C. coli to ensure high typeability and resolution relevant to the MLST database. ‘Minim typing’ was tested empirically by typing 15 C. jejuni and five C. coli isolates. The association of clonal complexes (CC) to each isolate by ‘Minim typing’ and SNP + binary typing were used to compare the two MLST interrogation schemes. The CCs linked with each C. jejuni isolate were consistent for both methods. Thus, ‘Minim typing’ is an efficient and cost effective method to interrogate MLST genes. However, it is not expected to be independent, or meet the resolution of, sequence based MLST gene interrogation. ‘Minim typing’ in combination with flaA HRM is envisaged to comprise a highly resolving combinatorial typing scheme developed around the HRM platform and is amenable to automation and multiplexing. The genotyping techniques described in this thesis involve the combinatorial interrogation of differentially evolving genetic markers on the unified real-time PCR and HRM platform. They provide high resolution and are simple, cost effective and ideally suited to rapid and high throughput genotyping for these common food-borne pathogens.

A peptidomimetic inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases containing a tetherable linker group

Successful wound repair and normal turnover of the extracellular matrix relies on a balance between matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their natural inhibitors (the TIMPs). When over-expression of MMPs and abnormally high levels of activation or low expression of TIMPs are encountered, excessive degradation of connective tissue and the formation of chronic ulcers can occur. One strategy to rebalance MMPs and TIMPs is to use inhibitors. We have designed a synthetic pseudopeptide inhibitor with an amine linker group based on a known high-affinity peptidomimetic MMP inhibitor have demonstrated inhibition of MMP-1, -2, -3 and -9 activity in standard solutions. The inhibitor was also tethered to a polyethylene glycol hydrogel using a facile reaction between the linker unit on the inhibitor and the hydrogel precursors. After tethering, we observed inhibition of the MMPs although there was an increase in the IC50s which was attributed to poor diffusion of the MMPs into the hydrogels, reduced activity of the tethered inhibitor or incomplete incorporation of the inhibitor into the hydrogels. When the tethered inhibitors were tested against chronic wound fluid we observed significant inhibition in proteolytic activity suggesting our approach may prove useful in rebalancing MMPs within chronic wounds.

Academic career development workshop for research students and early career academics

For research students and early career academics, universities offer resources that help develop their research skills – for example, critical theory development, literature reviews, research methods, data analysis, writing skills, etc. However, building a successful career in academia poses a wide range of new challenges in addition to the pure academic craft of research. The resources and resilience one needs in order to shape an academic career path often appear ambiguous, particularly in the innately transformative field of Internet research. In response to feedback from AoIR members, this full-day workshop seeks to address this concern by offering a supportive and constructive environment to discuss career development related issues that are of specific interest to research students and early career academics.

The carrying capacity imperative : assessing regional carrying capacity methodologies for sustainable land-use planning

The global impact of an ever-increasing population-base combined with dangerously depleted natural resources highlights the urgent need for changes in human lifestyles and land-use patterns. To achieve more equitable and sustainable land use, it is imperative that populations live within the carrying capacity of their natural assets in a manner more accountable to and ethically responsible for the land which sustains them. Our society’s very survival may well depend on worldwide acceptance of the carrying capacity imperative as a principle of personal, political, economic, educational and planning responsibility. This theoretically-focused research identifies, examines and compares a range of methodological approaches to carrying capacity assessment and considers their relevance to future spatial planning. It also addresses existing gaps in current methodologies and suggests avenues for improvement. A set of eleven key criteria are employed to compare various existing carrying capacity assessment models. These criteria include whole-systems analysis, dynamic responses, levels of impact and risk, systemic constraints, applicability to future planning and the consideration of regional and local boundary delineation. This research finds that while some existing methodologies offer significant insights into the assessment of population carrying capacities, a comprehensive model is yet to be developed. However, it is suggested that by combining successful components from various authors, and collecting a range of interconnected data, a practical and workable systems-based model may be achievable in the future.

The carrying capacity imperative : assessing regional carrying capacity methodologies for sustainable land-use planning

While some existing carrying capacity methodologies offer significant insights into the assessment of population carrying capacities, a comprehensive model is yet to be developed. This research identifies, examines and compares a range of methodological approaches to carrying capacity assessment and considers their relevance to future spatial planning. A range of key criteria are employed to compare various existing carrying capacity assessment models. These criteria include integrated systems analysis, dynamic responses, levels of risk, systemic constraints, applicability to future planning and the consideration of regional boundary delineation. It is suggested that by combining successful components from various authors, and collecting a range of interconnected data, a practical and workable system-based model may be achievable in the future.

The soft skills of project management : a view from diploma graduates

A research study was conducted in a key area of project management: stakeholder and relationship management through communication - ‘the soft skills’. It was conducted with Diploma of Project Management graduates from one Australian Registered Training Organisation (RTO), the Australian College of Project Management (ACPM). The study was designed to initially identify the qualifications and project management experience of the participants. Further, it identified the respondents’ understanding of and attitude to commonly held principles and literature within the project management field as it relates to the soft skills of projects. This is specifically connected to their project experience and knowledge, approach to project communications, and the stakeholder’s needs. Some of the literature showed that through the management and application of the project soft skills by project managers may actually be a recipe for project success. Hence, an important underpinning of this study was that the project manager can enhance project success (or reduce the impact of failure) by identifying and prioritising stakeholders, developing and implementing strategies for engaging and communicating with them. The use of a positivist approach to this research study allowed for the evaluation and understanding of respondents to the emergent theories of successful projects being delivered through the management of stakeholders, communications, and relationships. Consequently, a quantitative approach to this study was undertaken. The participants were drawn from graduates who completed (graduated) from the ACPM with the Diploma of Project Management between January 2004 and December 2007 only. A list of graduates was collated from this period indicating that a total of 656 graduates have completed and graduated with the qualification. The data collection for this study was done in one phase only. The questionnaire was emailed individually by the researcher directly to the selected potential respondents. Subsequently, a total of 44 responses were received, providing an overall response rate of 43%. Two key factors emerged from the survey questionnaire. Firstly, the need for the soft skills to be incorporated in project management curriculum and education programs, and secondly, that successful projects are delivered through the management and application of the project soft skills. It is expected that the findings of this study be provided across various forums (such as vocational education and training, and project management conferences) and via project management bodies such as the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM) to inform learning and provide greater insight into the soft skills of project management. It is the contention of the researcher that this quantitative study of Diploma of Project Management graduates’ views and attitudes highlights the importance of project soft skills and its importance in the delivery of successful projects as well as being part of the competencies of a successful project manager. This study also revealed the value of project experience and knowledge as it pertains to the management and application of the project soft skills.

Fixing the volatile : studio vocal performance techniques

The process of compiling a studio vocal performance from many takes can often result in the performer producing a new complete performance once this new "best of" assemblage is heard back. This paper investigates the ways that the physical process of recording can alter vocal performance techniques, and in particular, the establishing of a definitive melodic and rhythmic structure. Drawing on his many years of experience as a commercially successful producer, including the attainment of a Grammy award, the author will analyse the process of producing a “credible” vocal performance in depth, with specific case studies and examples. The question of authenticity in rock and pop will also be discussed and, in this context, the uniqueness of the producer’s role as critical arbiter – what gives the producer the authority to make such performance evaluations? Techniques for creating conditions in the studio that are conducive to vocal performances, in many ways a very unnatural performance environment, will be discussed, touching on areas such as the psycho-acoustic properties of headphone mixes, the avoidance of intimidatory practices, and a methodology for inducing the perception of a “familiar” acoustic environment.

Water sensitive urban design in landscape projects in Shijiazhuang and Yueyang in China [水敏性城市设计 (WSUD) 策略及景观项目中的应用 (中国石家莊和中國岳陽)]

With the rapid urbanization progress, water resources protection and water pollution control have become key problems of human environment construction and social sustainable development. Many countries, especially Australia, have mature experiences. Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) is one of the successful strategies that is put forward under this global situation and helps releasing heavy environmental pressure from urbanization. The paper discussed main principles of WSUD and then took Shijiazhuang, Heibei and Yueng, Hunan for examples trying to apply WSUD in river landscape projects in China's new urban area, thus doing contributions to more sustainable water management in new urban areas in China.

Using accelerometer, high sample rate GPS and magnetometer data to develop a cattle movement and behaviour model

The study described in this paper developed a model of animal movement, which explicitly recognised each individual as the central unit of measure. The model was developed by learning from a real dataset that measured and calculated, for individual cows in a herd, their linear and angular positions and directional and angular speeds. Two learning algorithms were implemented: a Hidden Markov model (HMM) and a long-term prediction algorithm. It is shown that a HMM can be used to describe the animal's movement and state transition behaviour within several “stay” areas where cows remained for long periods. Model parameters were estimated for hidden behaviour states such as relocating, foraging and bedding. For cows’ movement between the “stay” areas a long-term prediction algorithm was implemented. By combining these two algorithms it was possible to develop a successful model, which achieved similar results to the animal behaviour data collected. This modelling methodology could easily be applied to interactions of other animal species.

Virtual fencing applications : Implementing and testing an automated cattle control system

Managing livestock movement in extensive systems has environmental and production benefits. Currently permanent wire fencing is used to control cattle; this is both expensive and inflexible. Cattle are known to respond to auditory and visual cues and we investigated whether these can be used to manipulate their behaviour. Twenty-five Belmont Red steers with a mean live weight of 270kg were each randomly assigned to one of five treatments. Treatments consisted of a combination of cues (audio, tactile and visual stimuli) and consequence (electrical stimulation). The treatments were electrical stimulation alone, audio plus electrical stimulation, vibration plus electrical stimulation, light plus electrical stimulation and electrified electric fence (6kV) plus electrical stimulation. Cue stimuli were administered for 3s followed immediately by electrical stimulation (consequence) of 1kV for 1s. The experiment tested the operational efficacy of an on-animal control or virtual fencing system. A collar-halter device was designed to carry the electronics, batteries and equipment providing the stimuli, including audio, vibration, light and electrical of a prototype virtual fencing device. Cattle were allowed to travel along a 40m alley to a group of peers and feed while their rate of travel and response to the stimuli were recorded. The prototype virtual fencing system was successful in modifying the behaviour of the cattle. The rate of travel of cattle along the alley demonstrated the large variability in behavioural response associated with tactile, visual and audible cues. The experiment demonstrated virtual fencing has potential for controlling cattle in extensive grazing systems. However, larger numbers of cattle need to be tested to derive a better understanding of the behavioural variance. Further controlled experimental work is also necessary to quantify the interaction between cues, consequences and cattle learning.

Gamma-tocotrienol as an effective agent in targeting prostate cancer stem cell-like population

Emerging evidence supports that prostate cancer originates from a rare sub-population of cells, namely prostate cancer stem cells (CSCs). Conventional therapies for prostate cancer are believed to mainly target the majority of differentiated tumor cells but spare CSCs, which may account for the subsequent disease relapse after treatment. Therefore, successful elimination of CSCs may be an effective strategy to achieve complete remission from this disease. Gamma-tocotrienols (-T3) is one of the vitamin-E constituents which have been shown to have anticancer effects against a wide-range of human cancers. Recently, we have reported that -T3 treatment not only inhibits prostate cancer cell invasion but also sensitizes the cells to docetaxel-induced apoptosis, suggesting that -T3 may be an effective therapeutic agent against advanced stage prostate cancer. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that -T3 can down-regulate the expression of prostate CSC markers (CD133/CD44) in androgen independent (AI) prostate cancer cell lines (PC-3 & DU145), as evident from western blotting analysis. Meanwhile, the spheroid formation ability of the prostate cancer cells was significantly hampered by -T3 treatment. In addition, pre-treatment of PC-3 cells with -T3 was found to suppress tumor initiation ability of the cells. More importantly, while CD133-enriched PC-3 cells were highly resistant to docetaxel treatment, these cells were as sensitive to -T3 treatment as the CD133-depleted population. Our data suggest that -T3 may be an effective agent in targeting prostate CSCs, which may account for its anticancer and chemosensitizing effects reported in previous studies.