Building sustainable and effective assurance of learning process in a changing higher education environment

In a study of assuring learning in Australian Business Schools, 25 Teaching and Learning Associate Deans were interviewed to identify current issues in developing and measuring the quality of teaching and learning outcomes. Results indicate that for most institutions developing a perspective on graduate attributes and mapping assessments to measure outcomes across an entire program required knowledge creation and the building of new inclusive processes. Common elements of effective practice, namely those which offered consistently superior outcomes, included: inclusive processes; embedded graduate attributes throughout a program; alongside consistent and appropriate assessment. Results indicate that assurance of learning processes are proliferating nationally while quality of teaching and learning outcomes and in the processes for assuring it is increasing as a result.

Properties of tough skinned vegetable-pumpkin tissue

Understanding of mechanical behaviour of food particles will provide researchers and designers essential knowledge to improve and optimise current food industrial technologies. Understanding of tissue behaviours will lead to the reduction of material loss and enhance energy efficiency during processing operations. Although, there are some previous studies on properties of fruits and vegetables however, tissue behaviour under different processing operations will be different. The presented paper is a part of FE modelling and simulation of tissue damage during mechanical peeling of tough skinned vegetables. In this study indentation test was performed on peeled and unpeeled samples at loading rate of 20 mm/min for peel, flesh and unpeeled samples. Consequently, force deformation and stress and strain of samples were calculated. The toughness of the tissue also has been calculated and compared with the previous results.

Shifting the Airline Business Model - Current Struggles of National Carriers to Become Profitable Passenger Experience Companies

National flag carriers are struggling for survival, not only due to classical reasons such as increase in fuel and tax or natural disasters, but largely due to the inability to quickly adapt to its competitive environment – the emergence of budget and Persian Gulf airlines. In this research, we investigate how airlines can transform their business models via technological and strategic capabilities to become profitable and sustainable passenger experience companies. To formulate recommendations, we analyze customer sentiments via social media to understand what people are saying about the airlines.

Suspected child abuse and neglect reporting behaviour

Executuve Summary Background and Aims Child abuse and neglect is a tragedy within our community, with over 10,000 substantiated reports of abuse and neglect in Queensland in the past year. The considerable consequences of child abuse and neglect are far-reaching, substantial and can be fatal. The reporting of suspicions of child abuse or neglect is often the first step in preventing further abuse or neglect. In the State of Queensland, medical practitioners are mandated by law to report their suspicions of child abuse and neglect. However, despite this mandate many still do not report their suspicions. A 1998 study indicated that 43% of medical practitioners had, at some time, made a conscious decision to not report suspected abuse or neglect (Van Haeringen, Dadds & Armstrong, 1998). The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of beliefs about reporting suspected child abuse and neglect and the barriers to reporting suspected abuse and neglect by medical practitioners and parents and students. The findings have the potential to inform the training and education of members of the community who have a shared responsibility to protect the wellbeing of its most vulnerable members. Method In one of the largest studies of reporting behaviour in relation to suspected child abuse and neglect in Australia, we examined and compared medical practitioners’ responses with members of the community, namely parents and students. We surveyed 91 medical practitioners and 214 members of the community (102 parents and 112 students) regarding their beliefs and reporting behaviour related to suspected child abuse and neglect. We also examined reasons for not reporting suspected abuse or neglect, as well as awareness of responsibilities and the appropriate reporting procedures. To obtain such information, participants anonymously completed a comprehensive questionnaire using items from previous studies of reporting attitudes and behaviour. Executive Summary Abused Child Trust Report August 2003 5 Findings Key findings include: • The majority of medical practitioners (97%) were aware of their duty to report suspected abuse and neglect and believed they had a professional and ethical duty to do so. • A majority of parents (82%) and students (68%) also believed that they had a professional and ethical duty to report suspected abuse and neglect. • In accord with their statutory duty to report suspected abuse and neglect, 69% of medical practitioners had made a report at some point. • Sixteen percent of parents and 9% of students surveyed indicated that they had reported their suspicions of neglect and abuse. • The most endorsed belief associated with not reporting suspected child abuse and neglect was that, ‘unpleasant events would follow reporting’. • Over a quarter of medical practitioners (26%) admitted to making a decision not to report their suspicions of child abuse or neglect on at least one occasion. • Compared with previous research, there has been a decline in the number of medical practitioners who decided not to report suspected abuse or neglect from 43% (Van Haeringen et al., 1998) to 26% in the current study. • Fourteen percent of parents and 15% of students surveyed had also chosen not to report a case of suspected abuse or neglect. • Attitudes that most strongly influenced the decision to report or not report suspected abuse or neglect differed between groups (medical practitioners, parents, or students). A belief that, ‘the abuse was a single incident’ was the best predictor of non-reporting by medical practitioners, while having ‘no time to follow-up the report’ or failing to be ‘convinced of evidence of abuse’ best predicted failure to report abuse by students. A range of beliefs predicted non-reporting by parents, including the beliefs that reporting suspected abuse was ‘not their responsibility’ and ‘knowing the child had retracted their statement’. Conclusions Of major concern is that approximately 25% of medical practitioners with a mandated responsibility to report, as well as some members of the general public, revealed that they have suspected child neglect or abuse but have made the decision not to report their suspicions. Parents and students perceived the general community as having responsibility for reporting suspicions of abuse or neglect. Despite this perception, they felt that lodging a report may be overly demanding in terms of time and they had the confidence in their ability to identify child abuse and neglect. An explanation for medical practitioners deciding not to report may be based upon their optimistic belief that suspected abuse or neglect was a single incident. Our findings may best be understood from the ‘inflation of optimism’ hypothesis put forward by the Nobel Laureate, Daniel Kahneman. He suggests that in spite of rational evidence, human beings tend to make judgements based on an optimistic view rather than engaging in a rational decision-making process. In this case, despite past behaviour of abuse or neglect being the best predictor of future behaviour, medical practitioners have taken an optimistic view, choosing to believe that their suspicion of child abuse or neglect represents a single incident. The clear implication of findings in the current research is the need for the members of the general community and medical practitioners to be better appraised of the consequences of their decision-making in relation to suspicionsof child abuse and neglect. Finally findings from parents and students relating to their reporting behaviour suggest that members of the larger community represent an untapped resourcewho might, with appropriate awareness, play a more significant role in theidentification and reporting of suspected child abuse and neglect.

Mineralogy of chondritic porous aggregates : current status

Chondritic porous aggregates (CPA's) belong to an important subset of small particles (usually between 5 and 50 micrometers) collected from the stratosphere by high flying aircraft. These aggregates are approximately chondritic in elemental abundance and are composed of many thousands of small­er, submicrometer particles. CPA particles have been the subject of intensive study during the past few years [1-3] and there is strong evidence that they are a new class of extraterrestrial material not represented in the meteorite collection [3,4]. However, CPA's may be related to carbonaceous chondrites and in fact, both may be part of a continuum of primitive extraterrestrial materials [5]. The importance of CPA's stems from suggestions that they are very primitive solar system material possibly derived from early formed proto­ planets, chondritic parent bodies, or comets [3, 6]. To better understand the origin and evolution of these particles, we have attempted to summarize all of the mineralogical data on identified CPA's published since about 1976.

Anomalous event detection using a semi-two dimensional hidden Markov model

The rapid increase in the deployment of CCTV systems has led to a greater demand for algorithms that are able to process incoming video feeds. These algorithms are designed to extract information of interest for human operators. During the past several years, there has been a large effort to detect abnormal activities through computer vision techniques. Typically, the problem is formulated as a novelty detection task where the system is trained on normal data and is required to detect events which do not fit the learned `normal' model. Many researchers have tried various sets of features to train different learning models to detect abnormal behaviour in video footage. In this work we propose using a Semi-2D Hidden Markov Model (HMM) to model the normal activities of people. The outliers of the model with insufficient likelihood are identified as abnormal activities. Our Semi-2D HMM is designed to model both the temporal and spatial causalities of the crowd behaviour by assuming the current state of the Hidden Markov Model depends not only on the previous state in the temporal direction, but also on the previous states of the adjacent spatial locations. Two different HMMs are trained to model both the vertical and horizontal spatial causal information. Location features, flow features and optical flow textures are used as the features for the model. The proposed approach is evaluated using the publicly available UCSD datasets and we demonstrate improved performance compared to other state of the art methods.

A history of heart interventions moderates the relationship between psychological variables and the presence of chest pain in older women with self-reported coronary heart disease

Objectives: This study examines the hypothesis that a past history of heart interventions will moderate the relationship between psychosocial factors (stressful life events, social support, perceived stress, having a current partner, having a past diagnosis of depression or anxiety over the past 3 years, time pressure, education level, and the mental health index) and the presence of chest pain in a sample of older women. Design: Longitudinal survey over a 3-year period. Methods: The sample was taken from a prospective cohort study of 10,432 women initially aged between 70 and 75 years, who were surveyed in 1996 and then again in 1999. Two groups of women were identified: those reporting to have heart disease but no past history of heart interventions (i.e., coronary artery bypass graft/angioplasty) and those reporting to have heart disease with a past history of heart interventions. Results: Binary logistic regression analysis was used to show that for the women with self-reported coronary heart disease but without a past history of heart intervention, feelings of time pressure as well as the number of stressful life events experienced in the 12 months prior to 1996 were independent risk factors for the presence of chest pain, even after accounting for a range of traditional risk factors. In comparison, for the women with self-reported coronary heart disease who did report a past history of heart interventions, a diagnosis of depression in the previous 3 years was the significant independent risk factor for chest pain even after accounting for traditional risk factors. Conclusion: The results indicate that it is important to consider a history of heart interventions as a moderator of the associations between psychosocial variables and the frequency of chest pain in older women. Statement of Contribution: What is already known on this subject? Psychological factors have been shown to be independent predictors of a range of health outcomes in individuals with coronary heart disease, including the presence of chest pain. Most research has been conducted with men or with small samples of women; however, the evidence does suggest that these relationships exist in women as well as in men. What does this study add? Most studies have looked at overall relationships between psychological variables and health outcomes. The few studies that have looked at moderators have mainly examined gender as a moderator. To our knowledge, this is the first published study to examine a history of heart interventions as a moderator of the relationship between psychological variables and the presence of chest pain.

Application of a digital elevation model for flood modeling for the Pagsangaan River in Leyte

Flood related scientific and community-based data are rarely systematically collected and analysed in the Philippines. Over the last decades the Pagsangaan River Basin, Leyte, has experienced several flood events. However, documentation describing flood characteristics such as extent, duration or height of these floods are close to non-existing. To address this issue, computerized flood modelling was used to reproduce past events where there was data available for at least partial calibration and validation. The model was also used to provide scenario-based predictions based on A1B climate change assumptions for the area. The most important input for flood modelling is a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the river basin. No accurate topographic maps or Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR)-generated data are available for the Pagsangaan River. Therefore, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Global Digital Elevation Map (GDEM), Version 1, was chosen as the DEM. Although the horizontal spatial resolution of 30 m is rather desirable, it contains substantial vertical errors. These were identified, different correction methods were tested and the resulting DEM was used for flood modelling. The above mentioned data were combined with cross-sections at various strategic locations of the river network, meteorological records, river water level, and current velocity to develop the 1D-2D flood model. SOBEK was used as modelling software to create different rainfall scenarios, including historic flooding events. Due to the lack of scientific data for the verification of the model quality, interviews with local stakeholders served as the gauge to judge the quality of the generated flood maps. According to interviewees, the model reflects reality more accurately than previously available flood maps. The resulting flood maps are now used by the operations centre of a local flood early warning system for warnings and evacuation alerts. Furthermore these maps can serve as a basis to identify flood hazard areas for spatial land use planning purposes.

What makes an LMS effective : a synthesis of current literature

There is a growing number of organizations and universities now utilising e-learning practices in their teaching and learning programs. These systems have allowed for knowledge sharing and provide opportunities for users to have access to learning materials regardless of time and place. However, while the uptake of these systems is quite high, there is little research into the effectiveness of such systems, particularly in higher education. This paper investigates the methods that are used to study the effectiveness of e-learning systems and the factors that are critical for the success of a learning management system (LMS). Five major success categories are identified in this study and explained in depth. These are the teacher, student, LMS design, learning materials and external support.

On the commonly accepted assumptions regarding observed motor vehicle crash counts at transport system locations

Readily accepted knowledge regarding crash causation is consistently omitted from efforts to model and subsequently understand motor vehicle crash occurrence and their contributing factors. For instance, distracted and impaired driving accounts for a significant proportion of crash occurrence, yet is rarely modeled explicitly. In addition, spatially allocated influences such as local law enforcement efforts, proximity to bars and schools, and roadside chronic distractions (advertising, pedestrians, etc.) play a role in contributing to crash occurrence and yet are routinely absent from crash models. By and large, these well-established omitted effects are simply assumed to contribute to model error, with predominant focus on modeling the engineering and operational effects of transportation facilities (e.g. AADT, number of lanes, speed limits, width of lanes, etc.) The typical analytical approach—with a variety of statistical enhancements—has been to model crashes that occur at system locations as negative binomial (NB) distributed events that arise from a singular, underlying crash generating process. These models and their statistical kin dominate the literature; however, it is argued in this paper that these models fail to capture the underlying complexity of motor vehicle crash causes, and thus thwart deeper insights regarding crash causation and prevention. This paper first describes hypothetical scenarios that collectively illustrate why current models mislead highway safety researchers and engineers. It is argued that current model shortcomings are significant, and will lead to poor decision-making. Exploiting our current state of knowledge of crash causation, crash counts are postulated to arise from three processes: observed network features, unobserved spatial effects, and ‘apparent’ random influences that reflect largely behavioral influences of drivers. It is argued; furthermore, that these three processes in theory can be modeled separately to gain deeper insight into crash causes, and that the model represents a more realistic depiction of reality than the state of practice NB regression. An admittedly imperfect empirical model that mixes three independent crash occurrence processes is shown to outperform the classical NB model. The questioning of current modeling assumptions and implications of the latent mixture model to current practice are the most important contributions of this paper, with an initial but rather vulnerable attempt to model the latent mixtures as a secondary contribution.

Current speculation in costing approach for Malaysian residential construction

The construction industry has been under pressure for many years to produce economical buildings which offer value for money, not only during the construction phase, but more importantly, during the full life of the building. Whole Life Cycle Costing (WLCC) is a relatively new concept for the construction industry especially on residential development and particularly for Malaysia. Discussing the speculation in using WLCC for the Malaysian residential constructions is the aim for this paper and it is one of the research questions on my research. This paper also wants to gather more speculation that may involve through others experienced. Basically, this paper is written to facilitate the current or future individual which will involve in residential property development sector with a new sensible approach to what at times seems impressively confusing especially in simplifying the operations and maintenance services and rehabilitation as well.

Magnetic flux analysis in superconducting Fault Current Limiters under short-circuit conditions

In order to obtain a more compact Superconducting Fault Current limiter (SFCL), a special geometry of core and AC coil is required. This results in a unique magnetic flux pattern which differs from those associated with conventional round core arrangements. In this paper the magnetic flux density within a Fault Current Limiter (FCL) is described. Both experimental and analytical approaches are considered. A small scale prototype of an FCL was constructed in order to conduct the experiments. This prototype comprises a single phase. The analysis covers both the steady state and the short-circuit condition. Simulation results were obtained using commercial software based on the Finite Element Method (FEM). The magnetic flux saturating the cores, leakage magnetic flux giving rise to electromagnetic forces and leakage magnetic flux flowing in the enclosing tank are computed.

Australia and its impact fees

Australia is a country, which has much of its legislative roots in its Commonwealth heritage. However due to its size and nature, its planning and development processes are more aligned to countries such as the United States. This paper will present an overview of the Australian urban land market, its infrastructure funding mechanisms (property taxes) and current provisions in each of Australia’s seven States and Territories that provide for developer contributions for local infrastructure (impact fees).