Addressing the impediments copyright imposes on the use of patent specifications and prior art documents to improve patent quality

This article considers from an Australian perspective the impediments that copyright law places in the path of those who seek to use patent specifications and non-patent prior art documents in ways that are necessary to the proper functioning of the patent system. Until recently, copyright law in Australia had limited the uses to which members of the public could put patent specifications in that country. Those impediments have been removed as a result of an important legislative change to the way in which copyright in patent specifications can be enforced. The change gives the public a greater freedom to make use of patent specifications than it enjoyed before, and removes unwarranted restrictions upon the ways in which the public can reuse valuable information. However, what the amendment does not address is the impediments copyright imposes on using non-patent prior art documents in ways that advance the public interest.

Shifting from asset dominant to service centric delivery systems: engaging users and communities

Research and practice has observed a shift toward service-oriented approaches that depend on input from users and community as co-producers of services. Yet, in delivering public infrastructure the focus is still on assets rather than services. The contribution of external stakeholders in the co-production of public services is still limited. Using the Policy Delphi with a panel of experts, we found that although practitioners understand the need for asset management to follow the service approach, guidelines and policies still lack that service-centric perspective. Findings revealed a range of obstacles to effective service delivery, related to the sub-optimal involvement of stakeholders’, asymmetric levels of power, the lack of accountability, transparency and availability of government, and the lack of genuine consultations between government and stakeholder groups. The paper concludes by offering directions and strategies for asset managers and policymakers to support and reconnect disengaged government-citizen relations for optimal service delivery outcomes in asset management.

Low muscle glycogen concentration does not suppress the anabolic response to resistance exercise

We determined the effect of muscle glycogen concentration and postexercise nutrition on anabolic signaling and rates of myofibrillar protein synthesis after resistance exercise (REX). Sixteen young, healthy men matched for age, body mass, peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) and strength (one repetition maximum; 1RM) were randomly assigned to either a nutrient or placebo group. After 48 h diet and exercise control, subjects undertook a glycogen-depletion protocol consisting of one-leg cycling to fatigue (LOW), whereas the other leg rested (NORM). The next morning following an overnight fast, a primed, constant infusion of L-[ring-13C6] phenylalanine was commenced and subjects completed 8 sets of 5 unilateral leg press repetitions at 80% 1RM. Immediately after REX and 2 h later, subjects consumed a 500 ml bolus of a protein/CHO (20 g whey + 40 g maltodextrin) or placebo beverage. Muscle biopsies from the vastus lateralis of both legs were taken at rest and 1 and 4 h after REX. Muscle glycogen concentration was higher in the NORM than LOW at all time points in both nutrient and placebo groups (P < 0.05). Postexercise Akt-p70S6K-rpS6 phosphorylation increased in both groups with no differences between legs (P < 0.05). mTORSer2448 phosphorylation in placebo increased 1 h after exercise in NORM (P < 0.05), whereas mTOR increased ?4-fold in LOW (P < 0.01) and ?11 fold in NORM with nutrient (P < 0.01; different between legs P < 0.05). Post-exercise rates of MPS were not different between NORM and LOW in nutrient (0.070 ± 0.022 vs. 0.068 ± 0.018 %/h) or placebo (0.045 ± 0.021 vs. 0.049 ± 0.017 %/h). We conclude that commencing high-intensity REX with low muscle glycogen availability does not compromise the anabolic signal and subsequent rates of MPS, at least during the early (4 h) postexercise recovery period.

Methodological developments in phenomenography : investing using information to learn in the discipline classroom

This paper discusses methodological developments in phenomenography that make it apropos for the study of teaching and learning to use information in educational environments. Phenomenography is typically used to analyze interview data to determine different ways of experiencing a phenomenon. There is an established tradition of phenomenographic research in the study of information literacy (ex: Bruce, 1997; 2008; Lupton, 2008; Webber, Boon, & Johnston, 2005). Drawing from the large body of evidence complied in two decades of research, phenomenographers developed variation theory, which explains what a learner can feasibly learn from a classroom lesson based on how the phenomenon being studied is presented (Marton, Runesson, & Tsui, 2004). Variation theory’s ability to establish the critical conditions necessary for learning to occur has resulted in the use of phenomenographic methods to study classroom interactions by collecting and analyzing naturalistic data through observation, as well as interviews concerning teachers’ intentions and students’ different experiences of classroom lessons. Describing the methodological developments of phenomenography in relation to understanding the classroom experience, this paper discusses the potential benefits and challenges of utilizing such methods to research the experiences of teaching and learning to use information in discipline-focused classrooms. The application of phenomenographic methodology for this purpose is exemplified with an ongoing study that explores how students learned to use information in an undergraduate language and gender course (Maybee, Bruce, Lupton, & Rebmann, in press). This paper suggests that by providing a nuanced understanding of what is intended for students to learn about using information, and relating that to what transpires in the classroom and how students experience these lessons, phenomenography and variation theory offer a viable framework for further understanding and improving how students are taught, and learn to use information.

Curiosity to cupboard : self reported disengagement with energy use feedback over time

This paper discusses findings made during a study of energy use feedback in the home (eco-feedback), well after the novelty has worn off. Contributing towards four important knowledge gaps in the research, we explore eco-feedback over longer time scales, focusing on instances where the feedback was not of lasting benefit to users rather than when it was. Drawing from 23 semi-structured interviews with Australian householders, we found that an initially high level of engagement gave way over time to disinterest, neglect and in certain cases, technical malfunction. Additionally, preconceptions concerned with the “purpose” of the feedback were found to affect use. We propose expanding the scope of enquiry for eco-feedback in several ways, and describe how eco-feedback that better supports decision-making in the “maintenance phase”, i.e. once the initial novelty has worn off, may be key to longer term engagement.

Too early to proclaim the end of the war on childhood obesity

Parents winning childhood war on obesity, Australian Bureau of Statistics data reveals, screamed the headline. Sounds like a good news story to make every parent breathe a sigh of relief, but is it really true? The article in question quoted obesity expert and University of South Australia Professor Tim Olds, who argued that “the media and public health authorities are getting carried away” about childhood obesity. He pointed to the fact that recent ABS data showed rates of overweight and obesity in children plateaued between 2007/08 and between 2011/12. But that still means one in four Australian children is overweight or obese; it’s clear we still have a lot of work to do. As a nutritionist working with parents every day (both in practical obesity programs and in research into reducing this considerable health risk), I was concerned that the article could be taken at face value. Because there’s more, much more, to this story.

Using GPS and accelerometry to assess older adults' driving behaviours and performance : challenges and future directions

With the projected increase in older adults, the older driver population is estimated to be the fastest growing cohort of drivers among many developed countries. The increased physical fragility associated with the aging process make older adults who drive private automobiles a vulnerable road user group. Much of the current research on older drivers’ behaviours and practices rely on self-report data. This paper explores the utility of in-vehicle devices (Global Positioning Systems and recording accelerometers) in assessing older drivers’ habitual driving behaviours. Seventy-eight older drivers (above 65 years of age), from the Australian Capital Territory, Australia, participated in the current study. The driving behaviours and practices of these participants were prospectively assessed over a two-week period. The use of combined GPS and recording accelerometers to improve understanding of older drivers’ driving behaviours show promise within the current study. The challenges of using multiple in-vehicle devices in assessing driving beahaviours and performances within this cohort will be discussed. Based on the current findings, recommendations for future research regarding the use of in-vehicle devices among the older driver cohort are proposed.

A proposed approach to monitor private-sector policies and practices related to food environments, obesity and non-communicable disease prevention

Private-sector organizations play a critical role in shaping the food environments of individuals and populations. However, there is currently very limited independent monitoring of private-sector actions related to food environments. This paper reviews previous efforts to monitor the private sector in this area, and outlines a proposed approach to monitor private-sector policies and practices related to food environments, and their influence on obesity and non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention. A step-wise approach to data collection is recommended, in which the first (‘minimal’) step is the collation of publicly available food and nutrition-related policies of selected private-sector organizations. The second (‘expanded’) step assesses the nutritional composition of each organization's products, their promotions to children, their labelling practices, and the accessibility, availability and affordability of their products. The third (‘optimal’) step includes data on other commercial activities that may influence food environments, such as political lobbying and corporate philanthropy. The proposed approach will be further developed and piloted in countries of varying size and income levels. There is potential for this approach to enable national and international benchmarking of private-sector policies and practices, and to inform efforts to hold the private sector to account for their role in obesity and NCD prevention.

The use of acoustic indices to determine avian species richness in audio-recordings of the environment

Interpreting acoustic recordings of the natural environment is an increasingly important technique for ecologists wishing to monitor terrestrial ecosystems. Technological advances make it possible to accumulate many more recordings than can be listened to or interpreted, thereby necessitating automated assistance to identify elements in the soundscape. In this paper we examine the problem of estimating avian species richness by sampling from very long acoustic recordings. We work with data recorded under natural conditions and with all the attendant problems of undefined and unconstrained acoustic content (such as wind, rain, traffic, etc.) which can mask content of interest (in our case, bird calls). We describe 14 acoustic indices calculated at one minute resolution for the duration of a 24 hour recording. An acoustic index is a statistic that summarizes some aspect of the structure and distribution of acoustic energy and information in a recording. Some of the indices we calculate are standard (e.g. signal-to-noise ratio), some have been reported useful for the detection of bioacoustic activity (e.g. temporal and spectral entropies) and some are directed to avian sources (spectral persistence of whistles). We rank the one minute segments of a 24 hour recording in descending order according to an "acoustic richness" score which is derived from a single index or a weighted combination of two or more. We describe combinations of indices which lead to more efficient estimates of species richness than random sampling from the same recording, where efficiency is defined as total species identified for given listening effort. Using random sampling, we achieve a 53% increase in species recognized over traditional field surveys and an increase of 87% using combinations of indices to direct the sampling. We also demonstrate how combinations of the same indices can be used to detect long duration acoustic events (such as heavy rain and cicada chorus) and to construct long duration (24 h) spectrograms.

Make-Buy Decisions in the Face of Radical Innovations

Make-buy decisions are an important aspect of the overall strategic plans for most firms, and the introduction of a new and potentially radical technology into an industry should therefore be a cue for managers to review their make-buy policies. Should a company make in-house the components and processes underpinning the technology, or should it buy them from an outside supplier? Earlier attempts to answer this question may have failed to agree on a single verdict because they have overlooked two important market forces: supplier relations and industry clockspeed. Based on an intensive three-year study at the University of Cambridge which analyzed supply chain management practices from a broad range of manufacturers around the world, this book helps to resolve this classic technology outsourcing dilemma and gives managers the tools they will need to determine if they should make or buy the components and processes that go into a potentially radical innovation.

Australian Research to Encourage School Students’ Positive Use of Technology to Reduce Cyberbullying

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has spread rapidly in Australia. Mobile phones, which increasingly have advanced capabilities including Internet access, mobile television and multimedia storage, are owned by 22% of Australian children aged 9-11 years and 73% of those aged 12-14 years (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012b), as well as by over 90% of Australians aged 15 years and over(Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), 2010). Nearly 80% of Australian households have access to the Internet and 73% have a broadband Internet connection, ensuring that Internet access is typically reliable and high-speed (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012a). Ninety percent of Australian children aged 5-14 years (comprising 79% of 5-8 year olds; 96% of 9-11 year olds; and 98% of 12-14 year olds) reported having accessed the Internet during 2011-2012, a significant increase from 79% in 2008-2009 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012b). Approximately 90% of 5-14 year olds have accessed the Internet both from home and from school, with close to 49% accessing the Internet from other places (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012b). Young people often make use of borrowed Internet access (e.g. in friends’ homes), commercial access (e.g. cybercafés), public access (e.g. libraries), and mobile device access in areas offering free Wi-Fi (Lim, 2009).

The operating schedule for battery energy storage companies in electricity market

This paper presents a series of operating schedules for Battery Energy Storage Companies (BESC) to provide peak shaving and spinning reserve services in the electricity markets under increasing wind penetration. As individual market participants, BESC can bid in ancillary services markets in an Independent System Operator (ISO) and contribute towards frequency and voltage support in the grid. Recent development in batteries technologies and availability of the day-ahead spot market prices would make BESC economically feasible. Profit maximization of BESC is achieved by determining the optimum capacity of Energy Storage Systems (ESS) required for meeting spinning reserve requirements as well as peak shaving. Historic spot market prices and frequency deviations from Australia Energy Market Operator (AEMO) are used for numerical simulations and the economic benefits of BESC is considered reflecting various aspects in Australia’s National Electricity Markets (NEM).

Grand tours in the glare of the sun : harnessing digital media to develop cultural tourism in Queensland, Australia

It has been well established that highlighting the cultural attributes of a region through stories of place, local histories, and the creative arts boosts tourism income to a region. Cultural tourism also serves to promote the creative industries to visitors and residents alike and, by enhancing a region’s cultural identity, fosters new opportunities for the arts. It can therefore offer considerable potential benefit to the creative economy in Australia. However, in comparison with Europe, where cultural tourism can rely upon an established historical, artistic and literary cultural identity that stretches back to Grand Tours of the seventeenth century, in Queensland, Australia the relatively new enterprise of cultural tourism must compete with visitor expectations of sun, surf and the natural landscapes, which have become the mainstay of tourism advertising. Moreover, in Queensland, it is essential to connect vast distances, diverse communities and a variety of cultural experiences. We must also take account of the expectations of contemporary tourists, who anticipate a digitally mediated travel experience and increasingly seek to connect with local communities in authentic ways. In this paper we consider the unique considerations that must be taken into account in the Queensland context and propose approaches to developing an integrated identity that embraces both the ‘great outdoors’ and the region’s cultural attributes. We make recommendations for providing the types of digitally mediated ‘local’ experiences that cultural tourists now expect, and illustrate the design principles we propose through early, tentative approaches to smart phones, locative media and augmented reality applications for cultural tourism in the region. We conclude by proposing additional ways to formulate a digital strategy in line with the recommendations we make.

Building adaptable agent-based models – application to the electricity distribution network

Agent-based modelling (ABM), like other modelling techniques, is used to answer specific questions from real world systems that could otherwise be expensive or impractical. Its recent gain in popularity can be attributed to some degree to its capacity to use information at a fine level of detail of the system, both geographically and temporally, and generate information at a higher level, where emerging patterns can be observed. This technique is data-intensive, as explicit data at a fine level of detail is used and it is computer-intensive as many interactions between agents, which can learn and have a goal, are required. With the growing availability of data and the increase in computer power, these concerns are however fading. Nonetheless, being able to update or extend the model as more information becomes available can become problematic, because of the tight coupling of the agents and their dependence on the data, especially when modelling very large systems. One large system to which ABM is currently applied is the electricity distribution where thousands of agents representing the network and the consumers’ behaviours are interacting with one another. A framework that aims at answering a range of questions regarding the potential evolution of the grid has been developed and is presented here. It uses agent-based modelling to represent the engineering infrastructure of the distribution network and has been built with flexibility and extensibility in mind. What distinguishes the method presented here from the usual ABMs is that this ABM has been developed in a compositional manner. This encompasses not only the software tool, which core is named MODAM (MODular Agent-based Model) but the model itself. Using such approach enables the model to be extended as more information becomes available or modified as the electricity system evolves, leading to an adaptable model. Two well-known modularity principles in the software engineering domain are information hiding and separation of concerns. These principles were used to develop the agent-based model on top of OSGi and Eclipse plugins which have good support for modularity. Information regarding the model entities was separated into a) assets which describe the entities’ physical characteristics, and b) agents which describe their behaviour according to their goal and previous learning experiences. This approach diverges from the traditional approach where both aspects are often conflated. It has many advantages in terms of reusability of one or the other aspect for different purposes as well as composability when building simulations. For example, the way an asset is used on a network can greatly vary while its physical characteristics are the same – this is the case for two identical battery systems which usage will vary depending on the purpose of their installation. While any battery can be described by its physical properties (e.g. capacity, lifetime, and depth of discharge), its behaviour will vary depending on who is using it and what their aim is. The model is populated using data describing both aspects (physical characteristics and behaviour) and can be updated as required depending on what simulation is to be run. For example, data can be used to describe the environment to which the agents respond to – e.g. weather for solar panels, or to describe the assets and their relation to one another – e.g. the network assets. Finally, when running a simulation, MODAM calls on its module manager that coordinates the different plugins, automates the creation of the assets and agents using factories, and schedules their execution which can be done sequentially or in parallel for faster execution. Building agent-based models in this way has proven fast when adding new complex behaviours, as well as new types of assets. Simulations have been run to understand the potential impact of changes on the network in terms of assets (e.g. installation of decentralised generators) or behaviours (e.g. response to different management aims). While this platform has been developed within the context of a project focussing on the electricity domain, the core of the software, MODAM, can be extended to other domains such as transport which is part of future work with the addition of electric vehicles.

"What's the problem?" One teacher's response to conflict in an early childhood classroom

Scholars in Context: Prospects and Transitions is an edited collection of papers from Face to Face, the 1996 University of Queensland Graduate School of Education Postgraduate Conference. It presents current research undertaken in one of Australia's largest and leading centres for postgraduate research in education. The book is divided into three sections: classrooms through different lenses, in which a variety of classroom related issues are addressed through a range of frameworks; the big picture: global issues, which provides national and international perspectives on policy and cultural issues in a range of education sectors; and framing the individual: perspectives and insights, which includes different strands of research into individuals' development in the context of families and schools. Scholars in Context: Prospects and Transitions demonstrates how current researchers maintain a commitment to innovation and rigour, despite the current uncertainties that bedevil higher education. The work presented here makes a significant contribution to many fields of education research. The range of issues this collection addresses, the variety of theoretical and analytical perspectives adopted, and the scholarship evidenced in each contribution, make this text a valuable compendium of very recent work in education research.