Making things happen: How the environment triggers action

Innovative research conducted by Dr Jan Golembiewski from Medical Architectures Australasia-Pacific, in the area of environmental design for mental healthcare helps us reflect, through experiential storytelling, on the importance of paying attention to positive environmental ‘triggers for action’ when designing physical spaces to help manage particular patients’ conditions. This article is written about the mental health experience specifically, however environmental design is an issue we can all relate to in our everyday lives (at home, at work, social spots or in places such as hospitals or retreats) when we instinctively notice a connection between our mental health and our surroundings or a healthy sense of place.

The National Stroke Nursing Council: A nursing call for action

Nursing is fundamental to the care of stroke patients. From the acute setting all the way to rehabilitation and community reintegration, nursing is there. Having well-educated and highly skilled nurses to monitor and care for stroke patients is crucial. Equally important is the collaboration of colleagues at a national level to facilitate and disseminate research and best practice guidelines across Canada. The National Stroke Nursing Council aims to fill this role. Stroke nurses from across Canada were invited to a national forum in 2005, hosted by the Canadian Stroke Network. The focus of this forum was to elucidate issues of concern to nurses across the stroke care continuum in relation to a Canadian Stroke Strategy. Subsequent to this forum, a cadre of nurses, after undergoing a rigorous screening process, were selected to form the inaugural National Stroke Nursing Council (NSNC). With ongoing support from the Canadian Stroke Network, the mandate of the NSNC is to promote leadership, communication, advocacy, education and nursing research in the field of stroke.

Hawai’i, clean energy, and climate action

Hawai’i is a leader in clean energy and climate action in the Pacific and the United States. With the Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawai’i has been at the forefront of climate research. The state has a special vulnerability to the impacts of climate change — particularly in respect of the marine environment, water resources, biodiversity, and human costs. Hawaii has promoted a Clean Energy initiative and passed legislation on climate adaptation. State and national leaders — most notably, United States Senator Brian Schatz — have shown great initiative in respect of clean energy and climate action. As such, it is worthwhile considering Hawaii as a case study of climate leadership in the Pacific and the United States.

Canadian rhapsody: Copyright law and research libraries

This article considers the ground-breaking Supreme Court of Canada decision in The Law Society of Upper Canada v CCH Canadian Limited. The matter involved legal publishers bringing an action for copyright infringement against the Law Society of Upper Canada for operating a photocopy and custom copy service at the Great Library of Osgoode Hall. The Supreme Court of Canada decision laid down important precedents in relation to originality, authorisation, and the defence of fair dealing. The ruling has been hailed as ’one of the strongest pro-user rights decisions from any high court in the world, showing what it means to do more than pay mere lip service to balance in copyright'. This decision will have important implications for the regulation of new technologies. The approach has been applied in two decisions dealing copyright law and the Internet - the Canadian Federal Court case of BMG Canada v John Doe, and the Supreme Court of Canada ’Tariff 22' case. The Supreme Court of Canada decision in The Law Society of Upper Canada v CCH Canadian Limited provides an impetus to reconsider the judicial interpretation of user rights in Australian jurisprudence.

ACE Research Vignette 044: Can entrepreneurship be taught (II)? Further Evidence

This series of research vignettes is aimed at sharing current and interesting research findings from our team of international entrepreneurship researchers. This vignette, written by Professor Per Davidsson, examines new evidence on whether entrepreneurship education and training leads to more entrepreneurial action and success.

ACE Research Vignette 045: Are “Entrepreneurial Opportunities” a meaningful topic for entrepreneurship research?

This series of research vignettes is aimed at sharing current and interesting research findings from our team of international entrepreneurship researchers. In this vignette, Professor Per Davidsson discusses research on “entrepreneurial opportunities”. A “Government Health Warning” is in place for this particular vignette: it mainly concerns matters internal to entrepreneurship research; however, reflective practitioners may find it to be of interest.

[await full-text]Evaluation of QAS Workplace Health and Safety Action Plan

This report identifies the outcomes of a program evaluation of the five year Workplace Health and Safety Strategy (2012-2017), specifically, the engagement component within the Queensland Ambulance Service. As part of the former Department of Community Safety, their objective was to work towards harmonising the occupational health and safety policies and process to improve the workplace culture. The report examines and assess the process paths and resource inputs into the strategy, provides feedback on progress to achieving identified goals as well as identify opportunities for improvements and barriers to progress. Consultations were held with key stakeholders within QAS and focus groups were facilitated with managers and health and safety representatives of each Local Area Service Network.

Party On! A call for entrepreneurship research that is more interactive, activity based, cognitively hot, compassionate, and prosocial

It is the Journal of Business Venturing's (JBV) 30th birthday. Although the community of entrepreneurship scholars deserves to celebrate JBV's achievements over the last 30 years (and congratulate the journal's parents—Ian Macmillan and S. Venkataraman), my focus is more on the future of entrepreneurship (and by extension JBV). A focus on entrepreneurship is both timeless and timely. On the one hand, entrepreneurship is timeless given the long-recognized importance of entrepreneurs to economies and societies (e.g., Jean Baptiste who supposedly coined the term in about 1800). On the other hand, a discussion of entrepreneurship is timely because now that the field of entrepreneurship has achieved legitimacy, it faces both opportunities and threats. It is thus timely to acknowledge the threats and think about opportunities to advance the field. A discussion of entrepreneurship is also timely because society faces a number of grand challenges (including the durability of poverty, environmental degradation [ Dorado and Ventresca, 2013]), challenges well suited to entrepreneurial responses...

Caught in the act of collaboration: Students’ experiences of collective learning within a real-world design studio context

This study is an evaluation of design students’ perceptions of the benefits of collective learning in a real-world collaborative design studio. Third year students worked in inter-disciplinary teams representing architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, and industrial design. Responding to a real-world brief and in consultation with an industry partner client and early childhood education pre-service teachers, the teams were required to collectively propose a design response for a community-based child and family centre, on an iconic koala sanctuary site. Data were collected using several methods including a participatory action research method, through the form of a large analogue, collaborative jigsaw puzzle. Using a grounded theory methodology, qualitative data were thematically analysed to reveal six distinct aspects of collaboration, which positively impacted the students’ learning experience. The results of this study include recommendations for improving real world collaboration in the design studio in preparation for students’ transition into professional practice.

Identifying opportunity spaces for design research in South America: Working with grassroots and community groups

As design research continues to gain momentum in South America, design researchers and practitioners in the region have begun to consider how to the field may address regionally-specific issues, including on-going political struggles. By bringing approaches such as Participatory Design and Adversarial Design that consider political aspects of design, local researchers have explored various forms that these two approaches could take that are tailored to the needs and values of different communities across the region. This paper focuses on identifying opportunities for developing design research projects in community-based and grassroots-oriented contexts. The paper presents the findings of our study about the understanding and experience of design researchers and experts who have been working closely with community groups and grassroots organisations in South America. Five themes emerged, highlighting opportunities and challenges related to positioning contemporary design research in the region, integration of adversarial perspectives into design processes, leveraging local obstacles through creativity, and the potential of building capacity within community groups and grassroots organisations for sustainability and autonomy.

Collaborative data exploration interfaces - From participatory sensing to participatory sensemaking

As technological capabilities for capturing, aggregating, and processing large quantities of data continue to improve, the question becomes how to effectively utilise these resources. Whenever automatic methods fail, it is necessary to rely on human background knowledge, intuition, and deliberation. This creates demand for data exploration interfaces that support the analytical process, allowing users to absorb and derive knowledge from data. Such interfaces have historically been designed for experts. However, existing research has shown promise in involving a broader range of users that act as citizen scientists, placing high demands in terms of usability. Visualisation is one of the most effective analytical tools for humans to process abstract information. Our research focuses on the development of interfaces to support collaborative, community-led inquiry into data, which we refer to as Participatory Data Analytics. The development of data exploration interfaces to support independent investigations by local communities around topics of their interest presents a unique set of challenges, which we discuss in this paper. We present our preliminary work towards suitable high-level abstractions and interaction concepts to allow users to construct and tailor visualisations to their own needs.

The effectiveness of interventions for improving the research literacy of nurses: A systematic review

Background Internationally, a considerable body of research exists examining why nurses do not use evidence in practice. Consistently, the research finds that lack of knowledge about research or discomfort with understanding research terminology are among the chief reasons given. Research education is commonly included in undergraduate nursing degree programs, but this does not seem to translate into a strong understanding of research following graduation, or an ability to use it in practice. Aim The objective of this review was to identify the effectiveness of workplace, tertiary-level educational, or other interventions designed to improve or increase postregistration nurses’understanding of research literature and ability to critically interact with research literature with the aim of promoting the use of research evidence in practice in comparison to no intervention, other intervention, or usual practice. Methods A wide range of databases were searched for quantitative studies of registered nurses receiving educational interventions designed to increase or improve their understanding of research literature in tertiary or workplace settings. Two reviewers working independently critically appraised the relevant papers and extracted the data using Joanna Briggs Institute instruments. Data are presented as a narrative summary as no meta-analysis was possible. Results Searching identified 4,545 potentially relevant papers, and after the sifting of titles and abstracts, 96 papers were selected for retrieval. On examination of full-text versions, 10 of the 96 retrieved papers were found to meet the inclusion criteria. Included studies were low to moderate quality. Interactive or activity-based learning seems to be effective in terms of improving research knowledge, critical appraisal ability, and research self-efficacy. Utilizing a program with a strong base in an appropriate theory also seems to be associated with greater effectiveness, particularly for workplace interventions. Linking Evidence to Action The included studies strongly favored interactive interventions, and those utilizing theory in their construction. Therefore, these types of interventions should be implemented to improve the effectiveness of research education for nurses as well as their research literacy.

Final report of Working Group 2: Traffic psychology [A COST Action TU1101 / HOPE collaboration]

BACKGROUND The workgroup of Traffic Psychology is concerned with the social, behavioral, and perceptual aspects that are associated with use and non-use of bicycle helmets, in their various forms and under various cycling conditions. OBJECTIVES The objectives of WG2 are to (1) share current knowledge among the people already working in the field, (2) suggest new ideas for research on and evaluation of the design of bicycle helmets, and (3) discuss options for funding of such research within the individual frameworks of the participants. Areas for research include 3.1. The patterns of use of helmets among different users: children, adults, and sports enthusiasts. 3.2. The use of helmets in different environments: rural roads, urban streets, and bike trails. 3.3. Concerns bicyclists have relative to their safety and convenience and the perceived impact of using helmets on comfort and convenience. 3.4. The benefit of helmets for enhancing visibility, and how variations in helmet design and colors affect daytime, nighttime, and dusktime visibility. 3.5. The role of helmets in the acceptance of city-wide pickup-and-drop-off bicycles. 3.6. The impact of helmets on visual search behaviour of bicyclists.

“I understand. I am a participant”: Navigating the ‘fuzzy’ boundaries of visual methods in qualitative longitudinal research

In this chapter we discuss how utilising the participatory visual methodology, photovoice, in an aged care context with its unique communal setting raised several ‘fuzzy boundary’ ethical dilemmas. To illustrate these challenges, we draw on immersive field notes from an ongoing qualitative longitudinal research (QLR) exploring the lived experience of aged care from the perspective of older residents, and focus on interactions with one participant, 81 year old Cassie. We explore how the camera, which is integral to the photovoice method, altered the researcher/participant ethical dynamics by becoming a continual ‘connector’ to the researcher. The camera took on a distinct agency, acting as a non-threatening ‘portal’ that lengthened contact, provided informal opportunities to alter the relationship dynamics and enabled unplanned participant revelation.

The bias and assumptions in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Action Plan

This presentation argues that “genuine” engagement and consultation is required where Indigenous voice is included within the policy development process for “true” progress to be achieved. With the ever increasing engagement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the decision making processes of Indigenous education, it is anticipated that there will be provision of opportunities for better outcomes and a greater acceptance of the policy within community (Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2014). This presentation is derived from a larger project where the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Action Plan (MCEECDYA, 2011) was critically analysed using Fairclough’s (2001) Critical Discourse Analysis framework and Rigney’s (1999) Indigenist Research Principles. Within this study, the underlying assumptions and bias identified within the policy and how it positions Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were articulated. The major findings that emerged from the data included: - a) the homogenous grouping of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; - b) the maintenance of the prevalent dominant ideology within policy, and finally; - c) the expectation by the power elite of increased engagement and connections by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples without consideration of the detrimental effects of past policies and reforms.