Creative occupations as knowledge practices : innovation and precarity in the creative economy

The ARC Centre of Excellence in Creative Industries and Innovation (herewith CCI) was established with two simple policy objectives. One was to assess anecdotal and boosterish claims about the growth rates of the creative industries, and hence, to measure the size of the creative industries contribution to gross domestic product (GDP). The other was to ascertain the contribution of the creative industries to employment. Preliminary research detailed in Cunningham and Higgs (2009) showed that the existing industrial classifications did not incorporate the terminology of the creative industries, nor did they disaggregate new categories of digital work such as video games. However, we discovered that occupational codes provide a much more fine-grained account of work that would enable us to disaggregate and track economic activity that corresponded to creative industries terminology. Thus was born one major centrepiece of CCI research – the tracking of national occupational codes in pursuit of measuring creative industries policy outcomes. This paper commences with some description of empirical work that investigates creative occupations; however, the real point is to suggest that this type of detailed, occupation-based empirical work has important theoretical potential that has not yet been fully expended (though see Cunningham 2013; Hearn and Bridgstock 2014; Bakhshi, Freeman and Higgs 2013; Hartley and Potts 2014).

Citizen’s right to the digital city: Urban interfaces, activism, and placemaking

Edited by thought leaders of the fields of urban informatics and urban interaction design, this book brings together case studies and examples from around the world to discuss the role that urban Interfaces, citizen action, and city making play in the quest to create and maintain not only secure and resilient, but productive, sustainable, and liveable urban environments. The book debates the impact of these trends on theory, policy, and practice. The chapters in this book are sourced from blind peer reviewed contributions by leading researchers working at the intersection of the social / cultural, technical / digital, and physical / spatial domains of urbanism scholarship. The book appeals not only to research colleagues and students, but also to a vast number of practitioners in the private and public sector interested in accessible accounts that clearly and rigorously analyse the affordances and possibilities of urban interfaces, mobile technology, and location-based services to engage people towards open, smart and participatory urban environments.

Tendinopathy alters cumulative transverse strain in the patellar tendon postexercise.

Introduction This research evaluated the effect of tendinopathy on the cumulative transverse strain response of the patellar tendon to a bout of resistive quadriceps exercise. Methods Nine adults with unilateral patellar tendinopathy (age 18.2±0.7 years, height 1.92±0.06 m and weight 76.8±6.8 kg) and ten healthy adults free of knee pain (age 17.8±0.8 years, height 1.83±0.05 m and weight 73.2±7.6 kg) underwent standardised sagittal sonograms (7.2–14 MHz linear–array transducer) of both patellar tendons immediately prior and following 45 repetitions of a double–leg decline–squat exercise performed against a resistance of 145% bodyweight. Tendon thickness was determined 5–mm and 25–mm distal to the patellar pole. Transverse Hencky strain was calculated as the natural log of the ratio of post– to pre–exercise tendon thickness and expressed as a percentage. Measures of tendon echogenicity were calculated within the superficial and deep aspects of each tendon site from gray–scale profiles. Intratendinous microvessels were evaluated using power Doppler ultrasound. Results The cumulative transverse strain response to exercise in symptomatic tendinopathy was significantly lower than that of asymptomatic and healthy tendon (P<.05). There was also a significant reduction (57%) in the area of microvascularity immediately following exercise (P=.05), which was positively correlated (r=0.93, P<.05) with VISA-P score. Conclusions This study is the first to show that patellar tendinopathy is associated with an altered morphological and mechanical response of the tendon to exercise, which is manifest by a reduction in cumulative transverse strain and microvascularity, when present. Research directed toward identifying factors that influence the acute microvascular and transverse strain response of the patellar tendon to exercise in the various stages of tendinopathy is warranted.

Day in the Lab : Urban Informatics Research Lab, Queensland University of Technology

The Urban Informatics Research Lab brings together a group of people who focus their research on interdisciplinary topics at the intersection of social, spatial, and technical research domains—that is, people, place, and technology. Those topics are spread across the breadth of urban life—its contemporary issues and its needs, as well as the design opportunities that we have as individuals, groups, communities, and as a whole society. The lab’s current research areas include urban planning and design, civic innovation, mobility and transportation, education and connected learning, environmental sustainability, and food and urban agriculture. The common denominator of the lab’s approach is user-centered design research directed toward understanding, conceptualizing, developing, and evaluating sociotechnical practices as well as the opportunities afforded by innovative digital technology in urban environments.

Why Australians should back Turnbull in the stoush over copyright

Attorney-General George Brandis is at loggerheads with Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull over proposed reforms to the Copyright Act. Brandis wants ISPs to take more responsibility for copyright infringement by their users. Turnbull says that they shouldn’t be required to police their subscribers’ activities. Here’s how to understand what’s at stake in the debate.

In the right space : exploring the dynamics between design, environment and pedagogy

The environments that we inhabit shape our everyday lives, influencing our behaviors and responses (Manu, 2013). As we enter an immersive phase of education in which physical and digital environments become inseparable, should we reconsider the role and importance of design on pedagogical practice? This paper explores the reciprocal cause and effect of space, technology and pedagogy in shaping the design of educational experiences within Queensland University of Technology's collaborative learning spaces.

Privacy in the new era of visible and sharable energy-use information

A new era of visible and sharable electricity information is emerging. Where eco-feedback is installed, households can now visualise many aspects of their energy consumption and share this information with others through Internet platforms such as social media. Despite providing users with many affordances, eco-feedback information can make public previously private actions from within the intimate setting of the family home. This paper represents a study focussing specifically on the privacy aspects of nascent ways for viewing and sharing this new stream of personal information. It explores the nuances of privacy related to eco-feedback both within and beyond the family home. While electricity consumption information may not be considered private itself, the household practices which eco-feedback systems makes visible may be private. We show that breaches of privacy can occur in unexpected ways and have the potential to cause distress. The paper concludes with some suggestions for how to realise the benefits of sharing energy consumption information whist effectively maintaining individuals’ conceptions of adequate privacy.

Reterritorializing multimodal design in the classroom through a socially mediated Indigenous heritage

National or International Significance Flows of cultural heritage in textual practices are vital to sustaining Indigenous communities - a national and international priority (Commonwealth of Australia, 2011). Indigenous heritage, whether passed on by oral tradition or ubiquitous social media, can be seen as a "conversation between the past and the future" (Fairclough, 2012, p. xv). Indigenous heritage involves appropriating memories within a cultural flow to pass on a spiritual legacy. This presentation reports ethnographic research of social media practices in a small independent Aboriginal school in Southeast Queensland, Australia that is resided over by the Yuggera elders and an Aboriginal principal. Quality of Research The purpose was to rupture existing notions of white literacies in schools, and to deterritorialize the uses of digital media by dominant cultures in the public sphere. Examples of learning experiences included the following: i. Integrating Indigenous language and knowledge into media text production; ii. Classroom visits from Indigenous elders; and iii. Publishing oral histories through digital scrapbooking. The program aligned with the Australian National Curriculum English (ACARA, 2014), which mandates the teaching of multimodal text creation. Data sources included a class set of digital scrapbooks collaboratively created in a preparatory-one primary classroom. The digital scrapbooks combined digitally encoded words, images of material artifacts, and digital music files. A key feature of the writing and digital design task was to retell and digitally display and archive a cultural narrative of significance to the Indigenous Australian community and its memories and material traces of the past for the future. Data analysis of the students' digital stories involved the application of key themes of negotiated, material, and digitally mediated forms of heritage practice. It drew on Australian Indigenous research by Keddie et al. (2013) to guard against the homogenizing of culture that can arise from a focus on a static view of culture. The interpretation of findings located Indigenous appropriation of social media within broader racialized politics that enables Indigenous literacy to be understood as a dynamic, negotiated, and transgenerational flows of practice. It demonstrates that Indigenous children's use of media production reflects "shifting and negotiated identities" in response to changing media environments that can function to sustain Indigenous cultural heritages (Appadurai, 1696, p. xv). Impact on practice, policy or theory The findings are important for teachers at a time when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures is a cross-curricular policy priority in the Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2014). The findings show how curriculum policies can be applied to classroom practice in ways that are epistemologically consistent with Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Theoretically, it demonstrates how the children's experiences of culture are layered over time, as successive generations inherit, interweave, and hear others' cultural stories or maps. Practically, recommendations are provided for an approach to appropriating social media in schools that explicitly attends to the dynamic nature of Indigenous practices, negotiated through intercultural constructions and flows, and opening space for a critical anti-racist approach to multimodal text production. Timeliness The research is timely in the context of the accessibility and role of digital and multimodal forms of communication, including for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Defining a ‘democratic elite’ : key media in the battle for social responsibility

This paper offers a definition of elite media arguing their content focus will sufficiently meet social responsibility needs of democracy. Its assumptions come from the Finkelstein and Leveson Inquiries and regulatory British Royal Charter (2013). These provide guidelines on how media outlets meet ‘social responsibility’ standards, e.g. press has a ‘responsibility to be fair and accurate’ (Finkelstein); ethical press will feel a responsibility to ‘hold power to account’ (Leveson); news media ‘will be held strictly accountable’ (RC). The paper invokes the British principle of media opting-in to observe standards, and so serve the democracy. It will give examples from existing media, and consider social responsibility of media more generally. Obvious cases of ‘quality’ media: public broadcasters, e.g. BBC, Al-Jazeera, and ‘quality’ press, e.g. NYT, Süddeutscher Zeitung, but also community broadcasters, specialised magazines, news agencies, distinctive web logs, and others. Where providing commentary, these abjure gratuitous opinion -- meeting a standard of reasoned, informational and fair. Funding is almost a definer, many such services supported by the state, private trusts, public institutions or volunteering by staff. Literature supporting discussion on elite media will include their identity as primarily committed to a public good, e.g. the ‘Public Value Test’, Moe and Donders (2011); with reference also to recent literature on developing public service media. Within its limits the paper will treat social media as participants among all media, including elite, and as a parallel dimension of mass communication founded on inter-activity. Elite media will fulfil the need for social responsibility, firstly by providing one space, a ‘plenary’ for debate. Second is the notion of building public recognition of elite media as trustworthy. Third is the fact that elite media together are a large sector with resources to sustain social cohesion and debate; notwithstanding pressure on funds, and impacts of digital transformation undermining employment in media more than in most industries.

Challenging the myth of an "epidemic" of common mental disorders : trends in the global prevalence of anxiety and depression between 1990 and 2010

Background Anxiety disorders and major depressive disorder (MDD) are common and disabling mental disorders. This paper aims to test the hypothesis that common mental disorders have become more prevalent over the past two decades. Methods We conducted a systematic review of prevalence, remission, duration, and excess mortality studies for anxiety disorders and MDD and then used a Bayesian meta-regression approach to estimate point prevalence for 1990, 2005, and 2010. We also conducted a post-hoc search for studies that used the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) as a measure of psychological distress and tested for trends to present a qualitative comparison of study findings. Results This study found no evidence for an increased prevalence of anxiety disorders or MDD. While the crude number of cases increased by 36%, this was explained by population growth and changing age structures. Point prevalence of anxiety disorders was estimated at 3.8% (3.6-4.1%) in 1990 and 4.0% (3.7-4.2%) in 2010. The prevalence of MDD was unchanged at 4.4% in 1990 (4.2-4.7%) and 2010 (4.1-4.7%). However, 8 of the 11 GHQ studies found a significant increase in psychological distress over time. Conclusions The perceived "epidemic" of common mental disorders is most likely explained by the increasing numbers of affected patients driven by increasing population sizes. Additional factors that may explain this perception include the higher rates of psychological distress as measured using symptom checklists, greater public awareness, and the use of terms such as anxiety and depression in a context where they do not represent clinical disorders.

Global variation in the prevalence and incidence of major depressive disorder : a systematic review of the epidemiological literature

Background Summarizing the epidemiology of major depressive disorder (MDD) at a global level is complicated by significant heterogeneity in the data. The aim of this study is to present a global summary of the prevalence and incidence of MDD, accounting for sources of bias, and dealing with heterogeneity. Findings are informing MDD burden quantification in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2010 Study. Method A systematic review of prevalence and incidence of MDD was undertaken. Electronic databases Medline, PsycINFO and EMBASE were searched. Community-representative studies adhering to suitable diagnostic nomenclature were included. A meta-regression was conducted to explore sources of heterogeneity in prevalence and guide the stratification of data in a meta-analysis. Results The literature search identified 116 prevalence and four incidence studies. Prevalence period, sex, year of study, depression subtype, survey instrument, age and region were significant determinants of prevalence, explaining 57.7% of the variability between studies. The global point prevalence of MDD, adjusting for methodological differences, was 4.7% (4.4–5.0%). The pooled annual incidence was 3.0% (2.4–3.8%), clearly at odds with the pooled prevalence estimates and the previously reported average duration of 30 weeks for an episode of MDD. Conclusions Our findings provide a comprehensive and up-to-date profile of the prevalence of MDD globally. Region and study methodology influenced the prevalence of MDD. This needs to be considered in the GBD 2010 study and in investigations into the ecological determinants of MDD. Good-quality estimates from low-/middle-income countries were sparse. More accurate data on incidence are also required.

Stability synthesis of power hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) simulation

A virtual power system can be interfaced with a physical system to form a power hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) simulation. In this scheme, the virtual system can be simulated in a fast parallel processor to provide near real-time outputs, which then can be interfaced to a physical hardware that is called the hardware under test (HuT). Stable operation of the entire system, while maintaining acceptable accuracy, is the main challenge of a PHIL simulation. In this paper, after an extended stability analysis for voltage and current type interfaces, some guidelines are provided to have a stable PHIL simulation. The presented analysis have been evaluated by performing several experimental tests using a Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS™) and a voltage source converter (VSC). The practical test results are consistent with the proposed analysis.

A new period of volcanogenic massive sulfide formation in the Yilgarn: A volcanological study of the ca 2.76 Ga Hollandaire VMS deposit, Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia

The Archean Hollandaire volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit is a felsic–siliciclastic VMS deposit located in the Murchison Domain of the Youanmi Terrane, Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia. It is hosted in a succession of turbidites, mudstones and coherent rhyodacite sills and has been metamorphosed to upper greenschist/lower amphibolite facies and includes a pervasive S1 deformational fabric. The coherent rhyodacitic sills are interpreted as syndepositional based on geochemical similarities with well-known VMS-associated felsic rocks and similar foliations to the metasediments. We offer several explanations for the absence of textural evidence (e.g. breccias) for syn-depositional origins: 1) the subaqueous sediments were dehydrated by long-lived magmatism such that no pore-water remained to drive quench fragmentation; 2) pore-space occlusion by burial and/or, 3) alteration overprinting and obscuring of primary breccias at contact margins. Mineralisation occurs by sub-seafloor replacement of original host rocks in two ore bodies, Hollandaire Main (~125 x >500 m and ~8 m thick) and Hollandaire West (~100 x 470 m and ~5 m thick), and occurs in three main textural styles, massive sulfides, which are exclusively hosted in turbidites and mudstones, and stringer and disseminated sulfides, which are also hosted in coherent rhyodacite. Most sulfides have textures consistent with remobilisation and recrystallisation. Hydrothermal metamorphism has altered the hangingwall and footwall to similar degrees, with significant gains in Mg, Mn and K and losses in Na, Ca and Sr. Garnet and staurolite porphyryoblasts also exhibit a footprint around mineralisation, extending up to 30 m both above and below the ore zone. High precision thermal ionisation mass spectrometry of zircons extracted from the coherent rhyodacite yield an age of 2759.5 ± 0.9 Ma, which along with geochemical comparisons, places the succession within the 2760–2735 Ma Greensleeves Formation of the Polelle Group of the Murchison Supergroup. Geochemical and geochronological evidence link the coherent rhyodacite sills to the Peter Well Granodiorite pluton ~2 km to the W, which acted as the heat engine driving hydrothermal circulation during VMS mineralisation. This study highlights the importance of both: detailed physical volcanological studies from which an accurate assessment of timing relationships, particularly the possibility of intrusions dismembering ore horizons, can be made; and identifying synvolcanic plutons and other similar suites, for VMS exploration targets in the Youanmi Terrane and worldwide.

Automated counting of the Northern Pacific Sea Star in the Derwent using shape recognition

A novel shape recognition algorithm was developed to autonomously classify the Northern Pacific Sea Star (Asterias amurenis) from benthic images that were collected by the Starbug AUV during 6km of transects in the Derwent estuary. Despite the effects of scattering, attenuation, soft focus and motion blur within the underwater images, an optimal joint classification rate of 77.5% and misclassification rate of 13.5% was achieved. The performance of algorithm was largely attributed to its ability to recognise locally deformed sea star shapes that were created during the segmentation of the distorted images.

Smart phones and tablets in the early years : a waste of time or a valuable opportunity for accessing information and communicating?

New digital media surrounds us. Little is known, however, about the influence of technology devices such as tablets (e.g. iPads) and smart phones on young children’s lives in home and school settings, and what it means for them throughout their schooling and beyond. Most research to date has focused on children aged six years and older, and much less (with a few exceptions) on preschool-aged children. This article draws on parent interviews to show how family members engage with technology as part of the flow of everyday life. Only time and increased understandings of everyday practices will tell the real values and scope of using digital media.