The Autistic Behavioural Indicators Instrument (ABII) : development and instrument utility in discriminating autistic disorder from speech and language impairment and typical development

The Autistic Behavioural Indicators Instrument (ABII) is an 18-item instrument developed to identify children with Autistic Disorder (AD) based on the presence of unique autistic behavioural indicators. The ABII was administered to 20 children with AD, 20 children with speech and language impairment (SLI) and 20 typically developing (TD) children aged 2-6 years. Results indicated that the ABII discriminated children diagnosed with AD from those diagnosed with SLI and those who were TD, based on the presence of specific social attention, sensory, and behavioural symptoms. A combination of symptomology across these domains correctly classified 100% of children with and without AD. The paper concludes that the ABII shows considerable promise as an instrument for the early identification of AD.

60Sox Report Volume 1: from education to work in Australia's digital content industries. The opinions and practices of aspiring creatives in the creative industries

This report presents findings from the largest survey of aspiring creatives who work or intend to work in the digital content industries ever undertaken in Australia. Survey respondents included those with aspirations to work in the publicly-supported, less commercial end of the Creative Industries spectrum as well as those with aspirations to work in the digital content industries. The survey gathered rich data on their characteristics, skills and attributes, barriers to employment, workforce mobility, career intentions, professional development, mentors and industry supports, and participation in communities of practice. The survey sought to determine if aspiring creatives have the necessary skills and attributes to work effectively in the digital content industries. This task also involved finding out how they develop their skills and attributes, and what they need to develop them further.

It's time to be more serious about activating youngsters : lessons for childhood obesity

The epidemic of obesity is impacting an increasing proportion of children, adolescents and adults with a common feature being low levels of physical activity (PA). Despite having more knowledge than ever before about the benefits of PA for health and the growth and development of youngsters, we are only paying lip-service to the development of motor skills in children. Fun, enjoyment and basic skills are the essential underpinnings of meaningful participation in PA. A concurrent problem is the reported increase in sitting time with the most common sedentary behaviors being TV viewing and other screen-based games. Limitations of time have contributed to a displacement of active behaviors with inactive pursuits, which has contributed to reductions in activity energy expenditure. To redress the energy imbalance in overweight and obese children, we urgently need out-of-the-box multisectoral solutions. There is little to be gained from a shame and blame mentality where individuals, their parents, teachers and other groups are singled out as causes of the problem. Such an approach does little more than shift attention from the main game of prevention and management of the condition, which requires a concerted, whole-of-government approach (in each country). The failure to support and encourage all young people to participate in regular PA will increase the chance that our children will live shorter and less healthy lives than their parents. In short, we need novel environmental approaches to foster a systematic increase in PA. This paper provides examples of opportunities and challenges for PA strategies to prevent obesity with a particular emphasis on the school and home settings.

Working in groups

This chapter is a condensation of a guide written by the chapter authors for both university teachers and students (Fowler et al., 2006). All page references given in this chapter are to this guide, unless otherwise stated. University students often work in groups. It may be a formal group (i.e. one that has been formed for a group presentation, writing a report, or completing a project) or an informal group (i.e. some students have decided to form a study group or undertake research together). Whether formal or informal, this chapter aims to make working in groups easier for you. Health care professionals also often work in groups. Yes, working in groups will extend well beyond your time at university. In fact, the skills and abilities to work effectively in groups are some of the most sought-after attributes in health care professionals. It seems obvious, then, that taking the opportunity to develop and enhance your skills and abilities for working in groups is a wise choice.

Nature's experiment? Handedness and early childhood development

In recent years a large body of research has investigated the various factors affecting child development and the consequent impact of child development on future educational and labour market outcomes. In this article we contribute to this literature by investigating the effect of handedness on a child and given recent research demonstrating that child development strongly affects adult outcomes. Using a large nationally representative sample of young children we find that the probability of a child being left-handed is not significantly related to child health at birth, family composition, parental employment or household income. We also find robust evidence that left-handed (and mixed handed) children perform significantly worse in nearly all measures of development than right-handed children with the relative disadvantage being larger for boys than girls. Importantly these differentials cannot be explained by different socioeconomic characteristics of the household, parental attitudes or investments in learning resources.

Planning for knowledge-based urban development : global perspectives

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to investigate the engineering of creative urban regions through knowledge-based urban development. In recent years city administrators realised the importance of engineering and orchestrating knowledge city formation through visioning and planning for economic, socio-cultural and physical development. For that purpose a new development paradigm of ‘‘knowledge-based urban development’’ is formed, and quickly finds implementation ground in many parts of the globe.----- Design/methodology/approach: The paper reviews the literature and examines global best practice experiences in order to determine how cities are engineering their creative urban regions so as to establish a base for knowledge city formation.----- Findings: The paper sheds light on the different development approaches for creative urban regions, and concludes with recommendations for urban administrations planning for knowledge-based development of creative urban regions.----- Originality/value: The paper provides invaluable insights and discussion on the vital role of planning for knowledge-based urban development of creative urban regions.

Innovation and the city : a macromarketing approach to industry development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose and demonstrate the relevance of marketing systems, notably the process of product management and innovation, to urban development challenges. Design/methodology/approach – A macromarketing perspective is adopted to construe the city as a product and begin the application of the innovation process to urban management, following the steps commonly proposed for successful innovation in product management. An example of the application of the initial new product development steps of idea generation and opportunity identification is presented. Findings – The innovation process provides guidelines and checkpoints that enable corporations to improve the success rate of their development initiatives. Cities, like corporations, need to innovate in order to maintain their image and functionality, to provide a myriad benefits to their stakeholders and, thereby, to survive and grow. The example here shows how the preliminary NPD steps of idea generation and opportunity identification enrich the process of identifying and analysing new industry opportunities for a city. Practical implications – By conceptualising the city as a multifaceted product, the disciplined planning and evaluation processes pertinent to NPD success become relevant and helpful to practitioners responsible for urban planning, urban development and change. Originality/value – The paper shows how pertinent concepts and processes from marketing can be effectively applied to urban planning and economic development initiatives.

Employee engagement : the development of a three dimensional model of engagement; and an exploration of its relationship with affective leader behaviours

This study was designed to examine affective leader behaviours, and their impact on cognitive, affective and behavioural engagement. Researchers (e.g., Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005; Moorman et al., 1998) have called for more research to be directed toward modelling and testing sets of relationships which better approximate the complexity associated with contemporary organisational experience. This research has attempted to do this by clarifying and defining the construct of engagement, and then by examining how each of the engagement dimensions are impacted by affective leader behaviours. Specifically, a model was tested that identifies leader behaviour antecedents of cognitive, affective and behavioural engagement. Data was collected from five public-sector organisations. Structural equation modelling was used to identify the relationships between the engagement dimensions and leader behaviours. The results suggested that affective leader behaviours had a substantial direct impact on cognitive engagement, which in turn influenced affective engagement, which then influenced intent to stay and extra-role performance. The results indicated a directional process for engagement, but particularly highlighted the significant impact of affective leader behaviours as an antecedent to engagement. In general terms, the findings will provide a platform from which to develop a robust measure of engagement, and will be helpful to human resource practitioners interested in understanding the directional process of engagement and the importance of affective leadership as an antecedent to engagement.

Assessing reflection skills in law using criterion-referenced assessment

This paper focuses on the assessment of reflective practice, an issue that has not been fully explored within legal education literature. While the issue of how reflective practice should be taught is one that requires careful consideration, it is beyond the scope of this paper to consider both the teaching and the assessment of reflective practice. Part II of this paper conceptualises reflective practice, and Part III explores the benefits of reflective practice in legal education and the use of reflective writing to assess experiential learning in a legal context. Part IV considers the diverse issues that arise in assessing reflective practice and whether there is an objective method for assessing reflection. Part V of the paper examines the assessment of reflective practice in the context of an exemplar undergraduate law subject that uses a reflective report to assess students’ experiential learning during a court visit.14 Finally, Part VI offers a rubric to facilitate criterion-referenced assessment of reflective practice and thereby provides a framework for assessing reflection skills. It is suggested that the rubric is transferable not only to other law subjects but also to subjects in other disciplines.

Motivation, development and validation of a new spectral greenness index : a spectral dimension related to foliage projective cover

A method is presented for the development of a regional Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) spectral greenness index, coherent with a six-dimensional index set, based on a single ETM+ spectral image of a reference landscape. The first three indices of the set are determined by a polar transformation of the first three principal components of the reference image and relate to scene brightness, percent foliage projective cover (FPC) and water related features. The remaining three principal components, of diminishing significance with respect to the reference image, complete the set. The reference landscape, a 2200 km2 area containing a mix of cattle pasture, native woodland and forest, is located near Injune in South East Queensland, Australia. The indices developed from the reference image were tested using TM spectral images from 19 regionally dispersed areas in Queensland, representative of dissimilar landscapes containing woody vegetation ranging from tall closed forest to low open woodland. Examples of image transformations and two-dimensional feature space plots are used to demonstrate image interpretations related to the first three indices. Coherent, sensible, interpretations of landscape features in images composed of the first three indices can be made in terms of brightness (red), foliage cover (green) and water (blue). A limited comparison is made with similar existing indices. The proposed greenness index was found to be very strongly related to FPC and insensitive to smoke. A novel Bayesian, bounded space, modelling method, was used to validate the greenness index as a good predictor of FPC. Airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) estimates of FPC along transects of the 19 sites provided the training and validation data. Other spectral indices from the set were found to be useful as model covariates that could improve FPC predictions. They act to adjust the greenness/FPC relationship to suit different spectral backgrounds. The inclusion of an external meteorological covariate showed that further improvements to regional-scale predictions of FPC could be gained over those based on spectral indices alone.

Development of a computer simulation tool for application in adolescent spinal deformity surgery

Scoliosis is a three-dimensional spinal deformity which requires surgical correction in progressive cases. In order to optimize correction and avoid complications following scoliosis surgery, patient-specific finite element models (FEM) are being developed and validated by our group. In this paper, the modeling methodology is described and two clinically relevant load cases are simulated for a single patient. Firstly, a pre-operative patient flexibility assessment, the fulcrum bending radiograph, is simulated to assess the model's ability to represent spine flexibility. Secondly, intra-operative forces during single rod anterior correction are simulated. Clinically, the patient had an initial Cobb angle of 44 degrees, which reduced to 26 degrees during fulcrum bending. Surgically, the coronal deformity corrected to 14 degrees. The simulated initial Cobb angle was 40 degrees, which reduced to 23 degrees following the fulcrum bending load case. The simulated surgical procedure corrected the coronal deformity to 14 degrees. The computed results for the patient-specific FEM are within the accepted clinical Cobb measuring error of 5 degrees, suggested that this modeling methodology is capable of capturing the biomechanical behaviour of a scoliotic human spine during anterior corrective surgery.

Empowerment for lifelong learning : embedding information literacy into the business curriculum

Success in modern business demands effective information literacy to address the ever-changing business context. This context includes changes in Government policy reflected through legislation and regulations, developments in case law and expectations of professional associations and the public. Students require the skills to continue their own learning beyond the completion of their degree, since learning the subject content of a course alone sufficient. This paper considers the methods utilised to embed information literacy, in the context of generic skills and graduate attributes, into a Business degree’s curriculum. The paper describes how information literacy has been embedded in two sequential third-year Taxation Law courses, allowing for the explicit development of information literacy. Through the development of legal reasoning and research skills, students are empowered to continue their lifelong learning, which successful professional practice demands. The study will draw upon the experience of the course convener in designing, teaching and evaluating the courses, and on students’ experiences as illustrated through evaluation questionnaire responses and interviews. The findings of this study could be relevant to other business courses, especially company law and auditing.

The development of an evidentiary on-board massmonitoring application for heavy vehicles

This paper reports on the development of specifications for an on-board mass monitoring (OBM) application for regulatory requirements in Australia. An earlier paper reported on feasibility study and pilot testing program prior to the specification development [1]. Learnings from the pilot were used to refine this testing process and a full scale testing program was conducted from July to October 2008. The results from the full scale test and evidentiary implications are presented in this report. The draft specification for an evidentiary on-board mass monitoring application is currently under development.