Ticking the box and closing the loop: Can dialogue be mandated?

Dialogue is a spontaneous, free-flowing, and untrammeled form of two-way communication between participants who respect, trust, and empathize with each other. Its ethical superiority and effectiveness in bringing participants together mean it is an important aspect of organizational responses to increasingly-empowered stakeholders. But what happens when dialogue is legally mandated between participants who view each other as a problem, if not actually the enemy? When dialogue is perceived as a contest with the winner securing the prize of dictating organizational behavior? Is this – can this ever be – dialogue? Sometimes what happens in the name of dialogue is far from dialogic, and ‘dialogue’ is reduced to ticking a box on a form, or closing a communication loop. This challenges those very characteristics that are the basis of dialogue’s claim to superiority. This conclusion demonstrates the need for a radical reconsideration of both the theory and practice of dialogue in public relations.

Pre-service teachers’ perceptions of authentic learning in a capstone unit

Capstone units in higher education courses are learning experiences which are designed to bring reflection and focus to a whole course of study while, at the same time, leading students toward their entry into a new world of work (Humphrey, Brown, & Benson, 2005). The capstone experience described in this paper runs as a conference, called the Stepping Out Conference. The conference is delivered as one unit and is mandatory for all fourth year pre-service teachers. Participation in a capstone unit is an effective way for students to begin thinking of themselves as teaching professionals rather than as continuing students. Students engage in the assessment as part of their capstone experience. The assessment is designed to measure students’ knowledge and skills as they relate to ‘authentic’ real life situations (Darling-Hammond, 1991). This paper details pre-service teachers’ experiences of authentic learning through their participation in a capstone unit.

An analysis of user engagement in student Facebook groups

Analysing the engagement of students in university-based Facebook groups can shed light on the nature of their learning experience and highlight leverage points to build on student success. While post-semester surveys and demographic participation data can highlight who was involved and how they subsequently felt about the experience, these techniques do not necessarily reflect real-time engagement. One way to gain insight into in-situ student experiences is by categorising the original posts and comments into predetermined frameworks of learning. This paper offers a systematic method of coding Facebook contributions within various engagement categories: motivation, discourse, cognition and emotive responses.

Finding the leverage point in the sustainability crisis: Global, national and regional Australian responses

From an economic perspective, the sustainability crisis is ultimately characterized by a worsening relationship between the resources required to support the global population and the ability of the earth to supply them. Despite the ever-increasing threat of a calamity, modern society appears unable to alter its course. The very systems which underpin global human endeavor seem to actively prevent meaningful change and the one irrepressible goal to which all societies seem to strive is the very thing that makes such endeavor ultimately life threatening: that of global growth. Using the Australian experience as an exemplar, this paper explores how the concept of growth infiltrates societal reactions to the crisis at various scales – global, national and regional. Analysis includes historic studies, a critique of current misconceptions around population demographics, comparative evaluation of various interventions in the Australian context and considerations around potential ways to address the crisis.

A comparison of motivation to learn English between English major and non-English major students in a Vietnamese university

Despite the plethora of literature examining higher education students’ motivation to learn a second language, it is not known if students who choose to study English as their major differ from those who are required to study English as the minor component of their wider degree. Drawing on self-determination theory, this paper reports on the findings of a quantitative study designed to investigate the types of motivation demonstrated by English major (n=180) and non-English major students (n=242), and their levels of effort expended in learning English in a Vietnamese university. The findings revealed that both groups demonstrated high levels of motivation to learn English to prepare for their future profession. English major students felt more intrinsically motivated and less obligated to learn English. In addition, for both groups, intrinsically motivated students invested the highest levels of effort in learning English. This paper argues that it is imperative for lecturers to foster students’ intrinsic aspirations to learn English to improve the quality of the teaching and learning of English in Vietnamese higher education.

Do repeated rumble strip hits improve driver alertness?

Driving while sleepy is associated with increased crash risk. Rumble strips are designed to alert a sleepy or inattentive driver when they deviate outside their driving lane. The current study sought to examine the effects of repeated rumble strip hits on levels of physiological and subjective sleepiness as well as simulated driving performance. In total, 36 regular shift workers drove a high-fidelity moving base simulator on a simulated road with rumble strips installed at the shoulder and centre line after a working a full night shift. The results show that on average, the first rumble strip occurred after 20 minutes of driving, with subsequent hits occurring 10 minutes later, with the last three occurring approximately every 5 minutes thereafter. Specifically, it was found that the first rumble strip hit reduced physiological sleepiness; however, subsequent hits did not increase alertness. Moreover, the results also demonstrate that increased subjective sleepiness levels, via the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale, were associated with a greater probability of hitting a rumble strip. The present results suggest that sleepiness is very resilient to even strongly arousing stimuli, with physiologicl and subjective sleepiness increasing over the duration of the drive, despite the interference by rumble strips.

Microscopic cooperative traffic flow: Calibration and simulation based on a next generation simulation dataset

The deployment of new emerging technologies, such as cooperative systems, allows the traffic community to foresee relevant improvements in terms of traffic safety and efficiency. Autonomous vehicles are able to share information about the local traffic state in real time, which could result in a better reaction to the mechanism of traffic jam formation. An upstream single-hop radio broadcast network can improve the perception of each cooperative driver within a specific radio range and hence the traffic stability. The impact of vehicle to vehicle cooperation on the onset of traffic congestion is investigated analytically and through simulation. A next generation simulation field dataset is used to calibrate the full velocity difference car-following model, and the MOBIL lane-changing model is implemented. The robustness of the calibration as well as the heterogeneity of the drivers is discussed. Assuming that congestion can be triggered either by the heterogeneity of drivers' behaviours or abnormal lane-changing behaviours, the calibrated car-following model is used to assess the impact of a microscopic cooperative law on egoistic lane-changing behaviours. The cooperative law can help reduce and delay traffic congestion and can have a positive effect on safety indicators.

Characteristics of on-road driving by persons with central vision loss: Learning to drive with a bioptic telescope

There is limited research on the driving performance and safety of bioptic drivers and even less regarding the driving skills that are most challenging for those learning to drive with bioptic telescopes. This research consisted of case studies of five trainee bioptic drivers whose driving skills were compared with those of a group of licensed bioptic drivers (n = 23) while they drove along city, suburban, and controlled-access highways in an instrumented dual-brake vehicle. A certified driver rehabilitation specialist was positioned in the front passenger seat to monitor safety and two backseat evaluators independently rated driving using a standardized scoring system. Other aspects of performance were assessed through vehicle instrumentation and video recordings. Results demonstrate that while sign recognition, lane keeping, steering steadiness, gap judgments and speed choices were significantly worse in trainees, some driving behaviors and skills, including pedestrian detection and traffic light recognition were not significantly different to those of the licensed drivers. These data provide useful insights into the skill challenges encountered by a small sample of trainee bioptic drivers which, while not generalizable because of the small sample size, provide valuable insights beyond that of previous studies and can be used as a basis to guide training strategies.

The Australian naturalistic driving study: From beginnings to launch

The Australian Naturalistic Driving Study (ANDS), a ground-breaking study of Australian driver behaviour and performance, was officially launched on April 21st, 2015 at UNSW. The ANDS project will provide a realistic perspective on the causes of vehicle crashes and near miss crash events, along with the roles speeding, distraction and other factors have on such events. A total of 360 volunteer drivers across NSW and Victoria - 180 in NSW and 180 in Victoria - will be monitored by a Data Acquisition System (DAS) recording continuously for 4 months their driving behaviour using a suite of cameras and sensors. Participants’ driving behaviour (e.g. gaze), the behaviour of their vehicle (e.g. speed, lane position) and the behaviour of other road users with whom they interact in normal and safety-critical situations will be recorded. Planning of the ANDS commenced over two years ago in June 2013 when the Multi-Institutional Agreement for a grant supporting the equipment purchase and assembly phase was signed by parties involved in this large scale $4 million study (5 university accident research centres, 3 government regulators, 2 third party insurers and 2 industry partners). The program’s second development phase commenced a year later in June 2014 after a second grant was awarded. This paper presents an insider's view into that two year process leading up to the launch, and outlines issues that arose in the set-up phase of the study and how these were addressed. This information will be useful to other organisations considering setting up an NDS.

Assessment of transit quality of service with occupancy load factor and passenger travel time measures

This paper investigates quality of service (QoS) and resource productivity implications of transit route passenger loading and travel time. It highlights the value of occupancy load factor as a direct passenger comfort QoS measure. Automatic Fare Collection data for a premium radial bus route in Brisbane, Australia, is used to investigate time series correlation between occupancy load factor and passenger average travel time. Correlation is strong across the entire span of service in both directions. Passengers tend to be making longer, peak direction commuter trips under significantly less comfortable conditions than off-peak. The Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual uses segment based load factor as a measure of onboard loading comfort QoS. This paper provides additional insight into QoS by relating the two route based dimensions of occupancy load factor and passenger average travel time together in a two dimensional format, both from the passenger’s and operator’s perspectives. Future research will apply Value of Time to QoS measurement, reflecting perceived passenger comfort through crowding and average time spent onboard. This would also assist in transit service quality econometric modeling. The methodology can be readily applied in a practical setting where AFC data for fixed scheduled routes is available. The study outcomes also provide valuable research and development directions.

Modeling dynamic demand response using Monte Carlo simulation and interval mathematics for boundary estimation

With the rapid development of various technologies and applications in smart grid implementation, demand response has attracted growing research interests because of its potentials in enhancing power grid reliability with reduced system operation costs. This paper presents a new demand response model with elastic economic dispatch in a locational marginal pricing market. It models system economic dispatch as a feedback control process, and introduces a flexible and adjustable load cost as a controlled signal to adjust demand response. Compared with the conventional “one time use” static load dispatch model, this dynamic feedback demand response model may adjust the load to a desired level in a finite number of time steps and a proof of convergence is provided. In addition, Monte Carlo simulation and boundary calculation using interval mathematics are applied for describing uncertainty of end-user's response to an independent system operator's expected dispatch. A numerical analysis based on the modified Pennsylvania-Jersey-Maryland power pool five-bus system is introduced for simulation and the results verify the effectiveness of the proposed model. System operators may use the proposed model to obtain insights in demand response processes for their decision-making regarding system load levels and operation conditions.

Real-time wide-area loading margin sensitivity (WALMS) in power systems

Loading margin sensitivity (LMS) has been widely used in applications in the realm of voltage stability assessment and control. Typically, LMS is derived based on system equilibrium equations near bifurcation and therefore requires full detailed system model and significant computation effort. Availability of phasor measurement units (PMUs) due to the recent development of wide-area monitoring system (WAMS) provides an alternative computation-friendly approach for calculating LMS. With such motivation, this work proposes measurement-based wide-area loading margin sensitivity (WALMS) in bulk power systems. The proposed sensitivity, with its simplicity, has great potential to be embedded in real-time applications. Moreover, the calculation of the WALMS is not limited to low voltage near bifurcation point. A case study on IEEE 39-bus system verifies the proposed sensitivity. Finally, a voltage control scenario demonstrates the potential application of the WALMS.

Discovering urban citizenship in the surveillance society

Cities and urban spaces around the world are changing rapidly from their origins in the industrialising world to a post-industrial, hard wired landscape. A further embellishment is the advent of mobile media technologies supported by both existing and new communications and computing technology which claim to put the urban dweller at the heart of a new, informed and ‘liberated’ seat of participatory urban governance. This networked, sensor enabled society permits flows of information in a multitude of directions ostensibly empowering the citizenry through ‘smart’ installations such as ‘talking bus stops’ detailing services, delays, transport interconnections and even weather conditions along desired routes. However, while there is considerable potential for creative and transformative kinds of citizen participation, there is also the momentum for ‘function-creep’, whereby vast amounts of data are garnered in a broad application of urban surveillance. This kind of monitoring and capacity for surveillance connects with attempts by civic authorities to regulate, restrict, rebrand and reframe urban public spaces into governable and predictable arenas of consumption. This article considers questions around the possibilities for retaining and revitalising forms of urban citizenship, set in the context of Marshall’s original premise of civil, social and political citizenship(s) in the middle of the last century, following World War Two and the coming of the modern welfare state.

Freedom ride... I have a dream

A play in two parts on the subject of racism. Part One presents the story of the Montgomery bus boycott arising from the refusal of Rosa Parkes to give up her seat on a bus and leading to the rise of Martin Luther King, Jr. Part Two is set in contemporary Australia, in the household of a group of young people who re-create the sixties' Freedom Ride in order to heal the spirit of Auntie, an Aboriginal woman, who is the centre of their world.