New media pathways : navigating the links between home, school and the workplace

The terms ‘literacy’ and ‘technology’ remain highly contentious within the field of education. What is meant by ‘literacy’ and the methods used to measure it vary quite markedly in educational and historical contexts across the world. Similarly, while there is a shared concern to research the potential impact of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) on patterns of teaching and learning, there are major discrepancies about which aspects and uses of these technologies should be incorporated into formal learning environments and how this can be accomplished. While government policy makers tend to regard ICTs in relation to ideas of ‘smartness’, efficiency, and the ‘knowledge’ (or ‘new’) economy, educators and educational researchers promote them as offering new tools for learning and critical thinking and the development of new literacies and socio-cultural identities. This clearly has ramifications for the ways literacy is taught and conceptualised throughout the years of schooling, K-12. Outside school, meanwhile, students engage with ICTs on another level entirely, as tools for the maintenance of social networks, for leisure, and for learning and participating in the cultures of their peers. Whatever the differences in perspective, it remains the case that a society’s dominant understandings about literacy and technology will have significant implications for the development of school curriculum.

A crash avoidance framework for heavy equipment control systems using 3D imaging sensors

This paper presents a preliminary crash avoidance framework for heavy equipment control systems. Safe equipment operation is a major concern on construction sites since fatal on-site injuries are an industry-wide problem. The proposed framework has potential for effecting active safety for equipment operation. The framework contains algorithms for spatial modeling, object tracking, and path planning. Beyond generating spatial models in fractions of seconds, these algorithms can successfully track objects in an environment and produce a collision-free 3D motion trajectory for equipment.

Equitable mortgage by deposit of a Certificate of Title

In Theodore v Mistford Pty Ltd [2005] HCA 45, the High Court considered certain principles governing the creation of an equitable mortgage by the deposit of a title deed as first developed by the English courts of equity with respect to old system conveyancing. The decision will be of interest to Queensland practitioners as it concerned the application of these equitable principles to Torrens land regulated by the provisions of the Land Title Act 1994 (Qld) and, in particular, the operation of s 75 of the Land Title Act 1994 (Qld) which provides: (i) An equitable mortgage of a lot may be created by leaving a certificate of title with the mortgagee (ii) Subsection (1) does not affect the ways in which an equitable mortgage may be created.

Statutory right of user imposed for landlocked land

The decision of McMurdo J in Pacific Coast Investments Pty Ltd v Cowlishaw [2005] QSC 259 concerned an application under s 180 of the Property Law Act 1974 (Qld) for a statutory right of user.

Quality and efficacy of the Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme (ITAS) for university students

Designed as a 'supplementary' tuition scheme, the Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme (hereafter referred to as ITAS) is a strategic initiative of the National Indigenous Education Policy (DEET, 1989). This paper seeks to contribute to the literature of the analysis of the quality and efficacy of ITAS. Currently, the delivery of ITAS to Indigenous students requires enormous administration and commitment by the staff of Indigenous education support centres. In exploring the essential but problematic provision of ITAS to Indigenous university students, this paper provides insights into significant aspects of our program that move beyond assumptions of student deficit, by researching the quality of teaching and learning through ITAS, analysing administrative workload, and sharing innovations to our program as a result of participatory research with important ITAS stakeholders.

Early signaling responses to divergent exercise stimuli in skeletal muscle from well-trained humans

Skeletal muscle from strength- and endurance-trained individuals represents diverse adaptive states. In this regard, AMPK-PGC-1α signaling mediates several adaptations to endurance training, while up-regulation of the Akt-TSC2-mTOR pathway may underlie increased protein synthesis after resistance exercise. We determined the effect of prior training history on signaling responses in seven strength-trained and six endurance-trained males who undertook 1 h cycling at 70% VO2peak or eight sets of five maximal repetitions of isokinetic leg extensions. Muscle biopsies were taken at rest, immediately and 3 h postexercise. AMPK phosphorylation increased after cycling in strength-trained (54%; P<0.05) but not endurance-trained subjects. Conversely, AMPK was elevated after resistance exercise in endurance- (114%; P<0.05), but not strengthtrained subjects. Akt phosphorylation increased in endurance- (50%; P<0.05), but not strengthtrained subjects after cycling but was unchanged in either group after resistance exercise. TSC2 phosphorylation was decreased (47%; P<0.05) in endurance-trained subjects following resistance exercise, but cycling had little effect on the phosphorylation state of this protein in either group. p70S6K phosphorylation increased in endurance- (118%; P<0.05), but not strength-trained subjects after resistance exercise, but was similar to rest in both groups after cycling. Similarly, phosphorylation of S6 protein, a substrate for p70 S6K, was increased immediately following resistance exercise in endurance- (129%; P<0.05), but not strength-trained subjects. In conclusion, a degree of “response plasticity” is conserved at opposite ends of the endurancehypertrophic adaptation continuum. Moreover, prior training attenuates the exercise specific signaling responses involved in single mode adaptations to training.