AITPM national newsletter president's report April 2010

Well, it has been Clem 7 month here in Brisbane and my impression is “so far, so good!” For those of you who know Brisbane, the four lane twin Clem Jones Tunnel (M7) is approximately 4.5km long, and connects Ipswich Road (A7) at the Princess Alexandra Hospital on the south side with Bowen Bridge Road (A3) at the Royal Brisbane Hospital on the north side. There are also south access ramps to the Pacific Motorway and east access ramps to Shafston Avenue (headed to/from Wynnum). Brisbanites have been enjoying a three week no-toll taste test, and I paced through it one evening with minimal fuss. The tunnel seems to have eased the congestion at the Stanley Street on-ramp to the Pacific Motorway quite a bit, and Ipswich Road – Main Street through the ‘Gabba. One must watch the signage carefully, but once we get used to the infrastructure, this will not likely be problematic. It will be interesting to see how traffic behaves when the system settles after tolling, which has likely commenced by the time you’re reading. I believe a passenger car toll is about $4.20 one way but saves about 24 signalised intersection pass-throughs.

AITPM national newsletter President's report May 2010

We’ve had a bit of sticker shock in these parts. Well, apparently. Since my last missive, Brisbane’s Clem Jones Tunnel which was initially free now has a toll, at least partially, at the introductory rate of $2.95 for a one-way car ride between 5a.m. and midnight – free overnight. From 9 May 2010 the toll will be $4.28. Since the introductory toll was introduced, use of the tunnel appears to have declined somewhat – no surprise to transport professionals I suppose. An additional factor may have been that the “novelty value” of driving through the tunnel for free had worn off. This demonstrates to me that much of the community may still see the use of road infrastructure as a rite of passage, with only some actually weighing up the true value of their travel time and vehicle wear and tear against their out of pocket (or onto credit card) cost. Thus, we’re in pioneering times and the role of transport economics in the overall transport infrastructure planning realm is of considerable importance – especially as much of the new big ticket infrastructure is likely to be tolled into the future. The Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, made poignant commentary about Brisbane City Council’s tunnel use in that such infrastructure is built for future times and not just as a quick fix for current traffic problems. My expectation is that once Airport Link, which is really the northern half of the corridor, opens in 2012, there will be a significant spike in Clem7 usage.

AITPM national newsletter President's report June 2010

This is my penultimate report as National President of the Australian Institute of Traffic Planning and Management, Inc. As an academic, I would like to take this opportunity to raise some issues and challenges I see in transport professional education in Australia. My general view is that the transport profession has until recently been less conspicuous to others as an identifiable discipline. This is both a blessing and somewhat of a curse. People mostly enter, or sometimes fall into, the transport profession having taken a degree in civil engineering, other engineering, urban and regional planning, economics, industrial psychology, business, followed by the less obvious disciplines. This order is probably about relative to the proportion of members’ background qualifications in our ranks too. However, once a graduate destined to become a transport professional has spent about five years or so out of the academic estuary, they tend to specialise in an area that cannot necessarily be easily correlated to the well known courses I have rattled off above. I can say from experience that it is not out of the question to see SIDRA models having been prepared by a transport professional who did not take traffic engineering as part of a civil engineering degree. So I see a couple of key challenges for the transport profession, which happens to be represented by a number of bodies, with our AITPM perhaps being the peak body, into the future,

AITPM national newsletter President's report July 2010

I’d like to re-state AITPM’s mission, which is “Growing Traffic Skills and Knowledge to Deliver Sustainable Transport.” The aims of the Institute are to advance traffic planning and management; to increase the knowledge of its members by encouraging free discussion, exchange of ideas and research in this field; and to provide a central point of reference for practitioners.

Project alliancing at National Museum of Australia : the collaborative process

Project alliancing is a new alternative to traditional project delivery systems, especially in the commercial building sector. The Collaborative Process is a theoretical model of people and systems characteristics that are required to reduce the adversarial nature of most construction projects. Although developed separately, both are responses to the same pressures. Project alliancing was just used successfully to complete the National Museum of Australia. This project was analyzed as a case study to determine the extent to which it could be classified as a “collaborative project”. Five key elements of The Collaborative Process were reviewed and numerous examples from the management of this project were cited that support the theoretical recommendations of this model. In the case of this project, significant added value was delivered to the client and many innovations resulted from the collective work of the parties to the contract. It was concluded that project alliances for commercial buildings offer many advantages over traditional project delivery systems, which are related to increasing the levels of collaboration among a project management team.

Technology strategy for re-engineering design and construction

Automation technology can provide construction firms with a number of competitive advantages. Technology strategy guides a firm's approach to all technology, including automation. Engineering management educators, researchers, and construction industry professionals need improved understanding of how technology affects results, and how to better target investments to improve competitive performance. A more formal approach to the concept of technology strategy can benefit the construction manager in his efforts to remain competitive in increasingly hostile markets. This paper recommends consideration of five specific dimensions of technology strategy within the overall parameters of market conditions, firm capabilities and goals, and stage of technology evolution. Examples of the application of this framework in the formulation of technology strategy are provided for CAD applications, co-ordinated positioning technology and advanced falsework and formwork mechanisation to support construction field operations. Results from this continuing line of research can assist managers in making complex and difficult decisions regarding reengineering construction processes in using new construction technology and benefit future researchers by providing new tools for analysis. Through managing technology to best suit the existing capabilities of their firm, and addressing the market forces, engineering managers can better face the increasingly competitive environment in which they operate.

Project alliancing Vs project partnering : a case study of the Australian National Museum project

Significant differences between project partnering and project alliancing occur in the selection process, management structure of the organisations undertaking the project and nature of risk and reward incentives. This paper helps clarify the nature of project alliancing and how alliance member organisations were selected for this case study. A core issue that differentiates between the two approaches is that in partnering, partners may reap rewards at the expense of other partners. In alliancing each alliance member places their profit margin and reward structure ÁÁat riskÂÂ. Thus in alliancing, the entire alliance entity either benefits together or not all. This fundamentally changes the motivation and dynamics of the relationship between alliance members.

Application of hyperbaric oxygen in bone tissue engineering : effect of hyperbaric oxygen treatment on bone marrow stem cells

and non-union of bony fractures has been proposed since 1966, little has been known about the effect of HBOT on bone marrow stem cells (BMSC). The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of HBO treatment on osteogenetic differentiation of BMSC and potential application in bone tissue engineering. Adhesive stromal cells harvested from bone marrow were characterized by mesenchymal differentiation potential, cell surface markers and their proliferation capacity. Mesenchymal stem cells, which demonstrated osteogenic, chondrogenic and adipogenic differentiation potential and expressed positively for CD 29, CD 44, CD 73, CD 90, CD 105, CD 166 and negatively for CD34 and CD 45, were selected and treated in a laboratory-scale HBO chamber using different oxygen pressures and exposure times. No obvious effect of HBO treatment on BMSC proliferation was noticed. However, cytotoxic effects of HBO were considerably less pronounced when cells were cultured in medium supplemented with 10% FBS in comparison to medium supplemented with 2% FCS, as was evaluated by WST-1 assay. Under HBO treatment, bone nodules were formed in three days, which was clearly revealed by Von Kossa staining. In contrasts, without HBO treatment, bone nodules were not detected until 9-12 days using the same inducing culture media. Calcium deposition was also significantly increased after three days of HBO treatments compared to no HBO treatment. In addition it was also found that oxygen played a direct role in the enhancement of BMSC osteogenic differentiation, which was independent of the effect of air pressure.

An example of developing a business model for information and communication technologies (ICT) adoption on construction projects – the National Museum of Australia project

Effective use of information and communication technologies (ICT) is necessary for delivering efficiency and improved project delivery in the construction industry. Convincing clients or contracting organisations to embrace ICT is a difficult task, there are few templates of an ICT business model for the industry to use. ICT application in the construction industry is relatively low compared to automotive and aerospace industries. The National Museum of Australia project provides a unique opportunity for investigating and reporting on this deficiency in publicly available knowledge. Concentrates on the business model content and objectives, briefly indicates the evaluation framework that was used to evaluate ICT effectiveness.

Re-engineering project planning processes : a best practice model for managing project phase integration issues

Competitive markets are increasingly driving new initiatives for shorter cycle times resulting in increased overlapping of project phases. This, in turn, necessitates improving the interfaces between the different phases to be overlapped (integrated), thus allowing transfer of processes, information and knowledge from one individual or team to another. This transfer between phases, within and between projects, is one of the basic challenges to the philosophy of project management. To make the process transfer more transparent with minimal loss of momentum and project knowledge, this paper draws upon Total Quality Management (TQM) and Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) philosophies to develop a Best Practice Model for managing project phase integration. The paper presents the rationale behind the model development and outlines its two key parts; (1) Strategic Framework and (2) Implementation Plan. Key components of both the Strategic Framework and the Implementation Plan are presented and discussed.

Perioperative mortality after hemiarthroplasty related to fixation method : a study based on the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry

Background and purpose: The appropriate fixation method for hemiarthroplasty of the hip as it relates to implant survivorship and patient mortality is a matter of ongoing debate. We examined the influence of fixation method on revision rate and mortality.----- ----- Methods: We analyzed approximately 25,000 hemiarthroplasty cases from the AOA National Joint Replacement Registry. Deaths at 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, and 1 year were compared for all patients and among subgroups based on implant type.----- ----- Results: Patients treated with cemented monoblock hemiarthroplasty had a 1.7-times higher day-1 mortality compared to uncemented monoblock components (p < 0.001). This finding was reversed by 1 week, 1 month, and 1 year after surgery (p < 0.001). Modular hemiarthroplasties did not reveal a difference in mortality between fixation methods at any time point.----- ----- Interpretation: This study shows lower (or similar) overall mortality with cemented hemiarthroplasty of the hip.

Implications of the National Rental Affordability Scheme on the valuation of residential property

The provision of shelter is a basic need and in Australia there has been a history of home ownership. However recent economic growth and rising construction costs, particularly over the past decade, has placed home ownership out of reach for some. In response to increased affordability pressures, the Australian Federal Government established the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) in 2008. The aim of establishing the NRAS initiative is to stimulate the supply of new affordable rental dwellings, targeting 50,000 new properties by June 2012, through the provision of a National Rental Incentive for each “approved” dwelling. To be approved the dwelling must be newly constructed and subsequently rented to eligible low and moderate income households at rentals no greater than 80 percent of market rates. There is a further requirement that the accommodation be provided as part of the scheme for no less than 10 years. The requirement to provide new residential accommodation at below market rentals for no less than 10 years has an impact on value and as such the valuation methodologies employed. To give guidance to valuers this paper investigates the scheme, the impact on value and expectations for the future.

Super-orbital re-entry in Australia : laboratory measurement, simulation and flight observation

There are large uncertainties in the aerothermodynamic modelling of super-orbital re-entry which impact the design of spacecraft thermal protection systems (TPS). Aspects of the thermal environment of super-orbital re-entry flows can be simulated in the laboratory using arc- and plasma jet facilities and these devices are regularly used for TPS certification work [5]. Another laboratory device which is capable of simulating certain critical features of both the aero and thermal environment of super-orbital re-entry is the expansion tube, and three such facilities have been operating at the University of Queensland in recent years[10]. Despite some success, wind tunnel tests do not achieve full simulation, however, a virtually complete physical simulation of particular re-entry conditions can be obtained from dedicated flight testing, and the Apollo era FIRE II flight experiment [2] is the premier example which still forms an important benchmark for modern simulations. Dedicated super-orbital flight testing is generally considered too expensive today, and there is a reluctance to incorporate substantial instrumentation for aerothermal diagnostics into existing missions since it may compromise primary mission objectives. An alternative approach to on-board flight measurements, with demonstrated success particularly in the ‘Stardust’ sample return mission, is remote observation of spectral emissions from the capsule and shock layer [8]. JAXA’s ‘Hayabusa’ sample return capsule provides a recent super-orbital reentry example through which we illustrate contributions in three areas: (1) physical simulation of super-orbital re-entry conditions in the laboratory; (2) computational simulation of such flows; and (3) remote acquisition of optical emissions from a super-orbital re entry event.

The WIL (Work Integrated Learning) report : a national scoping study [Final Report]

This report provides an account of the first large-scale scoping study of work integrated learning (WIL) in contemporary Australian higher education. The explicit aim of the project was to identify issues and map a broad and growing picture of WIL across Australia and to identify ways of improving the student learning experience in relation to WIL. The project was undertaken in response to high levels of interest in WIL, which is seen by universities both as a valid pedagogy and as a means to respond to demands by employers for work-ready graduates, and demands by students for employable knowledge and skills. Over a period of eight months of rapid data collection, 35 universities and almost 600 participants contributed to the project. Participants consistently reported the positive benefits of WIL and provided evidence of commitment and innovative practice in relation to enhancing student learning experiences. Participants provided evidence of strong partnerships between stakeholders and highlighted the importance of these relationships in facilitating effective learning outcomes for students. They also identified a range of issues and challenges that face the sector in growing WIL opportunities; these issues and challenges will shape the quality of WIL experiences. While the majority of comments focused on issues involved in ensuring quality placements, it was recognised that placements are just one way to ensure the integration of work with learning. Also, the WIL experience is highly contextualised and impacted by the expectations of students, employers, the professions, the university and government policy.