Use of the FAR guide to present a pedagogical analogical model of gel electrophoresis in year 10 Science

This paper is a qualitative, practice based study describing the use of the Focus-Action-Reflection (FAR) Guide (Harrison and Treagust, 2000) to address the shortcomings of a pedagogical analogical model in Year 10 Science. The aim of this paper is to present my experience of the FAR Guide in relation to an analogical model that gave rise to perceived shortcomings by both teachers and students. This study found the FAR Guide to be a highly valuable tool, transforming the presentation of the analogical model, and enabling students to develop a deeper understanding of the nature of scientific knowledge.

From “somatic scandals” to “a constant potential for violence”? The culture of dissection, brain-based learning, and the rewriting/rewiring of “the child”

This article analyzes the “messy and numberless beginnings” of the hope placed upon neurological foundationalism to provide a solution to the “problem” of differences between students and to the achievement of educational goals. Rather than arguing for or against educational neuroscience, the article moves through five levels to examine the conditions of possibility for subscribing to the brain as a causal organological locus of learning.

Submission to the Senate Economics References Committee Inquiry into affordable housing 20 August 2014: De-risking development of medium density housing to improve housing affordability and boost supply

This submission addresses the problem of housing price inflation, the chronic under-supply of new housing stock, and the resultant decline in housing affordability for low and middle income households. It specifically focusses on the supply of medium density housing (multi-unit development) in Melbourne, although we believe that the observations made about housing in supply in Melbourne are relevant in other urban centres and to other types of housing supply. In terms of medium density housing (MDH) our concern also extends to the poor quality and design. Why the market tends to deliver generic apartments of poor quality and design which are uncompetitive with lower density housing and amenity despite planning objectives, and how this apparently intractable problem can be overcome is the topic of this submission...

Submission to the External Independent Review of the United Nations Response to Allegations of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and Other Serious Crimes by Members of Foreign Military Forces Not Under United Nations Command in the Central African Republic

In 2015 the UN Secretary-General established an External Independent Review to review how the United Nations has responded to allegations of child sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse, and to make recommendations concerning how the United Nations should respond to allegations in the future. This submission to the Review Panel draws on literature regarding children's rights, the nature of child sexual abuse, international instruments and policy, the nature of institutional child sexual abuse, and the CAR case itself. It makes recommendations for reform of UN protocols and procedures to better prevent child sexual abuse, and to improve responses to future occurrences.

Assessment of inflammatory burden contralateral to the symptomatic carotid stenosis using high-resolution ultrasmall, superparamagnetic iron oxide-enhanced MRI

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE It is well known that the vulnerable atheromatous plaque has a thin, fibrous cap and large lipid core with associated inflammation. This inflammation can be detected on MRI with use of a contrast medium, Sinerem, an ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide (USPIO). Although the incidence of macrophage activity in asymptomatic disease appears low, we aimed to explore the incidence of MRI-defined inflammation in asymptomatic plaques in patients with known contralateral symptomatic disease. METHODS Twenty symptomatic patients underwent multisequence MRI before and 36 hours after USPIO infusion. Images were manually segmented into quadrants, and the signal change in each quadrant was calculated after USPIO administration. A mixed mathematical model was developed to compare the mean signal change across all quadrants in the 2 groups. Patients had a mean symptomatic stenosis of 77% compared with 46% on their asymptomatic side, as measured by conventional angiography. RESULTS There were 11 (55%) men, and the median age was 72 years (range, 53 to 84 years). All patients had risk factors consistent with severe atherosclerotic disease. All symptomatic carotid stenoses had inflammation, as evaluated by USPIO-enhanced imaging. On the contralateral sides, inflammatory activity was found in 19 (95%) patients. Contralaterally, there were 163 quadrants (57%) with a signal loss after USPIO when compared with 217 quadrants (71%) on the symptomatic side (P=0.007). CONCLUSIONS - This study adds weight to the argument that atherosclerosis is a truly systemic disease. It suggests that investigation of the contralateral side in patients with symptomatic carotid stenosis can demonstrate inflammation in 95% of plaques, despite a mean stenosis of only 46%. Thus, inflammatory activity may be a significant risk factor in asymptomatic disease in patients who have known contralateral symptomatic disease. Patients with symptomatic carotid disease should have their contralateral carotid artery followed up.

“Success in (Surviving) Bioscience and Pharmacology” – an eBook to improve the retention of diploma nurses transitioning to a Bachelor of Nursing course

Diploma students transitioning into the NS40 BNursing (BN) course at QUT withdraw from the bioscience and pharmacology units, and leave the university at higher rates than traditional students. The diploma students, entering in second year, have missed out on 2 units of bioscience taught to the traditional students in their first year, and miss out on a 3rd unit of bioscience taught to the traditional students in their 2nd year. Instead the diploma students receive one specialized unit in bioscience only i.e. a bridging unit. As a consequence, the diploma students may not have the depth of bioscience knowledge to be able to successfully study the bridging unit (LSB111) or the pharmacology unit (LSB384). Our plan was to write an eBook which refreshed and reinforced diploma students’ knowledge of bioscience aiming to prepare them with the concepts and terminology, and to build a level of confidence to support their transition to the BN. We have previously developed an intervention associated with reduced attrition of diploma nursing students, and this was our starting point. The study skills part of the initial intervention was addressed in the eBook, by links to the specialist services and resources available from our liaison librarian and academic skills adviser. The introductory bioscience/pharmacology information provided by the previous intervention involved material from standard textbooks. However, we considered this material too difficult for diploma students. Thus, we created simplified diagrams to go with text as part of our eBook. The outcome is an eBook, created and made available to the diploma students via the Community Website: “Surviving Bioscience and Pharmacology”. Using simplified diagrams to illustrate the concise text, definition to explain the concepts, the focus has been on encouraging self-awareness and help-seeking strategies and building students who take responsibility for their learning. All the nursing students in the second semester LSB384 Pharmacology Unit have been surveyed face-to-face to get feedback on their engagement with the eBook resource. The data has not been analysed to date. An important consideration is that the website be evaluated by the diploma students as they come into bioscience in first semester (LSB111), the student population for whom the eBook is primarily intended. To get a good response rate we need to do a face-to-face survey. However, we have not been able to do this, as the co-ordinator of the unit has changed since we started the project, and the present co-ordinator will not allow us access to these students.

Preliminary investigations into the use of a functionalised polymer to reduce diffusion in Fricke gel dosimeters

Purpose A modification of the existing PVA-​FX hydrogel has been made to investigate the use of a functionalised polymer in a Fricke gel dosimetry system to decrease Fe3+ diffusion. Methods The chelating agent, xylenol orange, was chem. bonded to the gelling agent, polyvinyl alc. (PVA) to create xylenol orange functionalised PVA (XO-​PVA)​. A gel was created from the XO-​PVA (20​% w​/v) with ferrous sulfate (0.4 mM) and sulfuric acid (50 mM)​. Results This resulted in an optical d. dose sensitivity of 0.014 Gy-​1, an auto-​oxidn. rate of 0.0005 h-​1, and a diffusion rate of 0.129 mm2 h-​1; an 8​% redn. compared to the original PVA-​FX gel, which in practical terms adds approx. 1 h to the time span between irradn. and accurate read-​out. Conclusions Because this initial method of chem. bonding xylenol orange to polyvinyl alc. has inherently low conversion, the improvement on existing gel systems is minimal when compared to the drawbacks. More efficient methods of functionalising polyvinyl alc. with xylenol orange must be developed for this system to gain clin. relevance.

An evaluation of the indicators of threat to auditor independence in an Islamic legal system: The case of Iran

This study aimed to assist in developing a more effective framework for regulating auditor independence practice in Iran, a non-IFRS country with an Islamic legal system. It investigated the following general research question: In order to increase auditor independence in a non-IFRS country with an Islamic legal system, what are the potential indicators of threats to auditor independence, and how should a regulator prioritise addressing these threats?

Level of contribution of intrinsic risk factors to the management of patients with plantar heel pain

Introduction: Injuries in the lower extremity are considered to have multifactorial causes, whilst people with heel pain represent the most frequent cause of visits to health professionals. Managing these patients can be very difficult. The purpose of this research is to identify key variables which can influence foot health in patients with heel pain. Materials and method: A cross-sectional observational study was carried out with a sample of sixty-two participants recruited from the Educational Welfare Unit of the University of Malaga. The therapists, blinded for the study, fill in the data with anthropometric information and the FPI, while participants fill in the foot health status questionnaire, FHSQ. The most significant results reveal that there is a moderate relation between the clinical variables and the FHSQ commands. The most significant contribution is the BMI in the foot health status questionnaire. Conclusion: The variables which can help manage clinical subjects with heel pain are age, BMI, footwear and FPI (left foot).

Promoting articulated action from diverse stakeholders in response to public policy scenarios: A case analysis of the use of ‘scenario improvisation’ method

In this paper we present a novel application of scenario methods to engage a diverse constituency of senior stakeholders, with limited time availability, in debate to inform planning and policy development. Our case study project explores post-carbon futures for the Latrobe Valley region of the Australian state of Victoria. Our approach involved initial deductive development of two ‘extreme scenarios’ by a multi-disciplinary research team, based upon an extensive research programme. Over four workshops with the stakeholder constituency, these initial scenarios were discussed, challenged, refined and expanded through an inductive process, whereby participants took ‘ownership’ of a final set of three scenarios. These were both comfortable and challenging to them. The outcomes of this process subsequently informed public policy development for the region. Whilst this process did not follow a single extant structured, multi-stage scenario approach, neither was it devoid of form. Here, we seek to theorise and codify elements of our process – which we term ‘scenario improvisation’ – such that others may adopt it.

Close Encounters of the Continuum: Speaking (to), Performing and Experiencing Gender In Janet Cardiff’s Whispering Room

This 'project' investigates Janet Cardiff's Whispering Room. It examines how Cardiff deconstructs the privileging of the visual over all other corporeal senses in her work, the Whispering Room. Using sound as a fulcrum, Cardiff explores the links between subjects, collective narratives, memories, experiences and performances. Janet Cardiff destabilizes time and space and fractures the continuum through the use of sound. My 'project' celebrates sound as a transgressive medium — sound not as a gendered medium but as a vehicle in which to speak (to) gender. It explores how sound can destabilize notions of perception and reception and question art and museal practices. In the process this 'project' reveals the complexity of interpreting and representing art as an object. My aim is to reflect the very intertextual and expressionist collage that Cardiff has created in Whispering Room in my own text. Cardiff solicits the viewer's intimacy and participation. Whispering Room is a physical yet metonymic space in which Cardiff creates a place for performatvity, experience, memory, desire and speech, thus she opens up a space for the utterance and performance of the viewer. Viewers construct and create meaning/s for themselves within this mnemonic space by digging up their own memories, desires and reveries. The strength of Cardiff's work is that it relies on a viewer to perform, a body to trigger the pseudo-spectacle and a voice to interrupt the whispers. One might ask of Whispering Room where the illusionistic space begins and where the physical space ends. This 'project' investigates how in Whispering Room there is no one experience but many experiences.

Investigating the effectiveness of an ecological approach to learning design in a first year mathematics for engineering unit

This is presentation of the refereed paper accepted for the Conferences' proceedings. The presentation was given on Tuesday, 1 December 2015.