Entry into Valhalla : contextualising the learning of legal ethics through the use of Second Life machinima

An ability to recognise and resolve ethical dilemmas was identified by the Australian Law Reform Commission as one of the ten fundamental lawyering skills. While the ‘Priestley 11’ list of areas of law required to qualify for legal practice includes ethics and professional responsibility, the commitment to ethics learning in Australian law schools has been far from uniform. The obligation imposed by the Priestley 11 is frequently discharged by a traditional teaching and learning approach involving lectures and/or tutorials and focusing on the content of the formal rules of professional responsibility. However, the effectiveness of such an approach is open to question. Instead, a practical rather than a theoretical approach to the teaching of legal ethics is required. Effective final-year student learning of ethics may be achieved by an approach which engages students, enabling them to appreciate the relevance of what they are learning to the real world and facilitating their transition from study to their working lives. Entry into Valhalla comprises a suite of modules featuring ‘machinima’ (computer-generated imagery) created using the Second Life virtual environment to contextualise otherwise abstract concepts. It provides an engaging learning environment which enables students to obtain an appreciation of ethical responsibility in a real-world context and facilitates understanding and problem-solving ability.

Flow regime transition criteria for two-phase flow at reduced gravity conditions

Flow regime transition criteria are of practical importance for two-phase flow analyses at reduced gravity conditions. Here, flow regime transition criteria which take the friction pressure loss effect into account were studied in detail. Criteria at reduced gravity conditions were developed by extending an existing model with various experimental datasets taken at microgravity conditions showed satisfactory agreement. Sample computations of the model were performed at various gravity conditions, such as 0.196, 1.62, 3.71, and 9.81 m/s2 corresponding to micro-gravity and lunar, Martian and Earth surface gravity, respectively. It was found that the effect of gravity on bubbly-slug and slug-annular (churn) transitions in a two-phase flow system was more pronounced at low liquid flow conditions, whereas the gravity effect could be ignored at high mixture volumetric flux conditions. While for the annular flow transitions due to flow reversal and onset of dropset entrainment, higher superficial gas velocity was obtained at higher gravity level.

Projecting Computational Sense of Self: A Study of Transition in a Chronic Illness Online Community

We report on analysis of discussions in an online community of people with chronic illness using socio-cognitively motivated, automatically produced semantic spaces. The analysis aims to further the emerging theory of "transition" (how people can learn to incorporate the consequences of illness into their lives). An automatically derived representation of sense of self for individuals is created in the semantic space by the analysis of the email utterances of the community members. The movement over time of the sense of self is visualised, via projection, with respect to axes of "ordinariness" and "extra-ordinariness". Qualitative evaluation shows that the visualisation is paralleled by the transitions of people during the course of their illness. The research aims to progress tools for analysis of textual data to promote greater use of tacit knowledge as found in online virtual communities. We hope it also encourages further interest in representation of sense-of-self.

Stability and change in prosocial and antisocial behavior across the transition to school : Teacher and peer perspectives

Research Findings: The transition to school is a major developmental milestone, and behavior tendencies already evident at the point of school entry can impact upon a child's subsequent social and academic adjustment. The current study aimed to investigate stability and change in the social behavior of girls and boys across the transition from day care to 1st grade. Teacher ratings and peer nominations for prosocial and antisocial behavior were obtained for 248 children belonging to 2 cohorts: school transitioning (n = 118) and day care remaining (n = 130). Data were gathered again from all children 1 year later, following the older group's entry into school. Teacher ratings of prosocial and antisocial behavior significantly predicted teacher ratings of the same behavior at Time 2 for both cohorts. Peer reports of antisocial behavior also showed significant stability, whereas stability of peer-reported prosocial behavior varied as a function of behavior type. Practice or Policy: The results contribute to understanding of trends in early childhood social behavior that potentially influence long-term developmental trajectories. Identification of some behaviors as more stable in early childhood than others, regardless of school entry, provides useful information for both the type and timing of early interventions. © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Bringing the MIMOSA OSA-EAI into an object-orientated world

Despite being poised as a standard for data exchange for operation and maintenance data, the database heritage of the MIMOSA OSA-EAI is clearly evident from using a relational model at its core. The XML schema (XSD) definitions, which are used for communication between asset management systems, are based on the MIMOSA common relational information schema (CRIS), a relational model, and consequently, many database concepts permeate the communications layer. The adoption of a relational model leads to several deficiencies, and overlooks advances in object-oriented approach for an upcoming version of the specification, and the common conceptual object model (CCOM) sees a transition to fully utilising object-oriented features for the standard. Unified modelling language (UML) is used as a medium for documentation as well as facilitating XSD code generation. This paper details some of the decisions faced in developing the CCOM and provides a glimpse into the future of asset management and data exchange models.

Obtaining peak performance in the transition to Higher Education: Support for the worried well, acutely anxious and seriously sluggish student

Research suggests that students in their late teens and early twenties have not reached "identity formation" (James Marcia, 1969, 1980). The heightened anxiety and uncertainty about themselves and their future contribute to sometimes crippling fears emanating as anxiety, clinical depression and other mood disorders. This paper will explore some issues and suggest healthy ways of helping young people safely through these chaotic years and into a fulfilling career.

Equity for taxpayers within Australia’s retirement savings regime : a dissenting opinion

This article asks the question whether Australia’s retirement savings regime, specifically the superannuation component and the attached taxation concessions, is a regime which is equitable to all taxpayers. In a dissenting opinion, it is argued that the current regime, along with the changes proposed by the Federal Government in its response to the Henry Review, does not result in a retirement savings regime which benefits all taxpayers equally. As such, it is suggested that the only way to ensure an equitable regime is to incorporate a gender perspective into public finance analysis to determine how the retirement savings policies affect women and men differently. In doing so, a specific tax policy which provides for additional, fiscally significant concessions for taxpayers who do not fit the criteria of a ‘normal’ taxpayer, that is a taxpayer working as an employee in a full time position for an uninterrupted 35 years, should be incorporated into Australia’s current fiscal policy.

Green buildings for greying people : a case study of a retirement village in Australia

Purpose With an increasingly ageing population and widespread acceptance of the need for sustainable development in Australia, the demand for green retirement villages is increasing. This paper aims to identify the critical issues to be considered by developers and practitioners when embarking on their first green residential retirement project in Australia. Design/methodology/approach In view of the lack of adequate historical data for quantitative analysis, a case study approach is employed to examine the successful delivery of green retirement villages. Face-to-face interviews and document analysis were conducted for data collection. Findings The findings of the study indicate that one of the major obstacles to the provision of affordable green retirement villages is the higher initial costs involved. However, positive aspects were identified, the most significant of which relate to: the innovative design of site and floor plans; adoption of thermally efficient building materials; orientation of windows; installation of water harvesting and recycling systems, water conservation fittings and appliances; and waste management during the construction stage. With the adoption of these measures, it is believed that sustainable retirement development can be achieved without significant additional capital costs. Practical implications The research findings serve as a guide for developers in decision making throughout the project life-cycle when introducing green features into the provision of affordable retirement accommodation. Originality/value This paper provides insights into the means by which affordable green residential retirement projects for aged people can be successfully completed.

Exploring antecedent factors in (Queensland) secondary school teachers’ early retirement intentions

Mature-age secondary teachers offer teaching a wealth of knowledge and skills that can contribute greatly to the quality of education. However, as with the greater workforce, there is an increasing trend for mature-age teachers to elect to retire early or to move into other work. Despite studies suggesting that teachers may be negatively affected by stress, there has been no research into the attitudes of mature-age teachers relating to early retirement and whether these or other factors are instrumental in their decision to retire from teaching. There is, however, a broad range of studies, commentary and analyses on ageing and work that can be utilised to develop a powerful analytical framework to identify the factors that can potentially influence the decision to take early retirement. This study examined the antecedent factors which influenced the early retirement decisions in 16 Queensland secondary school teachers. This study examined factors relating to the teachers decision to retire early and explored school and other factors relating to their decision. In addition, differences between urban and rural secondary school teachers were examined. Given the potentially complex nature of teachers. retirement decisions, the study utilised a qualitative approach. The study found that retired secondary teachers are confronted by ageing realities that are not responded to adequately by the education system, and participants expressed a general dissatisfaction with aspects of school management, especially as it related to bullying and non-inclusion in teaching-related decision making. This study also identified organisational issues within Education Queensland which contributed to system failures that affected mature-age teachers that need to be addressed. This study is one of the first studies to explore the factors influencing early retirement decisions in teachers. The implications of these factors on policy for Education Queensland and for workplace policies in general are discussed.

Between a rock and a hard place : what do public sector leaders learn from the past as they lead into the future

The purpose of this paper is to bring leadership context into sharper focus and to suggest there are strong constraints on public leaders’ discretion to lead in ways consistent with NPM or NPL. Much of the existing public leadership research focuses on the individual leader and tends to give little attention to the influence of context. This lack of focus on leader context adversely affects our ability to build public leadership capacity. We draw on prior research to establish that (1) there are strong contextual constraints on public leaders’ capacity to lead in ways consistent with NPL, (2) public leaders are subject to contradictory messages and for the most part these contradictions are unacknowledged and unresolved, the impact of which is confusion and informal power-politics, (3) the task of leader transition from traditional leadership to new public leadership is very much underestimated and requires a new way to think about leadership development. On the basis of this analysis, we argue that public leaders find themselves between a rock and a hard place.

Like our page : using Facebook to support first year students in their transition to higher education

Facebook is approaching ubiquity in the social habits and practice of many students. However, its use in higher education has been criticised (Maranto & Barton, 2010) because it can remove or blur academic boundaries. Despite these concerns, there is strong potential to use Facebook to support new students to communicate and interact with each other (Cheung, Chiu, & Lee, 2010). This paper shows how Facebook can be used by teaching staff to communicate more effectively with students. Further, it shows how it can provide a way to represent and include beginning students’ thoughts, opinions and feedback as an element of the learning design and responsive feed-forward into lectures and tutorial activities. We demonstrate how an embedded social media strategy can be used to complement and enhance the first year curriculum experience by functioning as a transition device for student support and activating Kift’s (2009) organising principles for first year curriculum design.

Moments of action provide insight into critical times for advection–diffusion–reaction processes

In 2010 Berezhkovskii and coworkers introduced the concept of local accumulation time (LAT) as a finite measure of the time required for the transient solution of a reaction diffusion equation to effectively reach steady state(Biophys J. 99, L59 (2010); Phys Rev E. 83, 051906 (2011)). Berezhkovskii’s approach is a particular application of the concept of mean action time (MAT) that was introduced previously by McNabb (IMA J Appl Math. 47, 193 (1991)). Here, we generalize these previous results by presenting a framework to calculate the MAT, as well as the higher moments, which we call the moments of action. The second moment is the variance of action time; the third moment is related to the skew of action time, and so on. We consider a general transition from some initial condition to an associated steady state for a one–dimensional linear advection–diffusion–reaction partial differential equation(PDE). Our results indicate that it is possible to solve for the moments of action exactly without requiring the transient solution of the PDE. We present specific examples that highlight potential weaknesses of previous studies that have considered the MAT alone without considering higher moments. Finally, we also provide a meaningful interpretation of the moments of action by presenting simulation results from a discrete random walk model together with some analysis of the particle lifetime distribution. This work shows that the moments of action are identical to the moments of the particle lifetime distribution for certain transitions.

Networking of shear zones at the brittle-to-viscous transition (Cap de Creus, NE Spain)

A crustal-scale shear zone network at the fossil brittle-to-viscous transition exposed at Cap de Creus, NE Spain evolved by coeval fracturing and viscous, mylonitic overprinting of an existing foliation. Initial fracturing led to mylonitic shearing as rock softened in ductilely deformed zones surrounding the fractures. Mylonitic shear zones widened by lateral branching of fractures from these shear zones and by synthetic rotation of the existing foliation between the fractures and shear zones. Shear zones lengthened by a combination of fracturing and mylonitic shearing in front of the shear zone tips. Shear zones interconnected along and across their shearing planes, separating rhomb-shaped lozenges of less deformed rock. Lozenges were subsequently incorporated into the mylonitic shear zones by widening in the manner described above. In this way, deformation became homogeneous on the scale of initial fracturing (metre- to decametre-scale). In contrast, the shear zone network represents localisation of strain on a decametre-length scale. The strength of the continental crust at the time of coeval fracturing and viscous shearing is inferred to have decreased with time and strain, as fracturing evolved to mylonitic shearing, and as the shear zones coalesced to form a through-going network subparallel to the shearing plane. Crustal strength must therefore be considered as strain- and scale-dependent.

The Australian screen producer: Understanding screen production cultures in a period of industrial transition [Abstract]

The screen producer plays a vital role in shaping the creative, commercial and entrepreneurial dimensions of production. And yet Australian film history is most often presented as an appreciation of film directors or an examination of industrial governance measures. On the other hand, public funding agencies in Australia have, for the most part, supported independent film and television production as a producer-led, or producer-as-auteur production system, and as such the producer has played a critical role in shaping the broader independent production landscape. In recent years, fundamental changes to distribution and consumption practices have had a major impact on the nature of screen production. Screen producers are increasingly migrating into emerging online, transmedia and cross-media production; generating both opportunities and challenges for traditional producers. However, the production cultures and motivations of producers operating in these emergent spaces remain poorly understood. This presentation will focus on the largely unremarked role of the producer in Australian screen scholarship. It will explore the ways in which the practice of screen producing is evolving and the migratory pathways of traditional producers moving into digital/new media production. The presentation’s primary findings are drawn from the 2011 Australian Screen Producer Survey; a national study of the activities of Australian screen producers conducted by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI), Queensland University of Technology, with support from the Centre for Screen Business /Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS). From longitudinal analysis, the presentation will compare and contrast data from the 2009 and 2011 survey across film, television, corporate production and new media industry segments. In so doing the presentation will delineate the practices, attitudes, strategies, and aspirations of screen producers operating in a convergent digital media marketplace and suggest ways forward for a more industrially cognisant approach to screen history.