Online Gaming in Context : the Social and Cultural Significance of Online Games

There is little question of the social, cultural and economic importance of video games in the world today, with gaming now rivalling the movie and music sectors as a major leisure industry and pastime. The significance of video games within our everyday lives has certainly been increased and shaped by new technologies and gaming patterns, including the rise of home-based games consoles, advances in mobile telephone technology, the rise in more 'sociable' forms of gaming, and of course the advent of the Internet. This book explores the opportunities, challenges and patterns of gameplay and sociality afforded by the Internet and online gaming. Bringing together a series of original essays from both leading and emerging academics in the field of game studies, many of which employ new empirical work and innovative theoretical approaches to gaming, this book considers key issues crucial to our understanding of online gaming and associated social relations, including: patterns of play, legal and copyright issues, player production, identity construction, gamer communities, communication, patterns of social exclusion and inclusion around religion, gender and disability, and future directions in online gaming.

Efficiently capturing large, complex cultural heritage sites with a handheld mobile 3D laser mapping system

Accurate three-dimensional representations of cultural heritage sites are highly valuable for scientific study, conservation, and educational purposes. In addition to their use for archival purposes, 3D models enable efficient and precise measurement of relevant natural and architectural features. Many cultural heritage sites are large and complex, consisting of multiple structures spatially distributed over tens of thousands of square metres. The process of effectively digitising such geometrically complex locations requires measurements to be acquired from a variety of viewpoints. While several technologies exist for capturing the 3D structure of objects and environments, none are ideally suited to complex, large-scale sites, mainly due to their limited coverage or acquisition efficiency. We explore the use of a recently developed handheld mobile mapping system called Zebedee in cultural heritage applications. The Zebedee system is capable of efficiently mapping an environment in three dimensions by continually acquiring data as an operator holding the device traverses through the site. The system was deployed at the former Peel Island Lazaret, a culturally significant site in Queensland, Australia, consisting of dozens of buildings of various sizes spread across an area of approximately 400 × 250 m. With the Zebedee system, the site was scanned in half a day, and a detailed 3D point cloud model (with over 520 million points) was generated from the 3.6 hours of acquired data in 2.6 hours. We present results demonstrating that Zebedee was able to accurately capture both site context and building detail comparable in accuracy to manual measurement techniques, and at a greatly increased level of efficiency and scope. The scan allowed us to record derelict buildings that previously could not be measured because of the scale and complexity of the site. The resulting 3D model captures both interior and exterior features of buildings, including structure, materials, and the contents of rooms.

Knowledge Transfer in Transnational Programmes : Opportunities and Challenges for the Pacific Region

The globalised world: The current higher education community The last decade has seen rapid changes in the landscape of higher education (HE) throughout the world, largely as a product of globalisation. A major effect has been to propel the interconnectedness between nations and people across the globe (Scholte, 2005). The use of information and communication technology (ICT) has diminished the distance between countries. The world’s economies are becoming more integrated and interrelated through neoliberal economic policies, free trade agreements and open access of goods and services beyond national borders, policies promulgated by organisations such as the World Trade Organization and The World Bank (Marginson & Ordorika, 2011; Mok, 2011). As a consequence, universities are operating at global, national and local levels simultaneously. In the Pacific region, new universities are emerging. For example, Fiji now has one regional and two national universities; Samoa has a national university and Solomon Islands has an institute of higher education. These new players add to regional competition as they open opportunities for global partnerships and transnational programmes. Thus, participating at these multiple levels is inevitable, and no university is immune to these changes (Marginson, Kaur & Sawir, 2011a). Universities are now part of the global HE community that cannot be confined within a nation’s borders. Transitional HE programmes are perhaps one of the most evident demonstrations of the interconnectedness of universities across countries in this global era.

Cross cultural adaptation and validation of a Spanish version of the lower limb functional index

Background: The Lower Limb Functional Index (LLFI) is a relatively recently published regional outcome measure. The development article showed the LLFI had robust and valid clinimetric properties with sound psychometric and practical characteristics when compared to the Lower Limb Extremity Scale (LEFS) criterion standard. Objective: The purpose of this study was cross cultural adaptation and validation of the LLFI Spanish-version (LLFI-Sp) in a Spanish population. Methods: A two stage observational study was conducted. The LLFI was initially cross-culturally adapted to Spanish through double forward and single backward translation; then subsequently validated for the psychometric characteristics of validity, internal consistency, reliability, error score and factor structure. Participants (n = 136) with various lower limb conditions of >12 weeks duration completed the LLFI-Sp, Western Ontario and McMaster University Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) and the Euroqol Health Questionnaire 5 Dimensions (EQ-5D-3 L). The full sample was employed to determine internal consistency, concurrent criterion validity, construct validity and factor structure; a subgroup (n = 45) determined reliability at seven days concurrently completing a global rating of change scale. Results: The LLFI-Sp demonstrated high but not excessive internal consistency (α = 0.91) and high reliability (ICC = 0.96). The factor structure was one-dimensional which supported the construct validity. Criterion validity with the WOMAC was strong (r = 0.77) and with the EQ-5D-3 L fair and inversely correlated (r = -0.62). The study limitations included the lack of longitudinal data and the determination of responsiveness. Conclusions: The LLFI-Sp supports the findings of the original English version as being a valid lower limb regional outcome measure. It demonstrated similar psychometric properties for internal consistency, validity, reliability, error score and factor structure.

UNICEF, Jakarta, Indonesia : Review of Satap Schools

A. Background and context 1. Education, particularly basic education (grades1-9), has been considered critical to promoting national economic growth and social well being1. Three factors that con-tribute to the above are: (i) Education increases human capital inherent in a labor force and thus increases productivity. It also increases capacity for working with others and builds community consensus to support national development. (ii) Education can in-crease the innovative capacity of a community to support social and economic growth—use of new technologies, products and services to promote growth and wellbeing. (iii) Education can facilitate knowledge transfer needed to understand the social and eco-nomic innovations and new processes, practices and values. Cognizant of the above benefits of education, the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and the Education for All (EFA) declarations advocating universal basic education were formulated and ratified by UN member countries. 2. Achieving universal primary education (grade 6) may not be sufficient to maxim-ize the above noted socio-economic and cultural benefits. There is general consensus that basic literacy and numeracy up to grade 9 are essential foundational blocks for any good education system to support national development. Basic Education provides an educational achievement threshold that ensures the learning is retained. To achieve this, the donor partner led interventions and the UN declarations such as the MDG goals have sought universal access to basic education (grades 1-9). As many countries progress towards achieving the universal access targets, recent research evidence suggests that we need more than just access to basic education to impact on the na-tional development. Measuring basic education completion cycle, gross enrolment rate (GER) and participation rate etc., has to now include a focus on quality and relevance of the education2. 3. While the above research finding is generally accepted by the Government of In-donesia (GoI), unlike many other developing countries, Indonesia is geographically and linguistically complex and has the fourth largest education sector in the world. It has over 3000 islands, 17,000 ethnic groups and it takes as long as 7 hours to travel from east to west of the country and has multiple time differences. The education system has six years of primary education (grades 1-6), 3 years of junior secondary education (grades 7-9) and three years of senior secondary education (grades 10-12). Therefore, applying the findings of the above cited research in a country like Indonesia is a chal-lenge. Nevertheless, since the adoption of the National Education Law (2003)3 the GoI has made significant progress in improving access to and quality of basic education (grades 1-9). The 2011/12 national education statistics show the primary education (grades 1-6) completion rate was 99.3%, the net enrolment rate (NER) was 95.4% and the GER was 115.4%. This is a significant achievement considering the complexities faced within Indonesia. This increase in the primary education sub-sector, however, has not flowed onto the Junior Secondary School (JSS) education. The transition from pri-mary to JSS is still short of the GoI targets. In 2012, there were 146,826 primary schools feeding into 33,668 junior secondary schools. The transition rate from primary to secondary in 2011/12 was 78%. When considering district or sub-district level data the transition in poor districts could be less than the aggregated national rate. Poverty and lack of parents’ education, confounded by opportunity cost, are major obstacles to transitioning to JSS4. 4. Table 1 presents a summary of GoI initiatives to accelerate the transition to JSS. GoI, with assistance from the donor community, has built 2465 new regular JSS, mak-ing the total number of regular JSS 33,668. In addition, 57,825 new classrooms have been added to existing regular JSS. Also, in rural and remote areas 4136 Satu-Atap5 (SATAP) schools were built to increase access to JSS. These SATAP schools are the focus of this study as they provide education opportunities to the most marginalized, ru-ral, remote children who otherwise would not have access to JSS and consequently not complete basic education.

Quantifying economic values of coastal and marine ecosystem services and assessing their use in decision-making : applications in New Caledonia and Australia

This thesis deals with the issues of quantifying economic values of coastal and marine ecosystem services and assessing their use in decision-making. The first analytical part of the thesis focuses on estimating non-market use and non-use values, with an application in New-Caledonia using Discrete Choice Experiment. The second part examines how and to what extent the economic valuation of ecosystem services is used in coastal management decision-making with an application in Australia. Using a multi-criteria analysis, the relative importance of ecological, social and economic evaluation criteria is also assessed in the context of coastal development.

Organisational culture, change readiness and retention : a human services perspective

The Third Sector is experiencing unprecedented change as nonprofit organisations pursue their mission, organisational excellence and sustainability. This research collected data from employees of Australian nonprofit human service organisations. Instruments to measure organisational culture and change readiness were validated. The relationships between perceptions of organisational cultures, change readiness, job satisfaction and intentions to leave were explored. Findings indicate flexible organisational cultures influence employee attitudes more positively than control cultures. It identified that leaders have a significant role to play in developing and fostering change readiness and job satisfaction. This improves employees' adaptation to change, increases staff retention and organisational sustainability.

A cultural life in Samoa

A travel article about a tour of Samoa. I WAKE to the smell of smoke. Outside, a morning routine has begun - the burning of leaves that overnight settle in the backyards. Even in the capital, gardens are miniature farms. Chickens, bananas and coconuts. When the smoke haze lifts and the faint waves of a sea breeze come off Apia Harbour, the corrugated iron roofs shine through like headlights coming out of fog...

Cross-cultural adaptation, reliability and validity of the Spanish version of the upper limb functional index

Background The Upper Limb Functional Index (ULFI) is an internationally widely used outcome measure with robust, valid psychometric properties. The purpose of study is to develop and validate a ULFI Spanish-version (ULFI-Sp). Methods A two stage observational study was conducted. The ULFI was cross-culturally adapted to Spanish through double forward and backward translations, the psychometric properties were then validated. Participants (n = 126) with various upper limb conditions of >12 weeks duration completed the ULFI-Sp, QuickDASH and the Euroqol Health Questionnaire 5 Dimensions (EQ-5D-3 L). The full sample determined internal consistency, concurrent criterion validity, construct validity and factor structure; a subgroup (n = 35) determined reliability at seven days. Results The ULFI-Sp demonstrated high internal consistency (α = 0.94) and reliability (r = 0.93). Factor structure was one-dimensional and supported construct validity. Criterion validity with the EQ-5D-3 L was fair and inversely correlated (r = −0.59). The QuickDASH data was unavailable for analysis due to excessive missing responses. Conclusions The ULFI-Sp is a valid upper limb outcome measure with similar psychometric properties to the English language version.