Realism and control : problem-based learning programs as a data source for work-related research

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a pedagogical methodology that presents the learner with a problem to be solved to stimulate and situate learning. This paper presents key characteristics of a problem-based learning environment that determines its suitability as a data source for workrelated research studies. To date, little has been written about the availability and validity of PBL environments as a data source and its suitability for work-related research. We describe problembased learning and use a research project case study to illustrate the challenges associated with industry work samples. We then describe the PBL course used in our research case study and use this example to illustrate the key attributes of problem-based learning environments and show how the chosen PBL environment met the work-related research requirements of the research case study. We propose that the more realistic the PBL work context and work group composition, the better the PBL environment as a data source for a work-related research. The work context is more realistic when relevant and complex project-based problems are tackled in industry-like work conditions over longer time frames. Work group composition is more realistic when participants with industry-level education and experience enact specialized roles in different disciplines within a professional community.

Driving performance in persons with hemianopia and quadrantanopia assessed under in-traffic conditions

Purpose: To evaluate the on-road driving performance of persons with homonymous hemianopia or quadrantanopia in comparison to age-matched controls with normal visual fields. Methods: Participants were 22 hemianopes and eight quadrantanopes (mean age 53 years) and 30 persons with normal visual fields (mean age 52 years) and were either current drivers or aiming to resume driving. All participants completed a battery of tests of vision (ETDRS visual acuity, Pelli-Robson letter contrast sensitivity, Humphrey visual fields), cognitive tests (trials A and B, Mini Mental State Examination, Digit Symbol Substitution) and an on-road driving assessment. Driving performance was assessed in a dual-brake vehicle with safety monitored by a certified driving rehabilitation specialist. Backseat evaluators masked to the clinical characteristics of participants independently rated driving performance along a 22.7 kilometre route involving urban and interstate driving. Results: Seventy-three per cent of the hemianopes, 88 per cent of quadrantanopes and all of the drivers with normal fields received safe driving ratings. Those hemianopic and quadrantanopic drivers rated as unsafe tended to have problems with maintaining appropriate lane position, steering steadiness and gap judgment compared to controls. Unsafe driving was associated with slower visual processing speed and impairments in contrast sensitivity, visual field sensitivity and executive function. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that some drivers with hemianopia or quadrantanopia are capable of safe driving performance, when compared to those of the same age with normal visual fields. This finding has important implications for the assessment of fitness to drive in this population.

From Sydney and Shanghai : Australian and Chinese women writing modernism

In the 1930s and 1940s, Australian women writers published novels, poems, and short stories that pushed the boundaries of their national literary culture. From their position in the Pacific, they entered into a dialogue with a European modernism that they reworked to invigorate their own writing and to make cross-continental connections. My interest in the work of Australian women prose writers of this period stems from an appreciation of the extent of their engagement with interwar modernism (an engagement that is generally under-acknowledged) and the realization that there are commonalities of approach with the ways in which contemporaneous Chinese authors negotiated this transnational cultural traffic. China and Australia, it has been argued, share an imaginative and literal association of many centuries, and this psychic history produces a situation in which ‘Australians feel drawn towards China: they cannot leave it alone.’1 Equally, Chinese exploration of the great southern land began in the fifteenth century, prior to European contact. In recent times, the intensity of Australia’s cultural and commercial connections with Asia has led to a repositioning of the Australian sense of regionalism in general and, in particular, has activated yet another stage in the history of its relationship with China. In this context, the association of Australian and Chinese writing is instructive because the commonalities of approach and areas of interest between certain authors indicate that Australian writers were not alone in either the content or style of their response to European modernism. This recognition, in turn, advances discussions of modernism in Australia and reveals an alternative way of looking at the world from the Pacific Rim through literature. The intent is to examine selective Australian and Chinese authors who are part of this continuous history and whose writing demonstrates common thematic and stylistic features via the vector of modernism. I focus on the 1930s and 1940s because these are the decades in which Australia and China experienced wideranging conflict in the Pacific, and it is significant that war, both forthcoming and actual, features as an ominous soundtrack in the writing of Chinese and Australian women. I argue that, given the immensity of cultural difference between Australia and China, there is an especially interesting juncture in the ways in which the authors interrogate modernist practices and the challenge of modernism. The process in which writing from the Pacific Rim jointly negotiates the twin desires of engaging with European literary form and representing one’s own culture may be seen as what Jessica Berman identifies as a geomodernism, one of the ‘new possible geographies’ of modernism.2 My discussion centres on the work of the Australian women, to which the Chinese material serves as a point of reference, albeit a critical one. The Chinese writing examined here is restricted to authors who wrote at least some material in English and whose work is available in translation.

Using Ownership to Reason About Inherent Parallelism in Object-Oriented Programs

With the emergence of multi-cores into the mainstream, there is a growing need for systems to allow programmers and automated systems to reason about data dependencies and inherent parallelismin imperative object-oriented languages. In this paper we exploit the structure of object-oriented programs to abstract computational side-effects. We capture and validate these effects using a static type system. We use these as the basis of sufficient conditions for several different data and task parallelism patterns. We compliment our static type system with a lightweight runtime system to allow for parallelization in the presence of complex data flows. We have a functioning compiler and worked examples to demonstrate the practicality of our solution.

Manufacturing management programs : are developing economies bridging the strategic gap?

Over the past decade there have been a large number of significant innovations in manufacturing which have resulted in more flexible and cost efficient methods and higher quality products, as manufacturers have set about upgrading their processes, systems and performance. This study compares the use of technologies and improvement programs between OECD and Non-OECD countries, and also between small and large firms, and examines differences in the use and outcomes across the economies and different sized firms. The empirical analysis provides an opportunity to test whether the ‘capabilities’ or strengths of a firm can be linked to these activities and examines if developing economies are using technology or management programs such as quality management and business process re-engineering to catch up to manufacturers in developed economies. The analysis utilises data from the second International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS), which encompasses 703 firms in 23 countries.

Planning and evaluation

Introduction: The core business of public health is to protect and promote health in the population. Public health planning is the means to maximise these aspirations. Health professionals develop plans to address contemporary health priorities as the evidence about changing patterns of mortality and morbidity is presented. Officials are also alert to international trends in patterns of disease that have the potential to affect the health of Australians. Integrated planning and preparation is currently underway involving all emergency health services, hospitals and population health units to ensure Australia's quick and efficient response to any major infectious disease outbreak, such as avian influenza (bird flu). Public health planning for the preparations for the Sydney Olympics and Paralympic Games in 2000 took almost three years. ‘Its major components included increased surveillance of communicable disease; presentations to sentinel emergency departments; medical encounters at Olympic venues; cruise ship surveillance; environmental and food safety inspections; bioterrorism surveillance and global epidemic intelligence’ (Jorm et al 2003, 102). In other words, the public health plan was developed to ensure food safety, hospital capacity, safe crowd control, protection against infectious diseases, and an integrated emergency and disaster plan. We have national and state plans for vaccinating children against infectious diseases in childhood; plans to promote dental health for children in schools; and screening programs for cervical, breast and prostate cancer. An effective public health response to a change in the distribution of morbidity and mortality requires planning. All levels of government plan for the public’s health. Local governments (councils) ensure healthy local environments to protect the public’s health. They plan parks for recreation, construct traffic-calming devices near schools to prevent childhood accidents, build shade structures and walking paths, and even embed drafts/chess squares in tables for people to sit and play. Environmental Health officers ensure food safety in restaurants and measure water quality. These public health measures attempt to promote the quality of life of residents. Australian and state governments produce plans that protect and promote health through various policy and program initiatives and innovations. To be effective, program plans need to be evaluated. However, building an integrated evaluation plan into a program plan is often forgotten, as planning and evaluation are seen as two distinct entities. Consequently, it is virtually impossible to measure, with any confidence, the extent to which a program has achieved its goals and objectives. This chapter introduces you to the concepts of public health program planning and evaluation. Case studies and reflection questions are presented to illustrate key points. As various authors use different terminology to describe the same concepts/actions of planning and evaluation, the glossary at the back of this book will help you to clarify the terms used in this chapter.

Role of corporate governance in mitigating the selective disclosure of executive stock option information

We examine the nature and extent of statutory executive stock option (ESO) disclosures by Australian listed companies over the 2001 to 2004 period, and the influence of corporate governance mechanisms on these disclosures. Our results show a progressive increase in overall compliance from 2001 to 2004. However, despite the improved compliance, the results reveal managements’ continued reluctance to disclose more sensitive ESO information. Factors associated with good internal governance, including board independence, audit committee independence and effectiveness, and compensation committee independence and effectiveness are found to contribute to improved compliance. Similarly, certain external governance factors are associated with improved disclosure, including external auditor quality, shareholder activism (as proxied by companies identified as poor performers by the Australian Shareholders’ Association), and regulatory intervention.

The role of social capital in reducing negative health outcomes among police officers

This paper investigates the role of social capital on the reduction of short and long run negative health effects associated with stress, as well as indicators of burnout among police officers. Despite the large volume of research on either social capital or the health effects of stress, the interaction of these factors remains an underexplored topic. In this empirical analysis we aim to reduce such a shortcoming focusing on a highly stressful and emotionally draining work environment, namely law enforcement agents who perform as an essential part of maintaining modern society. Using a multivariate regression analysis focusing on three different proxies of health and three proxies for social capital conducting also several robustness checks, we find strong evidence that increased levels of social capital is highly correlated with better health outcomes. Additionally we observe that while social capital at work is very important, social capital in the home environment and work-life balance are even more important. From a policy perspective, our findings suggest that work and stress programs should actively encourage employees to build stronger social networks as well as incorporate better working/home life arrangements.

Selective growth of carbon nanotubes on bare silicon : MWNT sinthesys on patterned substrates without predeposition of metal catalyst

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are expected to become the ideal constituent of many technologes, in particular for future generation electronics. This considerable interest is due to their unique electrical and mechanical properties. They show indeed super-high current-carrying capacity, ballistic electron transport and good field-emission properties. Then, these superior features make CNTs the most promising building blocks for electronic devices, as organic solar cells and organic light emitting devices (OLED). By using Focused Ion Beam (FIB) patterning it is possible to a obtain a high control on position, relative distances and diameter of CNTs. The present work shows how to grow three-dimensional architecture made of vertical-aligned CNTs directly on silicon. Thanks to the higher activity of a pre-patterned surface the synthesis process results very quick, cheap and simple. Such large area growths of CNTs could be used in preliminary test for application as electrodes for organic solar cells.

More legislative traffic on the 'Doi Moi' superhighway : technology transfer, IP and competition law in Vietnam

Since 1986 Vietnam has been engaged in the transition from a centrally-controlled economy to a socialist-oriented market economy (the 'doi moi' renovation). The process for global economic integration has been slow given the magnitude of necessary reforms. Consequently technology entrepreneurs often discount Vietnam as a possible commercialization base which means that it is not realising its economic potential as a hub of technology transfer in the Asia-Pacific region. Three significant factors in the current uncertainty are Vietnam's laws on competition, intellectual property and technology transfer. Another problem is the lack of literature on these laws. This article first discusses the conceptual relationship between competition, intellectual property and technology transfer. Hopefully the article will provide some guidance for the technology entrepreneur considering foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam. The bottom line is that these laws still need further reform to bolster entrepreneurial confidence.

The effect of traffic lane widths on the safety of cyclists in urban areas

This literature review examines the relationship between traffic lane widths on the safety of road users. It focuses on the impacts of lane widths on motor vehicle behaviour and cyclists’ safety. The review commenced with a search of available databases. Peer reviewed articles and road authority reports were reviewed, as well as current engineering guidelines. Research shows that traffic lane width influences drivers’ perceived difficulty of the task, risk perception and possibly speed choices. Total roadway width, and the presence of onroad cycling facilities, influence cyclists’ positioning on the road. Lateral displacement between bicycles and vehicles is smallest when a marked bicycle facility is present. Reduced motor vehicle speeds can significantly improve the safety of vulnerable road users, particularly pedestrians and cyclists. It has been shown that if road lane widths on urban roads were reduced, through various mechanisms, it could result in a safety environment for all road users.

Literacy models across nations : literacy and critical literacy in teacher training programs in India

The thrust towards constructivist learning and critical thinking in the National Curricular Framework (2005) of India implies shifts in pedagogical practices. In this context, drawing on grounded theory, focus group interviews were conducted with 40 preservice teachers to ascertain the contextual situation and the likely outcomes of applying critical literacy across the curriculum. Central themes that emerged in the discussion were: being teacher centred/ learner centred, and conformity/autonomy in teaching and learning. The paper argues that within the present Indian context, while there is scope for changes to pedagogy and learning styles, yet these must be adequately contextualised.

Monitoring and analysis of internet traffic targeting unused address spaces

Today’s evolving networks are experiencing a large number of different attacks ranging from system break-ins, infection from automatic attack tools such as worms, viruses, trojan horses and denial of service (DoS). One important aspect of such attacks is that they are often indiscriminate and target Internet addresses without regard to whether they are bona fide allocated or not. Due to the absence of any advertised host services the traffic observed on unused IP addresses is by definition unsolicited and likely to be either opportunistic or malicious. The analysis of large repositories of such traffic can be used to extract useful information about both ongoing and new attack patterns and unearth unusual attack behaviors. However, such an analysis is difficult due to the size and nature of the collected traffic on unused address spaces. In this dissertation, we present a network traffic analysis technique which uses traffic collected from unused address spaces and relies on the statistical properties of the collected traffic, in order to accurately and quickly detect new and ongoing network anomalies. Detection of network anomalies is based on the concept that an anomalous activity usually transforms the network parameters in such a way that their statistical properties no longer remain constant, resulting in abrupt changes. In this dissertation, we use sequential analysis techniques to identify changes in the behavior of network traffic targeting unused address spaces to unveil both ongoing and new attack patterns. Specifically, we have developed a dynamic sliding window based non-parametric cumulative sum change detection techniques for identification of changes in network traffic. Furthermore we have introduced dynamic thresholds to detect changes in network traffic behavior and also detect when a particular change has ended. Experimental results are presented that demonstrate the operational effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approach, using both synthetically generated datasets and real network traces collected from a dedicated block of unused IP addresses.