Horizonal

Horizonal was derived from terrestrial laser scan data of a bio-diverse landscape on the SE coast of Western Australia. The digital three dimensional scan data has been converged with geospatial survey of the landform captured through RTKGPS survey technology. Also incorporated into the image is a series of photographs taken using a photogrammetric technique wherein the position and view angle of each photograph is measured relative to a geographic datum point. The primary intention behind the production of the work was to expand understandings on the relationship between scenic photography and geospatial maps of remote, bio-diverse landscapes which are experiencing urban development for the first time.

Heathprint

The work was derived from terrestrial laser scan data of a bio-diverse landscape on the SE coast of Western Australia. The digital three dimensional scan data has been abstracted into two dimensional horizontal sections or slices. This abstraction converts the complex data into spatial information which is meaningful in the context of the act of architectural and landscape architectural design. The primary intention behind the production of the work was to expand understanding on the means of representing and then designing for sites in 'kwongan' landscapes which are constituted by highly biodiverse - and thus difficult to measure - heath vegetation. From Heathprint the author generated contour intervals of the landform upon which an associate (Daniela Simon architect) designed a work of architecture, which subsequently was awarded a commendation for residential architecture in the WA Chapter Australia Institute of Architects awards 2007.

Inventing future schools

A group of Australian researchers and designers have been working on ways to imagine, demonstrate and accelerate the use of ICT that extend learning relationships and environments to include the classroom, home and local community. These learning projects aim to transform how students identify and interact with learning, subject areas, teachers, other students, family, organisations and more broadly how learning tools can create connections that permeate students' life worlds now and in the future.---------- It is our intention that such demonstrators must - Be simple, flexible, scalable and adaptive - Result in increased confidence in the use of ICT for both students and teachers - Offer opportunities for personalized learning - Promote new and effective learning partnerships between students, teachers and families. - Extend the learning experience to include other environments both local and virtual. - Inspire further innovation - Provide solutions to current limitations---------- Presenting Innovation in Practice - Innovative ICT projects currently being used by students in schools, at home and in the community - Stories of use from teacher, student, and other stakeholder perspectives - Lessons learnt so far: a design perspective - Surprising and inspiring opportunities

Designing for naturally engaging experiences

This full day workshop explores how insights from artefacts, created during data collecting and analysis, are translated into prototypes. It is particularly concerned with getting closer to people's experience of shaping a design space. The workshop draws inspiration from data-products resulting from interactions in natural, unbuilt places with the intention of supporting both those with work integrating understandings of such experiences into design and those interested in the way material provokes ideas and inspiration for design.

Taiwanese nursing students' attitudes toward older people

The aim of this research was to establish Taiwanese undergraduate nursing students’ attitudes toward older people. This study involved a cross-sectional survey of 362 nursing students in a university in southern Taiwan. Overall, the results showed that nursing students had positive attitudes toward older people. Moreover, the findings suggested that nursing students’ intention to work with older people and gender were important factors influencing their attitudes toward older people. The findings of this study indicate that efforts are required to maintain these positive attitudes. In addition, provision of nursing courses related to older people that place greater emphasis on attitudes about aging and that take into account students’ working experience and career intention will lead to higher quality of care for older people.

Texting while driving : psychosocial influences on young people’s texting intentions and behaviour

Despite the dangers and illegality, there is a continued prevalence of texting while driving amongst young Australian drivers. The present study tested an extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to predict young drivers’ (17 to 24 years) intentions to [1] send and [2] read text messages while driving. Participants (N = 169 university students) completed measures of attitudes, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, intentions, and the additional social influence measures of group norm and moral norm. One week later, participants reported on the number of texts sent and read while driving in the previous week. Attitude predicted intentions to both send and read texts while driving, and subjective norm and perceived behavioural control determined sending, but not reading, intentions. Further, intention, but not perceptions of control, predicted both texting behaviours 1 week later. In addition, both group norm and moral norm added predictive ability to the model. These findings provide support for the TPB in understanding students’ decisions to text while driving as well as the inclusion of additional normative influences within this context, suggesting that a multi-strategy approach is likely to be useful in attempts to reduce the incidence of these risky driving behaviours.

Stroke education : promising effects on the health beliefs of those at risk

Background: The effect of patient education on reducing stroke has had mixed effects, raising questions about how to achieve optimal benefit. Because past evaluations have typically lacked an appropriate theoretical base, the design of past research may have missed important effects. --------- Method: This study used a social cognitive framework to identify variables that might change in response to education. A mixed design was used to evaluate two approaches to an intervention, both of which included education. Fifty seniors completed a measure of stroke knowledge and beliefs twice: before and after an intervention that was either standard (educational brochure plus activities that were not about stroke) or enhanced (educational brochure plus activities designed to enhance beliefs about stroke). Outcome measures were health beliefs, intention to exercise to reduce stroke, and stroke knowledge. --------- Results: Selected beliefs changed significantly over time but not differentially across conditions. Beliefs that changed were (a) perceived susceptibility to stroke and (b) perceived benefit of exercise to reduce risk. Benefit beliefs, in particular, were strongly and positively associated with intention to exercise. -------- Conclusion: Findings suggest that basic approaches to patient education may influence health beliefs. More effective stroke prevention programs may result from continued consideration of the role of health beliefs in such programs.

H-house

The author's approach to the problems associated with building in bushfire prone landscapes comes from 12 years of study of the biophysical and cultural landscapes in the Great Southern Region of Western Australia - research which resulted in the design and construction of the H-house at Bremer Bay. The house was developed using a 'ground up' approach whereby Dr Weir conducted topographical surveys and worked with a local botanist and a bushfire risk consultant to ascertain the level of threat that fire presented to this particular site. The intention from the outset however, was not to design a bushfire resistant house per se, but to develop a design which would place the owners in close proximity to the highly biodiverse heath vegetation of their site. The research aim was to find ways - through architectural design-to link the patterns of usage of the house with other site specific conditions related to the prevailing winds, solar orientation and seasonal change. The H-house has a number of features which increase the level of bushfire safety. These include: Fire rated roller shutters (tested by the CSIRO for ember attack and radiant heat), Fire resistant double glazing (on windows not protected by the shutters), Fibre-cement sheet cladding of the underside of the elevated timber floor structure, Manually operated high pressure sprinkler system on exposed timber decks, A fire refuge (an enlarged laundry, shower area) within the house with a dedicated cabinet for fire fighting equipment) and A low pressure solar powered domestic water supply system.

Direct and indirect effects on households’ intentions to replace the old car

With the purpose of testing the hypothesis that households’ intentions to replace their old car have a direct negative relationship to its perceived quality (‘current level’) and a direct positive relationship to their aspirations for a new car (‘aspiration level’), a rotating panel of car owners were interviewed every fourth month during 2 years. In this data set the hypothesis received support. In addition the results showed that the age of the car, the total number of miles driven, and the number of anticipated repairs affected the current level, whereas marital status, the number of children, consumer confidence, and environmental concern affected the aspiration level.

Bushfire responsive architecture : strategies for reconciling bushfire and biodiversity with daily life

My perspective on the problems associated with building in bushfire prone landscapes comes from 12 years of study of the biophysical and cultural landscapes in the Great Southern Region of WA which resulted in the design and construction of the ‘Hhouse’ at Bremer Bay. The house was developed using a ‘ground up’ approach whereby I conducted a topographical survey and worked with a local botanist and a bushfire risk consultant to ascertain the level of threat that fire presented to this particular site. My intention from the outset however, was not to design a bushfire resistant house per se, but to develop a design which would place the owners in close proximity to the highly biodiverse heath vegetation of the site. I was also seeking a means—through architectural design—of linking the patterns of usage of the house with other site specific conditions related to the prevailing winds, solar orientation and seasonal change.

Learning spatial concepts from RatSLAM representations

RatSLAM is a biologically-inspired visual SLAM and navigation system that has been shown to be effective indoors and outdoors on real robots. The spatial representation at the core of RatSLAM, the experience map, forms in a distributed fashion as the robot learns the environment. The activity in RatSLAM’s experience map possesses some geometric properties, but still does not represent the world in a human readable form. A new system, dubbed RatChat, has been introduced to enable meaningful communication with the robot. The intention is to use the “language games” paradigm to build spatial concepts that can be used as the basis for communication. This paper describes the first step in the language game experiments, showing the potential for meaningful categorization of the spatial representations in RatSLAM.

A Knight without a Sword? The Effects of Audit Courts on Tax Morale

The intention of this paper is to analyse how audit courts affect tax morale, controlling in a multivariate analysis for a broad variety of potential factors. Switzerland, with its variety of audit-court competence among the cantons, has been analysed. With data from the ISSP [1998] (Swiss data 1999), evidence has been found that higher audit-court competence has a significantly positive effect on tax morale. Thus, the results in Switzerland suggest that in the cantons where audit courts are not just knights without swords; they help improve taxpayers' tax morale and thus citizens' intrinsic motivation to pay taxes.

Small firm growth

We review and discuss the literature on small firm growth with an intention to provide a useful vantage point for new research studies regarding this important phenomenon. We first discuss conceptual and methodological issues that represent critical choices for those who research growth and which make it challenging to compare results from previous studies. The substantial review of past research is organized into four sections representing two smaller and two larger literatures. The first of the latter focuses on internal and external drivers of small firm growth. Here we find that much has been learnt and that many valuable generalizations can be made. However, we also conclude that more research of the same kind is unlikely to yield much. While interactive and non-linear effects may be worth pursuing it is unlikely that any new and important growth drivers or strong, linear main effects would be found. The second large literature deals with organizational life-cycles or stages of development. While deservedly criticized for unwarranted determinism and weak empirics this type of approach addresses problems of high practical and also theoretical relevance, and should not be shunned by researchers. We argue that with a change in the fundamental assumptions and improved empirical design, research on the organizational and managerial consequences of growth is an important line of inquiry. With this, we overlap with one of the smaller literatures, namely studies focusing on the effects of growth. We argue that studies too often assume that growth equals success. We advocate instead the use of growth as an intermediary variable that influences more fundamental goals in ways that should be carefully examined rather than assumed. The second small literature distinguishes between different modes or forms of growth, including, e.g., organic vs. acquisition-based growth, and international expansion. We note that modes of growth is an important topic that has been under studied in the growth literature, whereas in other branches of research aspects of it may have been studied intensely, but not primarily from a growth perspective. In the final section we elaborate on ways forward for research on small firm growth. We point at rich opportunities for researchers who look beyond drivers of growth, where growth is viewed as a homogenous phenomenon assumed to unambiguously reflect success, and instead focus on growth as a process and a multi-dimensional phenomenon, as well as on how growth relates to more fundamental outcomes.

The doctrine of double effect

• The doctrine of double effect is an exception to the general rule that taking active steps that end life is unlawful. • The essence of the doctrine at common law is intention. • Hastening a patient’s death through palliative care will be lawful provided the primary intention is to relieve pain, and not cause death, even if that death is foreseen. • Some States have enacted legislative excuses that deal with the provision of palliative care. • These statutory excuses tend to be stricter than the common law as they impose other requirements in addition to having an appropriate intent, such as adherence to some level of recognised medical practice.

Theory-of-Mind Continuum Model: Why Mind Matters in Philosophy, Psychology and Education

Theory-of-Mind has been defined as the ability to explain and predict human behaviour by imputing mental states, such as attention, intention, desire, emotion, perception and belief, to the self and others (Astington & Barriault, 2001). Theory-of-Mind study began with Piaget and continued through a tradition of meta-cognitive research projects (Flavell, 2004). A study by Baron-Cohen, Leslie and Frith (1985) of Theory-of-Mind abilities in atypically developing children reported major difficulties experienced by children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in imputing mental states to others. Since then, a wide range of follow-up research has been conducted to confirm these results. Traditional Theory-of-Mind research on ASD has been based on an either-or assumption that Theory-of-Mind is something one either possesses or does not. However, this approach fails to take account of how the ASD population themselves experience Theory-of-Mind. This paper suggests an alternative approach, Theory-of-Mind continuum model, to understand the Theory-of-Mind experience of people with ASD. The Theory-of-Mind continuum model will be developed through a comparison of subjective and objective aspects of mind, and phenomenal and psychological concepts of mind. This paper will demonstrate the importance of balancing qualitative and quantitative research methods in investigating the minds of people with ASD. It will enrich our theoretical understanding of Theory-of-Mind, as well as contain methodological implications for further studies in Theory-of-Mind