Improving access to quality clinical nurse teaching : a partnership between Australia and Vietnam

Until recently, standards to guide nursing education and practice in Vietnam were nonexistent. This paper describes the development and implementation of a clinical teaching capacity building project piloted in Hanoi, Vietnam. The project was part of a multi-component capacity building program designed to improve nurse education in Vietnam. Objectives of the project were to develop a collaborative clinically-based teaching model that encourages evidence-based, student-centred clinical learning. The model incorporated strategies to promote development of nursing practice to meet national competency standards. Thirty nurse teachers from two organisations in Hanoi participated in the program. These participants attended three workshops, and completed applied assessments, where participants implemented concepts from each workshop. The assessment tasks were planning, implementing and evaluating clinical teaching. On completion of the workshops, twenty participants undertook a study tour in Australia to refine the teaching model and develop an action plan for model implementation in both organisations, with an aim to disseminate the model across Vietnam. Significant changes accredited to this project have been noted on an individual and organisational level. Dissemination of this clinical teaching model has commenced in Ho Chi Minh, with further plans for more in-depth dissemination to occur throughout the country.

Australian content and convergence

This article is a response to Kim Dalton's 2011 Henry Mayer Lecture. It focuses on Dalton's discussion of Australian content in the context of the government's ongoing Convergence Review.

Is –110°C cold air cryotherapy effective in improving post-exercise recovery in sports people?

Whole body cryotherapy (WBC) involves repeatedly exposing an individual, dressed in minimal clothing, to extremely cold air (–100 to –130°C) for a short period. One specific claim that is often made is that WBC is effective in treating exercise-induced muscle soreness and damage. However, our results suggest that two bouts of WBC were ineffective in improving recovery from eccentric exercise when administered 24 hours after eccentric exercise.

Getting stuck in together : improving work integrated learning from an Australian institution and faculty perspective

According to a recent report Australian higher education is not in crisis. However, we could be doing it better. The report Mapping Australian Higher Education (Norton, 2012) highlights comparative weaknesses such as levels f student engagement; interactions between students and academic staff; and academic staff preferences for research over teaching. The report points out that despite these concerns most graduates continue to get good, well-paid jobs, student satisfaction is improving, and levels of public confidence in Australian higher education are high. It also stresses that ‘the promise of higher education is that it provides adaptable cognitive skills, not that it always provides the job specific skills graduates will need in their future employment’ (Norton, 2012, p.58). This is worth keeping in mind as we contribute to the significant growth in curriculum initiatives aimed at preparing graduates for the world of work. Work Integrated Learning (WIL) is not a new concept but there is increased pressure on higher education globally to address graduate employability skills. The sector is under pressure in an increasingly competitive environment to demonstrate the relevance of courses, accountability and effective use of public funds (Peach & Gamble, 2011). In the Australian context this also means responding to the skills shortage in areas such as engineering, health, construction and business (DEEWR, 2010). This paper provides a brief overview of collaborative efforts over several years to improve the activity of WIL at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). These efforts have resulted in changes to curriculum, pedagogy, systems and processes, and the initiation of local, regional, national, and international networks. The willingness of students, staff, and industry partners to ‘get stuck in’ and try new approaches in these different contexts can be understood as a form of boundary spanning. That is, the development of the capability to mediate between different forms of expertise and the demands of different contexts in order to nurture student learning and improve the outcomes of higher education through WIL (Peach, Cates, Ilg, Jones, Lechleiter, 2011).

Improving trust and securing data accessibility for e-health decision making by using data encryption techniques

In the medical and healthcare arena, patients‟ data is not just their own personal history but also a valuable large dataset for finding solutions for diseases. While electronic medical records are becoming popular and are used in healthcare work places like hospitals, as well as insurance companies, and by major stakeholders such as physicians and their patients, the accessibility of such information should be dealt with in a way that preserves privacy and security. Thus, finding the best way to keep the data secure has become an important issue in the area of database security. Sensitive medical data should be encrypted in databases. There are many encryption/ decryption techniques and algorithms with regard to preserving privacy and security. Currently their performance is an important factor while the medical data is being managed in databases. Another important factor is that the stakeholders should decide more cost-effective ways to reduce the total cost of ownership. As an alternative, DAS (Data as Service) is a popular outsourcing model to satisfy the cost-effectiveness but it takes a consideration that the encryption/ decryption modules needs to be handled by trustworthy stakeholders. This research project is focusing on the query response times in a DAS model (AES-DAS) and analyses the comparison between the outsourcing model and the in-house model which incorporates Microsoft built-in encryption scheme in a SQL Server. This research project includes building a prototype of medical database schemas. There are 2 types of simulations to carry out the project. The first stage includes 6 databases in order to carry out simulations to measure the performance between plain-text, Microsoft built-in encryption and AES-DAS (Data as Service). Particularly, the AES-DAS incorporates implementations of symmetric key encryption such as AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and a Bucket indexing processor using Bloom filter. The results are categorised such as character type, numeric type, range queries, range queries using Bucket Index and aggregate queries. The second stage takes the scalability test from 5K to 2560K records. The main result of these simulations is that particularly as an outsourcing model, AES-DAS using the Bucket index shows around 3.32 times faster than a normal AES-DAS under the 70 partitions and 10K record-sized databases. Retrieving Numeric typed data takes shorter time than Character typed data in AES-DAS. The aggregation query response time in AES-DAS is not as consistent as that in MS built-in encryption scheme. The scalability test shows that the DBMS reaches in a certain threshold; the query response time becomes rapidly slower. However, there is more to investigate in order to bring about other outcomes and to construct a secured EMR (Electronic Medical Record) more efficiently from these simulations.

State convergence and keyspace reduction of the mixer stream cipher

This paper presents an analysis of the stream cipher Mixer, a bit-based cipher with structural components similar to the well-known Grain cipher and the LILI family of keystream generators. Mixer uses a 128-bit key and 64-bit IV to initialise a 217-bit internal state. The analysis is focused on the initialisation function of Mixer and shows that there exist multiple key-IV pairs which, after initialisation, produce the same initial state, and consequently will generate the same keystream. Furthermore, if the number of iterations of the state update function performed during initialisation is increased, then the number of distinct initial states that can be obtained decreases. It is also shown that there exist some distinct initial states which produce the same keystream, resulting in a further reduction of the effective key space

The Galerkin finite element approximation of the fractional cable equation

The cable equation is one of the most fundamental equations for modeling neuronal dynamics. Cable equations with a fractional order temporal derivative have been introduced to model electrotonic properties of spiny neuronal dendrites. In this paper, the fractional cable equation involving two integro-differential operators is considered. The Galerkin finite element approximations of the fractional cable equation are proposed. The main contribution of this work is outlined as follow: • A semi-discrete finite difference approximation in time is proposed. We prove that the scheme is unconditionally stable, and the numerical solution converges to the exact solution with order O(Δt). • A semi-discrete difference scheme for improving the order of convergence for solving the fractional cable equation is proposed, and the numerical solution converges to the exact solution with order O((Δt)2). • Based on the above semi-discrete difference approximations, Galerkin finite element approximations in space for a full discretization are also investigated. • Finally, some numerical results are given to demonstrate the theoretical analysis.

Analysing and improving a recruitment process : a teaching case for developing business process improvement capabilities

The demand for Business Process Management (BPM) is rapidly rising and with that, the need for capable BPM professionals is also rising. Yet, only a very few structured BPM training/ education programs are available, across universities and professional trainers globally. The ‘lack of appropriate teaching resources’ has been identified as a critical issue for BPM educators in prior studies. Case-based teaching can be an effective means of educating future BPM professionals. A main reason is that cases create an authentic learning environment where the complexities and challenges of the ‘real world’ can be presented in a narrative enabling the students to develop crucial skills such as problem solving, analysis and creativity-within-constraints, and to apply the tools and techniques within a richer and real (or proxy to real) context. However, so far well documented BPM teaching cases are scarce. This article aims to contribute to address this gap by providing a comprehensive teaching case and teaching notes that facilitates the education of selected process improvement phases, namely identification, modelling, analysis, and improvement. The article is divided into three main parts: (i) Introductory teaching notes, (ii) The case narrative, and (iii) Student activities from the case and teaching notes.

Improving Indigenous women’s wellness through action research

Today in Australia, 75% of all Indigenous Australians reside in urban and peri-urban areas. In Brisbane, Indigenous Australians now number just over 45,000, and this number is rapidly increasing. Undertaking research with urban based Indigenous Australians is a relatively new phenomenon. Most past research with Indigenous people has been carried out in remote and regional areas. This paper focuses on a Participation Action Research project undertaken with Indigenous women in the highly urbanised area of North Brisbane. The project takes on the challenge of undertaking urban based Indigenous research. It opts not to centre on poor Indigenous women’s health statistics but instead centres on Indigenous women’s wellness and ways to talk about and work towards wellness. Through the cycles of dialogue with Indigenous women these concepts were teased out and manifested in two highly successful Women’s Wellness Summits. This paper will outline aspects of this project.

Stability and convergence of implicit numerical methods for a class of fractional advection-dispersion models

In this paper, a class of fractional advection-dispersion models (FADM) is investigated. These models include five fractional advection-dispersion models: the immobile, mobile/immobile time FADM with a temporal fractional derivative 0 < γ < 1, the space FADM with skewness, both the time and space FADM and the time fractional advection-diffusion-wave model with damping with index 1 < γ < 2. They describe nonlocal dependence on either time or space, or both, to explain the development of anomalous dispersion. These equations can be used to simulate regional-scale anomalous dispersion with heavy tails, for example, the solute transport in watershed catchments and rivers. We propose computationally effective implicit numerical methods for these FADM. The stability and convergence of the implicit numerical methods are analyzed and compared systematically. Finally, some results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of our theoretical analysis.

Convergence and Australian content : the importance of access

In the light of new and complex challenges to media policy and regulation, the Austrlaian government commissioned the Convergence Review in late 2010 to assess the continuing applicability and utility of the principles and objectives that have shaped the policy framework to this point. It proposed a range of options for policy change and identified three enduring priorities for continued media regulation: media ownership and control; content standards; and Australian content production and distribution. The purpose of this article is to highlight an area where we feel there are opportunities for further discussion and research: the question of how the accessibility and visibility of Australian and local content may be assured in the future media policy framework via a combination of regulation and incentives to encourage innovation in content distribution.

The Convergence Review and the future of Australian content regulation

This article examines the place of Australian and local content regulation in the new media policy framework proposed by the Convergence Review. It outlines the history of Australian content regulation and the existing policy framework, before going on to detail some of the debates around Australian content during the Review. The final section analyses the relevant recommendations in the Convergence Review Final Report, and highlights some issues and problems that may arise in the new framework.

Improving stability of a DFIG-based wind power system with tuned damping controller

This paper focuses on the implementation of a damping controller for the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) system. Coordinated tuning of the damping controller to enhance the damping of the oscillatory modes is presented using bacterial foraging technique. The effect of the tuned damping controller on converter ratings of the DFIG system is also investigated. The results of both eigenvalue analysis and the time-domain simulation studies are presented to elucidate the effectiveness of the tuned damping controller in the DFIG system. The improvement of the fault ride-through capability of the system is also demonstrated.