Thinking Collaboratively about the Peer-Review Process for Journal- Article Publication

In this conversation, Kevin K. Kumashiro shares his reflections on challenges to publishing anti-oppressive research in educational journals. He then invites eight current and former editors of leading educational research journals--William F. Pinar, Elizabeth Graue, Carl A. Grant, Maenette K. P. Benham, Ronald H. Heck, James Joseph Scheurich, Allan Luke, and Carmen Luke--to critique and expand on his analysis. Kumashiro begins the conversation by describing his own experiences submitting manuscripts to educational research journals and receiving comments by anonymous reviewers and journal editors. He suggests three ways to rethink the collaborative potential of the peer-review process: as constructive, as multilensed, and as situated. The eight current and former editors of leading educational research journals then critique and expand Kumashiro's analysis. Kumashiro concludes the conversation with additional reflections on barriers and contradictions involved in advancing anti-oppressive educational research in educational journals. (Contains 3 notes.)

Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for 291 diseases and injuries in 21 regions, 1990-2010: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010

BACKGROUND Measuring disease and injury burden in populations requires a composite metric that captures both premature mortality and the prevalence and severity of ill-health. The 1990 Global Burden of Disease study proposed disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) to measure disease burden. No comprehensive update of disease burden worldwide incorporating a systematic reassessment of disease and injury-specific epidemiology has been done since the 1990 study. We aimed to calculate disease burden worldwide and for 21 regions for 1990, 2005, and 2010 with methods to enable meaningful comparisons over time. METHODS We calculated DALYs as the sum of years of life lost (YLLs) and years lived with disability (YLDs). DALYs were calculated for 291 causes, 20 age groups, both sexes, and for 187 countries, and aggregated to regional and global estimates of disease burden for three points in time with strictly comparable definitions and methods. YLLs were calculated from age-sex-country-time-specific estimates of mortality by cause, with death by standardised lost life expectancy at each age. YLDs were calculated as prevalence of 1160 disabling sequelae, by age, sex, and cause, and weighted by new disability weights for each health state. Neither YLLs nor YLDs were age-weighted or discounted. Uncertainty around cause-specific DALYs was calculated incorporating uncertainty in levels of all-cause mortality, cause-specific mortality, prevalence, and disability weights. FINDINGS Global DALYs remained stable from 1990 (2·503 billion) to 2010 (2·490 billion). Crude DALYs per 1000 decreased by 23% (472 per 1000 to 361 per 1000). An important shift has occurred in DALY composition with the contribution of deaths and disability among children (younger than 5 years of age) declining from 41% of global DALYs in 1990 to 25% in 2010. YLLs typically account for about half of disease burden in more developed regions (high-income Asia Pacific, western Europe, high-income North America, and Australasia), rising to over 80% of DALYs in sub-Saharan Africa. In 1990, 47% of DALYs worldwide were from communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional disorders, 43% from non-communicable diseases, and 10% from injuries. By 2010, this had shifted to 35%, 54%, and 11%, respectively. Ischaemic heart disease was the leading cause of DALYs worldwide in 2010 (up from fourth rank in 1990, increasing by 29%), followed by lower respiratory infections (top rank in 1990; 44% decline in DALYs), stroke (fifth in 1990; 19% increase), diarrhoeal diseases (second in 1990; 51% decrease), and HIV/AIDS (33rd in 1990; 351% increase). Major depressive disorder increased from 15th to 11th rank (37% increase) and road injury from 12th to 10th rank (34% increase). Substantial heterogeneity exists in rankings of leading causes of disease burden among regions. INTERPRETATION Global disease burden has continued to shift away from communicable to non-communicable diseases and from premature death to years lived with disability. In sub-Saharan Africa, however, many communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional disorders remain the dominant causes of disease burden. The rising burden from mental and behavioural disorders, musculoskeletal disorders, and diabetes will impose new challenges on health systems. Regional heterogeneity highlights the importance of understanding local burden of disease and setting goals and targets for the post-2015 agenda taking such patterns into account. Because of improved definitions, methods, and data, these results for 1990 and 2010 supersede all previously published Global Burden of Disease results.

Meta-analysis identifies 13 new loci associated with waist-hip ratio and reveals sexual dimorphism in the genetic basis of fat distribution

Waist-hip ratio (WHR) is a measure of body fat distribution and a predictor of metabolic consequences independent of overall adiposity. WHR is heritable, but few genetic variants influencing this trait have been identified. We conducted a meta-analysis of 32 genome-wide association studies for WHR adjusted for body mass index (comprising up to 77,167 participants), following up 16 loci in an additional 29 studies (comprising up to 113,636 subjects). We identified 13 new loci in or near RSPO3, VEGFA, TBX15-WARS2, NFE2L3, GRB14, DNM3-PIGC, ITPR2-SSPN, LY86, HOXC13, ADAMTS9, ZNRF3-KREMEN1, NISCH-STAB1 and CPEB4 (P = 1.9 × 10−9 to P = 1.8 × 10−40) and the known signal at LYPLAL1. Seven of these loci exhibited marked sexual dimorphism, all with a stronger effect on WHR in women than men (P for sex difference = 1.9 × 10−3 to P = 1.2 × 10−13). These findings provide evidence for multiple loci that modulate body fat distribution independent of overall adiposity and reveal strong gene-by-sex interactions.

Including airport duty-free shopping in arriving passenger simulation and the opportunities this presents

Simulating passenger flows within airports is very important as it can provide an indication of queue lengths, bottlenecks, system capacity and overall level of service. To date, visual simulation tools such as agent based models have focused on processing formalities such as check-in, and not incorporate discretionary activities such as duty-free shopping. As airport retail contributes greatly to airport revenue generation, but also has potentially detrimental effects on facilitation efficiency benchmarks, this study developed a simplistic simulation model which captures common duty-free purchasing opportunities, as well as high-level behaviours of passengers. It is argued that such a model enables more realistic simulation of passenger facilitation, and provides a platform for simulating real-time revenue generation as well as more complex passenger behaviours within the airport. Simulations are conducted to verify the suitability of the model for inclusion in the international arrivals process for assessing passenger flow and infrastructure utilization.

Apoptosis-related genes confer resistance to Fusarium wilt in transgenic ‘Lady Finger’ bananas

Fusarium wilt, caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc), is one of the most devastating diseases of banana (Musa spp.). Apart from resistant cultivars, there are no effective control measures for the disease. We investigated whether the transgenic expression of apoptosis-inhibition related genes in banana could be used to confer disease resistance. Embryogenic cell suspensions of the banana cultivar, ‘Lady Finger’, were stably transformed with animal genes that negatively regulate apoptosis, namely Bcl-xL, Ced-9 and Bcl-2 3’ UTR, and independently transformed plant lines were regenerated for testing. Following a 12 week exposure to Foc race 1 in small-plant glasshouse bioassays, seven transgenic lines (2 x Bcl-xL, 3 x Ced-9 and 2 x Bcl-2 3’ UTR) showed significantly less internal and external disease symptoms than the wild-type susceptible ‘Lady Finger’ banana plants used as positive controls. Of these, one Bcl-2 3’ UTR line showed resistance that was equivalent to that of wild-type Cavendish bananas that were included as resistant negative controls. Further, the resistance of this line continued for 23 weeks post-inoculation at which time the experiment was terminated. Using TUNEL assays, Foc race 1 was shown to induce apoptosis-like features in the roots of wild-type ‘Lady Finger’ plants consistent with a necrotrophic phase in the lifecycle of this pathogen. This was further supported by the observed reduction of these effects in the roots of the resistant Bcl-2 3’ UTR transgenic line. This is the first report on the generation of transgenic banana plants with resistance to Fusarium wilt.

Response to comments on "Productivity is a poor predictor of plant species richness"

Pan et al. claim that our results actually support a strong linear positive relationship between productivity and richness, whereas Fridley et al. contend that the data support a strong humped relationship. These responses illustrate how preoccupation with bivariate patterns distracts from a deeper understanding of the multivariate mechanisms that control these important ecosystem properties.

Optimal power system stabilizer tuning in multi-machine system via an improved differential evolution

Power system stabilizer (PSS) is one of the most important controllers in modern power systems for damping low frequency oscillations. Many efforts have been dedicated to design the tuning methodologies and allocation techniques to obtain optimal damping behaviors of the system. Traditionally, it is tuned mostly for local damping performance, however, in order to obtain a globally optimal performance, the tuning of PSS needs to be done considering more variables. Furthermore, with the enhancement of system interconnection and the increase of system complexity, new tools are required to achieve global tuning and coordination of PSS to achieve optimal solution in a global meaning. Differential evolution (DE) is a recognized as a simple and powerful global optimum technique, which can gain fast convergence speed as well as high computational efficiency. However, as many other evolutionary algorithms (EA), the premature of population restricts optimization capacity of DE. In this paper, a modified DE is proposed and applied for optimal PSS tuning of 39-Bus New-England system. New operators are introduced to reduce the probability of getting premature. To investigate the impact of system conditions on PSS tuning, multiple operating points will be studied. Simulation result is compared with standard DE and particle swarm optimization (PSO).

Critical attributes of public-private partnerships : a case study in vocational education

The term ‘partnership’ is increasingly used by governments, industry, community organisations and schools in supporting their daily businesses. Similar to the terms ‘ICT’ and ‘learning’, ‘partnerships’ are now ubiquitous in policy discourse. Yet, the term remains ill-defined and ambiguous. This study reviews and reflects on a government led industry-school partnership initiative in the state of Queensland, Australia, to understand how the term is used in this initiative. Given the frequent use of Public Private Partnership (PPP) language, PPP was used as a framework to review this initiative. The methodology of this qualitative case study involved consultations with stakeholders and an analysis of Gateway schools documents, policy documents, and literature. The review suggests that despite the use of terminology akin to PPP projects in Gateway school and policy documents, the implicit suggestion that this initiative is a public-private partnership is untenable. The majority of principles shaping a PPP have not been considered to a significant extent in the Gateway project. Although the review recognises the legitimate and sincere purpose of the Gateway schools initiative, the adoption of a PPP framework during the design, monitoring, or evaluation stages could have strengthened the initiative in terms of outcomes, benefits, and sustainability.

Partnerships to promote school to work transitions : evidence from the field

Internationally, vocational education and training (VET) is challenged by increasing skills shortages in certain industries and rapidly changing skill requirements. Rigid and centralised state bureaucracies have proven inadequate to adapt to these challenges. Increasingly, partnerships between schools and industry have been established as a potential strategy to address local labour market demand and to provide school to work transition programs. Drawing on experiences in Australia, this paper reports on a case study of government-let partnerships between schools and industry. The Queensland Gateway schools initiative currently involves over 120 schools. The study aimed to understand how partnerships were constructed in this initiative. Selected partnerships were analysed in terms of the following principles of public-private partnerships – efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, and beneficiaries. Although there are some benefits of partnership activities reported by both school and industry stakeholders, little evidence was found that the above underlying principles had been addressed to a significant extent in the Gateway school initiative. Further, these partnerships are often tenuously facilitated by individuals who have limited infrastructure or strategic support. Implications are that project stakeholders have not sufficiently accommodated theoretical perspectives on implementation and management of partnerships. Similar initiatives may be improved if stakeholders are cognisant of the underlying principles supporting successful public-private partnerships.

Industry school partnerships: Boundary crossing to enable school to work transitions

Industry-school partnerships (ISPs) are increasingly being recognised as a new way of providing vocational education opportunities. However, there is limited research investigating their impact on school to work transitions. This paper reports on a government-led ISP, the Gateway to Industry Schools Program, established in Queensland, Australia. Central to this initiative is the Queensland Minerals and Energy Academy (QMEA), a lead organisation for 28 schools and 17 multi-national sponsor companies. This research adopted a qualitative case study methodology and draws upon boundary crossing theory as means to understand a Minerals and Energy ISP. We distinguish four types of boundary crossing mechanisms, which align with principles for effectiveness in ISPs. The main findings were that boundary crossing mechanisms assist ISPs to develop industry-based contextualised curriculum and to prepare school students for employment.

Damage detection in cable structures using vibration characteristics

Cable structures find many applications such as in power transmission, in anchors and especially in bridges. They serve as major load bearing elements in suspension bridges, which are capable of spanning long distances. All bridges, including suspension bridges, are designed to have long service lives. However, during this long life, they become vulnerable to damage due to changes in loadings, deterioration with age and random action such as impacts. The main cables are more vulnerable to corrosion and fatigue, compared to the other bridge components, and consequently reduces the serviceability and ultimate capacity of the bridge. Detecting and locating such damage at the earliest stage is challenging in the current structural health monitoring (SHM) systems of long span suspension bridges. Damage or deterioration of a structure alters its stiffness, mass and damping properties which in turn modify its vibration characteristics. This phenomenon can therefore be used to detect damage in a structure. The modal flexibility, which depends on the vibration characteristics of a structure, has been identified as a successful damage indicator in beam and plate elements, trusses and simple structures in reinforced concrete and steel. Successful application of the modal flexibility phenomenon to detect and locate the damage in suspension bridge main cables has received limited attention in recent research work. This paper, therefore examines the potential of the modal flexibility based Damage Index (DI) for detecting and locating damage in the main cable of a suspension bridge under four different damage scenarios. Towards this end, a numerical model of a suspension bridge cable was developed to extract the modal parameters at both damaged and undamaged states. Damage scenarios considered in this study with varied location and severity were simulated by changing stiffness at particular locations of the cable model. Results confirm that the DI has the potential to successfully detect and locate damage in suspension bridge main cables. This simple method can therefore enable bridge engineers and managers to detect and locate damage in suspension bridges at an early stage, minimize expensive retrofitting and prevent bridge collapse.

Coordinated control of grid connected photovoltaic reactive power and battery energy storage systems to improve the voltage profile of a residential distribution feeder

Increasing penetration of photovoltaic (PV) as well as increasing peak load demand has resulted in poor voltage profile for some residential distribution networks. This paper proposes coordinated use of PV and Battery Energy Storage (BES) to address voltage rise and/or dip problems. The reactive capability of PV inverter combined with droop based BES system is evaluated for rural and urban scenarios (having different R/X ratios). Results show that reactive compensation from PV inverters alone is sufficient to maintain acceptable voltage profile in an urban scenario (low resistance feeder), whereas, coordinated PV and BES support is required for the rural scenario (high resistance feeder). Constant as well as variable droop based BES schemes are analyzed. The required BES sizing and associated cost to maintain the acceptable voltage profile under both schemes is presented. Uncertainties in PV generation and load are considered, with probabilistic estimation of PV generation and randomness in load modeled to characterize the effective utilization of BES. Actual PV generation data and distribution system network data is used to verify the efficacy of the proposed method.

Bond performance of CFRP strengthened steel members subjected to axial compression

This paper focuses on the use of externally bonded Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) materials to strengthen steel plates subjected to compression. A fully slender steel section was selected in this test programme. CFRP strengthened steel plates and non strengthened plates were tested to fail under compressive load. The middle part of the strut was strengthened using CFRP sheet. The length of the strengthened zone was varied. Eight specimens were tested in this test programme. The test results showed a significant strength gain of 47% and delaying of lateral torsional buckling failure mode of strengthened members. This study confirms that there is great potential to increase the short term performance of CFRP strengthened steel structure under axial compression.

State-of-the-art : track degradation at bridge transitions

Transition zones between bridge decks and rail tracks suffer early failure due to poor interaction between rail vehicles and sudden changes of stiffness. This has been an ongoing problem to rail industry and yet still no systematic studies appear to have been taken to maintain a gradually smoothening transmission of forces between the bridge and its approach. Differential settlement between the bridge deck and rail track in the transition zone is the fundamental issue, which negatively impacts the rail industry by causing passenger discomfort, early damage to infrastructure and vehicle components, speed reduction, and frequent maintenance cycles. Identification of mechanism of the track degradation and factors affecting is imperative to design any mitigation method for reducing track degradation rate at the bridge transition zone. Unfortunately this issue is still not well understood, after conducting a numbers of reviews to evaluate the key causes, and introducing a wide range of mitigation techniques. In this study, a comprehensive analysis of the available literature has been carried out to develop either a novel design framework or a mitigation technique for the bridge transition zone. This paper addresses three critical questions in relation to the track degradation at transition zone: (1) what are the causes of bridge transition track degradation?; (2) what are the available mitigation techniques in reducing the track degradation rate?; (3) what are the factors affecting on poor performance of the existing mitigation techniques?. It is found that the absence of soil-water response, dynamic loading response, and behaviour of geotechnical characteristics under long-term conditions in existing track transition design frameworks critically influence on the failures of existing mitigation techniques. This paper also evaluates some of the existing design frameworks to identify how each design framework addresses the track degradation at the bridge transition zone.

Sustainability in post disaster road infrastructure recovery projects and asset management

Civil infrastructure and especially roads are being impacted with increasing frequency by flood, Tsunami, cyclone related natural and manmade disasters in the world. Responding to such events and in preparing for more regular and intense climate-change induced events in future, the road governing agencies are reviewing how postdisaster road infrastructure recovery projects are best planned and delivered. In particular, there is awareness that rebuilding such infrastructure require sustainable asset management strategies across economic, environmental and social dimensions. A comprehensive asset management framework for pre and post disaster situations can minimize negative impacts on our communities, economy and environment. This research paper is focused on post disaster management in road infrastructures and road infrastructure asset management strategies used by road authorities. Analyzing the implications of disruption to transport network and associated services is an important part of preparing local and regional responses to the impacts of disasters. This research paper will contribute to strategic infrastructure asset planning, management leading to safe, efficient and integrated transport system that supports sustainable economic, social and environmental outcomes. This paper also focuses on proper asset management, governance and engineering principles which should be followed and adopted in post disaster recovery projects to maximize sustainability in environmental, social and economic dimensions.