The policy cycle and vernacular globalization: a case study of the creation of Vietnam National University - Hochiminh City

This article examines the policy cycle and vernacular globalization in the context of higher education reform in Vietnam. Through an analysis of the development of the Vietnam National University - Hochiminh City as part of the post-1986 reconstruction of Vietnamese higher education, the article considers the complex interrelationship between globalized policy discourses, national interests and history in Vietnam, and the specific politics of policy implementation within one institution. Vietnam National University - Hochiminh City was created through an amalgamation of a number of smaller universities, and against the backdrop of social and economic restructuring aimed at promoting industrialization and a market orientation within socialist governance. The article reveals the dynamic tension between these local and global influences on higher education policy and practice, and more specifically, the dilemmas associated with top-down policy implementation when a new organization consists of older organizations with powerful provenance and reputations. In so doing the article demonstrates the necessity to globalize policy theory.

Dating the dreaming? Creation of myths and rituals for mounds along the northern Australian coastline

Shell mounds ceased to be built in many parts of coastal northern Australia about 800-600 years ago. They are the subject of stories told by Aboriginal people and some have been incorporated in ritual and political activities during the last 150 ears. These understandings emerged only after termination of the economic and environmental system that created them, 800-600 years ago, in a number of widely separated coastal regions, Modern stories and treatments of these mounds by Aboriginal people concern modern or near-modern practices. Modern views of the mounds, their mythological and ritual associations, may be explained by reference to the socioeconomic transitions seen in the archaeological record; but the recent cultural, social and symbolic statements about these places cannot inform us of the process or ideology concerned with the formation of the mounds. Many Aboriginal communities over the last half a millennium actively,formed understandings of new landscapes and systems of land use. Attempts to impose historic ideologies and cosmologies on earlier times fail to acknowledge the magnitude and rate of economic and ideological change on the tropical coastline of Australia.

A review of the impact of education and prior experience on new venture performance

The importance of education and experience to the successful performance of new firms is well recognized both by management practitioners and academics. Yet empirical research to support the significance of this relationship is inconclusive. This paper discusses theories describing the relationship between education and experience and firm performance. It also analyses and classifies the differing measures of performance, education and experience, and compares the results of multiple studies undertaken between 1977 and 2000. Possible reasons for conflicting results are identified, such as lack of sound theoretical bases that relate education and experience to performance, varying definitions of the key variables and the diversity of measures used. Finally, a framework is developed that incorporates variables that interact with experience and education to influence new venture performance.

Expecting dirt but saying dart: The creation of a blend memory

During a naming task, time pressure and a manipulation of the proportion of related prime-target pairs were used to induce subjects to generate an expectation to the prime. On some trials, the presented target was orthographically and generally phonologically similar to the expected tal-get. The expectancy manipulation was barely detectable in the priming data but was clearly evident on a final recognition test. In addition, the recognition data showed that the nearly simultaneous activation of an expectation and sensory information derived from the orthographically and phonologically similar target produced a false memory. It is argued that this represents a blend memory.

Realtime fetal ultrasound by telemedicine in Queensland. A successful venture?

We have established a realtime fetal tele-ultrasound consultation service in Queensland, which has been integrated into our routine clinical practice, The service, which uses ISDN transmission at 384 kbit/s, allows patients in Townsville to be examined by subspecialists in Brisbane, 1500 km away. For the 90 tele-ultrasound consultations performed for the first 71 patients, 90% of the babies have been delivered, and outcome data have been received on all the pregnancies. All significant anomalies and diagnoses have been confirmed. The referring clinicians would have physically referred 24 of the 71 patients to Brisbane in the absence of telemedicine. A crude cost-benefit calculation suggests that the tele-ultrasound service resulted in a net saving of A$6340, and at the same time enabled almost four times the number of consultations to be carried out.

Entanglement creation using quantum interrogation

We present some applications of high-efficiency quantum interrogation (interaction-free measurement) for the creation of entangled states of separate atoms and of separate photons. The quantum interrogation of a quantum object in a superposition of object-in and object-out leaves the object and probe in an entangled state. The probe can then be further entangled with other objects in subsequent quantum interrogations. By then projecting out those cases in which the probe is left in a particular final state, the quantum objects can themselves be left in various entangled states. In this way, we show how to generate two-, three-, and higher-qubit entanglement between atoms and between photons. The effect of finite efficiency for the quantum interrogation is delineated for the various schemes.