Analysis of the cost performance of structural building frames in Australia

The significance of this research is that it is the first comprehensive analysis of cost performance across Australia. It is well known that measuring cost performance is not an easy task; comparisons of building projects on a `like-for-like’ basis are uncommon, and rarely occur in the real world. However, this paper analyses 120 different structural frame models that represent various; structural designs, construction methods, grid spans, and locations.

The research produced price models that were representative of structural frames used in medium-rise non-residential buildings. It is based on pricing a number of standard building frame designs in five Australian cities. The results represent the cost of producing the same building in different locations, using similar building construction techniques. By utilizing a standard model, project variables like building quality, ground conditions and access were eradicated, thereby facilitating an unbiased comparison of cost performance. I addition, the results are an indicator of building productivity based on costs per square metre of various construction types.

This research provides the Australian industry with robust data about the relative cost performance of various structural building frames. In addition, this research has wider implications because the models may also become useful data for the measuring relative cost performance in other countries.

Strategies for the implementation of continuing professional development for SMEs in construction

The Victorian government (in Australia) intends to mandate that all registered building practitioners (RBP) undertake a minimum level of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) as part of the registration process. The introduction of CPD increases the travel costs for construction practitioners; due to the necessity to undertake a minimum level of training. This places an increased burden on construction companies' especially small regional-based firms that are not in a position of financial strength. This research is based on study of training needs of 73 construction companies in Victoria, Australia. The results show that training costs are being unequally weighted towards small regional-based firms; suggesting that the location of the company is a major contributing factor to their ability to meet registration requirements. Regional companies have comparatively high costs for training compared to metropolitan-based firms. Company location is a limiting factor that impacts on the ability of regional firms to implement training programs. This research investigates the notion that increasing registration requirements will improve outcomes for all participants.

International contact lens prescribing in 2011

This is the 11th annual report of contact lens prescribing trends that we have prepared for Contact Lens Spectrum. Each year, we capture current modes of contact lens practice by asking practitioners in each market (optometrists, opticians or ophthalmologists, as appropriate) to provide information about the first 10 lens fits undertaken after receiving our paper or electronic survey form. In 2011, we captured information about 22,362 fits in 29 countries.

International contact lens prescribing in 2010

For the past nine years, we have described the current state of contact lens fitting worldwide in Contact Lens Spectrum. This year, we report on 24,642 lens fits in 27 markets. As in all previous years, coordinators in each market distributed up to 1,000 paper or electronic survey forms to contact lens practitioners who, in turn, collected information about their next 10 fits. Data were processed and checked in the survey administrative offices in Manchester, United Kingdom and in Waterloo, Canada.

The dictionary

The Portia Geach Memorial Award is a celebration of female Australian artists. It’s Australia’s most prestigious portrait prize for female artists and has greatly contributed to the development of female artists in this country. It was established by Florence Kate Geach in 1961 in memory of her sister, Portia Geach and is awarded each year to the best portrait painted from life of some man or woman distinguished in Art, Letters or the Sciences. Our judges this year are Jane Watters, Director S.H. Ervin Gallery, Dr Lindy Lee, Senior Lecturer, Sydney College of the Arts and Ben Quilty, Artist. A media release with the full list of finalists will be distributed tomorrow morning with further details available at www.thetrustcompany.com.au/portiageach. The artwork The Dictionary will be hung in the S.H. Ervin Gallery from 3 October until 16 November, with the exhibition open from 4 October, 1st Prize money $30,000

Engaging clinicians in research: Issues to consider

The beginning of nursing research is attributed to Florence Nightingale whose research during the Crimean War in the 1850s ultimately shaped health care, including nursing practice. Modern research, like clinical care, is influenced by technological, societal, organisational and environmental changes. However, ‘nursing research’ is a simple term that may not encompass complex inter-related concepts and practices and various research methods: quantitative, qualitative, implementation science, evaluation and audit. All research methods follow a similar basic ‘research process,’ but the way the process is applied and rigor is demonstrated differs among the methods. All nurses must engage in research on some level, given they practice in a climate of evidence-based care and are expected to adhere to evidence-based protocols and guidelines. In addition, they need to be able to implement evidence-based best practice and use clinical judgement to treat each person as an individual.

Researching women in silent cinema: new findings and perspectives

This anthology exposes the richness and variety of interests that motivate feminist film research today. Exploring women’s contribution to silent cinema, scholars from across the globe address questions of performance, nationality, industry, technology, labor, and theory of feminist historiography. The volume builds on the thematic, methodological, and material diversity that characterized earlier efforts in women’s film history, and the originating context of the sixth Women and the Silent Screen conference (Bologna, 2010). Much emphasis is given to the transitional period of silent cinema (1910s to the early 1920s), which emerges as the field where feminist film scholars are beginning to claim their own theoretical and historical ‘place’. While giving a new impetus to the idea of transitional cinema, the collected essays also illuminate the importance of film’s transnational circulation. Questions of nation and nationhood, and women’s inclusion or exclusion within these terms, are examined in connection to issues of cultural globalization. How did American serial queens impact early Chinese film? How did the variety stage accommodate American films in Rio de Janeiro? Along what lines might we discuss women filmmakers who literally toured the world? These are just some of the issues that are discussed in the volume. Each investigation prompts us into distinct acts of cultural contextualization. A particular focus on acting and the agency of the actress is shared across the volume. The fundamental figure of the actress links multiple threads of scholarship, traversing different films and national cinemas. Alice Guy, Asta Nielsen, Florence Turner, Lois Weber, Mary Pickford, Esfir’ Shub, Pearl White, Vera Karalli, Aleksandra Khokhlova, Elsa Lanchester, Louise Fazenda, Sarah Bernhardt, Gemma Bellincioni, Angelina Buracci, Yin Mingzhu, Leni Riefensthal: these are but some of the names that are encountered across the essays in the collection. New findings are exposed and new research perspectives are opened through these and other figures, allowing us to uncover original ways of thinking about women’s visibility and agency on film.

International contact lens prescribing in 2013

Every year since 2001, we have reported data from an international survey of contact lens prescribing in Contact Lens Spectrum. This work, which first started in the United Kingdom, has now recorded information about more than 250,000 contact lens fits in 54 countries. Our approach is simple. We ask contact lens prescribers (optometrists, opticians, or ophthalmologists, depending on the country) to record information about the first 10 contact lens fits that they perform after the start of the survey period each year. Each fit is then weighted to reflect the volume of fits performed by each practitioner. Information is collated at our two survey offices in Manchester, United Kingdom and Waterloo, Canada. For this report of contact lens prescribing in 2013, we report data for 21,673 lens fits in 31 markets around the world.

International contact lens prescribing in 2012

Each year we survey contact lens prescribing colleagues around the world (optometrists, opticians, or ophthalmologists depending on the country) and request prospective information about the first 10 patients that they fit with contact lenses after receipt of our survey. In this, our 12th consecutive annual report for Contact Lens Spectrum, we present information relating to 20,566 contact lens fits across 36 countries.

Impact of grain microstructure on the heterogeneity of precipitation strengthening in an Al-Li-Cu alloy

The effect of grain microstructure on the age-hardening behavior is investigated on recrystallized and un-recrystallized Al-Cu-Li alloys by combining electron-backscatter-diffraction and micro-hardness mapping. The spatial heterogeneity of micro-hardness is found to be strongly dependent on the grain microstructure. Controlled experiments are carried out to change the pre-strain before artificial ageing. These experiments lead to an evaluation of the range of local strain induced by pre-stretching as a function of the grain microstructure and results in heterogeneous formation of the hardening T1 precipitates.

‘In joy we prepare our lessons’: Reading Camus’ Noces via their reception of the Eleusinian mysteries

Nobel Prize winning author Albert Camus situates his meditations in both the opening and closing essays in his 1937 collection Noces by referring to the classical Eleusinian mysteries centring around the myths of Dionysus and the goddesses Demeter and Persephone. Noces’ closing piece ‘The Desert’ directly evokes the two levels of initiation involved in the classical Eleusinian cult in a way which prompts us to reframe the preceding essays beginning at Tipasa as akin to a single, initiatory trajectory. The kind of ‘love of life’ the opening ‘Nuptials at Tipasa’ had so marvellously celebrated, we are now informed, is not sufficient by itself. The entire round of these four essays, whose framing suggest four seasons (Spring in Tipasa, Summer at Algiers, then Autumn in Florence), are intended by Camus to enact just what the title, Noces, suggests in the context of the mysteries: namely, that hieros gamos or sacred union of man with nature or the gods at the heart of the ancient cults, tied very closely at Eleusis with reverence for the fecundity of nature, reborn each year with the return of Persephone from Hades to her grieving mother Demeter.

Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists clinical practice guidelines for mood disorders

© 2015 The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. Objectives: To provide guidance for the management of mood disorders, based on scientific evidence supplemented by expert clinical consensus and formulate recommendations to maximise clinical salience and utility. Methods: Articles and information sourced from search engines including PubMed and EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Google Scholar were supplemented by literature known to the mood disorders committee (MDC) (e.g., books, book chapters and government reports) and from published depression and bipolar disorder guidelines. Information was reviewed and discussed by members of the MDC and findings were then formulated into consensus-based recommendations and clinical guidance. The guidelines were subjected to rigorous successive consultation and external review involving: expert and clinical advisors, the public, key stakeholders, professional bodies and specialist groups with interest in mood disorders. Results: The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists clinical practice guidelines for mood disorders (Mood Disorders CPG) provide up-to-date guidance and advice regarding the management of mood disorders that is informed by evidence and clinical experience. The Mood Disorders CPG is intended for clinical use by psychiatrists, psychologists, physicians and others with an interest in mental health care. Conclusions: The Mood Disorder CPG is the first Clinical Practice Guideline to address both depressive and bipolar disorders. It provides up-to-date recommendations and guidance within an evidence-based framework, supplemented by expert clinical consensus. Mood Disorders Committee: Professor Gin Malhi (Chair), Professor Darryl Bassett, Professor Philip Boyce, Professor Richard Bryant, Professor Paul Fitzgerald, Dr Kristina Fritz, Professor Malcolm Hopwood, Dr Bill Lyndon, Professor Roger Mulder, Professor Greg Murray, Professor Richard Porter and Associate Professor Ajeet Singh. International expert advisors: Professor Carlo Altamura, Dr Francesco Colom, Professor Mark George, Professor Guy Goodwin, Professor Roger McIntyre, Dr Roger Ng, Professor John O'Brien, Professor Harold Sackeim, Professor Jan Scott, Dr Nobuhiro Sugiyama, Professor Eduard Vieta, Professor Lakshmi Yatham. Australian and New Zealand expert advisors: Professor Marie-Paule Austin, Professor Michael Berk, Dr Yulisha Byrow, Professor Helen Christensen, Dr Nick De Felice, A/Professor Seetal Dodd, A/Professor Megan Galbally, Dr Josh Geffen, Professor Philip Hazell, A/Professor David Horgan, A/Professor Felice Jacka, Professor Gordon Johnson, Professor Anthony Jorm, Dr Jon-Paul Khoo, Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, Dr Cameron Lacey, Dr Noeline Latt, Professor Florence Levy, A/Professor Andrew Lewis, Professor Colleen Loo, Dr Thomas Mayze, Dr Linton Meagher, Professor Philip Mitchell, Professor Daniel O'Connor, Dr Nick O'Connor, Dr Tim Outhred, Dr Mark Rowe, Dr Narelle Shadbolt, Dr Martien Snellen, Professor John Tiller, Dr Bill Watkins, Dr Raymond Wu.