One-dimensional nanomaterials synthesized using high-energy ball milling and annealing process

One-dimensional (1D) nanomaterials including nanotubes, nanowires and nanorods have many new properties, functionalities and a large range of promising applications. A major challenge for these future industrial applications is the large-quantity production. We report that the ball milling and annealing process has the potential to achieve the mass production. Several examples including C, BN nanotubes and SiC, Zn nanowires are presented to demonstrate such capability. In addition, both size and structure of 1D nanomaterials can be controlled by varying processing conditions. New growth mechanisms involved in the process have been investigated and the high-energy ball milling has an important role in the formation of these 1D nanomaterials.

The attraction, retention/transition and nurturing process of sport development : some Australian evidence

The purpose of this study was to explore and map the sport development processes in Australia. A grounded theory approach identified sport development processes by examining 74 annual reports from 35 national sporting organizations (NSOs) over a period of 4 years, before and after the Sydney Olympic Games. The 3 frameworks presented in this article representing the attraction, retention/ transition, and nurturing process illustrate the generic processes and strategies described by NSOs. The results show that each sport development process requires human and financial input from various stakeholders. These stakeholders initiate or implement sport development strategies for each process and each process has different sport development outputs. These results contribute to the extant literature of sport development by demonstrating that sport development is more complex and encompassing than previously described. It is proposed that the generic frameworks derived from this study be subject to more specific testing using other sport systems, as context and case studies could lead to tailoring the frameworks to represent specific sport development processes and systems.

IT security certifications : stakeholder evaluation and selection

Information technology (IT) security certifications have proliferated in recent years. However they differ in regards to stakeholder considerations of credibility, accessibility and relevance. Key stakeholders with an interest in selecting an IT security certification (IT security professionals, employers, governments and higher education institutes) lack a systematic approach for differentiating between candidate certifications and selecting the “best” certification to satisfy requirements. The paper focuses on reporting a confirmatory focus group from a recent research project. It provides a framework for supporting stakeholder evaluation and selection of IT security certifications and discusses key implications for the IT security industry, IT security certifications, and the higher education sector.

The recruitment and retention of Indigenous criminal justice agency staff in an Australian state

In Australia, as in other countries that have experienced colonisation, indigenous people are massively overrepresented in all stages of the criminal justice system. If criminal justice agencies are to provide culturally responsive and effective services to this group, it is important that they employ significant numbers of indigenous staff across all levels of their organisations. Despite the positive intentions of many justice agencies to increase the proportion of indigenous staff members they employ, the numbers remain low. In this article, we explore some of the possible reasons for this by reporting the results of focus groups conducted with existing indigenous justice agency employees. The employees raised a number of issues relevant to recruitment and retention. These are discussed in terms of their potential value in improving justice agency indigenous recruitment and retention strategies.

English language reform and the process of democratic change

Malaysian society has and is undergoing considerable social, political, economic and educational change. Scholars point to the forces of globalization and the needs to be able to meet the challenges of globalization as the central driver of language policy. Commentators, academics and many in the general public have focused on the need for Malaysia to adapt to globalization and the importance of English to this process given the needs and characteristic of the knowledge economy. However, there appears to be less recognition of the way such a change in Malaysian language policy needs to be engaged in a dynamically shifting knowledge society and developing public sphere. Language is a social act and the debate over language and its place and role in society is therefore a debate over the nature and quality of social interaction. Debate over language is thus inherently political. Due to the growth and development of an interactive and engaged public sphere and knowledge society in Malaysia, there is a need to approach to the idea of engaging English that grasps the plurality and complexity of its role in the world. The political approach to engaging English in Malaysia needs to engage democratic deliberation in a society that is increasingly fragmented but also showing signs of developing an active public sphere not beholden to top down authority. Disagreement over language and the way the debate is theorized hides from view the possibility of points of consensus on the issue of English language and Malaysian education. Establishing overlapping consensus through public deliberation and consultation is a necessary precondition to effective language policy in contemporary Malaysia. Failure to understand this only leads to policy paralysis.

Ethical issues in the recruitment and retention of graduate nurses : a national concern

Australia like other countries is facing a crisis in the recruitment and retention of nurses. Adding to this crisis is the insufficient supply of new graduate nurses to meet current and future workforce demands. Unless changes are implemented that will bring likely demand and supply into balance, it is predicted that by the year 2010 (just seven year away) there will be a shortage of 40,000 nurses in Australia. Significantly, the current shortage of nurses is seeing hospitals, regions, States and countries compete fiercely with each other as they strive to recruit and retain sufficient numbers of nurses to meet their work force needs. The recruitment and retention strategies used by some prospective employers, however, have been highly questionable and raise serious questions about the ethics of nurse recruitment. In response to the issues raised, it is a key recommendation of this paper that mechanisms, including a national code of practice, need urgently to be put in place to ensure the effective, equitable and ethical regulation and monitoring of nurse recruitment and retention in Australia.

Attributed publication and selection for web service-based distributed systems

With the emergence of cloud computing, the need for flexible and detailed publication and selection of services that expose cloud resources is greatly stressed. While dynamic attributes have improved the publication and selection of resources in distributed systems, the use of dynamic attributes is yet to be tried in Web services: a key element that makes cloud computing possible. We propose a new approach to Web service publication and selection using dynamic attributes shown in Web service WSDL documents, the most commonly accessed and used elements of Web services.

Recruitment and retention of ICT skills among MNCs in Taiwan

Purpose – The existing research on multinational companies (MNCs) tends to emphasise the diffusion of knowledge and skills in information, communication and technology (ICT) from the more advanced industrialised nations to less-developed or latecomer countries. Few studies have examined the ICT work force supply and development of local ICT skills among MNCs' overseas subsidiaries. This paper aims to fill the gap by evaluating the issues relating to the host country's ICT work force planning and supply and the recruitment and retention of ICT skills among MNCs at their local subsidiary.

Design/methodology/approach – A survey of 100 MNCs in Taiwan, Republic of China was used for analysis. The self-administered questionnaire was designed to examine the extent of difficulty experienced by MNCs in recruiting high, medium and low levels of ICT skills in the manufacturing and service sector. Attrition rate of the ICT skilled workers in Taiwan was also examined.

Findings – The results suggest some degree of ICT skill deficiency at the firm level, despite many efforts attempted by the Taiwanese government to develop and supply ICT skills at the national level. A gap between national advancement in technology and firm level of skills deficiency exists. These findings lead to consideration of a better alignment in providing local government support programs to meet MNCs specific skill requirements.

Originality/value – The study provides some insights especially for the emerging economy of China, which tends to heavily impose government intervention in developing strategic industries.

Person - organisation fit : value congruence in attraction and selection decisions

ASA theory is one of the most important explanations of behaviour in organisations. Developed by Professor Ben Schneider, it is the idea that organisations contain similar types of people because they attract, select and retain people similar to those already employed by the organisation. This homogeneity explains why organisations are different to each other. Although a lot is known about attrition, little is known about the attraction and selection phases. This book contains a series of empirical studies that explore whether organisations attract and select people who hold the values of the people already employed by the organisation. The results of these studies cast doubt on how universal ASA theory might be and suggest that the initial employment decisions that people make are more about choosing their vocation than their employer.

Visualising literature : screen adaptation and the process of reading/viewing

This study demonstrates a method of reading/viewing screen adaptations of literary works as intertextually situated works of art which interact through differences to make possible new interpretations. Switching between possible interpretations undermines views of the world which critics find embedded in the screen adaptation and literary precursors.