Monitoring the performance of a microkernel based operating system and supported applications

The message passing microkernel based operating system is a class of operating system in which the policies are implemented using servers whose co-operation is supported by using a small hardware dependent layer called a microkernel. This thesis addresses the issue of reducing the performance deficiency by documenting the synthesis, development, implementation and assessment of a methodology and mechanisms for monitoring the performance of a message passing microkernel based operating system and supported processes. The methodology has been extensively evaluated to ensure that it can be used successfully to monitor performance.

Transition to a low carbon footprint : a conceptual model of impacts and management for Australian businesses

Australian businesses will face profound and wide-ranging structural impacts during their transition to a low carbon footprint economy. This paper synthesizes the impacts for the firm during the transition and identifies the crucial impact variables. In doing so, it explores the link between the opportunities and benefits, costs, risks and structural changes and evaluates the challenges in managing the multiple impacts. The paper provides a conceptual model that will assist decision-makers deal with risk management or bottom-line protection issues as well as exploiting the business opportunity the new regulatory environment will produce. The model argues for a holistic corporate governance mechanism, with responsibility and accountability of climate change risk management placed with the board of directors and senior management. The literature review is presented first, followed by the discussion and the model. Future empirical research direction is also presented with the development of a series of propositions for testing.

A theoretical framework of alliance performance : the role of trust, social capital and knowledge development

While studies on alliances have been substantial in the international business literature, much is still unexplored in understanding what alliance performance really is and how superior alliance performance is facilitated (Das & Teng 2003). Drawing from research on alliances, we develop a theoretical framework to examine alliance performance by integrating a partner analysis approach, focusing on alliance trust, alliance partners' social capital, and knowledge development from alliance relationships. We consider the level of mutual trust between alliance partners to be the precursor to such relationship (Das & Teng 1998). Trust, we argue, subsequently builds and enhances the partners' social capital. Two types of social capital are considered in this article: internal social capital and external social capital. In developing our framework, we further subscribe to the notion that knowledge is a contributing factor to superior alliance performance, and consider how such relationships influence the development of partners' knowledge in terms of the development in the tacit firm-specific and the more explicit market-specific knowledge. Key managerial implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

That's artertainment! Art galleries, events and city life

This key note address uses branding, as one way for galleries to tell their stories about 'artertainment' to enrich the wider story of the city to their various audiences.  Despite the centrality of telling stories in galleries as a means of positioning city cultural life, rarely has branding 'artetainment' been explored in the marketing literature.  What do case studies reveal about the marketing techniques used by art galleries as far as representing culture in the city? Using historical research methods, annual reports and interviews, the paper views art galleries from the inside out as a means of branding city cultural life through 'artertainment'.  The originality of this article is in its depiction of case studies of art galleries from the inside out as brands for city cultural life.

The downside of relying on research outputs to assess business faculty performance : comments from down under regarding facilitating and creating synergies between teaching and research : the role of the academic administrator

This commentary presents an Australian perspective on Balkin and Mello’s “Facilitating and Creating Synergies between Teaching and Research: The Role of the Academic Administrator.” It addresses one particularly important aspect of the separation of teaching and research in business schools; namely, the increasing dominance of discipline-based research output measures in overall business faculty performance, coupled with a reliance on journal rankings as de facto quality measures for research output. Some possible alternate approaches to research performance/impact measurement in our rapidly changing academic environment are also considered.

Immersive interfaces for art education teaching and learning in mixed reality virtual and real world environments

Selected ubiquitous technologies encourage collaborative participation between higher education students and educators within a virtual socially networked e-learning landscape. Multiple modes of teaching and learning, ranging from real world experiences, to text and digital images accessed within the Deakin Studies Online learning management system and a constructed virtual world in which the user’s creative imagination transports them to the “other side” of their computer screens is discussed in this paper. These constructed environments support interaction between communities of learners and enable multiple simultaneous participants to access graphically built 3D environments, interact with digital artifacts and various functional tools and represent themselves through avatars, to communicate with other participants and engage in collaborative art learning. A narrative interpretative research approach was used to profile the 21st century higher education student learner, to investigate the lived experience and multiple art learning perspectives documented in student visual journal entries and art educator observations to ascertain if an e-technology rich augmented learning environment resulted in the establishment of more effective e-learning communities of practice.

Immersive interfaces for art education teaching and learning in virtual and real world learning environments

Exploring the conceptual boundaries of diaspora and battlefield tourism: Australians' travel to the Gallipoli battlefield, Turkey, as a case study

Historical tourism resources associated with diasporic communities and battlefields would at face value appear to have little in common. On closer inspection, however, diaspora and battlefield tourism share several elements in common. These commonalities are explored in greater detail, with an eye to investigating battlefield tourism sites indelibly linked to the birth of modern nations, where it is argued that there is a particularly blurred boundary between these two forms of tourism that must be recognized. 

The Gallipoli battlefield, Turkey, provides the contextual anchor for this discussion in suggesting that a key reason Australians travel to this foreign place to is to find out what it means to be an Australian. The prominence of this battlefield in the psyche of Australians is borne out of the involvement of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzac) in the First World War campaign that commenced at what is now known as Anzac Cove at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915. This campaign was the first united action of the fledging Australian nation bought together through federation in 1901.

Qualitative data collected from Australians visiting the Gallipoli battlefields in Turkey during 2010 is used to explore whether the experiences of those traveling to battlefields strongly associated with nation building legends and stories resemble those of diasporic tourists in seeking to return to their homeland. Emerging from the analysis, the confines of the blurred boundary between diaspora tourism and battlefield tourism is discussed in detail and an associated research agenda is proposed that aims to further clarify the scope of these concepts in relation to the broad spectrum of heritage tourism resources.

Effect of a school-based active play intervention on sedentary time and physical activity in preschool children

Early childhood is a critical time for promoting physical activity. Few studies have investigated the effect of interventions in this population. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a school-based active play intervention on preschool children’s sedentary time and physical activity. Preschool children were recruited from randomly selected preschools. Schools were randomly assigned to an intervention or comparison group. One teacher per intervention school received training from active play professionals in the delivery of a 6-week active play programme. Comparison schools continued their usual practice. Children wore a uni-axial accelerometer for 7 days at baseline, immediately after and at 6-month post-intervention. No significant intervention effects were observed for sedentary time or physical activity. However, sex and hours spent at school were significant predictors of physical activity. Children who spent fewer hours (half-day children) at school were significantly more active than their full-day counterparts. Physical activity during the intervention classes was high even though neither daily physical activity nor sedentary time changed. Notably children who spent more time at preschool were less active suggesting that preschool was not as conducive to physical activity engagement as other environments.

Does Candida and/or Staphylococcus play a role in nipple and breast pain in lactation? A cohort study in Melbourne, Australia

Objective: To investigate Candida species and Staphylococcus aureus and the development of 'nipple and breast thrush' among breastfeeding women. Design: Prospective longitudinal cohort study. Setting: Two hospitals in Melbourne, Australia (one public, one private) with follow-up in the community. Participants: 360 nulliparous women recruited at 36 weeks' gestation from November 2009 to June 2011. Participants were followed up six times: in hospital, at home weekly until 4 weeks postpartum and by telephone at 8 weeks. Main outcome measures: Case definition 'nipple and breast thrush': burning nipple pain and breast pain (not related to mastitis); detection of Candida spp (using culture and PCR) in the mother's vagina, nipple or breast milk or in the baby's mouth; detection of S aureus in the mother' nipple or breast milk. Results: Women with the case definition of nipple/ breast thrush were more likely to have Candida spp in nipple/breast milk/baby oral samples (54%) compared to other women (36%, p=0.014). S aureus was common in nipple/breast milk/baby samples of women with these symptoms as well as women without these symptoms (82% vs 79%) (p=0.597). Time-to-event analysis examined predictors of nipple/breast thrush up to and including the time of data collection. Candida in nipple/breast milk/baby predicted incidence of the case definition (rate ratio (RR) 1.87 (95% CI 1.10 to 3.16, p=0.018). We do not have evidence that S aureus colonisation was a predictor of these symptoms (RR 1.53, 95% CI 0.88 to 2.64, p=0.13). Nipple damage was also a predictor of these symptoms, RR 2.30 (95% CI 1.19 to 4.43, p=0.012). In the multivariate model, with all three predictors, the RRs were very similar to the univariate RRs. This indicates that Candida and nipple damage are independent predictors of our case definition.