Engaging with Asia : the Chifley government and the New Delhi conferences of 1947 and 1949

This article is a study of the Chifley government's foreign policy towards Asia, in particular India and Indonesia, as evidenced by Australia's attendance at the 1947 Asian Relations Conference and the 1949 New Delhi Conference on the Indonesian-Dutch conflict. Australia's presence at these two conferences provides an ideal opportunity to examine the Chifley government's response to the momentous changes that occurred in post-war Asia as a result of the dismantling of the European colonial world order. Through detailed examination of the archival material and contemporary accounts generated from Australia's involvement in the New Delhi conferences, this article will argue that despite significant political constraints, the Chifley government did adopt a distinctive and innovative policy towards the emergent nations of Asia in the immediate post-war years.

Power relations in IS projects – a critical review and a new research agenda

This paper seeks to review and examine the major theoretical underpinnings of research into power relations in IS projects. In order to keep the review manageable and to furnish a reasonable explanation of the ideas and papers referenced, the review is restricted to the ideas of Foucault, Giddens and Clegg. Partly, this restriction was due to the wish of the authors to deal seriously with the ideas presented, and not to produce an exhaustive but terse and taxonomic style review. Partly, the selection of the above theorists is due to the fact that the major IS papers on power relations have drawn on their work. This paper concludes with the presentation of a new theory of power and social influence from social psychology suitable for use in IS research. The ideas of this theory have not yet been examined empirically. Thus, IS researchers are challenged to employ these ideas in their empirical research.

Traditional media and the new media audience

There are many challenges ahead for producers, consumers and regulators of Australian media. Perhaps the biggest challenge is to understand that, along with new media, we now have a new media audience - an increasingly different social formation, often eluding efforts to contain its actions within profitable corporate pathways.

Unions and innovation : new insights from the cross-country evidence

We apply meta-regression analysis to the extant econometric studies and find that unions depress investment in innovation at the firm and industry level in all countries considered. However, this adverse effect has been declining over time and is moderated by country differences in industrial relations and regulations: The adverse effect appears to increase with labor market flexibility.

Global positioning system data analysis: velocity ranges and a new definition of sprinting for field sport athletes

Global positioning system (GPS) technology has improved the speed, accuracy, and ease of time-motion analyses of field sport athletes. The large volume of numerical data generated by GPS technology is usually summarized by reporting the distance traveled and time spent in various locomotor categories (e.g., walking, jogging, and running). There are a variety of definitions used in the literature to represent these categories, which makes it nearly impossible to compare findings among studies.

The purpose of this work was to propose standard definitions (velocity ranges) that were determined by an objective analysis of time-motion data. In addition, we discuss the limitations of the existing definition of a sprint and present a new definition of sprinting for field sport athletes.

Twenty-five GPS data files collected from 5 different sports (men’s and women’s field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, and Australian Rules Football) were analyzed to identify the average velocity distribution. A curve fitting process was then used to determine the optimal placement of 4 Gaussian curves representing the typical locomotor categories. 

The old and the new : student perceived efficacy of electronics laboratory equipment

Background
Undergraduate engineering students require exposure to an appropriate level of practical activities to complement the theory delivered in their course. This not only serves the purpose of catering to students’ different learning styles but in contributing to developing practical skills important to achieving an adequate level of job-readiness. The mode by which practical activities are implemented can vary widely across different units of study and different institutions. Electronics practicals within the School of Engineering at Deakin University have traditionally involved the construction and analysis of bread board circuits. Recently however, the practicals have changed to utilise modern computer-integrated Lab Volt FACET board equipment.

The relationships between insomnia, sleep apnoea and depression: findings from the American National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005-2008.

Objective: To determine the association between insomnia, obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), and comorbid insomnia- OSA and depression, while controlling for relevant lifestyle and health factors, among a large population-based sample of US adults. Method: We examined a sample of 11,329 adults (≥18 years) who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) during the years 2005-2008. Insomnia was classified via a combination of self-reported positive physician diagnosis and high-frequency 'trouble falling asleep', 'waking during the night', 'waking too early', and 'feeling unrested during the day'. OSA was classified as a combination of a positive response to a physician-diagnosed condition, in addition to a high frequency of self-reported nocturnal 'snoring', 'snorting/stopping breathing' and 'feeling overly sleepy during the day'. Comorbid insomnia-OSA was further assessed by combining a positive response to either insomnia (all), or sleep apnoea (all), as classified above. Depressive symptomology was assessed by the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), with scores of >9 used to indicate depression. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for sleep disorders and depression were attained from logistic regression modelling adjusted for sex, age, poverty level, smoking status and body mass index (BMI). Results: Those who reported insomnia, OSA or comorbid insomnia-OSA symptoms reported higher rates of depression (33.6%, 22.2%, 27.1%, respectively), and consistently reported poorer physical health outcomes than those who did not report sleep disorders. After adjusting for sex, age, poverty level, smoking status and BMI (kg/m2), insomnia (OR 6.57, 95% CI 3.89-11.11), OSA (OR 5.14, 95% CI 3.14-8.41) and comorbid insomnia-OSA (OR 6.67, 95% CI 4.44-10.00) were associated with an increased likelihood of reporting depression. © The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists 2014.

Evaluating coverage changes in national parks using a hybrid change detection algorithm and remote sensing

Remote sensing is a useful tool for detecting change over time.We introduce a hybrid change-detection method for forest and protected-area vegetation and demonstrate its use with two satellite images of Golestan National Park in northern Iran (1998 and 2010). We report on the advantages and disadvantages of the hybrid method relative to the standard change-detection method. In the proposed hybrid algorithm, the change vector analysis technique was used to determine changes in vegetation. Following this, we used postclassification comparison to determine the nature of the changes observed and their accuracy and to evaluate the effects of different parameters on the performance of the proposed method. We determined 85% accuracy for the proposed hybrid change-detection method, thus demonstrating a method for discovering and assessing environmental threats to natural treasures. © 2014 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

After Romanticism, psychoanalysis and postmodernism: new paradigms for theorising creativity

 While Romanticism, psychoanalysis and postmodern theory have provided the dominant paradigms for understanding creativity in the humanities in the past century, this paper argues that interdisciplinary engagement with sociobiology and the cognitive sciences might provide ground-breaking perspectives. Against the ‘supra-rational’, masculinist and solipsistic visions of creativity that have prevailed, the work of the sociobiologist Ellen Dissanayake and of the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio invite new ways of thinking about the role of the feeling body, femininity and mutuality in creative practice. This paper will survey Dissanayake’s and Damasio’s research to explore the possibility and desirability of a paradigm shift when it comes to understanding creativity, with poetry as a strategic focus for its argument. This paper is not interested in putting forward a new methodology for writing poetry but in recognising the embodied condition from which all poetry fundamentally arises.

Scholarships and Connections: Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, 1960-2010

For over fifty years Australia has welcomed students from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to study at our tertiary institutions on government scholarships. An important premise behind the scholarship program has been the hope that the connections with Australia developed by these students will be long-lasting and mutually beneficial to Australia and partner governments. The research project ‘Scholarships and Connections’ investigates the life stories and experiences of students from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea who were sponsored for Australian-based tertiary study from 1950s-2010. By recording the personal experiences of scholarship recipients and investigating their networks of influence, this research deepens our understanding of scholarship programs and whether or not they produce outcomes that are consistent with the objective of building mutually beneficial linkages between Australia and partner countries. It examines whether the outcomes are enduring or change over time. The project is especially interested in the experiences of former scholarship-holders in positions of leadership and any networks and ongoing connections they have with Australia. This research provides a better understanding of the personal and professional networks of scholarship alumni, and encourages the sharing of experiences. The interviews will be permanently retained in appropriate repositories and drawn on for use in biographies, radio and television programs, internet applications and educational curricula for schools and leadership programs. This research promotes the values of historical research and scholarship among Indonesians and Papua New Guineans and points to the value of oral testimony from past and recent generations of mobile students for current generations facing important challenges and choices.