Development by design in Western Australia : Overcoming offset obstacles

Biodiversity offsets can be an important tool for maintaining or enhancingenvironmental values in situations where development is sought despite negativeenvironmental impacts. There are now approximately 45 compensatory mitigationprograms for biodiversity impacts worldwide, with another 27 programs in development. While offsets have great potential as a conservation tool, their establishment requires overcoming a number of conceptual and methodological hurdles. In Australia, new policy changes at the national and state (i.e., Western Australia) level require that offsets follow a set of general principles: (1) Environmental offsets may not be appropriate for all projects and will only be considered after avoidance and mitigation options have been pursued;(2) Environmental offsets will be based on sound environmental information andknowledge; (3) Establishing goals for offsets requires an estimate of expected direct and indirect impacts; (4) Environmental offsets will be focused on longer term strategic outcomes; (5) Environmental offsets will be cost-effective, as well as relevant and proportionate to the significance of the environmental value being impacted. Here we focus on the challenges of determining and implementing offsets using a real world example from a voluntary offset process undertaken for Barrick Gold’s Kanowna Belle mine site in Western Australia to highlight those challenges and potential solutions.

Positive youth development in the United States: History, efficacy, and links to moral and character education

This paper reviews specific conceptual frameworks and focuses on the evidence from evaluations of program applications delivered prior to age 21 that have the common aim of encouraging Positive Youth Development.

Constructive alignment and the research skills development framework: Using theory to practically align graduate attributes, learning experiences, and assessment tasks in undergraduate midwifery

Midwifery educators have to provide students with stimulating curricula that teach academic and vocational content, as well as transferable skills. The Research Skills Development (RSD) framework provides a conceptual model that allows educators to explicitly scaffold the development of their students’ research skills. This paper aims to demonstrate the effective use of the RSD framework and constructive alignment theory to redesign a second-year Midwifery assessment task.The assessment task was changed into a scenario-based question to better reflect the unit learning objectives and expected graduate attributes. Students were provided with extra time in class to explore the assessment task in a peer environment. Following the return of their assessments, students were asked to complete a questionnaire to evaluate the effectiveness of the assessment redesign. We show that using a constructively aligned scenario-based assessment task in a second year unit more successfully articulated the expected graduate attributes of midwives. Qualitative and quantitative feedback suggested that students and staff appreciated a more clinically- relevant assessment task. This paper demonstrates that the use of the RSD framework to constructively aligngraduate attributes, learning experiences, and assessment tasks allows for the transformation of undergraduate assessment into a learning experience relevant to clinical practice.

Challenges for sport development: women's entry level cycling participation

Sport participation is an issue of relevance to sport managers, yet it is an often-neglected area of sport management research. Cycling is a particularly complex form of participation to examine given its many formats, including sport, recreational and commuter cycling, and the multifaceted nature of the cycling landscape involving a broad range of stakeholders. In Australia, women are underrepresented in cycling participation and membership (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012; Cycling Australia, 2014), yet women show an interest in cycling training courses. The present paper explores motivations, supports and constraints reported by a group of entry-level female cyclists who participated in a training programme accredited by AustCycle, an initiative led by Cycling Australia. We draw on a health and sport development driven framework, informed by social ecological theory (Rowe et al., 2013), and suited to examining the issue of women's cycling participation in Australia. Results show that a range of individual characteristics, and factors within the social and physical environment, were perceived by study participants as barriers to participation. Of these, skill level, confidence, traffic/road conditions, and social support networks held particular relevance. Participants also discussed specific cycling barriers and supports of relevance to certain forms of cycling. Preliminary insights into perceptions held by a group of entry-level female cyclists highlight overlaps between cycling formats and indicate that conceptual advancements in the development of sport, and development through sport could be collectively considered in the context of women's cycling participation. Further research opportunities were also identified.

Understanding and development of supply chain agility and flexibility: a structured literature review

This paper provides a review of the literature while contributing to academic understanding of the concepts of agility and flexibility within the supply chain. The research identified 83 peer-reviewed articles through a structured review technique, which is based on a three-stage refinement process. Data reduction procedures using codification, sentence strings and a review of keywords, title, abstract and conclusion were used in the search. The papers identified focused on organizational and supply chain agility and flexibility. The acknowledged gaps in understanding and development of agility and flexibility in supply chains were identified and categorized in terms of conceptual, contextual and methodological gaps. Subsequent to the gap analysis, this paper argues that effective relationship integration with key partners is a fundamental mechanism for mitigating the problem of control dissipation, which has hindered academic understanding with respect to development and application of agile and flexible capabilities in supply chains. The findings in this paper will help academics to gain a better understanding and to develop the concepts of supply chain agility and flexibility. In addition, the findings indicate that supply chain stakeholders need to address the issue of relationship integration when undertaking, or participating in agility and flexibility development programmes, so as to maximize supply chain performance. The paper concludes by highlighting implications for managers and researchers, and proposes a number of areas for future investigation.

Development and preliminary evaluation of the OsteoArthritis Questionnaire (OA-Quest): a psychometric study

OBJECTIVE: This study reports the development of the OsteoArthritis Questionnaire (OA-Quest) - a new measure designed to comprehensively capture the potentially modifiable burden of osteoarthritis.

DESIGN: Item development was guided by the a priori conceptual framework of the Personal Burden of Osteoarthritis (PBO) which captures 8 dimensions of osteoarthritis burden (Physical distress, Fatigue, Physical limitations, Psychosocial distress, Physical de-conditioning, Financial hardship, Sleep disturbances, Lost productivity). One hundred and twenty three candidate items were pretested in a clinical sample of 18 osteoarthritis patients. The measurement properties of the OA-Quest were assessed with exploratory factor analysis (EFA), Rasch modelling, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in a community-based sample (n = 792).

RESULTS: EFA replicated 7 of the 8 PBO domains. An exception was PBO Fatigue domain, with items merging into the Physical distress subscale in the OA-Quest. Following item analysis, a 42-item 7-subscale questionnaire was constructed, measuring Physical distress (seven items, Cronbach's α = 0.93), Physical limitations (11 items, α = 0.95), Psychosocial distress (seven items, α = 0.93), Physical de-conditioning (four items, α = 0.87), Financial hardship (four items, α = 0.93), Sleep disturbances (five items, α = 0.96), and Lost productivity (four items α = 0.90). A highly restricted 7-factor CFA model had excellent fit with the data (χ(2)(113) = 316.36, P < 0.001; chi-square/degrees of freedom = 2.8; comparative fit index [CFI] = 0.97; root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = 0.07), supporting construct validity of the new measure.

CONCLUSIONS: The OA-Quest is a new measure of osteoarthritis burden that is founded on a comprehensive conceptual model. It has strong evidence of construct validity and provides reliable measurement across a broad range of osteoarthritis burden.

The e-health literacy framework: A conceptual framework for characterizing e-health users and their interaction with e-health systems

In current e-health research and development there is a need for a broader understanding of the capabilities and resources required for individuals to use and benefit from e-health services, i.e. their e-health literacy. The aim of
this study was to develop a new conceptualisation of e-health literacy with consideration of the experiences of a wide range of stakeholders and in alignment with current technologies. Concept mapping was used to generate a comprehensive and grounded model of e-health literacy. Concept mapping workshop participants included patients, health professionals and medical informatics experts. Eight workshops, carried out in Denmark and United Kingdom, generated 450 statements, separated into 128 clusters. Through an inductive structured analysis, seven domains were identified: 1. Ability to process information, 2. Engagement in own health, 3. Ability to engage actively with digital services, 4. Feeling safe and in control, 5. Motivation to engage with digital services, 6. Having access to systems that work, and 7. Digital services that suit individual needs. These empirically derived domains form an e-health literacy framework (eHLF) and provide new insights into the user’s ability to understand, access and use e-health technologies. The eHLF offers a framework for evaluating an individual’s or a population’s capacity to understand, use and benefit from technology to promote and maintain their health. Such a framework also provides a potential checklist for the development and improvement of e-health services.