Extended conversation pieces

Extended Conversation Pieces brings together conversations about art, and conversation as art. The exhibition features collaborative works by six Brisbane emerging artists, Catherine or Kate (Catherine Sagin and Kate Woodcroft), Scott Ferguson (Erika Scott and Brooke Ferguson) and Courtney Coombs and Caitlin Franzmann. These artists engage with ideas of contemporary feminism through processes of dialogue and exchange; exploring subjectivity, humour and intimacy in performance and installation works. Extended Conversation Pieces showcases the distinctive approach to contemporary practice at Boxcopy, an artist run initiative focused on supporting and commissioning new experimental works by Australian artists, and engaging with collaborative processes and practices.

External impact of arts management research: An extended analysis

Arts management is a discipline whose research domain has grown in impact over the last quarter century.This study provides an external thematic, content and citation analysis of arts management articles in top-tiermainstream management and marketing journals between 1987 and 2010. It explicates article, author andcitation frequencies based on author information, publication patterns and thematic citation metrics, thuscontributing to the development of the arts management body of knowledge. Specifically, the study examinesthe function of arts management research as a bridging mechanism to its parent disciplines in managementand marketing. The authors identify thematic citation metrics of research published in mainstream journalsas well as frequencies and publication patterns, so that scholars can make decisions affecting their futureresearch directions. The authors conclude that there is little correlation between age/rank of journal andfrequency of citations, with younger journals becoming established as key players within relatively shortperiods.

The extended Infant Feeding, Activity and Nutrition Trial (InFANT Extend) Program : a cluster-randomized controlled trial of an early intervention to prevent childhood obesity

BACKGROUND: Understanding how we can prevent childhood obesity in scalable and sustainable ways is imperative. Early RCT interventions focused on the first two years of life have shown promise however, differences in Body Mass Index between intervention and control groups diminish once the interventions cease. Innovative and cost-effective strategies seeking to continue to support parents to engender appropriate energy balance behaviours in young children need to be explored. METHODS/DESIGN: The Infant Feeding Activity and Nutrition Trial (InFANT) Extend Program builds on the early outcomes of the Melbourne InFANT Program. This cluster randomized controlled trial will test the efficacy of an extended (33 versus 15 month) and enhanced (use of web-based materials, and Facebook® engagement), version of the original Melbourne InFANT Program intervention in a new cohort. Outcomes at 36 months of age will be compared against the control group. DISCUSSION: This trial will provide important information regarding capacity and opportunities to maximize early childhood intervention effectiveness over the first three years of life. This study continues to build the evidence base regarding the design of cost-effective, scalable interventions to promote protective energy balance behaviors in early childhood, and in turn, promote improved child weight and health across the life course. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ACTRN12611000386932 . Registered 13 April 2011.

Application of extended multivariate modeling for information flow analysis of event related responses

Event related potential (ERP) analysis is one of the most widely used methods in cognitive neuroscience research to study the physiological correlates of sensory, perceptual and cognitive activity associated with processing information. To this end information flow or dynamic effective connectivity analysis is a vital technique to understand the higher cognitive processing under different events. In this paper we present a Granger causality (GC)-based connectivity estimation applied to ERP data analysis. In contrast to the generally used strictly causal multivariate autoregressive model, we use an extended multivariate autoregressive model (eMVAR) which also accounts for any instantaneous interaction among variables under consideration. The experimental data used in the paper is based on a single subject data set for erroneous button press response from a two-back with feedback continuous performance task (CPT). In order to demonstrate the feasibility of application of eMVAR models in source space connectivity studies, we use cortical source time series data estimated using blind source separation or independent component analysis (ICA) for this data set.

Extended studies on fibre diameter measurement with OFDA instrument

OFDA 2000 is a widely used fibre diameter measurement instrument. The instrument can provide improved statistical accuracy measurements in comparison with traditional technology. In this paper, a new technique has been developed to enable fibre diameters to be measured in an aqueous environment using the OFDA 2000 instrument. This new technique was utilised to assess the effects of pH and temperature on the diameters of Merino wool fibres in aqueous environments. Significant changes in fibre diameter under aqueous conditions were found as a function of pH and temperature. It is also demonstrated in this paper that the fibre diameter measurement results can be affected by fibre colour. In both dry and aqueous conditions, variation in fibre diameter was observed on fibres with different colours. This could be due to an optical effect or more likely due to physical changes in the dyed fibres as a result of the presence of dyes. Apart from their physical bulk, dyes may also affect the water content of fibres and hence have an influence on the swelling of fibres when they are measured under ambient regain and wet conditions.

An application of an extended effort-reward imbalance model to police absenteeism behaviour

Purpose – Frequent absences from work can be highly disruptive, whilst also potentially indicating problematic working conditions that can lead to increased withdrawal behaviour. The purpose of this paper is to test the predictive capability of an expanded effort-reward imbalance model on employee absenteeism within the context of policing.

Design/methodology/approach – Three separate reward systems are identified by the effort-reward imbalance model. In this study, the authors assessed these individual components for their contribution to officer withdrawal behaviour in the form of absenteeism frequency. Data were gathered from a sample of operational officers (n=553) within a large Australian police agency.

Findings – Findings indicate that there was a strong influence of social rewards such as social support and recognition in the workplace on officer absenteeism rates. Low workload was associated with a higher frequency of absenteeism suggesting a potential underloading effect. There were a number of significant interactions providing support for the effort-reward imbalance mechanism and the separation of the reward construct. Security rewards were particularly influential and significantly moderated the relationship between effort and absenteeism.

Research limitations/implications – Differential effects of occupational rewards were identified in the study, indicating that there are significant opportunities for expansion of the effort-reward imbalance model along with opportunities for HRM practitioners in terms of employee recognition and remuneration programmes. This research was focused on a specific sample of operational officers, therefore should be expanded to include multiple occupational groups.

Originality/value – This paper considers and expanded model of worker strain and contributes a longitudinal assessment of the association between perceived effort and reward systems and worker absenteeism.

Practitioner perspectives on extended clinical placement programs in optometry

.Background: Some universities are looking to provide a more diverse range of clinical learning experiences through extended clinical placement programs. This approach will potentially have a significant impact on practitioners. The aim of this study was to conduct a national survey of optometrists to ascertain their perspectives on participating in extended clinical placement programs. Methods: Members of Optometry Australia were invited to participate in a survey conducted during June and July 2014. Results: A total of 268 practitioners participated (six per cent of registered Australian optometrists): 159 were predominantly employees or locums and 109 were owners or managers who identified as the key representative of a practice or organisation for the purpose of this survey. Almost two-thirds (65 per cent) of participants, who were employees or locums were supportive of extended clinical placement programs. Among this group, females were more likely to be supportive than males (p=0.033). In comparison, just over one-third (34 per cent) of participants who were key decision-makers were supportive, with 30 per cent possibly supportive and 36 per cent not supportive. Among key decision-makers, males were more likely to be supportive (p=0.009). The top three perceived advantages of supervising a student were: opportunity to mentor early career development, opportunity to give back to the profession and future recruitment. The top three perceived disadvantages were: burden on time, decrease in number of patients examined and burden on support staff. Suggested incentives for supervising students were credit for continuing professional development and financial remuneration. Conclusion: There appears to be moderate support for extended clinical placement programs; however, there are incentives that might engage a larger proportion of the profession in the future. These findings can inform the development of effective and sustainable clinical training programs for optometry students. Additionally, the findings might be used as evidence to seek Government support for clinical placement training in optometry.

An extended approach to adjust inconsistent minority peer- and self-assessment scores of teamwork using assessor’s reliability

Teamwork is generally assessed either solely by academic staff or by both academic staff andstudents themselves confidentially as well as collaboratively. Peer- and self-assessments have beenused primarily to assess teamwork process and teacher assessment to assess teamwork product.Peer- and self-assessments are useful to elicit team members’ contribution towards teamwork and toconvert team mark into individual marks, provided the scores are reliable (the extent to which thescores are consistent). However, not all peer- and self-assessment scores are reliable. Anecdotal andliterature evidence suggest that there are several cases of inconsistencies in these scores. Individualcontribution scores given by teammates to an assessee (including himself/herself) can sometimesvary significantly due to both intentional and unintentional reasons. Simply using total individual ratingscores without considering an assessor’s reliability to estimate individual contribution factors cansometime results unfair grades and becomes hindrance to learning through teamwork.PURPOSEThis study proposes an extended approach to adjust inconsistent and/or distorted minority peer andself-assessment scores of teamwork using standard normal probability concept.APPROACHIn order to adjust inconsistent and/or distorted minority peer-and self-assessment scores of teamwork,an extended approach has been proposed. The approach uses the reliability of assessor’s scores ofan assessee using standard normal probability curve. The evaluation of the extended approach isconducted by comparing with the existing approaches using two case examples of peer- and selfassessmentof teamwork where minority team members’ scores are inconsistent.RESULTSThe evaluation of the extended approach shows that the proposed method is superior to the availableapproaches in order to adjust inconsistent peer- and self-assessment scores for special cases wherescores of minority team members are inconsistent. The extended approach helps both to automaticallydetect such scoring anomalies and to adjust the scores so that the fairer contributions to the teamworkwould be obtained and utilised.CONCLUSIONSThe extended approach is useful in that it helps both to automatically detect scoring anomalies and todevise the methods to adjust them. However, the approach does not address the issue of scoringinconsistencies by majority of team members as it uses average score as a basis for identifyinginconsistencies. Moreover, the approach needs to be implemented in the real teamwork environmentin order to identify the impacts of these scoring adjustments in teamwork process and teamworkproduct.