The road map to building new dreams : raising a child with developmental delay or disability

Research on early childhood education emphasises the importance of quality in early childhood intervention. This study examines the quality of Early Childhood Intervention Services based on parents’ experiences raising a child with developmental delay or disability. The study builds on the philosophy of Family-Centred Practice and professionals’ experiences with family-centred interventions. A qualitative case study approach was adopted to gain insight about families who are raising a child with additional needs. Nine in-depth parent-interviews and three focus groups with professionals were conducted in the first two terms of 2010. The case explicates the experiences of parents and professionals who were associated with Specialist Children’s Services in a metropolitan region of Victoria. The research concentrated on the first point of entry to early intervention, the referrals process and the waiting list. It also addressed parents' experiences, priorities and expectations. As a small-scale study, it examined parents’ and children’s needs as well as children’s access to therapy in early intervention. It also investigated community support and parent-professional relationships in the context of early childhood intervention services. The study found that family-centred intervention is beneficial to both parents and children with developmental delay or disability. However, to implement an effective family-centred approach, practitioner support in the form of professional development, supervision and peer mentorship is required to develop professionals’ reflexivity and self-efficacy in family-centred interventions. The study also identified strategies to promote effective practice, gaps in universal and specialised services, and implications for policy.

Growing self-organizing map for online continuous clustering

The internet age has fuelled an enormous explosion in the amount of information generated by humanity. Much of this information is transient in nature, created to be immediately consumed and built upon (or discarded). The field of data mining is surprisingly scant with algorithms that are geared towards the unsupervised knowledge extraction of such dynamic data streams. This chapter describes a new neural network algorithm inspired by self-organising maps. The new algorithm is a hybrid algorithm from the growing self-organising map (GSOM) and the cellular probabilistic self-organising map (CPSOM). The result is an algorithm which generates a dynamically growing feature map for the purpose of clustering dynamic data streams and tracking clusters as they evolve in the data stream.

Cluster identification and separation in the growing self-organizing map: application in protein sequence classification

Growing self-organizing map (GSOM) has been introduced as an improvement to the self-organizing map (SOM) algorithm in clustering and knowledge discovery. Unlike the traditional SOM, GSOM has a dynamic structure which allows nodes to grow reflecting the knowledge discovered from the input data as learning progresses. The spread factor parameter (SF) in GSOM can be utilized to control the spread of the map, thus giving an analyst a flexibility to examine the clusters at different granularities. Although GSOM has been applied in various areas and has been proven effective in knowledge discovery tasks, no comprehensive study has been done on the effect of the spread factor parameter value to the cluster formation and separation. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of the spread factor value towards cluster separation in the GSOM. We used simple k-means algorithm as a method to identify clusters in the GSOM. By using Davies–Bouldin index, clusters formed by different values of spread factor are obtained and the resulting clusters are analyzed. In this work, we show that clusters can be more separated when the spread factor value is increased. Hierarchical clusters can then be constructed by mapping the GSOM clusters at different spread factor values.

Combining ganglion cell topology and data of patients with glaucoma to determine a structure-function map

PURPOSE

Benchmark 4 : wrinkling during cup drawing

Benchmark-4 is designed to predict wrinkling during cup drawing. Two different punch geometries have been selected in order to investigate the changes of wrinkling amplitude and wave. To study the effect of material on wrinkling, two distinct materials including AA 5042 and AKDQ steel are also considered in the benchmark. Problem description, material properties, and simulation reports with experimental data are summarized.

A map of community-based obesity prevention initiatives in Australia following obesity funding 2009-2013.

Obesity is the single biggest public health threat to developed and developing economies. In concert with healthy public policy, multi-strategy, multi-level community-based initiatives appear promising in preventing obesity, with several countries trialling this approach. In Australia, multiple levels of government have funded and facilitated a range of community-based obesity prevention initiatives (CBI), heterogeneous in their funding, timing, target audience and structure. This paper aims to present a central repository of CBI operating in Australia during 2013, to facilitate knowledge exchange and shared opportunities for learning, and to guide professional development towards best practice for CBI practitioners.

Continuous polyacrylonitrile nanofiber yarns: Preparation and dry-drawing treatment for carbon nanofiber production

Precursor fibers with diameters in nanometer scale and highly aligned polymer chains in fibers are highly promising for the preparation of high-performance carbon nanofibers, but are challenging to make. In this study, we demonstrate for the first time that a carbon nanofiber precursor can be prepared by the electrospinning of polyacrylonitrile into a nanofiber yarn and by the subsequent drawing treatment of the yarn in dry conditions. The yarn shows excellent drawing performance, which can be drawn evenly up to 6 times of its original length without breaking. The drawing treatment improves the yarn and fiber uniformity, polymer chain orientation within the fibers, as well as yarn tension and modules, but shows decreased yarn and fiber diameter and elongation at break. The drawing temperature and force show influences on the drawing behavior. The highest strength and modules (362 ± 37 MPa and 9.2 ± 1.4 GPa, respectively) are found on the yarn drawn by 5 times its length, which increased by 800% and 1800% when compared to the as-spun yarn. Through un-optimized stabilization and carbonization treatments, we further demonstrate that the carbonized nanofiber yarn shows comparable tensile properties as the commercial carbon fibers. Electrospun nanofiber yarns may form next generation precursors for making high performance carbon fibers. This journal is

Signposts that helped a white activist find her way as a critical ally

As a white researcher setting out on a research journeywith Indigenous people, how could I deal with theparadox of being part of the problem I was seeking toaddress? Awareness of, and desire to minimise, theimpact of my white privilege would not automaticallycancel it out. Activist researchers who have challengedpowerful systems have a history of being condemned andostracised by colonial centres of power. Would it be myfate to be condemned by the colonial centre of power inwhich I found myself; the academy? Would I also becondemned by those not in positions of power? Whatsignposts could show me how to act, what to do and howto undertake the research journey?This paper outlines the intersecting theories I meldedtogether to use as a map for a critical activist allystandpoint when conducting research in IndigenousPrisoner Education in Western Australia. Drawing ontheories of whiteness, power, critical pedagogy, activismand standpoint theory, I attempt to navigate a directionthat allows for the struggle, uncertainties and paradoxesthat are what it means to work critically as an alliedactivist. I explore some of the challenges I face as acritical, activist ally who is exploring Indigenouseducation in Western Australian prisons. I invite audiencediscussion, feedback and reflection on these challenges

Place-based initiatives to tackle mature-age workers’ long-term unemployment in Australia, drawing on successful Nordic precedents

In order to tackle unemployment for the at-risk group of mature-age workers displaced by industry sector restructuring, exemplary place-based initiatives are needed focusing on a selected area of high disadvantage identified by Professor Tony Vinson’s 2015 Jesuit Social Services report Dropping off the Edge, with an Australian state government committed to supporting the initiative, as that report recommends. In order to make such a place-based initiative exemplary in its outcomes, so that it leads to uptake in other areas of high disadvantage, it needs to be thoroughly informed by successful Nordic precedents. In particular, the new Australian place-based initiative needs to be informed by Danish regionally-focused large-scale job skills programs involving transition into a proximate sector of employment growth; and by Norwegian measures for more even population distribution outside capital cities or in particular hard-hit regions within capital cities. An advantage of the proposed initiative is that it will also produce measurable results for children in families in which neither parent works, whose needs are normally tackled (if at all) by separate policy actions in separate tiers or departments of government. Australian children are disproportionately disadvantaged by the internationally extreme concentration of joblessness. Denmark’s Løntilskud and Virksomhedspraktik job training programs subsidised by municipalities and the national government, and supported by Danish trade unions, will be discussed in this paper for the positive effects they have for participants, including establishing or re-establishing unemployed people’s structured work habits and routines, improving their networks along with their social skills, and boosting their confidence. This paper will outline in detail the types of features the proposed new Australian place-based initiative will require, drawing on and drilling down further into data and analysis presented in the author’s recent book: Northern Lights: The Positive Policy Example of Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway.