Vascular access surveillance : the role of the access nurse in the renal dialysis unit.

Introduction
In January 2006, the Renal Dialysis Unit at Geelong Hospital appointed a Vascular Access Nurse. A Transonic Flow Qc HDO2 Ultrasound Dilution Monitor was purchased to monitor access flow and recirculation in arteriovenous fistulae in an attempt to predict AVF stenoses requiring early surgical correction.

Methods
A bi-monthly monitoring program tested all facility-based patients. 82 patients were assessed for access flow and recirculation between February and December 2006.

Results
18 (22%) had poor AVF function; 13 with access flows <500ml/minute on initial testing and 5 with an access flow decreasing >25% over a four month period. Of the 18 patients shown to have poor access flow, 2 died within one month of measurement while 5 were too frail to attempt corrective surgery. The remaining 11 proceeded to ultrasound or fistulography. A >50% stenosis was detected in all 11 cases. Of these, 4 had successful vein patch surgery and one had PTFE grafting, each with marked improvement in access flow. One had failed vein patch surgery requiring creation of a femoral AVF, one patient required cvc insertion to await AVF creation, and one had failed stenting requiring a permanent cvc. 3 died before planned surgery.

Conclusion
5 of the 82 patients that had access flow assessment, and needed further evaluation, proceeded to successful pre-emptive surgical intervention. We believe the Transonic is a useful adjunct to routine clinical AVF surveillance, in providing early evidence of AVF failure that can be avoided by pre-emptive surgery.

Developing leaders of change in the teaching of large university chemistry classes

Final report of the the Active Learning in University Science (ALIUS) project.

This project aims to establish a new direction in first year chemistry teaching – away from didactic teaching methods in large lecture style teaching to more active, student centred learning experiences. Initially six universities have been involved in practice-based innovation: Charles Sturt University (NSW), The University of Sydney (NSW), Curtin University of Technology (WA), The University of Adelaide (SA), Deakin University (Vic), University of Tasmania (Tas).

Three domains have been identified as the architecture upon which sustainable L&T innovation will be built. These domains include Learning and Teaching innovation in project leaders’ and colleagues’ classrooms, development of project leaders as Science Learning Leaders, and creation of a Science Learning Hub to serve as a locus and catalyst for the development of a science teaching community of practice.

Progress against specified outcomes and deliverables

Learning and Teaching Innovation

The purpose of this domain is to improve student learning, engagement, retention and performance in large chemistry classes through increased use of student-centred teaching practice.
• The Project is named: ALIUS (Active Learning in University Science) - Leading Change in Australian Science Teaching
• All six ALIUS universities have now implemented Teaching Innovation into ALIUS team member classrooms
• Chemistry colleagues at three ALIUS universities have now implemented Teaching Innovation into their classrooms
• The ALIUS member in physics has implemented Teaching Innovations into his classrooms
• Chemistry colleagues at three ALIUS institutions have tried some Teaching Innovations in their classrooms
• Non-chemistry colleagues at four ALIUS institutions have tried, or expressed an interest in trying, Teaching Innovations in their classrooms
• The POGIL method has proved to be a useful model for Teaching Innovation in the classroom
• Many classroom resources have been developed and used at several ALIUS institutions; some of these have been submitted to the ALIUS database for public access. The remainder will continue to submitted
• Two seminars about Teaching Innovation have been developed, critiqued, revised, and presented at five ALIUS universities and three non-ALIUS universities
• Particular issues associated with implementing Teaching Innovations in Australian classrooms have been identified and possible solutions developed
• ALIUS members have worked with Learning and Teaching Centres at their universities to share methods.

Developing Science Learning Leaders

The purpose of this domain is to develop leadership capacity in the project leaders to equip them with skills to lead change first at their institutions, followed by developing leaders and leading change at other local institutions
• ALIUS members participated in Leadership Professional Development sessions with Craig McInnis and Colin Mason; both these sessions were found to be valuable and provide context and direction for the members and the ALIUS team
• The passion of an ‘early adopter’ was found to be a significant element in each node of the distributed framework
• Members developed an awareness of the necessity to build both the ‘sense of urgency’ and the ‘guiding coalition’ at each node
• ALIUS found the success of the distributed framework is strongly influenced by the relational aspects of the team.

Create a Science Learning Hub

The online Hub serves as a local and national clearinghouse for development of institutional Learning Leaders and dissemination of L&T innovation.
• The ALIUS website is now active and being populated with resources
• The sharing resource database structure is finalised and being populated with contributed materials.

Lessons Learnt

In order to bring about change in teaching practice it is necessary to:
• demonstrate a convincing benefit to student learning
• show that beyond an initial input of effort classroom innovations will not take more time than what is now done
• maintain a prominent exposure among colleagues - repeatedly give seminars, workshops, and everyday conversations; talk about teaching innovation; talk about easy tools to use; invite people to your classroom; engage colleagues in regular peer review of classroom practice
• have support from people already present in leadership roles to lead change in teaching practice
• have a project leader, someone for whom the project is paramount and will push it forward
• find a project manager, even with money budgeted
• meet face-to-face.

Dissemination
• Seminars presented 19 times including over 400 individuals and more than 24 Australian universities
• Workshops presented 25 times, over 80 participants at 11 Australian and two New Zealand Universities
• Two articles published in Chemistry in Australia, the Australian Chemistry Industry Journal of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute
• One refereed paper published in the Journal of Learning Design.

MidiCities : test beds for innovative delivery of urban transformation

Cities globally and nationally are facing a range of daunting challenges to respond to a suite of emerging imperatives including a low carbon future, oil vulnerability, demographic re-composition, and the prospect of unpredictable economic shocks. To pursue a future that is sustainable and resilient requires substantial transformation of existing urban areas and creation of new mechanisms to guide and manage delivery of physical, economic and social changes.

Mid-sized cities provide legible, nimble test beds for exploring cross-disciplinary models and innovative governance and delivery techniques. Australia’s ‘MidiCities’ – home to 4 million urban dwellers frequently overlooked by urban policy or research effort – are emerging as crucibles of innovation and experimentation. Most of these cities retain that essential key ingredient for sustainable urbanism, economic resilience and community identity: a strong, highly legible city centre with a tightly clustered diversity of facilities and functions – the multi-functional activity centre that metropolitan suburban hubs yearn to grow up to become!

These diverse MidiCities are passing a threshold of self-confident sophistication, and are now providing valuable lessons for each other, which could be adopted or adapted by metropolitan cities where scale and complexity can often overwhelm the search for new and appropriate approaches to delivery of rapid change while maintaining clear guidance toward the vision of a ‘preferred’ future. A network of professionals working with Australian and New Zealand MidiCities is coalescing toward a cross-disciplinary platform for exchange of experiences and information, mutual support, improved research and understanding, capacity-building and the refinement of new specialist skills and structures.

Beyond the rational museum : toward a discourse of inclusion

Museum discourse is not inclusive in that it neglects or negates the affective potential of museums. Affect is precognitive sensation, it is unexpected, and leaves a more lasting impression than re-cognition. The museum’s role in the shaping of histories, and its origins in class and gender exploitation are important areas of discourse, however, the focus on these issues also limits discourse. Ideologically driven critique seems unable to explain the experiential affect of exhibits of art and material culture. Arguably, an alternative museum with a contradictory set of meanings has always existed alongside the rational museum of critical discourse. Some critics do acknowledge that their disciplines seem unable to grapple with this ‘alternative museum’, however, there is not a critical vocabulary of affect with which to give it appropriate expression. Gilles Deleuze’s philosophical ideas give relevance to affect, and are useful in shaping or ‘shocking’ a way toward a more inclusive critical discourse, which might lead toward more inclusive museum practices.

A network analysis of IT governance practices : a case study of an IT centralisation project

Information technology governance (ITG) practices rely on both human and nonhuman actors to support the creation of business value in organisations. The role of nonhuman actors in shaping the ITG practices has been given limited attention within the ITG literature. In proposing a model of ITG, this paper highlights the interplay of human and technological artefacts in shaping the ITG practices. Using a case study approach, this paper explores the relationship and interaction between ITG arrangements and IT infrastructure in an IT centralisation project conducted over a number of years in a university. The analysis from this study highlights how problems in aligning actors’ interests and lack of appropriate strategies lead to a failure in establishing a stable ITG network.

The social side of social media : technology or collaboration?

This paper discusses how course design may draw upon social media in order to teach students appropriate skills for a network society in the context of team-work based learning. The emphasis is not upon web 2.0 and social media as inherently suited to providing educational solutions, but upon the ways in which they can be adapted by course designers within the framework of explicit learning objectives. More specifically, we provide a case study of how the use of social media in a blended or wholly-online learning environment provides affordances for team-based collaborative learning, especially when incorporated within a course design that encourages independent, self-directed and authentic learning. This paper argues we need to assess the social aspects of social media, rather than upon the technological, that is, avoid the fetishisation of 'apps,' through the creation of assessment that alternately foregrounds a critical appraisal of web 2.0 technologies and places onus upon the students to develop, with guidance, teamwork skills and processes. We provide an example of how it is possible to integrate web 2.0 technologies into their learning processes and assessment, in order to teach about the realities of collaborating with others in small teams in a work environment increasingly mediated by the Internet. In order to achieve these learning outcomes, course design needs to balance scaffolding with the need to place the imperative for learning specific content and skills upon the students, the latter through the provision of assessment outcomes and resources that the students need to work towards together.

The best of all worlds : immersive interfaces for art education in virtual and real world teaching and learning environments

A collaborative constructivist model of e-learning enabled second year undergraduate students and art educators to establish a community of learners within an augmented immersive learning environment. Artistic practice and work based learning was enhanced through the creation of digital artifacts to support shared knowledge building using authentic learning tasks and social networking.

The experience of a museum space

Drawing on a long-term narrative study of global visitors to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa), this paper illuminates the experience of a museum space. It sheds light on the interpretive interplay between museological space, content and narrative throughout the construction of meanings by museum visitors. I argue that these spatial dynamics emerge as a condition of meaning-making, or hermeneutic foundation, which facilitates the subsequent processes of meaning-making, or interpretations. The hermeneutic examination of the research material treats Te Papa as a physical space or form with its individual components such as architecture, exhibition design and display. This is followed by an inspection of content which reveals the key function of ‘narrative’ as a human meaning-making tool in mediating the mutual relationship of spatial form, museological content and meaning. The empirical insights into the complexity of the visitor experience reveal that representational and non-representational dimensions, or narrative and embodiment, are inextricably entangled in the quest for meaning.

Effect of personal and cultural diversity on outdoor thermal comfort perception

The urban squares are the gathering places where people interact with each other. Therefore, they are seen as important places contributing in the integration and social cohesion within societies. To ensure equality in urban places, designers are to take into considerations the need of the diverse nature of different users. This task is hard especially in global cities where populations are characterized by their cultural plurality. To ensure the creation of successful urban places, the designer is to take the comfort of users into consideration. However, the outdoor thermal comfort is not easily assessed as it examines the climatic and personal variables for users. This paper aims to contribute in assessing the thermal comfort for users of different personal and cultural background in Melbourne city, Australia as one of the global cities characterized by the diversity and plurality of its population due to migration. A case study approach is adopted to examine the users’ thermal comfort within the contextual variables of Federation Square. Multiple sources of evidence such as climate measurements, observations and questionnaires will be used to ensure the validity of results. The findings are to contribute in the quality and equality of design for outdoor urban places in multicultural cities.

"Lose 30lbs in 30 days" : assigning responsibility for deceptive advertising of weight-loss products

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to outline key social marketing issues apparent in deceptive weight-loss advertising, from the perspective of government policy-makers, manufacturers, the media, and consumers. The purpose is to examine the complexity of one aspect of the obesity battle and provide a framework for coordinated and integrated social marketing initiatives from a multiple stakeholder perspective.

Design/methodology/approach – The results of deceptive weight-loss advertising are framed using the harm chain model, and the paper offers recommended solutions based on a framework of marketing, education and policy changes across the network of stakeholders.

Findings – This paper concludes that a resolution to the harm created by deceptive weight-loss advertising can be achieved by the creation of a more holistic, system-wide solution to this important health and policy issue. This networked approach must involve all aspects of harm in a multi-stakeholder solution, including both upstream and downstream integration. Specific recommendations are made for policy-makers, manufacturers, the media, and consumers to achieve this goal.

Social implications – From a marketing perspective, analyzing the issue of deceptive weight-loss advertising using the harm chain allows for the creation of a more holistic, system-wide solution involving stakeholders in all aspects of harm for this important health and policy issue.

Originality/value – This research examines the problem of obesity and weight-loss advertising from the unique perspective of the harm chain framework. The authors make unified recommendations for various stakeholders including industry, media, government and consumers, in order to direct integrated social marketing and consumer-oriented strategies within this industry.

Synthesis and growth mechanism of Thin-film TiO2 nanotube arrays on focused-ion-beam micropatterned 3D isolated regions of titanium on silicon

In this paper, the fabrication and growth mechanism of net-shaped micropatterned self-organized thin-film TiO2 nanotube (TFTN) arrays on a silicon substrate are reported. Electrochemical anodization is used to grow the nanotubes from thin-film titanium sputtered on a silicon substrate with an average diameter of ?30 nm and a length of ?1.5 ?m using aqueous and organic-based types of electrolytes. The fabrication and growth mechanism of TFTN arrays from micropatterned three-dimensional isolated islands of sputtered titanium on a silicon substrate is demonstrated for the first time using focused-ion-beam (FIB) technique. This work demonstrates the use of the FIB technique as a simple, high-resolution, and maskless method for high-aspect-ratio etching for the creation of isolated islands and shows great promise toward the use of the proposed approach for the development of metal oxide nanostructured devices and their integration with micro- and nanosystems within silicon-based integrated-circuit devices.

Souvenirs of the senses: collaborative and cross-artform makings

Souvenir hunters are often limited in their selection of souvenirs to objects that evoke an iconic and/or generic relationship to place. For example, a small-scale replica of the Eiffel Tower might substitute for a whole range of other more personal responses to the sensory experience of being in Paris. This paper reports on a collaborative and cross-artform five-day workshop, “Souvenirs of the Senses”, conducted in Qatar in early 2013 as part of Tasmeem Doha: Hybrid Making, a biennial international art and design conference. Two of the three workshop leaders, Patrick West and Jondi Keane, were Australian-based visitors whereas workshop leader Valerie Jeremijenko is permanently based in Qatar. There were five workshop participants from a diverse range of international and Qatari backgrounds. One of the conference themes, “Made in Qatar”, heightened our attention to what it means to be spending time in, and making things in, one place as opposed to any other place. What did it mean to be making something in a country where so many things have to be imported? Building on this line of thought, the second conference theme, “Hybrid Making”, suggested possibilities for undoing traditional modes of souvenir making as part of the creation of more complex objects that might be sutured to the singular experiences of place that happen when a.) established regimes of tourism are disrupted, and b.) experiences of place are curated via a focused awareness of the operations of the senses as sustained within our collaborative, cross-artform workshop environment. What attracts our attention is how objects ripe for “souveniring”, when they are considered as perceptual systems, suggest new ways of experimenting with the fabrication of objects and of artistic and individual relationships to place, and further, how hybrid souvenirs affect the way in which a place is re-membered (put together) and re-made in memory.

Finding the edge : online persona creation by fringe artists

Self-presentation through the creation of profiles and pages on digitally networked spaces is becoming ever more ubiquitous. In order to develop greater depth of understanding of the place of social media in our self-identification practice, my dissertation investigates the experiences of online persona creation by eight artists. Drawing on sociological and cultural studies approaches to understanding identity as performance, I tie current artists’ presentational and representational practices to historically grounded, socio-culturally constructed discourses of ‘artistness’. Through this connection, I argue that the creation of online persona has not radically changed notions of what it means to be an artist, or how artistness is represented and understood by audiences of fans or followers, but rather that digital technology has allowed for renegotiation of the boundaries of artistness that still draws from historical understandings of the role and persona of the artist. This shifting of boundaries, allowing for more inclusivity within the art world, is demonstrated by my focus on ‘fringe’ artists: those whose creative practice places them outside of the traditional art world and its existing structures of representation, distribution and consumption. The eight fringe artists who participated in this study are drawn from street art, performance poetry, craftivism and tattoo.

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis drives the methodological focus on the experiences of the artists. Rather than a consideration of behaviour and habit, or what the artists do, this phenomenological approach allowed me to instead focus on what it is like for the artists to create persona, what drives particular types of representational practices. Using unstructured interviews, and online listening as an extension of participant observation, the artists’ narratives of experience are expressed through transcript extracts and screenshots: both are necessary to fully explore the nature of online persona creation.

My analysis of the artists experiences has demonstrated that there are three somewhat distinct registers of performance with which an artist’s persona can engage: the professional register, where one demonstrates ones proficiency, experience, popularity, and professionalism; the personal register, where one connects with
wider social and political interests and activities; and the intimate register, where one allows the audience in to one’s private world. These three registers occupy the same performance space, but are implicitly or explicitly for different segments of the digitally networked audience of fans, followers, friends and family. The complexity of the performance and reception of these registers is influenced by the shared nature of the performance space – where previously different roles would be performed for different audiences without reference to one another, the networked nature of online social media influences decisions of how much, and when, to share with whom.

Interpreted here using themes of strategy|happenstance, specialisation|diversification, visibility|self-protection,
self|others and work|play, the professional, personal and intimate registers of performance enable us to see the consideration and care with which each participant creates their artists persona. The experiences of performing the self in these three registers, as presented here, provides an insight into the complexities involved in creating online persona, while also demonstrating that this type of presentation of self is, in itself, no different from the types of role play and performance of self that has arguably always occurred in our physical world. Despite focusing on the role and performance of artistness, this dissertation speaks to the creation and performance of online persona more broadly. 

An inquiry into the effectiveness of student generated MCQs as a method of assessment to improve teaching and learning

 In anticipation of helping students mature from passive to more active learners while engaging with the issues and concepts surrounding computer security, a student generated Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) learning strategy was designed and deployed as a replacement for an assessment task that was previously based on students providing solutions to a series of short-answer questions. To determine whether there was any educational value in students generating their own MCQs students were required to design MCQs. Prior to undertaking this assessment activity each participant completed a pre-test which consisted of 45 MCQs based on the topics of the assessment. Following the assessment activity the participants completed a post-test which consisted of the same MCQs as the pre-test. The pre and post test results as well as the post test and assessment activity results were tested for statistical significance. The results indicated that having students generate their own MCQs as a method of assessment did not have a negative effect on the learning experience. By providing a framework to the students based on the literature to support their engagement with the learning material, we believe the creation of well-structured MCQs resulted in a more advanced understanding of the relationships between the concepts of the learning material as compared with plainly answering a series of short-answer questions from a textbook. Further study is required to determine to what degree this learning strategy encouraged a deeper approach to learning.

Dancing habitus: the formation of a group (dance)

This article discusses how six individual dancers came to belong, stylistically, to a group, in a project that did not aim explicitly to create or bring about that belonging. The studio-based research project tested the creation of a group improvised dance through practising over a significant period of time with ‘scores’ or verbal propositions, usually relating to physical, bodily or movement notions such as tangling and untangling or being subject to gravity. This article looks at one question within the research: namely, whether the dancing individuals came, over time, to belong to a group, and if so, what enabled that belonging and what made the dance a group dance? The project did not centre on an objective to direct the creation of a ‘groupness’ or stylistic consistency but, rather, it supported the investigation of how this ‘groupness’ might come about.