The geo-historical legacies of urban security governance and the Vancouver 2010 Olympics

In 2004, the discourse of ‘legacy’ was woven into the constitutional fabric of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Bidding for Olympic events is now premised on procuring post-event legacies that will resonate through local communities and host countries long after the flame is extinguished. Given vast expenditures in security, policing, and emergency management operations at major sporting events, it is notable that the IOC and its official partners have disproportionately under-represented security and policing legacies. This paper addresses research into security and policing legacies of major events by turning much needed empirical attention towards institutional level geographies of security and policing – particularly on legacies of policing and militarisation in Olympic host cities. Accordingly, the paper traces the institutional trajectory of the Military Liaison Unit (MLU) in the Vancouver Police Department who were heavily involved in coordinating the joint civilian–military effort throughout the lifecycle of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games. Theoretically, the paper furthers Stephen Graham’s (2010) New Military Urbanism that considers the circulation of military expertise between neo-colonial frontiers of military intervention with Western urban spaces. In doing so, this paper unpacks an empirically guided temporal approach that discerns key drivers of militarisation as localised, empirical-based ‘trajectories’ of development of security and policing institutions, which are linked to, and circumscribed by, critical juncture episodes in the context of mega event security. The paper traces processes of the MLU to explain how conditions underpinning the civil–military divide in urban policing, as a series of jurisdictional, institutional, and by extension, geographical configurations have continued, changed or been abandoned in the context of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. As such, this paper contributes to much needed debate on the controversies and opportunities inherent in security legacies and major events, which implicate the wider securitisation and militarisation of Western cities.

Understanding career aspirations of Information Technology students at Deakin University

Students need to develop informed and realistic career aspirations to gain the most from their university studies towards their initial career development. However developing their aspirations, goals, and expectations is a complex process. In Information Technology (IT) no clear career development framework is evident in the literature. We present a pilot study which investigates the career aspirations of novice students studying IT at an Australian University. Through a series of career activities their aspirations were explored with the aim of improving support for career development. Results indicate that students have no clear short- or long- term aspirations, yet believe that programming skills are key to achieve a career in IT.

Optimizing health literacy: improving health and reducing health inequities: a selection of information sheets from the health literacy toolkit for low- and middle-income countries

This series of information sheets introduces health literacy, its relevance to public policy, and the ways it can be used to inform the promotion of good health, the prevention and management of communicable and noncommunicable diseases, and the reduction of health inequities. It provides information and links to further resources to assist organizations and governments to incorporate health literaacy responses into practice, service delivery systems, and policy.

Health literacy toolkit for low and middle-income countries: a series of information sheets to empower communities and strengthen health systems

This series of information sheets introduces health literacy, its relevance to public policy, and the ways it can be used to inform the promotion of good health, the prevention and management of communicable and noncommunicable diseases, and the reduction of health inequities. It provides information and links to further resources to assist organizations and governments to incorporate health literacy responses into practice, service delivery systems, and policy.

Perceptions of public security in post-reform urban China: a routine activity analysis

This paper investigates the personal and environmental determinants of public security perceptions across 32 Chinese cities within the risk/opportunity framework of Cohen and Felson's (American Sociological Review 44:588-608, 1979) routine activity theory. Structural path analysis reveals that public security perceptions in China are informed by similar personal and environment characteristics to those reported as important in extant research within Western contexts. However, the frequently reported influence of gender on public security perceptions in the West does not appear to extend to post-reform urban China. The results provide support for the routine activity theory in terms of extending our understanding of the factors that influence perceptions of public security to a non-Western context. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Evaluation of electrochemical methods for determination of the seebeck coefficient of redox electrolytes

Recent advances in thermoelectrochemical cells, which are being developed for harvesting low grade waste heat, have shown the promise of cobalt bipyridyl salts as the active redox couple. The Seebeck coefficient, Se, of a redox couple determines the open circuit voltage achievable, for a given temperature gradient, across the thermoelectrochemical cell. Thus, the accurate determination of this thermodynamic parameter is key to the development and study of new redox electrolytes. Further, techniques for accurate determination of Se using only one half of the redox couple reduces the synthetic requirements. Here, we compare three different experimental techniques for measuring Se of a cobalt tris(bipyridyl) redox couple in ionic liquid electrolytes. The use of temperature dependent cyclic voltammetry (CV) in isothermal and non-isothermal cells was investigated in depth, and the Se values compared to those from thermo-electromotive force measurements. Within experimental error, the Se values derived from CV methods were found to be in accordance with those obtained from electromotive force (emf) measurements. The applicability of cyclic voltammetry techniques for determining Se when employing only one part of the redox couple was demonstrated.

Managing dynamic public sector networks : effectiveness, performance, and a methodological framework in the field of national security

Networks are increasing in number and in importance across the security field as a means of providing inter-agency coordination. Based on a large qualitative study of networks in the field of national security in Australia, this article aims to advance our knowledge of the internal properties of public sector networks in the field of national security and the conditions shaping their performance. It puts forward a multi-level theoretical framework involving five interdependent levels of analysis—structural, cultural, policy, technological, and relational—which aims to account for the internal properties of networks and examines each of these levels in relation to public sector networks in the field of national security. Using detailed interviews with senior members of security, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies, the article aims to highlight the potential lessons this framework has for strategically organizing and managing dynamic networks within and beyond the field of national security.

Integration of design for reverse logistics and harvesting of information: a research agenda

The literature is replete with treatises advocating the immense benefits of reverse logistics (RL) systems for organisations in terms of alleviating environmental concerns and enhancing the level of productivity. Nevertheless, implementing RL in organisations is fraught with complications with its success largely riding on fulfilling the requirements prescribed by the critical success factors (CSFs) of RL. Despite the voluminous body of knowledge on RL in the extant literature, operational aspects of RL have overshadowed some central strategic prerequisites for the success of RL systems. Drawing upon an integrative literature review, this paper provides an insight into different aspects of the implementation of RL practices. The central role of the integration of design for reverse logistics (DfRL) and harvesting of information (HoI) in the effective implementation of RL systems is then established and clarified through developing a conceptual framework. The paper concludes by putting forward an agenda for research.

K-Center: an approach on the multi-source identification of information diffusion

The global diffusion of epidemics, computer viruses, and rumors causes great damage to our society. It is critical to identify the diffusion sources and timely quarantine them. However, most methods proposed so far are unsuitable for diffusion with multiple sources because of the high computational cost and the complex spatiotemporal diffusion processes. In this paper, based on the knowledge of infected nodes and their connections, we propose a novel method to identify multiple diffusion sources, which can address three main issues in this area: 1) how many sources are there? 2) where did the diffusion emerge? and 3) when did the diffusion break out? We first derive an optimization formulation for multi-source identification problem. This is based on altering the original network into a new network concerning two key elements: 1) propagation probability and 2) the number of hops between nodes. Experiments demonstrate that the altered network can accurately reflect the complex diffusion processes with multiple sources. Second, we derive a fast method to optimize the formulation. It has been proved that the proposed method is convergent and the computational complexity is O(mn log α) , where α = α (m,n) is the slowly growing inverse-Ackermann function, n is the number of infected nodes, and m is the number of edges connecting them. Finally, we introduce an efficient algorithm to estimate the spreading time and the number of diffusion sources. To evaluate the proposed method, we compare the proposed method with many competing methods in various real-world network topologies. Our method shows significant advantages in the estimation of multiple sources and the prediction of spreading time.