Indo-US strategic ties on the upswing

Strategic ties based on converging national interests shared perceptions of the evolving Asia-Pacific security environment are strengthening between India and USA. The sanctions imposed in response to IndiaEs 1998 nuclear tests were relaxed and military-to-military links were stored with the joining of India in US-led war on terror.

Planning research and educational partnerships with Indigenous communities : practice, realities and lessons

Increasingly planning practice and research are having to engage with Indigenous communities in Australia to empower and position their knowledge in planning strategies and arguments. But also to act as articulators of their cultural knowledge, landscape aspirations and responsibilities and the need to ensure that they are directly consulted in projects that impact upon their ‘country’ generally and specifically. This need has changed rapidly over the last 25 years because of land title claim legal precedents, state and Commonwealth legislative changes, and policy shifts to address reconciliation and the consequences of the fore-going precedents and enactments. While planning instruments and their policies have shifted, as well as research grant expectations and obligations, many of these Western protocols do not recognise and sympathetically deal with the cultural and practical realities of Indigenous community management dynamics, consultation practices and procedures, and cultural events much of which are placing considerable strain upon communities who do not have the human and financial resources to manage, respond, co-operate and inform in the same manner expected of non-Indigenous communities in Australia. This paper reviews several planning formal research, contract research and educational engagements and case studies between the authors and various Indigenous communities, and highlights key issues, myths and flaws in the way Western planning and research expectations are imposed upon Indigenous communities that often thwart the quality and uncertainty of planning outcomes for which the clients, research agencies, and government entities were seeking to create.

Towards an improved understanding of knowledge dynamics in integrated coastal zone management: a knowledge systems framework

Integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) is a complex undertaking that draws on a range of biophysical and social science disciplines, and involves a wide range of stakeholders operating through multiple processes, and crossing various levels  Conceptually, this means that ICZM represents a significant challenge in terms of improving the way in which different disciplinary ‘knowledges’ and different forms of knowledge (scientific, managerial, lay, and indigenous) inform decision making. Depending upon the circumstances, ICZM may be constrained by different knowledge deficits, including: uncertainty; science - policy gaps; and the ‘filtering’ of particular forms of knowledge relative to others. As a means for making sense of these knowledge dynamics, this paper considers the concept of knowledge systems and its potential for improving understanding of coastal management processes. The potential insights that can be gained from four analytical approaches (stakeholder, institutional, network, and discourse analysis) are then discussed, and used to develop an analytical framework for investigating coastal knowledge dynamics, which is based upon a generic coastal knowledge system and associated research questions. Finally, the utility of this framework is illustrated using a case study that examines the knowledge dynamics associated with debates about the establishment of marine protected areas in Victoria, Australia.

Medication management by graduate nurses: before, during and following medication administration

The purpose of the present study was to explore graduate nurses' perceptions of their medication management activities in the acute care context. A qualitative research design with a semistructured interview schedule was used to elicit information from participants. The sampling population consisted of graduate nurses involved in direct patient care in medical and surgical wards of a Melbourne metropolitan teaching hospital, completing a graduate nurse program. Twelve graduate nurses participated in the interviews. Two major themes emerged: (i) monitoring medications and (ii) interventions for patient care. The findings indicate that graduate nurses are required to address several facets of the medication management role in their daily practice. It is pertinent to examine ward dynamics to ensure that graduate nurses have ready access to experienced health care professionals. Through collegial support, graduate nurses should also be encouraged to critically examine the different possibilities when making clinical judgments about monitoring patient medications.

Novel data management algorithms in peer-to-peer content distribution networks

The peer-to-peer content distribution network (PCDN) is a hot topic recently, and it has a huge potential for massive data intensive applications on the Internet. One of the challenges in PCDN is routing for data sources and data deliveries. In this paper, we studied a type of network model which is formed by dynamic autonomy area, structured source servers and proxy servers. Based on this network model, we proposed a number of algorithms to address the routing and data delivery issues. According to the highly dynamics of the autonomy area, we established dynamic tree structure proliferation system routing, proxy routing and resource searching algorithms. The simulations results showed that the performance of the proposed network model and the algorithms are stable.

Using knowledge management processes to develop and implement organisational training strategies for virtual teams : an action learning approach

This paper develops a conceptual model of a knowledge management system that could be used to develop and implement organizational training strategies for virtual teams. An action research-based case is presented to support and illustrate the contention that action-learning methods can be effectively used to enable and tap into the knowledge generated by virtual teams. Virtual teams are an increasingly common response to changing organizational needs. However, the use of virtual teams has outpaced our understanding of their dynamics and unique characteristics. Practitioners are now offering virtual team training, but few organizations are making the effort to offer in-house training. Moreover, they are missing out on the opportunity to systematically capture the knowledge produced by virtual teams and cycle it back into virtual team training and support systems.

Invertebrate larval dynamics in seasonally closed estuaries

Estuarine benthic assemblages are often numerically dominated by polychaetes. The limits of these populations are determined by larval, and probably to a lesser extent adult movement. A previous study (Newton 1996), indicated that planktonic polychaete larvae were very abundant over the summer months in the Hopkins River; however, the identification and source of these larvae was not known. Defining the extent of a population, and therefore the likelihood of that population recovering following a perturbation, is crucial for effective estuarine management. This study investigated both the likely source of the larvae, (i.e. estuarine or marine) and the extent of larval dispersal within and between estuaries by addressing the following questions: Which taxa produced the planktonic larvae? Are these taxa resident estuarine species? Are the larvae of different taxa evenly distributed within the estuary or do physicochemical parameters or other factors influence their abundance? Are the same larvae found in other estuaries along the coast? and Is there exchange of these larval taxa with the marine environment and other estuaries? Larvae were identified and described by culturing commonly occurring planktonic larvae until adult characteristics appeared. The spionids, Carazziella victoriensis and Prionospio Tatura, numerically dominated the plankton in the Hopkins and the spionid, Orthoprionospio cirriformia was recorded from the Hopkins, Curdies and Gellibrand estuaries. Two spionids, Carazziella sp. and Polydora sp. were identified from tidal waters. Mouth status and physicochemical conditions (salinity, temperature and dissolved oxygen) were monitored in each estuary. Whereas the Merri and Gellibrand estuaries were predominantly stratified over the sampling period, the Curdies was more often well mixed and the Hopkins varied from well mixed to stratified. The duration of mouth opening and hence the opportunity for larval exchange also varied in each estuary. The Merri River was closed for 13.5% of days over the study period, the Gellibrand River for 18.4%, the Hopkins River for 49% and the Curdies River for 71.0%. The distributions of larvae at spatial scales of metres, 100s of metres and kilometres were investigated within a single estuary. While the same larvae, C. victoriensis, P. Tatura and bivalve larvae, were found along the length of the Hopkins estuary the abundances varied at different spatial scales suggesting different processes were influencing the distribution of P. Tatura larvae, and C. victoriensis and bivalve larvae. The distribution of larvae between several estuaries was investigated by monitoring meroplankton at two sites at the mouth of each of the four estuaries approximately monthly (except for winter months). Different meroplanktonic assemblages were found to distinguish each estuary. Further, C. victoriensis and P. Tatura larvae were only recorded in the Hopkins but larvae of the spionid, Orthoprionopio cirriformia were detected in the Hopkins, Curdies and Gellibrand estuaries. The extent of larval exchange with other estuaries and the marine environment was determined by monitoring tidal waters. Settlement trays were also deployed to determine if larvae were moving into estuaries and settling but not recruiting. P. tatura larvae were not detected in the tidal waters of any estuary and while C. victoriensis and O. cirriformia were found in both flood and ebb tides there was no evidence of movement of theses taxa to other estuaries. Larvae of the spionids, Carazziella sp. and Polydora sp., were found in tidal waters of each estuary but were rarely detected in the plankton within the estuaries. Neither species was found as an adult in background cores from any estuary, nor with the exception of a few individuals in the Merri, were they detected in settlement trays in any estuary. I conclude that the source of the larvae of C. victoriensis, P. Tatura and O. cirriformia is estuarine and while C. victoriensis, and O. cirriformia move in and outh of the source estuary in tidal waters there was no evidence for movement to other estuaries. The spionids, Carazziella sp. and Polydora sp were considered to be marine and while they moved in and out of estuaries in tidal waters they did not usually settle in the estuaries. The results of this study are a crucial first step in the development of ecological models to better understand dispersal in seasonally closed estuaries that are typical of southern Australia. This study emphasises the unique physicochemical characteristics and biological assemblages within these estuaries and the need for estuarine management to reflect these differences.

Action research of cyclonic transactions in online management education

The aim of the research was to generate a cyclonic model for understanding the influences and processes of continuously improving management education in an environment rich in online learning technologies. The research questions were:
1. What is the nature of the cyclonic interactions observed in the transactions of a team of online management educators?
2. How might an understanding of cyclonic interactions
a. help refine action research, and
b. generate rich insight for online management education?
The methodology was an action research project. The research team worked in an online Master of Business Administration (MBA) to continuously develop teaching practice in one unit of the MBA. The methodology matched the objectives of the project, and the appropriate rigour associated with qualitative, interpretive research. The results showed that theories of systems and relational dynamics, adapted to hermeneutics and aligned with other learning theories, can be framed by the metaphor of a cyclone to conduct research into teaching practice and build upon the theory base in the field of online education.
Online management education is subject to reinterpretations. The cyclonic framework explains some of the changes. The project showed that a chaotic but organised cyclonic program development process in one particular MBA course was informative for and informed by the chaotic and cyclonic globalized business world. For the education of managers the cyclonic view was relevant. The approach was metaphorical and, therefore, opened new ways of seeing and speaking. Findings pertained to the nature of the cyclonic interactions, how an understanding of cyclonic interactions helped to refine action research, and how an understanding of cyclonic interactions helped generate rich insight for online management education.
It was found that it was the asymmetrical impetus of imperfection that created the examples of cyclonic learning spirals formed as double feedback loops for improved understanding. Online education in the action research required cyclical enhancement of connectedness by teachers, stronger emphasis on relational considerations in learning, and heightened expectations of collaboration by educators. It became possible to correlate earlier conceptions of action research with cyclonic categories and analyse the parallels with events in this action research project. Models were developed and presented to explain 3 cyclonic connections with hermeneutics, collaborative teaching, online resource
development, and the environment of online management.

Thai river sprat : biology and management in Sirinthorn Reservoir, Thailand

The Thai river sprat (Clupeichthys aesarnensis) is a short-lived clupeid, which supports an artisanal fishery in a number of reservoirs in the Lower Mekong Basin. This study presents the C. aesarnensis biology, population dynamics and its fishery in Sirinthorn Reservoir, NE Thailand. C. aesarnensis fishery management schemes are also proposed.

The dynamics of brand equity, co-branding and sponsorship in professional sports

Globalisation has been one of the most significant determinants of growth in the sports industry worldwide, especially with the increasing importance of brand creation, brand awareness, brand image, brand identity and brand equity. Professional sports teams have become top sports brands through leverage with major company sponsors. Sports marketers have had to become much more entrepreneurial to create competitive advantage for sports organisations and deliver relationship value to consumers. Company sponsorships are prominent drivers of brand strategy around the world. They help create an extended consumer experience and are becoming a strategic vehicle for creating co-branding partnerships between sports organisations and multinational companies. This study reports data from a survey of the top marketing and communications executives in sports and company organisations in New Zealand and as well as a qualitative content analysis of core documents and websites. The study provides insights for sports marketers seeking to: use sponsorship as a prominent driver of brand strategy; employ co-branding as a strategy to create an extended consumer experience; build strong brands through efficient co-branding articulation strategies. The study also provides recommendations for sports organisations and companies to formulate their marketing communications and brand strategies from the perspective of a co-branding relationship.