Working outside of the system

The Deakin Studies Online (DSO) Learning Management System (LMS) forms the fundamental basis for tertiary education at Deakin University. This LMS is founded on Web 1.0 principles, however significant potential exists for engagement in Web 2.0 technologies to support learning and teaching in the design studio. A digitally enhanced design curriculum is discussed starting with html-based reflective folios in 2001, the use of blogs for reflection and resource creation and culminating in a Web 2.0 design studio based on social networking.

Valuation and reporting of native fauna in monetary terms: compatibility between a market-Based system and natural resources?

A change in community values and priorities has introduced ethical,
environmental and social issues into the way in which business conducts
its activities. There are an increasing number of managed investment funds focusing on socially responsible investment (SRI) by concentrating on firms that operate according to predetermined criteria for environmental, social and ethical issues. For investors in these funds environmental stewardship issues are integrated with concern over financial resources and performance. In this paper the accounting and reporting by business activities concerned with conservation of wildlife are examined. The world of accounting has functioned for many years with relatively few accounting standards devoted to specialised industry needs. In 1998 the Australian Accounting Standards Board and in 2001 the International Accounting Standards Board issued standards devoted to agriculture. Both standards deal with the reporting of managed biological assets and require application of essentially the same approaches despite the Australian standard requiring net market value while the International standard requires fair value. In this paper we analyse how one conservation firm Earth Sanctuaries Ltd. (ESL) has applied AASB 1037 and then we explore the implications for conservation firms operating in geographical locations outside Australia. It is suggested that AASB 1037 and indeed lAS 41 may not provide value appropriate information for investor decisions relating to accounting profits for such firms. Our examination shows that it is appropriate to reconsider accounting guidelines provided by these standards in order to link the information relating to economic and environmental performance. Transparency may be improved by a move closer to Elkington 's (1997) triple bottom line reporting. We therefore contend that the issues arising from the use ofAASB 1037 and lAS 41 need to be widely considered by all standard setters, particularly given the increasing attention to SRI.

Partnerships and place : mobilising resources from outside

Partnerships facilitate sharing of resources and can create outcomes that are more than the sum of partners’ contributions. The concept of partnership has entered policy rhetoric and is urged as good practice, sometimes along with consideration of place. For example, Mears et al’s recent academic critique of health policy holds that modern health systems should have a sense of place and be partnership orientated, as well as being primary care based and pragmatic in adopting effective practice. It is easy to regard partnership as unequivocally a good thing, however this is a simplistic view that ignores issues such as power imbalances, self-seeking behaviour of partners and the often complex, resource intensive and sensitive process required to establish and sustain partnerships. Rural communities tend to have fewer resources available for the provision of services such as health and education than their metropolitan counterparts, and so could be expected to benefit from partnerships with outside services and resource providers. Factors such as distance and lack of power in many professional and political domains imply that rural communities are also more likely to encounter barriers in establishing and maintaining partnerships with metropolitan based partners.

There is a growing literature on the composition and outcomes of partnerships in a variety of contexts and settings, including rural place-based communities, but relatively little about the partnership process. Understanding this process is a key step in designing policy at the system level and in developing and maintaining partnerships at the grass roots level. This paper makes a contribution to this gap by presenting lessons from the analysis of rural-urban partnerships around health services for two rural Tasmanian communities.

Challenges in conserving indigenous culture in Minahasa : culture, Genius Loci and the Indonesian Environmental Planning system

Culture and spirit of land is integral to Indigenous community meaning and identity. With colonisation, transmigration and assimilation policies and practices over the last 200 years, many Indigenous communities, like the Minahasa, have witnessed their culture, curatorial responsibilities, and their mythological associations to their lands eroded. Minahasa, meaning 'becoming one united', encompasses some eight ethnic communities who reside in the Minahasa regencies in the North Sulawesi Province on Sulawesi Island in Indonesia. The region was first colonised by the Portuguese in the 16th century, and then by the Dutch VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) in the 17th and 18th centuries bringing a strong Christian Protestant faith to the communities that appropriated many of the cultural symbols and mythological narratives of the Minahasa, and now compromises the largest concentration of Christian faith in the Indonesian archipelago being one of the reasons why there was considerable political requests for the region to formally become a province of The Netherlands in the lead up to Indonesian independence in 1945.

North Sulawesi never developed any large empire like on other islands in the archipelago. In 670, the leaders of the different tribes, who all spoke different languages, met by a stone known as Watu Pinawetengan. There they founded a community of independent states, who would form one unit and stay together and would fight any outside enemies if they were attacked, and the Dutch used this cultural ethos to help unite the linguistically diverse Minahasa confederacy under their colonial regime. Integral to the Minahasa is the Watu Pinawetengan and the series of narratives that enjoin the Minahasan communities to this place and around Lake Tondano. With Indonesian governance considerable angst has been launched by the Minahasa about loss of local autonomy, generic Indonesian policies, and a lack of respect of Indigenous culture and non-mainstream religions within this predominantly Moslem nation. This paper reviews the state of knowledge as to the cultural associations and genius loci meanings of the Minahasa, to their landscape and place, cast against contemporary Indonesian 10 year plans and policies that seek to generically manage the collective Indonesian archipelago as one community and landscape. It is a critique about the Minahasan Indigenous land use and planning philosophies, against top-down generic land use and environmental policies and plans written in Jakarta for generic application across the Indonesian archipelago.

Measurement and data transmission validity of a multi-biosensor system for real-time remote exercise monitoring among cardiac patients

Background: Remote telemonitoring holds great potential to augment management of patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and atrial fibrillation (AF) by enabling regular physiological monitoring during physical activity. Remote physiological monitoring may improve home and community exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (exCR) programs and could improve assessment of the impact and management of pharmacological interventions for heart rate control in individuals with AF.

Objective: Our aim was to evaluate the measurement validity and data transmission reliability of a remote telemonitoring system comprising a wireless multi-parameter physiological sensor, custom mobile app, and middleware platform, among individuals in sinus rhythm and AF.

Methods: Participants in sinus rhythm and with AF undertook simulated daily activities, low, moderate, and/or high intensity exercise. Remote monitoring system heart rate and respiratory rate were compared to reference measures (12-lead ECG and indirect calorimeter). Wireless data transmission loss was calculated between the sensor, mobile app, and remote Internet server.

Results: Median heart rate (-0.30 to 1.10 b∙min-1) and respiratory rate (-1.25 to 0.39 br∙min-1) measurement biases were small, yet statistically significant (all P≤.003) due to the large number of observations. Measurement reliability was generally excellent (rho=.87-.97, all P<.001; intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]=.94-.98, all P<.001; coefficient of variation [CV]=2.24-7.94%), although respiratory rate measurement reliability was poor among AF participants (rho=.43, P<.001; ICC=.55, P<.001; CV=16.61%). Data loss was minimal (<5%) when all system components were active; however, instability of the network hosting the remote data capture server resulted in data loss at the remote Internet server during some trials.

Conclusions: System validity was sufficient for remote monitoring of heart and respiratory rates across a range of exercise intensities. Remote exercise monitoring has potential to augment current exCR and heart rate control management approaches by enabling the provision of individually tailored care to individuals outside traditional clinical environments.

Impact of nest sanitation on the immune system of parents and nestlings in a passerine bird

Bacterial communities are thought to have fundamental effects on the growth and development of nestling birds. The antigen exposure hypothesis suggests that, for both nestlings and adult birds, exposure to a diverse range of bacteria would select for stronger immune defences. However, there are relatively few studies that have tested the immune/bacterial relationships outside of domestic poultry. We therefore sought to examine indices of immunity (microbial killing ability in naïve birds, which is a measure of innate immunity and the antibody response to sheep red blood cells, which measures adaptive immunity) in both adult and nestling zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). We did this throughout breeding and between reproductive attempts in nests that were experimentally manipulated to change the intensity of bacterial exposure. Our results suggest that nest sanitation and bacterial load affected measures of the adaptive immune system, but not the innate immune parameters tested. Adult finches breeding in clean nests had a lower primary antibody response to sheep red blood cells (SRBC), particularly males, and a greater difference between primary and secondary responses. Adult microbial killing of E.coli decreased as parents moved from incubation to nestling rearing for both nest treatments; however, killing of C.albicans remained consistent throughout. In nestlings, both innate microbial killing and the adaptive antibody response did not differ between nest environments. Together, these results suggest that the exposure to microorganisms in the environment affect the adaptive immune system in nesting birds, with exposure upregulating the antibody response in adult birds.