From ivory towers to international business : are universities export ready in their recruitment of international students?

The main hypothesis examined in this study is that the success of export recruitment strategies of universities is partly determined by their export readiness, defined as a function of market orientation. This article seeks to fulfil both a research and a practitioner gap in the export of education field. There currently exists a lack of research and discussion concerning the business aspects of export education. Suspicion of the commercial aspects of what is essentially a public good is suggested as a possible reason for this absence of research. With the commercialisation of education growing at the phenomenal rate that it currently is, it is largely time that this research gap be addressed. This study provides an important contribution by examining the export readiness of universities, in particular pre-export market orientation, and its impact on subsequent export recruitment performance.

Tax policy when countries compete for third market exports

We examine the welfare and other consequences of tax policy in a third market export model where duopolists located in two countries compete in prices. With tax competition between governments, we allow for welfare-maximizing governments in the two countries to delegate tax setting responsibility to policy-makers who have different objectives than the governments. The unique equilibrium in the tax competition environment involves both governments delegating tax setting responsibility to tax revenue-maximizing policy-makers. This equilibrium yields higher welfare for both countries than the outcome when the governments delegate to welfare-maximizing policy-makers. The paper also compares tax competition with tax harmonization and shows that when the entire export market is served, tax harmonization improves the welfare of the country that houses the low cost firm, while the other country may be immiserized.

A microfluidic system for testing the responses of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma tissue biopsies to treatment with chemotherapy drugs

Tumors are heterogeneous masses of cells characterized pathologically by their size and spread. Their chaotic biology makes treatment of malignancies hard to generalize. We present a robust and reproducible glass microfluidic system, for the maintenance and “interrogation” of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) tumor biopsies, which enables continuous media perfusion and waste removal, recreating in vivo laminar flow and diffusion-driven conditions. Primary HNSCC or metastatic lymph samples were subsequently treated with 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin, alone and in combination, and were monitored for viability and apoptotic biomarker release ‘off-chip’ over 7 days. The concentration of lactate dehydrogenase was initially high but rapidly dropped to minimally detectable levels in all tumor samples; conversely, effluent concentration of WST-1 (cell proliferation) increased over 7 days: both factors demonstrating cell viability. Addition of cell lysis reagent resulted in increased cell death and reduction in cell proliferation. An apoptotic biomarker, cytochrome c, was analyzed and all the treated samples showed higher levels than the control, with the combination therapy showing the greatest effect. Hematoxylin- and Eosin-stained sections from the biopsy, before and after maintenance, demonstrated the preservation of tissue architecture. This device offers a novel method of studying the tumor environment, and offers a pre-clinical model for creating personalized treatment regimens.

A qualitative study exploring barriers to a model of shared care for pre-school children`s oral health

Objective To explore the oral health beliefs and practices of primary health care professionals which may act as barriers to the development of a model of shared care for the oral health of pre-school children.

Design Qualitative focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews.

Setting Four rural local government areas in Victoria, Australia, 2003.

Subjects and methods Subjects: maternal and child health nurses, general medical practitioners, dental professionals and paediatricians working in the four local government areas. Data collection: discipline specific focus groups and semi-structured interviews. Data analysis: transcription, coding, clustering and thematic analysis.

Results Several strong themes emerged from the data. All participants agreed that dental caries is a significant health issue for young children and their families. Beliefs about the aetiology of dental caries and its prevention were variable and often simplistic, focusing predominantly on diet. Dental professionals did not believe that they had a primary role in the oral health of pre-school aged children but that others particularly maternal and child health nurses did. However other health care professionals were not confident in assuming this role.

Conclusions This study has identified important barriers and possible strategies for the development of an integrated and shared approach to preventing dental caries in pre-school aged children. Clear and consistent oral health information and agreed roles and responsibilities need to be developed.

The influence of parents, siblings and peers on pre- and early-teen smoking : a multilevel model

Introduction and Aims. Despite considerable success in tobacco control, many teenagers in Australia and other industrialised countries still smoke tobacco. There is mixed evidence on the relative influence of proximal social networks (parents/siblings/peers) on pre- and early-teen smoking, and no research has examined how these influences compare after accounting for school- and community-level effects.The aim of this study was to compare the relative influences of parents, siblings and peers, after accounting for school- and community-level variation in smoking.

Design and Methods. A cross-sectional fixed and random effects model of smoking prevalence was used, with individuals (n = 7314) nested within schools (n = 231) nested within communities (n = 30). Grade 6 and 8 students (modal ages 11 and 13 years) completed an on-line survey. Key variables included parent/sibling/peer use. Controls included alcohol involvement, sensation seeking, pro-social beliefs, laws/norms about substance use and school commitment.

Results.There was significant variation in smoking at both the school and community levels, supporting the need for a multilevel model. Individual-level predictors accounted for much of the variance at higher levels. The strongest effects were for number of friends who smoke, sibling smoking and alcohol involvement. Smaller significant effects were found for parent smoking. At the community level, socioeconomic disadvantage was significant, but community-level variance in pro-social and drug-related laws/norms was not related to smoking.

Discussion and Conclusions. Cross-level interactions were generally non-significant. Early teenage smoking was best explained by sibling and peer smoking, and individual risks largely accounted for the substantial variation observed across schools and communities. In terms of future tobacco control, findings point to the utility of targeting families in disadvantaged communities.[Kelly AB, O'Flaherty M, Connor JP, Homel R, Toumbourou JW, Patton GC, Williams J. The influence of parents, siblings and peers on pre- and early-teen smoking: A multilevel model.

A research on the construction material export and energy consumptions using the gravity model

This paper applies a gravity model to estimate the relationships between energy consumptions and many kinds of construction material export over the period 1992-2009 in China. The empirical result shows that energy consumptions have a significant and positive influence on the construction material export of China.

Zebrafish as a genetic model in pre-clinical drug testing and screening

The traditional drug discovery pipeline for the identification and development of compounds that selectively target specific molecules to ameliorate disease remains a major focus for medical research. However, the zebrafish is increasingly providing alternative strategies for various components of this pipeline. Zebrafish and their embryos are small, easily accessible and relatively low cost, making them applicable to high-throughput, small molecule screening. Zebrafish can also be manipulated by a range of forward and reverse genetics techniques to facilitate gene discovery and functional studies. Moreover, their physiological and developmental complexity provides accurate models of human disease to underpin mechanism of action and in vivo validation studies. Finally, several of these biological characteristics make zebrafish eminently suitable for toxicity testing, including eco-toxicology. Here we review the application of zebrafish to preclinical drug development and toxicity testing, including recent advances in mutant generation, drug screening and toxicology that serve to further enhance the capabilities of this valuable model organism in drug discovery.

Social presence – connecting pre-service teachers as learners using a blended learning model

The national reform agenda for early childhood education and care across Australia has led to an increased demand for qualified early childhood teachers. In response, universities have developed innovative approaches in delivering early childhood teacher educa tion courses designed to support existing diploma qualified educators to gain their teaching qualifications. One such course at a major Australian University incorporated a flexible multi-modal option of study which included community -based, on line e-learning and face -to- face intensive tutorials. This paper reports on a study examining the outcomes for students undertaking their studies using this course delivery mode. The study sought to examine the students’ perceptions of the efficacy of the teaching and learning approach in meeting their learning needs, and the factors that were most influential in informing these perceptions. The findings indicated that it was the inclusion of contact and a social presence in the online learning environment which was most influential.

Impact of a modified nursing handover model for improving nursing care and documentation in the emergency department: A pre- and post-implementation study

The aim of this study was to evaluate whether implementation of a new nursing handover model led to improved completion of nursing care activities and documentation. A pre- and post-implementation study, using a survey and document audit, was conducted in a hospital ED in Melbourne. A convenience sample of nurses completed the survey at baseline (n = 67) and post-intervention (n = 59), and the audit was completed at both time points. Results showed significant improvements in several processes: handover in front of the patient (P < 0.001), patients contributed and/or listened to handover discussions (P < 0.001), and provision of adequate information about all patients in the department (P < 0.001). Nurses also reported a reduction in omission of vital signs (P = 0.022) during handover. Three hundred sixty-eight medical records were audited in the two study periods: 173 (pre-intervention) and 195 (post-intervention). Statistically significant improvements in the completion of two nursing care tasks and three documentation items were identified. The findings suggest that implementation of a new handover model improved completion of nursing care activities and documentation, and transfer of important information to nurses on oncoming shifts.

Predicting worsted spinning performance with an artificial neural network model

For a given fiber spun to pre-determined yarn specifications, the spinning performance of the yarn usually varies from mill to mill. For this reason, it is necessary to develop an empirical model that can encompass all known processing variables that exist in different spinning mills, and then generalize this information and be able to accurately predict yarn quality for an individual mill. This paper reports a method for predicting worsted spinning performance with an artificial neural network (ANN) trained with backpropagation. The applicability of artificial neural networks for predicting spinning performance is first evaluated against a well established prediction and benchmarking tool (Sirolan YarnspecTM). The ANN is then subsequently trained with commercial mill data to assess the feasibility of the method as a mill-specific performance prediction tool. Incorporating mill-specific data results in an improved fit to the commercial mill data set, suggesting that the proposed method has the ability to predict the spinning performance of a specific mill accurately.

Multi-temporal land use mapping using remotely sensed techniques and the integration of a pollutant load model in a GIS

Estimation of nutrient load production based on multi-temporal remotely sensed land-use data for the Glenelg-Hopkins region in southwest Victoria, Australia, is discussed. Changes in land use were mapped using archived Landsat data and computerized classification techniques. Land-use
change is unparalleled in recent history, with 13% of the region transformed in the last decade. Total nitrogen and phosphorus loading were estimated using an export coefficient model. The analysis demonstrated a disturbing increase in nitrogen and phosphorus loadings from 1995 to 2002. Whilst such increases were suspected from past anecdotal and ad-hoc evidence, our modelling quantitatively estimated such increases and thus demonstrated the enormous potential of using remote sensing and GIS for monitoring land-use change and hence improve land-use management.

Becoming l(IT)erate : pre-service English teachers and ICTs

One of the recommended principles for classroom practice from the Digital Rhetorics Project is ‘Teachers First’, emphasising the need to prioritise the requirements of teachers in learning new technologies and in understanding their relationship to literacy education (Lankshear, Green and Snyder 2000, p. 121). While most of my pre-service English Education students use digital technologies for their own purposes and understand the benefits of doing so, it is not always straightforward regarding how technology can be effectively utilised in their classroom and for what purposes. This article reports work conducted with pre-service English Education teachers in an elective unit that focuses upon digital technologies in secondary classrooms. Using Green’s 3D model of literacy as a way of understanding the complex interrelationships between the cultural, critical and operational aspects of literacy, the students experiment with digital technologies such as mobile phones, wikis and blogs.