Work context, personal control, and burnout amongst nurses

While situational factors such as high workloads have been found to be predictive of burnout, not all people in the same work context develop burnout. This suggests that individual factors are implicated in susceptibility to burnout. We investigated the relationships between care type (acute/chronic), neuroticism, control (primary/secondary), and symptoms of burnout (exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy) amongst 21 chronic care nurses and 83 acute care nurses working in a public hospital in regional Australia. Similar levels of burnout symptomatology and neuroticism were found in each group of nurses, and neuroticism was found to be associated with exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy in the total sample of nurses. Our prediction that primary control would protect against burnout symptoms in acute care nurses was supported only for professional efficacy, and the prediction that secondary control would protect against burnout in chronic care nurses was not supported.

Globalisation and reflexivity: some challenges for research into quality education mediated by ICTs

Globalisation can be characterised, Giddens (1994) suggests, as a process of 'intensified reflexivity' that creates the conditions for 'a world of clever people'. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are fundamental to globalisation and they have also been incorporated into the new educational technologies deployed by educators to (re)create 'a world of clever people'. Together, education and the ICTs are strong forces for globalisation where both curriculum and pedagogy shape the knowledge and values of the rising generation of 'clever people'. This chapter posits some research issues and questions that might be usefully pursued in transnational collaborative research or are germane to its conduct and contexts. These matters include: the place of ICTs in research work; the challenge of globally inclusive curricula and the impact of English as the global language; and ICTs decentring the research centre.

Internal audit independence and objectivity : emerging research opportunities

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the recent literature on internal audit independence and objectivity and discuss opportunities for future research. The topics examined are the organizational status of internal audit, the internal auditor's dual role as a provider of assurance and consulting activities, internal audit's involvement in risk management, outsourcing and co-sourcing of internal audit activities, and the use of internal audit as a training ground for managers.
Design/methodology/approach – The approach used in this paper is a review of the literature followed by an identification of further research opportunities.
Findings – The paper summarizes the existing body of knowledge relating to internal audit independence and objectivity and identifies gaps in the literature where further research is needed.
Originality/value – The paper provides researchers with a useful summary of the literature on internal audit independence and objectivity and stimulates them to engage in further research in the area.

Study of phase transformation and work hardening phenomenon during drilling of Ti-5553 and Ti-64

Titanium 5553 is a recently developed modification of Russian near-β titanium alloy VT-22 which has applications and potential particularly in the aerospace industry for such key components as landing gear. However, indications are that Ti-5553 has poorer machinability characteristics than other Ti alloys and a comprehensive and far-reaching analysis is a necessary research imperative. This paper presents the result of phase transformation and work hardening during drilling of Ti-5553 compared with Ti-64. The aim of this research work is to optimise the machining condition for Ti-5553, in which the β to a phase transformation, together with material work hardening could be fully understood. Analysis of machinability indicators, such as subsurface micrograph and hardness of drilled samples and drilling forces and torques, demonstrated that Ti-5553 generally has poorer machinability characteristics than Ti-64 and to some extent this variation has been quantified to allow for further and more detailed investigation.

Sport entrepreneurship : challenges and directions for future research

The aim of this paper is to structure the existing and emerging field of 'sport entrepreneurship' as well as to develop suggestions for future research. This paper examines the role of the sports entrepreneur and entrepreneurial process in new venture creation projects. This paper contributes to a general understanding of entrepreneurship in the sports context and suggests how further theoretical and empirical work on entrepreneurship needs to be conducted in the sports context. The major managerial and practical implications of sports entrepreneurship in this paper are to develop more entrepreneurial thinking in sports-related ventures. This paper is the first to focus on the future potential of sports entrepreneurship in creating entrepreneurial ventures, thereby providing a strong theoretical foundation for future research work.

Eureka moments in research : exploring abductive processes using four case examples

Abduction plays an important but often unacknowledged role in research – this regrettably leaving a large part of the research process hidden and unexamined (Levin-Rozalis 2000), particularly important innovative or creative components. This paper, firstly, introduces abduction and discusses some important concepts related to abduction and innovation. Secondly, it presents author’s own re-descriptions of previous research work. This new description seeks to describe perceived key “Eureka” moments in the research and thus make the creative components and abductive elements more visible. The paper demonstrates that much can be gained from opening a reflective space for the role of abduction in the research process.

The Role of TAFE as an Equity Pathway to Social Inclusion, Employment, and to University : a submission from The Deakin University Social Work/Gordon TAFE Community Services Work, Geelong Based Project Team

Executive Summary

The Deakin University Social Work/Gordon TAFE Community Services Work Geelong Based Project Team (the Project Team) was assisted by Higher Education Partnership and Participation funding made available through Deakin University Participation and Partnerships Program (DUPPP) to carry out research and project work in 2012/13.

In the following submission to the House of Representatives Inquiry into the role of Technical and Further Education (TAFE) system and its operation, this Project Team seeks to establish a case for:

1. Funding to enable TAFE to continue as:

a) an equity pathway to social inclusion, employment, and to university, particularly in regional areas.
b) an integral complement to the University education sector to deliver on the ambitious objectives of the Federal Government’s widening participation agenda, as a mechanism to deliver the skills, knowledge and workforce needed now, and in the future, in the Australian economy.
2. Increased resources for separate and joint sector development
a) Publicly funded TAFEs need funding to be restored and increased to enable them to maintain the high quality education they provide and to maintain their successful work in supporting communities, regions and disadvantaged individuals to gain skills, training and employment.
b) Universities need increased funding to increase staffing levels and therefore free up teaching staff to spend the necessary time to develop relationships with and provide support to students. This is important for the achieving the goals of the widening participation agenda of increasing access without increasing attrition at the same time.
c) TAFEs and Universities need funding to do the work required to further develop and formalise diploma-degree pathways so that disadvantaged individuals can exit into employment at the diploma level or be supported in an efficient and seamless way to undertake further study.
3. Active use of localised and nuanced partnership approaches by education institutions. This includes:
• Cross teaching by TAFEs and Universities in courses that can be articulated, such as professional practice diplomas and degrees
• Programs negotiated and designed according to the needs of students in each location. TAFEs and Universities need resources in order to do this work
• Focus on regional centres where there is a particular opportunity for government to make an impact on TAFE pathways to employment and/or further education
• Workforce development in regional areas due to new industries is a particular area of need
4. Recognise and capitalise on the complementary and symbiotic nature of each sector’s skills, strengths and capacities.
The submission responds to the second, third and fifth points of the Terms of Reference of the Inquiry and is based on the research work carried out by the Project Team in 2012/13.

We provide evidence of Gordon TAFE in Geelong working as an equity mechanism in the particular case of the welfare/ community services diploma to social work degree pathway. The project team considers that there is a strong case for additional resourcing of TAFE to enable it to continue what it does well. TAFE is the key training and education sectorthe ‘education and social hub’that can successfully attract, retain, and graduate people who may not otherwise access education due to one or more combinations of:

1. having a low SES current or past background;
2. living in regional areas;
3. receiving interrupted primary and secondary education;
4. having disabilities;
5. being sole parents;
6. being from refugee backgrounds;
7. having English as an additional language/culture;
8. retrenchment from employment in dying industries;
9. short, medium and long term unemployment;
10. past and/or current caring roles;
11. marriage/relationship breakdowns;
12. domestic violence;
13. gender, class, age, race/ethnicity and dis/ability discriminations; and
14. socialised expectations and fears.

The recommendations in this submission are based on research findings about important similarities and differences between Gordon TAFE welfare and Deakin University social work students in Geelong, and their respective institutional organisations and contexts. The two institutions employ a repertoire of diverse administrative, teaching, learning and support approaches to meet different mission goals, requirements and needs.

Action research in a remote district in Papua New Guinea: final report

This project investigated whether action research could be used to address ‘grassroots’ community problems in a remote district of PNG. The research team introduced, supported and researched the implementation of a pilot action research project from April to November 2015 in Abau, Central Province. The project was funded by the Australian Government and commissioned through the Economic and Public Sector Program (EPSP) managed by Coffey. The action research participants comprised people from throughout Abau with interests in women’s and gender equity issues from community groups and agencies in the district. The action research teams developed evidence-based understandings of the causes and consequences of the problems that they were addressing through their actions. The research team provided each participant with a mobile phone connected to a ‘common user group’ (CUG). This enabled each participant unlimited phone calls and SMS messaging to other participants and to the research team. The research team sent weekly sets of SMS messages to all participants to assist their action research work. The use of mobile phones to support action research in remote communities was an important element of both facilitating the action research and of the research on the pilot project itself. With such knowledge they were strengthened in purpose and intention to help their own community. This suggests that an extension of this work in other remote areas of PNG may be successful.

Lessons learnt from dancing the data : performed research of beginning teachers' experiences

This paper discusses the power of performed research. Such power lies in assisting to research the whole human – thought, action, and emotion. The paper discusses the potential for research through the arts in the development of creativity and imagination, to facilitate social change, and to explore performance as a research process as well as an end result that presents findings. The experiences of Bagley and Cancienne (2001); (2002) guided the creation of the work, and assist to frame this paper. The dance work discussed in this paper is a recent addition to the performed research work ‘The First Time’. The dance work was crafted to bring together the comparable experiences of first year teacher participants, and similarities among the findings of research into their identity. The creation of ‘The First Time’ was employed as a tool to understand and analyse the data. The dance work was employed to highlight findings regarding beginning teachers’ transition to teaching. This paper explores the process of creating and presenting arts-based research to expand the avenues through which the results of research are made available to a relevant audience; of how this method might broaden and complement traditional ways of thinking about and doing educational research.

Reasoning with multimedia information using symbolic projection

In many multimedia application systems, it is not the final goal to retrieve the relevant multimedia information from different multimedia information sources. Rather, post-processing of the retrieved multimedia information is needed. For example, the retrieved information is used as “known facts”. The systems will do some reasoning to obtain further conclusions based on these multimedia form “known facts”. We call this reasoning with multimedia information. Most current research work in multimedia information processing is focused on multimedia information retrieval, but post-processing the retrieved information is more or less ignored. This paper explores the way to tackle this problem by using symbolic projection. A case study of reasoning with still image information is presented. Some extensions to symbolic projection- introducing auxiliary pictorial objects in symbolic pictures that need to be processed-are discussed. We expect this paper will stimulate further research on this important but ignored topic.

Post processing of multimedia information - concepts, problems, and techniques

Currently, most research work on multimedia information processing is focused on multimedia information storage and retrieval, especially indexing and content-based access of multimedia information. We consider multimedia information processing should include one more level-post-processing. Here "post-processing" means further processing of retrieved multimedia information, which includes fusion of multimedia information and reasoning with multimedia information to reach new conclusions. In this paper, the three levels of multimedia information processing storage, retrieval, and post-processing- are discussed. The concepts and problems of multimedia information post-processing are identified. Potential techniques that can be used in post-processing are suggested, By highlighting the problems in multimedia information post-processing, hopefully this paper will stimulate further research on this important but ignored topic.

Content-based video indexing for sports applications using integrated multi-modal approach

To sustain an ongoing rapid growth of video information, there is an emerging demand for a sophisticated content-based video indexing system. However, current video indexing solutions are still immature and lack of any standard. This doctoral consists of a research work based on an integrated multi-modal approach for sports video indexing and retrieval. By combining specific features extractable from multiple audio-visual modalities, generic structure and specific events can be detected and classified. During browsing and retrieval, users will benefit from the integration of high-level semantic and some descriptive mid-level features such as whistle and close-up view of player(s).

The repatriation experience of the Chinese spouse in New Zealand

This study examines the adjustment process and the adaptability of the Chinese migrant spouses’ in Auckland, New Zealand. A total of 97 spouses participated in a survey from a random sample of 200. The results suggest that both anticipatory and in-country experiences are relevant to adjustment. The results of the study, specifically suggest that the adjustment process experienced by the Chinese spouses in the New Zealand environment is based on a number of factors such as (1) the amount of information and knowledge of New Zealand they have prior to arrival in New Zealand, (2) the backgrounds of the spouses, (3) their experiences prior to and on arrival in New Zealand, and (4) their ability to cope in the new environment.

Top versus leading journals in marketing : some challenging thoughts

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to discuss some criteria in order to distinguish between top versus leading journals in marketing. The aim is to stimulate the debate of the adequacy of those issues that dominate in the top marketing journals.

Design/methodology/approach – The authors discuss three groups of criteria, namely journal, article, and research. Each is discussed based on a set of dimensions: journal criteria – the editor, the editorial board, the editorial objective and the author affiliations; article criteria – research implication, practice implication, readability and originality; and research criteria – process, paradigm, representation, readership and contribution.

Findings – While the top journals in marketing are named, the analysis is meant to be of a more general nature rather than to question or lambaste a specific journal.

Research limitations/implications – There is an underlying quest for identifying and verifying the top academic journals in different research disciplines. As an extension to the discussion of top versus non-top journals, the authors raise another crucial issue, namely criteria to differentiate between top and leading journals in marketing.

Practical implications – These criteria are based on the authors' examination of the editorial descriptions and overall contents of six top journals in marketing. The criteria are also derived from a review of the literature on academic journals and academic publishing.

Originality/value – The discussion may stimulate and widen debate with respect to what constitutes a leading academic journal in marketing. The suggested list of criteria should be seen as a trigger for further discussion. It does not aspire to be complete, but a complement to the ongoing discussion of academic journals and academic publishing in marketing.

Multi-core security defense system (MSDS)

Today's security program developers are not only facing an uphill battle of developing and implementing. But now have to take into consideration, the emergence of next generation of multi-core system, and its effect on security application design. In our previous work, we developed a framework called bodyguard. The objective of this framework was to help security software developers, shift from their use of serialized paradigm, to a multi-core paradigm. Working within this paradigm, we developed a security bodyguard system called Farmer. This abstract framework placed particular applications into categories, like security or multi-media, which were ran on separate core processors within the multi-core system. With further analysis of the bodyguard paradigm, we found that this paradigm was suitable to be used in other computer science areas, such as spam filtering and multi-media. In this paper, we update our research work within the bodyguard paradigm, and showed a marked improvement of 110% speedup performance with an average cost of 1.5 ms.