Can venous occlusion plethysmography be used to measure high rates of arterial inflow?

To investigate whether venous occlusion plethysmography (VOP) may be used to measure high rates of arterial inflow associated with exercise, venous occlusions were performed at rest, and following dynamic handgrip exercise at 15, 30, 45, and 60 % of maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) in seven healthy males. The effect of including more than one cardiac cycle in the calculation of blood flow was assessed by comparing the cumulative blood flow over one, two, three, or four cardiac cycles. The inclusion of more than one cardiac cycle at 30 and 60 % MVC, and more than two cardiac cycles at 15 and 45 % MVC resulted in a lower blood flow compared to using only the first cardiac cycle (P < 0.05). Despite the small time interval over which arterial inflow was measured (~1 second), this did not affect the reproducibility of the technique. Reproducibility (coefficient of variation for arterial inflow over three trials) tended to be poorer at the higher workloads, although this was not significant (12.7 ± 6.6 %, 16.2 ± 7.3 %, and 22.9 ± 9.9 % for the 15, 30, and 45 % MVC workloads; P=0.102). There was also a tendency for greater reproducibility with the inclusion of more cardiac cycles at the highest workload, but this did not reach significance (P=0.070). In conclusion, when calculated over the first cardiac cycle only during venous occlusion, high rates of FBF can be measured using VOP, and this can be achieved without a significant decrease in the reproducibility of the measurement.

How can flexible learning centres use social networking to improve their ongoing educational assessments?

Most online assessment systems now incorporate social networking features, and recent developments in social media spaces include protocols that allow the synchronisation and aggregation of data across multiple user profiles. In light of these advances and the concomitant fear of data sharing in secondary school education this papers provides important research findings about generic features of online social networking, which educators can use to make sound and efficient assessments in collaboration with their students and colleagues. This paper reports on a design experiment in flexible educational settings that challenges the dichotomous legacy of success and failure evident in many assessment activities for at-risk youth. Combining social networking practices with the sociology of education the paper proposes that assessment activities are best understood as a negotiable field of exchange. In this design experiment students, peers and educators engage in explicit, "front-end" assessment (Wyatt-Smith, 2008) to translate digital artefacts into institutional, and potentiality economic capital without continually referring to paper based pre-set criteria. This approach invites students and educators to use social networking functions to assess “work in progress” and final submissions in collaboration, and in doing so assessors refine their evaluative expertise and negotiate the value of student’s work from which new criteria can emerge. The mobile advantages of web-based technologies aggregate, externalise and democratise this transparent assessment model for most, if not all, student work that can be digitally represented.

Can students with low vision maintain sustained reading rates?

Purpose: Students with low vision may be disadvantaged when compared with their normally sighted peers, as they frequently work at very short working distances and need to use low vision devices. The aim of this study was to examine the sustained reading rates of students with low vision and compare them with their peers with normal vision. The effects of visual acuity, acuity reserve and age on reading rate were also examined. Method: Fifty-six students (10 to 16 years of age), 26 with low vision and 30 with normal vision were required to read text continuously for 30 minutes. Their position in the text was recorded at two-minute intervals. Distance and near visual acuity, working distance, cause of low vision, reading rates and reading habits were recorded. Results: A total of 80.7 per cent of the students with low vision maintained a constant reading rate during the 30 minutes of reading, although they read at approximately half the rate (104 wpm) compared with their normally sighted peers (195 wpm). Only four of the low vision subjects could not complete the reading task. Reading rates increased significantly with acuity reserve and distance and near visual acuity but there was no significant relationship between age and sustained reading rate. Conclusions: The majority of students with low vision were able to maintain appropriate reading rates to cope in integrated educational settings. Surprisingly only relatively few subjects (16 per cent) used their prescribed low vision devices even though the average accommodative demand was 9 D and generally, they revealed a greater dislike of reading compared to students with normal vision.

Fashion manufacturing in New Zealand : can design contribute to a sustainable fashion Industry?

In the late 1990s New Zealand fashion gained some international recognition for its dark edginess and intellectual connection due to its colonial past (Molloy, 2004). In the years since, this momentum seems to have dissipated as local fashion companies have followed a global trend towards inexpensive off shore manufacturing. The transfer of the making of garments to overseas workers appears to have resulted in a local fashion scene where many garments look the same in style, colour, cut and fit. The excitement of the past, where the majority of fashion designers established their own individuality through the cut and shape of the garments that they produced, may have been inadvertently lost. Consequently a sustainable New Zealand fashion and manufacturing industry, with design integrity, seems further out of reach. The first question posed by this research project is, ‘can the design and manufacture of a fashion garment, bearing in mind certain economic and practical restrictions at its inception, result in the development of a distinctive ‘look’ or ‘handwriting’?’ Second, through development of a collection of prototypes, can potential garments be created to be sustainably manufactured in New Zealand?

How can we exploit mobile data to customise learning based on a student’s environmental surroundings?

User-Based intelligent systems are already commonplace in a student’s online digital life. Each time they browse, search, buy, join, comment, play, travel, upload, download, a system collects, analyses and processes data in an effort to customise content and further improve services. This panel session will explore how intelligent systems, particularly those that gather data from mobile devices, can offer new possibilities to assist in the delivery of customised, personal and engaging learning experiences. The value of intelligent systems for education lies in their ability to formulate authentic and complex learner profiles that bring together and systematically integrate a student’s personal world with a formal curriculum framework. As we well know, a mobile device can collect data relating to a student’s interests (gathered from search history, applications and communications), location, surroundings and proximity to others (GPS, Bluetooth). However, what has been less explored is the opportunity for a mobile device to map the movements and activities of a student from moment to moment and over time. This longitudinal data provides a holistic profile of a student, their state and surroundings. Analysing this data may allow us to identify patterns that reveal a student’s learning processes; when and where they work best and for how long. Through revealing a student’s state and surroundings outside of schools hour, this longitudinal data may also highlight opportunities to transform a student’s everyday world into an inventory for learning, punctuating their surroundings with learning recommendations. This would in turn lead to new ways to acknowledge and validate and foster informal learning, making it legitimate within a formal curriculum.

The application of the Park & Ride and TOD concepts to develop a new framework that can maximise public transport patronage

With growing concern over the use of the car in our urbanized society, there have emerged a number of lobby groups and professional bodies promoting a return to public transport, walking and cycling, with the urban village as the key driving land use, as a means of making our cities’ transportation systems more sustainable. This research has aimed at developing a framework applicable to the Australian setting that can facilitate increased passenger patronage of rail based urban transport systems from adjacent or associated land uses. The framework specifically tested the application of the Park & Ride and Transit Oriented Development (TOD) concepts and their applicability within the cultural, institutional, political and transit operational characteristics of Australian society. The researcher found that, although the application of the TOD concept had been limited to small pockets of town houses and mixed use developments around stations, the development industry and emerging groups within the community are posed to embrace the concept and bring with it increased rail patronage. The lack of a clear commitment to infrastructure and supporting land uses is a major barrier to the implementation of TODs. The research findings demonstrated significant scope for the size of a TOD to expand to a much greater radius of activity from the public transport interchange, than the commonly quoted 400 to 600 meters, thus incorporating many more residents and potential patrons. The provision of Park & Rides, and associated support facilities like Kiss & Rides, have followed worldwide trends of high patronage demands from the middle and outer car dependent suburbs of our cities. The data collection and analysis gathered by the researcher demonstrated that in many cases Park & Rides should form part of a TOD to ensure ease of access to rail stations by all modes and patron types. The question, however, remains how best to plan the incorporation of a Park & Ride within a TOD and still maintain those features that attract and promote TODs as a living entity.

Can't see the water for the trees

The work was both conceived and constructed in-situ within Gnombup Swamp a seasonal water body at Bremer Bay, Western Australia. The work interacts with site-specific conditions including wind patterns and a datum of seasonal water levels marks. The work is the result of collaboration between soil scientist Paula Deegan and Ian Weir. The installation was documented with a series of 30 still digital photographs, later animated in Microsoft Powerpoint.

How can entrepreneurial musicians use electronic social networks to diffuse their music

Principal Topic: ''In less than ten years music labels will not exist anymore.'' Michael Smelli, former Global COO Sony/BMG MCA/QUT IMP Business Lab Digital Music Think Thanks 9 May 2009, Brisbane Big music labels such as EMI, Sony BMG and UMG have been responsible for promoting and producing a myriad of stars in the music industry over the last decades. However, the industry structure is under enormous threat with the emergence of a new innovative era of digital music. Recent years have seen a dramatic shift in industry power with the emergence of Napster and other file sharing sites, iTunes and other online stores, iPod and the MP3 revolution. Myspace.com and other social networking sites are connecting entrepreneurial artists with fans and creating online music communities independent of music labels. In 2008 the digital music business internationally grew by around 25% to 3.7 Billion US-Dollar. Digital platforms now account for around 20% of recorded music sales, up from 15 % in 2007 (IFPI Digital music report 2009). CD sales have fallen by 40% since their peak levels. Global digital music sales totalled an estimated US$ 3 Billion in 2007, an increase of 40% on 2006 figures. Digital sales account for an estimated 15% of global market, up from 11% in 2006 and zero in 2003. The music industry is more advanced in terms of digital revenues than any other creative or entertainment industry (except games). Its digital share is more than twice that of newspapers (7%), films (35) or books (2%). All these shifts present new possibilities for music entrepreneurs to act entrepreneurially and promote their music independently of the major music labels. Diffusion of innovations has a long tradition in both sociology (e.g. Rogers 1962, 2003) and marketing (Bass 1969, Mahajan et al., 1990). The context of the current project is theoretically interesting in two respects. First, the role of online social networks replaces traditional face-to-face word of mouth communications. Second, as music is a hedonistic product, this strongly influences the nature of interpersonal communications and their diffusion patterns. Both of these have received very little attention in the diffusion literature to date, and no studies have investigated the influence of both simultaneously. This research project is concerned with the role of social networks in this new music industry landscape, and how this may be leveraged by musicians willing to act entrepreneurially. Our key research question we intend to address is: How do online social network communities impact the nature, pattern and speed that music diffuses? Methodology/Key Propositions : We expect the nature/ character of diffusion of popular, generic music genres to be different from specialized, niche music. To date, only Moe & Fader (2002) and Lee et al. (2003) investigated diffusion patterns of music and these focus on forecast weekly sales of music CDs based on the advance purchase orders before the launch, rather than taking a detailed look at diffusion patterns. Consequently, our first research questions are concerned with understanding the nature of online communications within the context of diffusion of music and artists. Hence, we have the following research questions: RQ1: What is the nature of fan-to-fan ''word of mouth'' online communications for music? Do these vary by type of artist and genre of music? RQ2: What is the nature of artist-to-fan online communications for music? Do these vary by type of artist and genre of music? What types of communication are effective? Two outcomes from research social network theory are particularly relevant to understanding how music might diffuse through social networks. Weak tie theory (Granovetter, 1973), argues that casual or infrequent contacts within a social network (or weak ties) act as a link to unique information which is not normally contained within an entrepreneurs inner circle (or strong tie) social network. A related argument, structural hole theory (Burt, 1992), posits that it is the absence of direct links (or structural holes) between members of a social network which offers similar informational benefits. Although these two theories argue for the information benefits of casual linkages, and diversity within a social network, others acknowledge that a balanced network which consists of a mix of strong ties, weak ties is perhaps more important overall (Uzzi, 1996). It is anticipated that the network structure of the fan base for different types of artists and genres of music will vary considerably. This leads to our third research question: RQ3: How does the network structure of online social network communities impact the pattern and speed that music diffuses? The current paper is best described as theory elaboration. It will report the first exploratory phase designed to develop and elaborate relevant theory (the second phase will be a quantitative study of network structure and diffusion). We intend to develop specific research propositions or hypotheses from the above research questions. To do so we will conduct three focus group discussions of independent musicians and three focus group discussions of fans active in online music communication on social network sites. We will also conduct five case studies of bands that have successfully built fan bases through social networking sites (e.g. myspace.com, facebook.com). The idea is to identify which communication channels they employ and the characteristics of the fan interactions for different genres of music. We intend to conduct interviews with each of the artists and analyse their online interaction with their fans. Results and Implications : At the current stage, we have just begun to conduct focus group discussions. An analysis of the themes from these focus groups will enable us to further refine our research questions into testable hypotheses. Ultimately, our research will provide a better understanding of how social networks promote the diffusion of music, and how this varies for different genres of music. Hence, some music entrepreneurs will be able to promote their music more effectively. The results may be further generalised to other industries where online peer-to-peer communication is common, such as other forms of entertainment and consumer technologies.

Early childhood education for sustainability : why it matters, what it is, and how whole centre action research and systems thinking can help

The global financial crisis, global pandemics, global warming and peak oil are indicative of a world facing major environmental, social and economic problems. At the same time, world population continues to rise and global inequalities deepen. Children are the most vulnerable to the impacts of unsustainable living with specific harms arising because of their physical and cognitive vulnerabilities. Nevertheless, children do not have to be victims in the face of these challenges. Education, including early childhood education, has an important role to in building resilience and capabilities in children that equip them as active and informed citizens now and in the future and who are capable of contributing to healthy and sustainable ways of living. Drawing on educational change literature, action research, education for sustainability, health promotion and systems theory, this paper outlines three strategies that can help reorient early childhood education towards sustainability. One strategy is the adoption of whole centre approaches to sustainability and education for sustainability. This means working across the whole of a centre’s operations – curriculum and pedagogy, physical and social environments, its partnerships and community connections. The second strategy – applied in conjunction with the first – is the use of action research to investigate the early childhood setting and to create the desired changes. The third strategy is the adoption of systems thinking as a way of leveraging support and momentum for change so that education for sustainability goes beyond the initiatives of individual teachers and centres, and becomes a systems-wide imperative.

Can book-to-market and size be risk factors that predict economic growth in Asia's emerging economies?

We investigate whether the two 2 zero cost portfolios, SMB and HML, have the ability to predict economic growth for markets investigated in this paper. Our findings show that there are only a limited number of cases when the coefficients are positive and significance is achieved in an even more limited number of cases. Our results are in stark contrast to Liew and Vassalou (2000) who find coefficients to be generally positive and of a similar magnitude. We go a step further and also employ the methodology of Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny (1994) and once again fail to support the risk-based hypothesis of Liew and Vassalou (2000). In sum, we argue that search for a robust economic explanation for firm size and book-to-market equity effects needs sustained effort as these two zero cost portfolios do not represent economically relevant risk.

Golf can be dangerous : be forewarned!

In Pollard v Trude [2008] QSC 119 (20 May 2008) the plaintiff claimed for personal injuries suffered when he was struck by a golf ball during the course of a tournament. The plaintiff was a member of a group of four, playing in a two-day tournament at Indooroopilly Golf Club. All four players had teed off at the second hole of the course and when the defendant took his second shot; his ball struck one of the trees bordering the fairway and deflected, hitting the plaintiff who was waiting to take his third stroke. As the ball was in flight, the defendant had called out "Watch out Errol", or words to that effect, to the plaintiff. The plaintiff suffered injury to his eye, leaving his vision impaired. The plaintiff sued in negligence, alleging that by failing to shout "fore" as is traditionally done in golf, the defendant had failed to warn the appellant and this was a breach of their duty. The claim in negligence was dismissed by the Queensland Supreme Court, holding that there had been no breach of the duty.

How relationships can be utilized for service bundling

The phenomenon of organizations offering service bundles can typically be observed in dynamic markets with heterogeneous customer demand. Available literature broaching the issue of service bundling covers strategic considerations for organizations related to their respective market position as well as their pricing options for different bundle configurations. However, little guidance can be found regarding the identification of potential bundle candidates and the actual process of bundling. In this paper, we present an approach to service bundling that can be utilized by organizations to identify services that are suitable for bundling. The contribution of the paper is twofold. Firstly, the proposed method represents a structured conceptualization approach for organizations to facilitate the creation of bundles in practice based on empirical findings. Secondly, from a Design Science research perspective, the proposed method represents an innovative artifact that extends the academic knowledge base related to service management.