Profiling work motivation of project workers

The purpose of this study is to understand the constructs of work motivation in project-based organizations. We first juxtapose work motivation in traditional and project-based organizations to put forward an operational definition of work motivation for our study. We then present the research methodology where we profile work motivation as perceived by project workers using principal component analysis. We obtain a five factor structure of work motivation. Finally, we discuss these results by putting them within the project management perspective and suggest managerial implications.

ACE research briefing paper 003 : international perceptions and aspirations

2010 marked the completion of data collection for year three (Wave 3) of the CAUSEE study. This report uses data from the first three years. Australia's population is noted for its mixed international background. The ABS 2006 census reports showed that almost a quarter of Australian population were born overseas, contributing to a high degree of cultural diversity. This report examines the international background and experience of Australian business founders as well as their aspired and actual participation in international markets. In this research briefing paper, we compare Nascent Firm (NF) and Young Firm (YF) groups and also 'Regular' start-ups in both categories with their High Potential counterparts. When we compare characteristics at one point in time and we compare developments over time. Unless otherwise stated the findings we comment on are 'statistically significant'. That is, there is less than 5 per cent risk that they would appear by chance if there is no true difference in the population form which the samples were drawn.

Wayfinding : a simple concept, a complex process

Wayfinding is the process of finding your way to a destination in a familiar or unfamiliar setting using any cues given by the environment. Due to its ubiquity in everyday life, wayfinding appears on the surface to be a simply characterised and understood process, however this very ubiquity and the resulting need to refine and optimise wayfinding has lead to a great number of studies that have revealed that it is in fact a deeply complex exercise. In this paper we examine the motivations for investigating wayfinding, with particular attention being paid to the unique challenges faced in transportation hubs, and discuss the associated principles and factors involved as they have been perceived from different research perspectives.We also review the approaches used to date in the modelling of wayfinding in various contexts. We attempt to draw together the different perspectives applied to wayfinding and postulate the importance of wayfinding and the need to understand this seemingly simple, but concurrently complex, process.

Stress and addiction : contribution of the corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) system in neuroplasticity

Corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) has been shown to induce various behavioral changes related to adaptation to stress. Dysregulation of the CRF system at any point can lead to a variety of psychiatric disorders, including substance use disorders (SUDs). CRF has been associated with stress-induced drug reinforcement. Extensive literature has identified CRF to play an important role in the molecular mechanisms that lead to an increase in susceptibility that precipitates relapse to SUDs. The CRF system has a heterogeneous role in SUDs. It enhances the acute effects of drugs of abuse and is also responsible for the potentiation of drug-induced neuroplasticity evoked during the withdrawal period. We present in this review the brain regions and circuitries where CRF is expressed and may participate in stress-induced drug abuse. Finally, we attempt to evaluate the role of modulating the CRF system as a possible therapeutic strategy for treating the dysregulation of emotional behaviors that result from the acute positive reinforcement of substances of abuse as well as the negative reinforcement produced by withdrawal.

Urban, suburban, and rural variations in separation/divorce rape/sexual assault : results from the National Crime Victimization Survey

To date, no large study has looked at whether separation/divorce sexual assault varies across urban, suburban, and rural areas. The authors use 1992-2009 NCVS (National Crime Victimization Survey) data to estimate the percentage of separation/divorce sexual assault against women in urban, suburban, and rural communities. In addition, the authors identify and compare the relative risk of sexual assault victimization for women across areas. Findings indicate that a higher percentage of rural divorced/separated women were victims of rape/sexual assault than were urban divorced/separated women. In addition, rural separated women are victims of intimate rape/sexual assault at significantly higher rates than their suburban and urban counterparts.

Using a design led approach to emotional business modelling

Prototyping is an established and accepted practice used by the design community. Prototypes play a valuable role during the design process and can greatly affect the designed outcome. The concept of a business model prototype, however, is not well understood by the design and business communities. Design industry trends indicate a move away from product and service innovation towards business model innovation. Therefore, it stands to reason that the role of prototypes and prototyping in this context should also be considered. This paper is conceptual and presents a process for creating and enabling business model prototypes. Specifically, the focus is on building emotional connections across the value chain to enable internal growth within firms. To do this, the authors‟ have relied on personal observations and critical reflection from multiple industry engagements. The outcomes of this critical reflective practice are presented and the opportunities and challenges for this approach are discussed. Future research opportunities are also detailed and presented within the context of the emotional business model.

Personality and player types in Fallout New Vegas

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between personality and videogame player types. Study participants completed an online survey that gathered information regarding the individual's personality, via the Big Five Inventory, and player types. The study was focused on understanding this relationship in the context of the action role-playing videogame, Fallout New Vegas (FNV). A relationship between personality and player type was found, specifically with respect to the personality traits of openness to experience and conscientiousness.

Et tu, George? Campaign journalism and the politics of compromise

There is a category of film about journalism in which journalism is not the star, but the supporting player, and journalists not the protagonists but the Greek chorus, commenting on and also changing the realities they report. In such films the news media are a structuring presence driving the plot, shaping the narrative, constructing what we might think of as a pseudo-reality. Like Daniel Boorstin’s notion of the pseudo-event (introduced in his still-relevant book The Image, 1962), this pseudo-reality is so-named because it would not exist were it not for the demands of the news media’s hunger for stories, and knowledge of the damage they can do with those stories, on the calculations and actions of the key actors. Pseudo-realities form as responses to what political actors think journalists and their organisations need and want, or as efforts to shape journalistic accounts in ways favourable to themselves. Films about politics often feature pseudorealities of this kind, in which the events and actions driving the plot have only a tenuous relationship with important things going on in the everyday world beyond the political arena. Everything we see is about image, perception, appearance.

Analysis of Cone-Beam CT using prior information

Treatment plans for conformal radiotherapy are based on an initial CT scan. The aim is to deliver the prescribed dose to the tumour, while minimising exposure to nearby organs. Recent advances make it possible to also obtain a Cone-Beam CT (CBCT) scan, once the patient has been positioned for treatment. A statistical model will be developed to compare these CBCT scans with the initial CT scan. Changes in the size, shape and position of the tumour and organs will be detected and quantified. Some progress has already been made in segmentation of prostate CBCT scans [1],[2],[3]. However, none of the existing approaches have taken full advantage of the prior information that is available. The planning CT scan is expertly annotated with contours of the tumour and nearby sensitive objects. This data is specific to the individual patient and can be viewed as a snapshot of spatial information at a point in time. There is an abundance of studies in the radiotherapy literature that describe the amount of variation in the relevant organs between treatments. The findings from these studies can form a basis for estimating the degree of uncertainty. All of this information can be incorporated as an informative prior into a Bayesian statistical model. This model will be developed using scans of CT phantoms, which are objects with known geometry. Thus, the accuracy of the model can be evaluated objectively. This will also enable comparison between alternative models.

Subliquidus glass-glass immiscibility along the albite-diopside join

A calorimetric study has shown that glasses along the albite-diopside join in the system albiteanorthite-diopside have positive enthalpies of mixing. Thermodynamic calculations based on these data describe a nearly symmetric, metastable, subliquidus irascibility gap along the join with a critical temperature at 910 K. The existence of the miscibility gap was tested experimentally by annealing an Ab50Di50 glass at 748 K and 823 K. Annealed glasses were examined by optical microscopy and by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The glasses showed morphological and chemical features consistent with unmixing of two glass phases. The apparent mechanism of phase separation involves initial spinodal decomposition followed by coarsening to produce 0.1 μm–0.3 μm spherical glass phases.

Innovative Products Focus Group Report 2012. Brisbane: QUT

This report presents the results of Phase 3 of the Innovative Road Products Project: National Focus Groups. The groups developed solutions to address the most important obstacles constraining the adoption of innovative products in Australian road construction projects. The Innovative Products Survey, the major Project deliverable in 2011, and the largest innovation survey ever undertaken in the Australian road consutrction industry, results in the identification of key obstacles constraining the adoption of innovative products on road projects.

Innovative Products Survey Report

This report presents the results of the 2011 Australian road and bridge product innovation survey, the largest survey of its kind ever undertaken. The survey sample was defined as key organisations involved in the Australian road and bridge construction industry. The survey focused on four sectors across the road and bridge product supply chain: suppliers (comprising manufacturers and distributors), consultants (primarily engineering consultant firms), contractors (comprising head and trade contractors and subcontractors) and clients (state government road agencies). The sample comprised the four sectors in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.

Innovative Products Project: Background Study

The Australian Research Council (ARC) Innovative Products Project aims to facilitate project innovation by exploring means to improve the diffusion of innovative products to road and bridge projects. It adopts a highly novel approach to achieve this end, developing three different ways of viewing the problem: (1) as a relational governance issue, (2) as an absorptive capacity issue and (3) as a knowlege intermediation issue. This report presents teh results of teh first phase of a three phase fieldwork program.