Bridging the gap: Curriculum practices in community language schools and their challenges

This study investigated curriculum practices in Queensland community language schools and how these practices are supported by government policy. The conceptual framework drew on theories of ethnolinguistic vitality and curriculum dimensions. The research design involved case studies of two community language schools of different sizes, using classroom observation and interviews. Cross–case analysis revealed contrasting curriculum practices determined by student enrolments, and different capacities to access and benefit from what policy support was available. This study offers some implications and possibilities to better support quality curriculum practices in community language schools.

Policy-centric integration and dynamic composition of autonomic computing techniques

This paper presents innovative work in the development of policy-based autonomic computing. The core of the work is a powerful and flexible policy-expression language AGILE, which facilitates run-time adaptable policy configuration of autonomic systems. AGILE also serves as an integrating platform for other self-management technologies including signal processing, automated trend analysis and utility functions. Each of these technologies has specific advantages and applicability to different types of dynamic adaptation. The AGILE platform enables seamless interoperability of the different technologies to each perform various aspects of self-management within a single application. The various technologies are implemented as object components. Self-management behaviour is specified using the policy language semantics to bind the various components together as required. Since the policy semantics support run-time re-configuration, the self-management architecture is dynamically composable. Additional benefits include the standardisation of the application programmer interface, terminology and semantics, and only a single point of embedding is required.

A versatile policy toolkit supporting run-time policy reconfiguration

This paper describes an autonomics development tool which serves as both a powerful and flexible policy-expression language and a policy-based framework that supports the integration and dynamic composition of several autonomic computing techniques including signal processing, automated trend analysis and utility functions. Each of these technologies has specific advantages and applicability to different types of dynamic adaptation. The AGILE platform enables seamless interoperability of the different technologies to each perform various aspects of self-management within a single application. Self-management behaviour is specified using the policy language semantics to bind the various technologies together as required. Since the policy semantics support run-time re-configuration, the self-management architecture is dynamically composable. The policy language and implementation library have integrated support for self-stabilising behaviour, enabling oscillation and other forms of instability to be handled at the policy level with very little effort on the part of the application developer. Example applications are presented to illustrate the integration of different autonomics techniques, and the achievement of dynamic composition.

Towards a Privacy-enhanced Social Networking Site

L’avénement des réseaux sociaux, tel que Facebook, MySpace et LinkedIn, a fourni une plateforme permettant aux individus de rester facilement connectés avec leurs amis, leurs familles ou encore leurs collègues tout en les encourageant activement à partager leurs données personnelles à travers le réseau. Avec la richesse des activités disponibles sur un réseau social, la quantité et la variété des informations personnelles partagées sont considérables. De plus, de part leur nature numérique, ces informations peuvent être facilement copiées, modifiées ou divulguées sans le consentement explicite de leur propriétaire. Ainsi, l’information personnelle révélée par les réseaux sociaux peut affecter de manière concrète la vie de leurs utilisateurs avec des risques pour leur vie privée allant d’un simple embarras à la ruine complète de leur réputation, en passant par l’usurpation d’identité. Malheureusement, la plupart des utilisateurs ne sont pas conscients de ces risques et les outils mis en place par les réseaux sociaux actuels ne sont pas suffisants pour protéger efficacement la vie privée de leurs utilisateurs. En outre, même si un utilisateur peut contrôler l’accès à son propre profil, il ne peut pas contrôler ce que les autres révèlent à son sujet. En effet, les “amis” d’un utilisateur sur un réseau social peuvent parfois révéler plus d’information à son propos que celui-ci ne le souhaiterait. Le respect de la vie privée est un droit fondamental pour chaque individu. Nous pré- sentons dans cette thèse une approche qui vise à accroître la prise de conscience des utilisateurs des risques par rapport à leur vie privée et à maintenir la souveraineté sur leurs données lorsqu’ils utilisent un réseau social. La première contribution de cette thèse réside dans la classification des risques multiples ainsi que les atteintes à la vie privée des utilisateurs d’un réseau social. Nous introduisons ensuite un cadre formel pour le respect de la vie privée dans les réseaux sociaux ainsi que le concept de politique de vie privée (UPP). Celle-ci définie par l’utilisateur offre une manière simple et flexible de spécifier et communiquer leur attentes en terme de respect de la vie privée à d’autres utilisateurs, tiers parties ainsi qu’au fournisseur du réseau social. Par ailleurs, nous dé- finissons une taxonomie (possiblement non-exhaustive) des critères qu’un réseau social peut intégrer dans sa conception pour améliorer le respect de la vie privée. En introduisant le concept de réseau social respectueux de la vie privée (PSNS), nous proposons Privacy Watch, un réseau social respectueux de la vie privée qui combine les concepts de provenance et d’imputabilité afin d’aider les utilisateurs à maintenir la souveraineté sur leurs données personnelles. Finalement, nous décrivons et comparons les différentes propositions de réseaux sociaux respectueux de la vie privée qui ont émergé récemment. Nous classifions aussi ces différentes approches au regard des critères de respect de la vie privée introduits dans cette thèse.

Theory and practice of industrial policy: evidence from the Latin American experience

Includes bibliography

FLOWS OF INFORMATION AND LANGUAGE IN ORGANIZATIONAL SETTINGS

Information flows are formed naturally or formally induced in organizational settings, passing from the strategic level to operational level, reflecting, and impacting in the processes that make up the organization, including the decision-making process and therefore the action strategies of organization. The management of organizational environments based on information requires careful attention to various kinds of languages used for communication between sectors and employees of the organization, whose goal is to share, disseminate and socialize the information produced in this environment.

Privacy Policies and Users’ Trust: Does Readability Matter?

Over the years, a drastic increase in online information disclosure spurs a wave of concerns from multiple stakeholders. Among others, users resent the “behind the closed doors” processing of their personal data by companies. Privacy policies are supposed to inform users how their personal information is handled by a website. However, several studies have shown that users rarely read privacy policies for various reasons, not least because limitedly readable policy texts are difficult to understand. Based on our online survey with over 440 responses, we examine the objective and subjective readability of privacy policies and investigate their impact on users’ trust in five big Internet services. Our findings show the stronger a user believes in having understood the privacy policy, the higher he or she trusts a web site across all companies we studied. Our results call for making readability of privacy policies more accessible to an average reader.

PEPSI: Privacy-Enhanced Participatory Sensing Infrastructure.

Participatory Sensing combines the ubiquity of mobile phones with sensing capabilities of Wireless Sensor Networks. It targets pervasive collection of information, e.g., temperature, traffic conditions, or health-related data. As users produce measurements from their mobile devices, voluntary participation becomes essential. However, a number of privacy concerns -- due to the personal information conveyed by data reports -- hinder large-scale deployment of participatory sensing applications. Prior work on privacy protection, for participatory sensing, has often relayed on unrealistic assumptions and with no provably-secure guarantees. The goal of this project is to introduce PEPSI: a Privacy-Enhanced Participatory Sensing Infrastructure. We explore realistic architectural assumptions and a minimal set of (formal) privacy requirements, aiming at protecting privacy of both data producers and consumers. We design a solution that attains privacy guarantees with provable security at very low additional computational cost and almost no extra communication overhead.

Filtros na rede: das relações entre discurso e tecnologia

A fim de refletirmos sobre as condições de produção na contemporaneidade, propomos discussões e análises em torno do funcionamento dos recursos de personalização de conteúdos na Internet que impõem filtros aos usuários. Para isso, mobilizamos a teoria de Análise do Discurso de linha francesa, sobretudo a partir dos trabalhos de Michel Pêcheux. Delimitamos a observação do funcionamento de tais recursos no mecanismo de busca do Google, uma vez que ele representa uma das maiores corporações na Internet e detém a maior parte do mercado de buscas. A partir dessa delimitação, selecionamos o corpus de análise oriundo da política de privacidade do buscador, de definições dadas pela empresa sobre o funcionamento de tais recursos e de relatos sobre esse funcionamento postados por usuários e disseminados na rede. Acreditamos que a análise do funcionamento dessas técnicas nos dizem sobre as condições de produção do discurso na contemporaneidade, bem como das materialidades discursivas que lhes são peculiares, compreendendo que é pela influência materialista que se chega, na Análise do Discurso, a noção de materialidade discursiva. Temos, dessa forma, contemplada uma discussão sobre história, sujeito e língua que fundamenta o funcionamento da ideologia. Ainda nesse ínterim, propomos pensar o discurso ressaltando o que concerne à memória, bem como as questões que decorrem ao considerarmos seu funcionamento perpassado pelas Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC\'s), o que nos move a refletir sobre o discurso eletrônico e a memória metálica. Tudo isso nos mostra os efeitos discursivos dos filtros que giram em torno do controle na rede, característica que tem marcado as relações de poder no cenário atual.

An Examination of Privacy Policies of Global On-line E-pharmacies

This paper investigates the differences in privacy policy functions among 90 online pharmacy websites in nine countries in Europe, Asia and North America. Results from this study show that the majority of websites do have privacy policies, but the level of functional protection of consumers varies widely. Even in those countries where strong privacy laws exist, the level of privacy protection adherence is often very low. Most studies of privacy policy issues have concentrated on websites from developed nations, with few studies of the pharmacy industry. A better understanding of this industry, as well as understanding the differences in privacy policy implementation among developing and developed countries, provides important lessons for both businesses and consumers.

Seeing Turkish state formation processes: Mapping language and education census data

Language provides an interesting lens to look at state-building processes because of its cross-cutting nature. For example, in addition to its symbolic value and appeal, a national language has other roles in the process, including: (a) becoming the primary medium of communication which permits the nation to function efficiently in its political and economic life, (b) promoting social cohesion, allowing the nation to develop a common culture, and (c) forming a primordial basis for self-determination. Moreover, because of its cross-cutting nature, language interventions are rarely isolated activities. Languages are adopted by speakers, taking root in and spreading between communities because they are legitimated by legislation, and then reproduced through institutions like the education and military systems. Pádraig Ó’ Riagáin (1997) makes a case for this observing that “Language policy is formulated, implemented, and accomplishes its results within a complex interrelated set of economic, social, and political processes which include, inter alia, the operation of other non-language state policies” (p. 45). In the Turkish case, its foundational role in the formation of the Turkish nation-state but its linkages to human rights issues raises interesting issues about how socio-cultural practices become reproduced through institutional infrastructure formation. This dissertation is a country-level case study looking at Turkey’s nation-state building process through the lens of its language and education policy development processes with a focus on the early years of the Republic between 1927 and 1970. This project examines how different groups self-identified or were self-identified (as the case may be) in official Turkish statistical publications (e.g., the Turkish annual statistical yearbooks and the population censuses) during that time period when language and ethnicity data was made publicly available. The overarching questions this dissertation explores include: 1.What were the geo-political conditions surrounding the development and influencing the Turkish government’s language and education policies? 2.Are there any observable patterns in the geo-spatial distribution of language, literacy, and education participation rates over time? In what ways, are these traditionally linked variables (language, literacy, education participation) problematic? 3.What do changes in population identifiers, e.g., language and ethnicity, suggest about the government’s approach towards nation-state building through the construction of a civic Turkish identity and institution building? Archival secondary source data was digitized, aggregated by categories relevant to this project at national and provincial levels and over the course of time (primarily between 1927 and 2000). The data was then re-aggregated into values that could be longitudinally compared and then layered on aspatial administrative maps. This dissertation contributes to existing body of social policy literature by taking an interdisciplinary approach in looking at the larger socio-economic contexts in which language and education policies are produced.

Space : Irrealis objects and their role in a new political economy

In this paper, I show how new spaces are being prefigured for colonisation in the language of contemporary technology policy. Drawing on a corpus of 1.3 million words collected from technology policy centres throughout the world, I show the role of policy language in creating the foundations of an emergent form of political economy. The analysis is informed by principles from critical discourse analysis (CDA) and classical political economy. It foregrounds a functional aspect of language called process metaphor to show how aspects of human activity are prefigured for mass commodification by the manipulation of irrealis spaces. I also show how the fundamental element of any new political economy, the property element, is being largely ignored. The potential creation of a global space as concrete as landed property – electromagnetic spectrum – has significant ramifications for the future of social relations in any global “knowledge economy”.

Means are the Ends: The Command Issue

Means are the Ends: The Command Issue (2014) was an exhibition of sculptural works exhibited at LEVEL Artist-Run Initiative, Brisbane. The exhibition playfully critiqued the portrayal of women’s desire in cultural production and symbolic discourse through a focus on fetish sensibilities. Developed during a summer residency, the artworks looked to the rituals, materials and iconographies associated with certain divergent subcultures. Employing strategies of sculptural intervention and appropriation, the exhibition consisted of found objects, which had been deconstructed, altered and intervened; a dildo became a faux drawing machine, a butt-plug a makeshift horn. Reconstructing these visual codes through the formal and theoretical language of contemporary sculptural practice, Means are the Ends: The Command Issue spoke to the problematic, humorous and often paradoxical relationship between depictions of the feminine and women’s desire and agency.

"Pitää kuitenkin lähentyä sitä vangin roolia, vaikka ite ois toista mieltä" : Diskurssianalyyttinen tutkimus toiseuden rakentumisesta vankilaopetuksessa

The focus of this discourse analytical study was to review the meanings which prison education and its participants are given in the formal educational policy and to find out whether these meanings are agreed by the prison students. The intrestes of this thesis were to examine what kind of social and individual promises are related to the prison education and what kind of subject positions are possible to the prison students. The thesis was also interested in the meanings of education in different contexts. The aim of this study was to examine prison education especially for women. This thesis was based on Michel Foucault s ideas of power and the view of this study was directly critical. The prison education was seen as normalizing governance which tends to prepare its subjects to the normal. In this process of differentiating the normal and the abnormal the subjects of prison education are reconstructed as the others . The three research questions of this thesis were: how and what kind of prison education is reconstructed firstly in the strategy of prison education and secondly in the interviews. Thirdly it was questioned how and what kind of meanings gender receive in the discourse of prison education. The main data was consisted by the Finnish Criminal Sanctions Agency s document The Strategy of the Prison education for years 2008 2012 and the three interviews of women who participated to prison education. The interviews were made for this thesis in Autumn 2010. Two other Finnish Criminal Sanctions Agency s documents Prisoners in education (2007) and Visible women (2008) - the report of the working group on female prisoners were also used as subtext materials. The methods of critical and realistic discourse analysis and rhetorical analysis were applied in the analysis. The results of the thesis support the outlook of prison education as a form of normalizing governance which reconstruct the others position for the prison students. Prison education was seen supportive for personal life control and for integrating to the society. The participants of prison education repeated the official discourses in their accounts which is a signal of internalized governance. The interviewees also used different types of anti-discourses when forming implications of prison education.

Segregating Discourse Segments from Engineering Documents for Knowledge Acquisition

The broader goal of the research being described here is to automatically acquire diagnostic knowledge from documents in the domain of manual and mechanical assembly of aircraft structures. These documents are treated as a discourse used by experts to communicate with others. It therefore becomes possible to use discourse analysis to enable machine understanding of the text. The research challenge addressed in the paper is to identify documents or sections of documents that are potential sources of knowledge. In a subsequent step, domain knowledge will be extracted from these segments. The segmentation task requires partitioning the document into relevant segments and understanding the context of each segment. In discourse analysis, the division of a discourse into various segments is achieved through certain indicative clauses called cue phrases that indicate changes in the discourse context. However, in formal documents such language may not be used. Hence the use of a domain specific ontology and an assembly process model is proposed to segregate chunks of the text based on a local context. Elements of the ontology/model, and their related terms serve as indicators of current context for a segment and changes in context between segments. Local contexts are aggregated for increasingly larger segments to identify if the document (or portions of it) pertains to the topic of interest, namely, assembly. Knowledge acquired through such processes enables acquisition and reuse of knowledge during any part of the lifecycle of a product.