Creating synergy in teacher education through robotics-based STEM activities

Robotics has created opportunities for educators to teach concepts across Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). This is one of the reasons robotics is becoming increasingly common in primary and secondary classrooms in Australia. To enable pre-service teachers to design engaging STEM activities that incorporate these technologies, robotics is part of the teaching program in the primary education degree at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). A number of pre-service teachers also choose to extend their abilities by implementing robotics activities on field studies, in schools on a voluntary basis, and in outreach activities such as the Robotics@QUT project. The Robotics@QUT project is a support network developed to build professional knowledge and capacity of classroom teachers in schools from a low SES area, engaging in robotics-based STEM activities. Professional Development (PD) workshops are provided to teachers in order to build their knowledge and confidence in implementing robotics activities in their classrooms, loan kits are provided, and pre-service teacher visits arranged to provide the teachers with on-going support. A key feature of the project is the partnerships developed between the teachers and the pre-service teachers involved in the project. The purpose of this study was to ascertain how the teachers in the project perceived the value of the PD workshops and the pre-service teachers’ involvement and what the benefits of the involvement in the project were for the pre-service teachers. Seventeen teachers completed a five-point (1-5) likert scale questionnaire regarding their involvement in the Robotics@QUT project. Teachers’ responses on the value of the project and the pre-service teacher support highlighted the benefits of the partnerships formed and provided insights into the value of the support provided by the pre-service teachers. This paper also describes one pre-service teacher’s experience with the project and the perceived benefits from being involved.

Small acts of resistance : the role of intergenerational collaborative drawing in early childhood teaching and learning

This chapter focuses on ‘intergenerational collaborative drawing’, a particular process of drawing whereby adults and children draw at the same time on a blank paper space. Such drawings can be produced for a range of purposes, and based on different curriculum or stimulus subjects. Children of all ages, and with a range of physical and intellectual abilities are able to draw with parents, carers and teachers. Intergenerational collaborative drawing is a highly potent method for drawing in early childhood contexts because it brings adults and children together in the process of thinking and theorizing in order to create visual imagery and this exposes in deep ways to adults and children, the ideas and concepts being learned about. For adults, this exposure to a child’s thinking is a far more effective assessment tool than when they are presented with a finished drawing they know little about. This chapter focuses on drawings to examine wider issues of learning independence and how in drawing, preferred schema in the form of hand-out worksheets, the suggestive drawings provided by adults, and visual material seen in everyday life all serve to co-opt a young child into making particular schematic choices. I suggest that intergenerational collaborative drawing therefore serves to work as a small act of resistance to that co-opting, in that it helps adults and children to collectively challenge popular creativity and learning discourses.

Stimulating organizational ingenuity with design methods

Organizations invest in ways to stimulate new ideas for new products and services for the benefit of the organization, engaging in tournaments and competitions to generate new ideas or to combine existing ideas in new ways for new products and services (Terweisch and Uhlrich, 2009). Specifically, some large companies have developed platforms for posting intractable problems to tap into the ideas and problem solving abilities of a broader range of people (Huston and Sakkab, 2006; Morgan and Wang, 2010), and to develop new and elegant solutions often in an open innovation approach (Chesbrough, 2003). The notion of ingenuity is often applied to individuals who create innovative solutions in situations of constraint, where ingenuity in the form of elegant solutions can be understood as one form of resourcefulness (Young, 2011). However, the notion of organizational ingenuity locates ingenuity more centrally to an organization's strategic decision making and implementation, embedding ingenuity into the company's culture. Studies of organizations displaying ingenuity indicate a range of possibilities from extreme ingenuity (Baker and Nelson, 2005) to less dramatic but substantial changes (Thomke, 2003), sometimes in an experimental phase or as part of a move towards a new and distinct identity for ongoing innovation.

Risk-management of UAS robust autonomy for its integration into civil aviation safety frameworks

This paper discusses a model of the civil aviation reg- ulation framework and shows how the current assess- ment of reliability and risk for piloted aircraft has limited applicability for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) with high levels of autonomous decision mak- ing. Then, a new framework for risk management of robust autonomy is proposed, which arises from combining quantified measures of risk with normative decision making. The term Robust Autonomy de- scribes the ability of an autonomous system to either continue or abort its operation whilst not breaching a minimum level of acceptable safety in the presence of anomalous conditions. The decision making associ- ated with risk management requires quantifying prob- abilities associated with the measures of risk and also consequences of outcomes related to the behaviour of autonomy. The probabilities are computed from an assessment under both nominal and anomalous sce- narios described by faults, which can be associated with the aircraft’s actuators, sensors, communication link, changes in dynamics, and the presence of other aircraft in the operational space. The consequences of outcomes are characterised by a loss function which rewards the certification decision

Short-term single treatment of chemotherapy results in the enrichment of ovarian cancer stem cell-like cells leading to an increased tumor burden

Over 80% of women diagnosed with advanced-stage ovarian cancer die as a result of disease recurrence due to failure of chemotherapy treatment. In this study, using two distinct ovarian cancer cell lines (epithelial OVCA 433 and mesenchymal HEY) we demonstrate enrichment in a population of cells with high expression of CSC markers at the protein and mRNA levels in response to cisplatin, paclitaxel and the combination of both. We also demonstrate a significant enhancement in the sphere forming abilities of ovarian cancer cells in response to chemotherapy drugs. The results of these in vitro findings are supported by in vivo mouse xenograft models in which intraperitoneal transplantation of cisplatin or paclitaxel-treated residual HEY cells generated significantly higher tumor burden compared to control untreated cells. Both the treated and untreated cells infiltrated the organs of the abdominal cavity. In addition, immunohistochemical studies on mouse tumors injected with cisplatin or paclitaxel treated residual cells displayed higher staining for the proliferative antigen Ki67, oncogeneic CA125, epithelial E-cadherin as well as cancer stem cell markers such as Oct4 and CD117, compared to mice injected with control untreated cells. These results suggest that a short-term single treatment of chemotherapy leaves residual cells that are enriched in CSC-like traits, resulting in an increased metastatic potential. The novel findings in this study are important in understanding the early molecular mechanisms by which chemoresistance and subsequent relapse may be triggered after the first line of chemotherapy treatment.

What aspects of demographic, personality, attitudes, and perceptions of law enforcement influence self-reported likelihood of drink driving?

The aim of the current study was to examine the associations between a number of individual factors (demographic factors (age and gender), personality factors, risk-taking propensity, attitudes towards drink driving, and perceived legitimacy of drink driving enforcement) and how they influence the self-reported likelihood of drink driving. The second aim of this study was to examine the potential of attitudes mediating the relationship between risk-taking and self-reported likelihood of drink driving. In total, 293 Queensland drivers volunteered to participate in an online survey that assessed their self-reported likelihood to drink drive in the next month, demographics, traffic-related demographics, personality factors, risk-taking propensity, attitudes towards drink driving, and perceived legitimacy of drink driving enforcement. An ordered logistic regression analysis was utilised to evaluate the first aim of the study; at the first step the demographic variables were entered; at step two the personality and risk-taking were entered; at the third step, the attitudes and perceptions of legitimacy variables were entered. Being a younger driver and having a high risk-taking propensity were related to self-reported likelihood of drink driving. However, when the attitudes variable was entered, these individual factors were no longer significant; with attitudes being the most important predictor of self-reported drink driving likelihood. A significant mediation model was found with the second aim of the study, such that attitudes mediated the relationship between risk-taking and self-reported likelihood of drink driving. Considerable effort and resources are utilised by traffic authorities to reducing drink driving on the Australian road network. Notwithstanding these efforts, some participants still had some positive attitudes towards drink driving and reported that they were likely to drink drive in the future. These findings suggest that more work is needed to address attitudes regarding the dangerousness of drink driving.

General self-efficacy influences affective task reactions during a work simulation : the temporal effects of changes in workload at different levels of control

This study investigated the effects of workload, control, and general self-efficacy on affective task reactions (i.e., demands-ability fit, active coping, and anxiety) during a work simulation. The main goals were: (1) to determine the extent general self-efficacy moderates the effects of demand and control on affective task reactions, and; (2) to determine if this varies as a function of changes in workload. Participants (N=141) completed an inbox activity under conditions of low or high control and within low and high workload conditions. The order of trials varied so that workload increased or decreased. Results revealed individuals with high general self-efficacy reported better demands-abilities fit and active coping as well as less anxiety. Three interactive effects were found. First, it was found that high control increased demands-abilities fit from trial 1 to trial 2, but only when workload decreased. Second, it was found that low efficacious individuals active coping increased in trial 2, but only under high control. Third, it was found that high control helped high efficacious individuals manage anxiety when workload decreased. However, for individuals with low general self-efficacy, neither high nor low control alleviated anxiety (i.e., whether workload increased or decreased over time).

Considering research enquiry into biophilic urbanism and office worker productivity

In cities, people spend a significant portion of their time indoors, much of which is in office buildings. The quality and nature of these spaces have the potential to be a strong determinant of people’s health and wellbeing. There is a body of evidence that suggests experiences of nature increase the rate of attention recovery, reduce stress, depression and anxiety, and increase cognitive abilities. Further, the presence of nature inside buildings (such as pot plants and internal green walls) can improve indoor air quality, potentially reducing illness and increasing cognitive function. Urban design that integrates nature into the built environment to provide these benefits, among others, is called ‘biophilic urbanism’ and is the subject of growing international interest and research. The potential for these benefits to increase worker productivity in office buildings is of particular interest, as this could significantly increase the financial performance of office building-based organisations. However, productivity is a complex concept that is difficult to define, and affected by a multitude of factors, which make it difficult to measure. This inability to quantify productivity increases from investments in nature- experiences in office buildings is currently a significant barrier to such investments. Within this context, this paper considers opportunities for research to explore the relationship between office-based nature experiences and productivity, by reviewing existing research in this field and reflecting on the authors’ own experiences. This review has a particular focus on the importance of quantifying this link in order to encourage private property owners to voluntarily integrate nature into buildings to provide city-wide ecosystem service benefits. The paper begins with a contextual overview of how biophilic urbanism can potentially increase worker productivity. Existing methods of measuring and evaluating the performance of biophilic urbanism within the context of office buildings are then explored, along with a discussion of issues with such methods that are currently limiting investment in biophilic urbanism to increase worker productivity and wellbeing. This includes a summary of a survey within a Perth office building to explore the impact of views of nature through a window. Drawing on these insights, the paper makes recommendations regarding opportunities for focusing future investigations to enhance understanding of how biophilic urbanism can contribute to increased wellbeing and productivity in office buildings. This paper builds on work conducted as part of the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre Project 1.5, Harnessing the Potential of Biophilic Urbanism in Australia, which considered the role of nature integrated into the built environment in responding to emerging challenges of climate change, resource shortages and population pressures, while providing a host of co- benefits to a range of stakeholders.

Considering research enquiry into biophilic urbanism and office worker productivity

In cities, people spend a significant portion of their time indoors, much of which is in office buildings. The quality and nature of these spaces have the potential to be a strong determinant of people’s health and wellbeing. There is a body of evidence that suggests experiences of nature increase the rate of attention recovery, reduce stress, depression and anxiety, and increase cognitive abilities. Further, the presence of nature inside buildings (such as pot plants and internal green walls) can improve indoor air quality, potentially reducing illness and increasing cognitive function. Urban design that integrates nature into the built environment to provide these benefits, among others, is called ‘biophilic urbanism’ and is the subject of growing international interest and research. The potential for these benefits to increase worker productivity in office buildings is of particular interest, as this could significantly increase the financial performance of office building-based organisations. However, productivity is a complex concept that is difficult to define, and affected by a multitude of factors, which make it difficult to measure. This inability to quantify productivity increases from investments in nature- experiences in office buildings is currently a significant barrier to such investments. Within this context, this paper considers opportunities for research to explore the relationship between office-based nature experiences and productivity, by reviewing existing research in this field and reflecting on the authors’ own experiences. This review has a particular focus on the importance of quantifying this link in order to encourage private property owners to voluntarily integrate nature into buildings to provide city-wide ecosystem service benefits. The paper begins with a contextual overview of how biophilic urbanism can potentially increase worker productivity. Existing methods of measuring and evaluating the performance of biophilic urbanism within the context of office buildings are then explored, along with a discussion of issues with such methods that are currently limiting investment in biophilic urbanism to increase worker productivity and wellbeing. This includes a summary of a survey within a Perth office building to explore the impact of views of nature through a window. Drawing on these insights, the paper makes recommendations regarding opportunities for focusing future investigations to enhance understanding of how biophilic urbanism can contribute to increased wellbeing and productivity in office buildings. This paper builds on work conducted as part of the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre Project 1.5, Harnessing the Potential of Biophilic Urbanism in Australia, which considered the role of nature integrated into the built environment in responding to emerging challenges of climate change, resource shortages and population pressures, while providing a host of co- benefits to a range of stakeholders.

The role and future challenges of wireless communication networks for cooperative autonomous city vehicles

This paper elaborates on the use of future wireless communication networks for autonomous city vehicles. After addressing the state of technology, the paper explains the autonomous vehicle control system architecture and the Cybercars-2 communication framework; it presents experimental tests of communication-based real-time decision making; and discusses potential applications for communication in order to improve the localization and perception abilities of autonomous vehicles in urban environments.

Label-free SERS for natural product provenance

Introduction Natural product provenance is important in the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries, for consumer confidence and with health implications. Raman spectroscopy has powerful molecular fingerprint abilities. Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy’s (SERS) sharp peaks allow distinction between minimally different molecules, so it should be suitable for this purpose. Methods Naturally caffeinated beverages with Guarana extract, coffee and Red Bull energy drink as a synthetic caffeinated beverage for comparison (20 µL ea.) were reacted 1:1 with Gold nanoparticles functionalised with anti-caffeine antibody (ab15221) (10 minutes), air dried and analysed in a micro-Raman instrument. The spectral data was processed using Principle Component Analysis (PCA). Results The PCA showed Guarana sourced caffeine varied significantly from synthetic caffeine (Red Bull) on component 1 (containing 76.4% of the variance in the data). See figure 1. The coffee containing beverages, and in particular Robert Timms (instant coffee) were very similar on component 1, but the barista espresso showed minor variance on component 1. Both coffee sourced caffeine samples varied with red Bull on component 2, (20% of variance). ************************************************************ Figure 1 PCA comparing a naturally caffeinated beverage containing Guarana with coffee. ************************************************************ Discussion PCA is an unsupervised multivariate statistical method that determines patterns within data. Figure 1 shows Caffeine in Guarana is notably different to synthetic caffeine. Other researchers have revealed that caffeine in Guarana plants is complexed with tannins. Naturally sourced/ lightly processed caffeine (Monster Energy, Espresso) are more inherently different than synthetic (Red Bull) /highly processed (Robert Timms) caffeine, in figure 1, which is consistent with this finding and demonstrates this technique’s applicability. Guarana provenance is important because it is still largely hand produced and its demand is escalating with recognition of its benefits. This could be a powerful technique for Guarana provenance, and may extend to other industries where provenance / authentication are required, e.g. the wine or natural pharmaceuticals industries.

Differential effects of aging on spatial learning through exploratory navigation and map reading

It has been shown that abilities in spatial learning and memory are adversely affected by aging. The present study was conducted to investigate whether increasing age has equal consequences for all types of spatial learning or impacts certain types of spatial learning selectively. Specifically, two major types of spatial learning, exploratory navigation and map reading, were contrasted. By combining a neuroimaging finding that the medial temporal lobe (MTL) is especially important for exploratory navigation and a neurological finding that the MTL is susceptible to age-related atrophy, it was hypothesized that spatial learning through exploratory navigation would exhibit a greater decline in later life than spatial learning through map reading. In an experiment, young and senior participants learned locations of landmarks in virtual environments either by navigating in them in the first-person perspective or by seeing aerial views of the environments. Results showed that senior participants acquired less accurate memories of the layouts of landmarks than young participants when they navigated in the environments, but the two groups did not differ in spatial learning performance when they viewed the environments from the aerial perspective. These results suggest that spatial learning through exploratory navigation is particularly vulnerable to adverse effects of aging, whereas elderly adults may be able to maintain their map reading skills relatively well.

Do spoken nonword and sentence repetition tasks discriminate language impairment in children with an ASD?

The primary aim of this paper was to investigate heterogeneity in language abilities of children with a confirmed diagnosis of an ASD (N = 20) and children with typical development (TD; N = 15). Group comparisons revealed no differences between ASD and TD participants on standard clinical assessments of language ability, reading ability or nonverbal intelligence. However, a hierarchical cluster analysis based on spoken nonword repetition and sentence repetition identified two clusters within the combined group of ASD and TD participants. The first cluster (N = 6) presented with significantly poorer performances than the second cluster (N = 29) on both of the clustering variables in addition to single word and nonword reading. The significant differences between the two clusters occur within a context of Cluster 1 having language impairment and a tendency towards more severe autistic symptomatology. Differences between the oral language abilities of the first and second clusters are considered in light of diagnosis, attention and verbal short term memory skills and reading impairment.

Efficiency of lexical access in children with autism spectrum disorders : does modality matter?

The provision of visual support to individuals with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is widely recommended. We explored one mechanism underlying the use of visual supports: efficiency of language processing. Two groups of children, one with and one without an ASD, participated. The groups had comparable oral and written language skills and nonverbal cognitive abilities. In two semantic priming experiments, prime modality and prime–target relatedness were manipulated. Response time and accuracy of lexical decisions on the spoken word targets were measured. In the first uni-modal experiment, both groups demonstrated significant priming effects. In the second experiment which was cross-modal, no effect for relatedness or group was found. This result is considered in the light of the attentional capacity required for access to the lexicon via written stimuli within the developing semantic system. These preliminary findings are also considered with respect to the use of visual support for children with ASD.

Anterior temporal cortex and semantic memory : reconciling findings from neuropsychology and functional imaging

Studies of semantic impairment arising from brain disease suggest that the anterior temporal lobes are critical for semantic abilities in humans; yet activation of these regions is rarely reported in functional imaging studies of healthy controls performing semantic tasks. Here, we combined neuropsychological and PET functional imaging data to show that when healthy subjects identify concepts at a specific level, the regions activated correspond to the site of maximal atrophy in patients with relatively pure semantic impairment. The stimuli were color photographs of common animals or vehicles, and the task was category verification at specific (e.g., robin), intermediate (e.g., bird), or general (e.g., animal) levels. Specific, relative to general, categorization activated the antero-lateral temporal cortices bilaterally, despite matching of these experimental conditions for difficulty. Critically, in patients with atrophy in precisely these areas, the most pronounced deficit was in the retrieval of specific semantic information.