Soil Magnetism Research: State of the Art and Future Directions

Magnetic properties of soils have been highlighted as a primary detrimental environmental effect on the performance of geophysical systems for detection of unexploded ordnance (UXO) and mine targets. A recent workshop at Cranfield University, U.K., aimed to identify knowledge gaps related to soil magnetism. Eight invited speakers from multidisciplinary areas provided briefings on state‐of‐the‐art research linked to soil magnetism and geophysical sensing. Contributions from other participants provided additional insights from a range of disciplines through case studies and applications. The workshop included break‐out sessions to identify current gaps in knowledge and to determine priority areas for investment in research to further developments in UXO and mine detection in magnetic soil environments. Key recommendations for future research investments have been grouped in categories including soils, theory and modeling, instrumentation, and communication.

Ethical screening and financial performance : the case of Islamic equity funds

Whether ethical screening affects portfolio performance is an important question that is yet to be settled in the literature. This paper aims to shed further light on this question by examining the performance of a large global sample of Islamic equity funds (IEFs) from 1984 to 2010. We find that IEFs underperform conventional funds by an average of 40 basis points per month, consistent with the underperformance hypothesis. In line with popular media claims that Islamic funds are a safer investment, IEFs outperformed conventional funds during the recent banking crisis. However, we find no such outperformance for other crises or high volatility periods. Based on fund holdings-based data, we provide evidence of a negative curvilinear relation between fund performance and ethical screening intensity, consistent with a return trade-off to being more ethical.

The ‘state of play’ in Australia: Early childhood educators and play-based learning

This article provides an overview of the Education Meets Play study that will investigate early childhood educators’ use of play-based learning, now mandatory under the National Quality Standard. By building on what can be gleaned about educators’ approaches to play-based learning prior to the implementation of the Early Years Learning Framework, the study will contribute to the evidence base concerning the implementation and effects of Australia’s early childhood education and care policy reform initiatives.

Secular and religious moral grounds resonating across state schools in Indonesia

This paper describes moral education in Indonesia, more particularly, how teachers have implemented the Character Education policy issued by the Ministry of Education and Culture (MOEC) in 2010. This policy required teachers to instil certain values in every lesson, including EFL lessons, to contribute towards building a shared national moral character. Drawing on Durkheim's distinction between secular and religious morality, this paper considers how state schools accommodated and promoted this ‘rational moral education' or secular morality (Durkheim, 1925) in government schools, and how it interacted with religious moral education. This paper uses Bernstein's concepts of pedagogic discourse, instructional and regulative discourses to analyse how teachers have recontextualised this policy in the micro pedagogic settings of their EFL classes. Three types of data were collected for this study: interviews, class observations and teachers' lesson plans. In this way, four EFL teachers working in state schools were interviewed on two occasions and three of their classes were observed. The first interview identified teachers' beliefs and perceptions regarding the Character Education policy. Their classroom and lesson plans were observed to augment this information. Then the final interview asked about the teacher's thinking behind their actions in the observed classes. Since character education was issued within the broader frame of school based curriculum that offered schools and teachers more choices to develop the local curriculum and its intent, the analysis will focus on what moral premises were evident in their school and classes, and how such morality was transmitted through the EFL lessons. The conclusion suggests that teachers' implementation of moral education in their classes was dominated by their school communities and the teachers' own preferred value of religiosity. Such value played out in the classes through both the regulative discourse and the instructional discourse.

The effect of feedback from pupil to teacher on assessment for leaning and visible learning: An ethnographic case study in a community school in England and the outcome in a state high school in Queensland, Australia

This study shows that there is positive regulatory effect of feedback from pupils to teachers on Assessment for Learning (AfL), classroom proactiveness, and on visible and progressive learning but not on behaviour. This research finding further articulates feedback from pupil to teacher as a paradigm shift from the classical paradigm of feedback from teacher to pupil. Here, the emphasis is geared towards pupils understanding of objectives built from previous knowledge. These are then feedback onto the teachers by the pupils in the form of discrete loops of cues and questions, where they are with their learning. This therefore enables them to move to the next level of understanding, and thus acquired independence, which in turn is reflected by their success in both formative and summative assessments. This study therefore shows that when feedback from pupil to teacher is used in combination with teacher to pupil feedback, AfL is ameliorated and hence, visible and accelerated learning occurs in a gender, nor subject non-dependent manner.

Evaluation of ANPR trials for traffic policing in Queensland. Report to the Queensland Police Service, State Traffic Support Branch

In response to the Travelsafe Committee Report No. 51 – report on the inquiry into Automatic Plate Recognition Technology – it was recommended that the Queensland Police Service continue to trial the deployment of ANPR technology for traffic enforcement work and to evaluate the road safety impacts and operational effectiveness of the technology. As such, the purpose of this report is to provide an independent evaluation of a trial of ANPR that was conducted by a project team within the State Traffic Support Branch of the Queensland Police Service (QPS) and provide recommendations as to the applicability and usability of the technology for use throughout Queensland...

EFL teachers' professional dilemmas with moral curriculum reform in Indonesia

This project explored how EFL teachers working in different sectors in Indonesia experienced moral education reform. Teachers working in either state schools or Islamic private schools were interviewed and their classes were observed. The thesis indicated that systemic investment in teachers' professionalism contributed to teachers' emerging dilemmas and their resolutions. Teachers in the better resourced state sector reported more dilemmas related to the implementation of the reform and resolved these dilemmas by using professional judgement, while teachers in the less resourced sector reported dilemmas related to their context and failed to implement the curriculum.

Emergency pre-hospital disaster response training. What's the state of play?

Study/Objective This study examines the current state of disaster response education for Australian paramedics from a national and international perspective and identifies both potential gaps in content and challenges to the sustainability of knowledge acquired through occasional training. Background As demands for domestic and international disaster response increase, experience in the field has begun to challenge traditional assumptions that response to mass casualty events requires little specialist training. The need for a “streamlined process of safe medical team deployment into disaster regions”1 is generally accepted and, in Australia, the emergence of national humanitarian aid training has begun to respond to this gap. However, calls for a national framework for disaster health education2 haven’t received much traction. Methods A critical analysis of the peer reviewed and grey literature on the core components/competencies and training methods required to prepare Australian paramedics to contribute to effective health disaster response has been conducted. Research from the past 10 years has been examined along with federal and state policy with regard to paramedic disaster education. Results The literature shows that education and training for disaster response is variable and that an evidence based study specifically designed to outline sets of core competencies for Australian health care professionals has never been undertaken. While such competencies in disaster response have been developed for the American paradigm it is suggested that disaster response within the Australian context is somewhat different to that of the US, and therefore a gap in the current knowledge base exists. Conclusion Further research is needed to develop core competencies specific to Australian paramedics in order to standardise teaching in the area of health disaster management. Until this occurs the task of evaluating or creating disaster curricula that adequately prepares and maintains paramedics for an effective all hazards disaster response is seen as largely unattainable.

The State of Queensland Charities: An examination of the first Annual Information Statements of charities operating in Queensland

The advent of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) in 2012 and submission of Annual Information Statements (AIS) in 2013 by those charities which registered with them, have allowed new measures to be taken of charities and their activities. This report examines the filed AIS data for Queensland charities and compares it with the overall Australian population of charities.

An archival analysis of green information technology: The current state and future directions

This thesis provides a review of 199 papers published on Green IT/IS between 2007−2014, in order to present taxonomy of segments in Green IT/IS publications, where the segments are later used for multiple analyses to facilitate future research and to provide a retrospective analysis of existing knowledge and gaps thereof. This research also attempts to make a unique contribution to our understanding of Green IT/IS, by consolidating papers it observes current patterns of literature through approach analysis and segmentation, as well as allocating studies to the technology, process, or outcome (TPO) stage. Highlighting the necessity of a consolidated approach, these classification systems have been combined into a TPO matrix so that the studies could be arranged according to which stage of the Green IT/IS cycle they were focused on. We believe that these analyses will provide a solid platform from which future Green IT/IS research can be launched.

The role of regulatory frameworks and non-state actors in creating sustainable diets

This presentation discussed the growing recognition of sustainable diets at international governance levels and how this reflects the challenges and win-win opportunities of living within our ecological limits. I assert that sustainable diets provide an example of how living within our ecological limits would actually make us better off even apart from environmental benefits. After determining whether Australians’ generally have a sustainable diet, I outlined how Australian regulators are attempting to address sustainable diets. I argued that the personal responsibility approach coupled with the focus on preventing or reducing overweight and obesity levels are proving incapable of bringing about long-term sustainable diets that will contribute to the health and well-being of Australian people.