Investigating ways of seeing IT research : a tool for facilitating effective research partnerships?

Effective research partnerships, both intra- and interdisciplinary, as well as academy-industry partnerships, rely on shared understandings of particular aspects of the research endeavour. Research partnerships are essentially learning partnerships, if we accept the argument that research may be seen as learning at the collective level. This paper establishes the need to investigate information technology (IT) researchers' varying ways of seeing certain aspects of their research world, in order to assist the process of forging effective research partnerships. We analyse the importance of facilitating effective partnerships in IT research, discuss our plan for investigating the collective consciousness of IT researchers, and explain some of the strategies to be used in the investigation.

Proceedings of the 6th Knowledge Cities World Summit, KCWS 2013

In recent years, with the impact of global knowledge economy, a more comprehensive development approach has gained significant popularity. This new development approach, so called ‘knowledge-based urban development’, is different from its traditional predecessor. With a much more balanced focus on all of the four key development domains – economic, spatial, institutional, and socio-cultural – this contemporary approach, aims to bring economic prosperity, environmental sustainability and local institutional competence with a just socio-spatial order to our cities and regions. The ultimate goal of knowledgebased urban development is to produce a city purposefully designed to encourage the continuous production, circulation and commercialization of social and scientific knowledge – this will in turn establish a ‘knowledge city’. A city following the ‘knowledge city’ concept embarks on a strategic mission to firmly encourage and nurture locally focused innovation, science and creativity within the context of an expanding knowledge economy and society. In this regard a ‘knowledge city’ can be seen as an integrated city, which physically and institutionally combines the functions of a science and technology park with civic and residential functions and urban amenities. It also offers one of the effective paradigms for the sustainable cities of our time. This sixth edition of KCWS – The 6th Knowledge Cities World Summit 2013 – makes an important reminder that the ‘knowledge city’ concept is a key notion in the 21st Century development. Considering this notion, the Summit sheds light on the multifaceted dimensions and various scales of building a ‘knowledge city’ via ‘knowledge-based urban development’ paradigm by particularly focusing on the overall Summit theme of ‘Establishing Bridges’. At this summit, the theoretical and practical maturing of knowledge-based development paradigms are advanced through the interplay between the world’s leading academics’ theories and the practical models and strategies of practitioners’ and policy makers’ drawn from around the world. This summit proceeding is compiled in order to disseminate the knowledge generated and shared in KCWS 2013 with the wider research, governance, and practice communities the knowledge co-created in this summit. All papers of this proceeding have gone through a double-blind peer review process and been reviewed by our summit editorial review and advisory board members. We, organizers of the summit, cordially thank the members of the Summit Proceeding Editorial Review and Advisory Board for their diligent work in the review of the papers. Also we thank Prof.Dr. Ahmet Ademoğlu, Rector of İstanbul Şehir University, for providing all the support for the Summit. We hope the papers in this proceeding will inspire and make a significant contribution to the research, governance, and practice circles.

Humorous health messages : "a fresh approach" for road safety advertising campaigns?

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis: Recently, throughout Australasia, humorous appeals have become implemented increasingly in health advertising despite limited evidence regarding the persuasiveness of different types of humour. Of those studies available which have examined the persuasiveness of humorous messages, the type of humour is often not defined so it is unclear what type of humour is being examined. Speck’s (1991) typology includes five types of humour; comic wit, sentimental humour, satire, sentimental comedy, and full comedy. Each type of humour is based on one or more humour generation processes; namely, incongruity-resolution, disparagement humour, and arousal-safety. It has been acknowledged that more research is needed to determine the relative persuasiveness of these different types of humour and to identify those types which may be most effective for health advertising. The current research explored individuals’ thoughts about, and their responses to some different types of, humorous messages addressing the serious health topic of road safety. Methods: A preliminary qualitative, study was conducted involving discussions with licensed drivers (N = 18) regarding their thoughts and feelings about humorous road safety messages in general as well as in response to some (5 in total) pre-existing advertisements. Men (n = 10) and women of younger and older age groups (17-24 or 25+ years) participated in one of six discussions. Participants were recruited from an existing community-based database held by the authors’ Research Centre or were approached directly on the university campus. Ethical approval was gained for the study. Each participant was offered $AUD40. A semi-structured interview schedule guided the discussion (e.g., was it humorous?, would this ad influence you?). Audio-recordings of the discussions were professionally transcribed and the transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: The findings revealed that, irrespective of age and gender, humour that was clever, incorporated something unexpected and contrasting with the everyday, was a preferred and relevant approach, thus aligning with incongruity-based theories of humour generation and humour types, such as comic wit and satire. As a persuasive function, humorous messages were considered likely to be talked about (and relatively more so than traditional fear-based approaches). Participants also felt that humorous messages would need to be used cautiously as humour that was considered inappropriate and/or associated with serious occurrences, such as a crash, would be unlikely to persuade. Conclusions: The findings highlight some of the potential benefits of using humour, such as increasing the extent to which an advertisement is talked about as well as the types of humour which may be effective in this context. Implications for research and/or practice: While this research has provided important insight, future research which quantitatively assesses the persuasive effects of different types of humorous road safety messages within a larger, representative sample is needed. This current study has highlighted some humorous approaches which may hold persuasive promise in encouraging individuals to adopt safer attitudes and behaviours not only on the road, but in relation to serious health issues more broadly.

Literacy Theories for the Digital Age: Social, Critical, Multimodal, Spatial, Material and Sensory Lenses

Literacy Theories for the Digital Age insightfully brings together six essential approaches to literacy research and educational practice. The book provides powerful and accessible theories for readers, including Socio-cultural, Critical, Multimodal, Socio-spatial, Socio-material and Sensory Literacies. The brand new Sensory Literacies approach is an original and visionary contribution to the field, coupled with a provocative foreword from leading sensory anthropologist David Howes. This dynamic collection explores a legacy of literacy research while showing the relationships between each paradigm, highlighting their complementarity and distinctions. This highly relevant compendium will inspire readers to explore new frontiers of thought and practice in times of diversity and technological change.

TLR2, but Not TLR4, is required for effective host defence against Chlamydia respiratory tract infection in early life

Chlamydia pneumoniae commonly causes respiratory tract infections in children, and epidemiological investigations strongly link infection to the pathogenesis of asthma. The immune system in early life is immature and may not respond appropriately to pathogens. Toll-like receptor (TLR)2 and 4 are regarded as the primary pattern recognition receptors that sense bacteria, however their contribution to innate and adaptive immunity in early life remains poorly defined. We investigated the role of TLR2 and 4 in the induction of immune responses to Chlamydia muridarum respiratory infection, in neonatal wild-type (Wt) or TLR2-deficient (−/−), 4−/− or 2/4−/− BALB/c mice. Wt mice had moderate disease and infection. TLR2−/− mice had more severe disease and more intense and prolonged infection compared to other groups. TLR4−/− mice were asymptomatic. TLR2/4−/− mice had severe early disease and persistent infection, which resolved thereafter consistent with the absence of symptoms in TLR4−/− mice. Wt mice mounted robust innate and adaptive responses with an influx of natural killer (NK) cells, neutrophils, myeloid (mDCs) and plasmacytoid (pDCs) dendritic cells, and activated CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells into the lungs. Wt mice also had effective production of interferon (IFN)γ in the lymph nodes and lung, and proliferation of lymph node T-cells. TLR2−/− mice had more intense and persistent innate (particularly neutrophil) and adaptive cell responses and IL-17 expression in the lung, however IFNγ responses and T-cell proliferation were reduced. TLR2/4−/− mice had reduced innate and adaptive responses. Most importantly, neutrophil phagocytosis was impaired in the absence of TLR2. Thus, TLR2 expression, particularly on neutrophils, is required for effective control of Chlamydia respiratory infection in early life. Loss of control of infection leads to enhanced but ineffective TLR4-mediated inflammatory responses that prolong disease symptoms. This indicates that TLR2 agonists may be beneficial in the treatment of early life Chlamydia infections and associated diseases.

High-risk, high-stake relationships: building effective industry-university partnerships for Work Integrated Learning (WIL)

Many industry peak and professional bodies advocate students undertake professional work placements as a key work integrated learning (WIL) experience in accredited university degree courses. However, mismatched expectations and gaps in the way industry partners (IPs) are supported during these work placements can place these high-stake alliances at risk. A review of models and strategies supporting industry partners indicates many are contingent on the continued efforts of well-networked individuals in both universities and IP organisations to make these connections work. It is argued that whilst these individuals are highly valued they often end up representing a whole course or industry perspective, not just their area of expertise. Sustainable partnership principles and practices with shared responsibility across stakeholder groups are needed instead. This paper provides an overview of work placement approaches in the disciplines of business, engineering and urban development at an Australian, metropolitan university. Employing action research and participatory focus group methodologies, it gathers and articulates recommendations from associated IPs on practical suggestions and strategies to improve relationships and the resultant quality of placements.

Director competencies for effective enterprise technology governance

In relation to enterprise technology governance (ETG), opinions differ between there being no need for board of director involvement to there being an urgent need for such involvement. This research highlights the need for boards to provide ETG oversight of technology-related strategy, investment and risk, and to be competent in doing so. We identify a large gap between board’s awareness of the importance of ETG, their taking action and the competency requirements for effective ETG. Further, while there is considerable research and literature about operational IT governance frameworks and operational IT competencies, there is no known research into the specific competencies boards of directors need to effectively govern enterprise technology. This research focuses on and develops a board-level ETG competency set using a mixed methods approach within a recognised competency development framework. Further development is tracked using a rigour scale to demonstrate a medium to high level of competency validity for the derived set. This research contributes to practice by providing the first known industry validated ETG competency set situated within new and emerging technology. It contributes to the body of knowledge in the modification and application of competency development and competency validation frameworks not previously applied to the role of board director.

On effective accounting information systems in a dynamic business environment : the role of complementing capabilities

The global business environment is witnessing tough times, and this situation has significant implications on how organizations manage their processes and resources. Accounting information system (AIS) plays a critical role in this situation to ensure appropriate processing of financial transactions and availability to relevant information for decision-making. We suggest the need for a dynamic AIS environment for today’s turbulent business environment. This environment is possible with a dynamic AIS, complementary business intelligence systems, and technical human capability. Data collected through a field survey suggests that the dynamic AIS environment contributes to an organization’s accounting functions of processing transactions, providing information for decision making, and ensuring an appropriate control environment. These accounting processes contribute to the firm-level performance of the organization. From these outcomes, one can infer that a dynamic AIS environment contributes to organizational performance in today’s challenging business environment.

Selecting rainfall events for effective Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) implementation

The current approach for protecting the receiving water environment from urban stormwater pollution is the adoption of structural measures commonly referred to as Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD). The treatment efficiency of WSUD measures closely depends on the design of the specific treatment units. As stormwater quality can be influenced by rainfall characteristics, the selection of appropriate rainfall events for treatment design is essential to ensure the effectiveness of WSUD systems. Based on extensive field investigation of four urban residential catchments and computer modelling, this paper details a technically robust approach for the selection of rainfall events for stormwater treatment design using a three-component model. The modelling outcomes indicate that selecting smaller average recurrence interval (ARI) events with high intensity-short duration as the threshold for the treatment system design is the most feasible since these events cumulatively generate a major portion of the annual pollutant load compared to the other types of rainfall events, despite producing a relatively smaller runoff volume. This implies that designs based on small and more frequent rainfall events rather than larger rainfall events would be appropriate in the context of efficiency in treatment performance, cost-effectiveness and possible savings in land area needed.

Fresh ideas : services thinking for social marketing

Purpose The social marketing literature tends to focus on upstream marketing (policy) and downstream (individual behaviour change) and has a limited view on midstream (working with partners and community groups) social marketing. The paper proposes midstream social marketing should also include an understanding of how services and service employees influence and support individual behaviour change goals. The paper presents four key services marketing principles - derived from services theory and thinking - which the paper believes to be essential for implementing effective midstream social marketing. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper that uses service theory and case-examples to show how service thinking can be used as a midstream social marketing approach. Findings For effective uptake and impact of social marketing services amongst people and populations, social marketers need to design programs that consider the service experience, the service employee, service quality/customer value and the active role of the customer in value creation. Research limitations/implications Services marketing is a well-established sub-discipline of marketing which, until recently, has not interacted with social marketing. The extension and application of services theory for social marketing can enrich and propel the social marketing discipline forward. Further research is recommended to evaluate how service principles can be applied in practice. Social implications Given that social marketing services tend not to be accessed in sufficient numbers by the people who most need them, social marketers need to think beyond the technical, cognitive, and organisational-focused goals when designing social services. Originality/value This paper identifies key service theories that social marketers should understand and use and is thus a source of fresh ideas for theory and practice.

Learning about being effective mentors : professional learning communities and mentoring

This study aimed to explore experienced mentors’ understandings about professional learning communities (PLCs), mentoring and leadership. This research analyses audio-taped transcripts and written responses from 27 experienced mentors who operate in varied roles (e.g., university academics, school executives, teachers, learning support personnel). Findings indicated that PLCs can provide professional renewal for existing teachers and that mentoring within PLCs can further advance knowledge about effective practices. PLCs can include other staff members and key stakeholders (e.g., preservice teachers, teacher aides) who can contribute to the learning within the group. Mentoring and PLCs can be cost-effective strategic levers for advancing professional knowledge.

Effective punishment experiences : the need for a more comprehensive approach to conceptualising behavioural punishers and reinforcers in a road safety context

Determining what consequences are likely to serve as effective punishment for any given behaviour is a complex task. This chapter focuses specifically on illegal road user behaviours and the mechanisms used to punish and deter them. Traffic law enforcement has traditionally used the threat and/or receipt of legal sanctions and penalties to deter illegal and risky behaviours. This process represents the use of positive punishment, one of the key behaviour modification mechanisms. Behaviour modification principles describe four types of reinforcers: positive and negative punishments and positive and negative reinforcements. The terms ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ are not used in an evaluative sense here. Rather, they represent the presence (positive) or absence (negative) of stimuli to promote behaviour change. Punishments aim to inhibit behaviour and reinforcements aim to encourage it. This chapter describes a variety of punishments and reinforcements that have been and could be used to modify illegal road user behaviours. In doing so, it draws on several theoretical perspectives that have defined behavioural reinforcement and punishment in different ways. Historically, the main theoretical approach used to deter risky road use has been classical deterrence theory which has focussed on the perceived certainty, severity and swiftness of penalties. Stafford and Warr (1993) extended the traditional deterrence principles to include the positive reinforcement concept of punishment avoidance. Evidence of the association between punishment avoidance experiences and behaviour has been established for a number of risky road user behaviours including drink driving, unlicensed driving, and speeding. We chose a novel way of assessing punishment avoidance by specifying two sub-constructs (detection evasion and punishment evasion). Another theorist, Akers, described the idea of competing reinforcers, termed differential reinforcement, within social learning theory (1977). Differential reinforcement describes a balance of reinforcements and punishments as influential on behaviour. This chapter describes comprehensive way of conceptualising a broad range of reinforcement and punishment concepts, consistent with Akers’ differential reinforcement concept, within a behaviour modification framework that incorporates deterrence principles. The efficacy of three theoretical perspectives to explain self-reported speeding among a sample of 833 Australian car drivers was examined. Results demonstrated that a broad range of variables predicted speeding including personal experiences of evading detection and punishment for speeding, intrinsic sensations, practical benefits expected from speeding, and an absence of punishing effects from being caught. Not surprisingly, being younger was also significantly related to more frequent speeding, although in a regression analysis, gender did not retain a significant influence once all punishment and reinforcement variables were entered. The implications for speed management, as well as road user behaviour modification more generally, are discussed in light of these findings. Overall, the findings reported in this chapter suggest that a more comprehensive approach is required to manage the behaviour of road users which does not rely solely on traditional legal penalties and sanctions.

Effective technologies for noninvasive remote monitoring in heart failure

Background Trials of new technologies to remotely monitor for signs and symptoms of worsening heart failure are continually emerging. The extent to which technological differences impact the effectiveness of non-invasive remote monitoring for heart failure management is unknown. Objective To examine the effect of specific technology used for non-invasive remote monitoring of people with heart failure on all-cause mortality and heart failure-related hospitalisations. Methods A sub-analysis of a large systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted. Studies were stratified according to the specific type of technology used and separate meta-analyses were performed. Four different types of non-invasive remote monitoring technologies were identified including structured telephone calls, videophone, interactive voice response devices and telemonitoring. Results Only structured telephone calls and telemonitoring were effective in reducing the risk of all-cause mortality (RR 0.87; 95% CI=0.75-1.01; p=0.06 and 0.62; 95% CI=0.50-0.77; p<0.0001) and heart failure-related hospitalisations (RR 0.77; 95% CI=0.68-0.87; p<0.001) and 0.75; 95% CI=0.63-0.91; p=0.003). More research data is required for videophone and interactive voice response technologies. Conclusions This sub-analysis identified that only two of the four specific technologies used for non-invasive remote monitoring in heart failure improved outcomes. When results of studies that involved these disparate technologies were combined in previous meta-analyses, significant improvements in outcomes were identified. As such, this study has highlighted implications for future meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials focused on evaluating the effectiveness of remote monitoring in heart failure.

Distance education and the application of academagogy : a case study

The education sector has dramatically changed in the past half decade. In a time of globalisation of education and tightening budgets, various paradigm shifts and challenges have rapidly changed learning and teaching. These include: meeting student expectation for more engaging, more interactive learning experiences, the increased focus to deliver content online, and the complexities of fast-changing technologies. Rising to these challenges and responding to them is a complex and multi-faceted task. This paper discusses educational theories and issues and explores current educational practices in the context of teaching undergraduate students via distance education in the university context. A case study applies a framework drawn from engineering education using the learner-centric concept of academagogy. Results showed that academagogy actively empowers students to build effective learning, and engages facilitators in meaningful teaching and delivery methods.