Defending the patch : a labour geography analysis of unions’ construction of and responses to the problem of declining union membership amongst youth

If the trade union movement is to remain an influential force in the industrial, economic and socio/political arenas of industrialised nations it is vital that its recruitment of young members improve dramatically. Australian union membership levels have declined markedly over the last three decades and youth union membership levels have decreased more than any age group. Currently around 10% of young workers aged between 16-24 years are members of unions in Australia compared to 26% of workers aged 45-58 (Oliver, 2008). This decline has occurred throughout the union movement, in all states and in almost all industries and occupations. This research, which consists of interviews with union organisers and union officials, draws on perspectives from the labour geography literature to explore how union personnel located in various places, spaces and scales construct the issue of declining youth union membership. It explores the scale of connections within the labour movement and the extent to which these connections are leveraged to address the problem of youth union membership decline. To offer the reader a sense of context and perspective, the thesis firstly outlines the historical development of the union movement. It also reviews the literature on youth membership decline. Labour geography offers a rich and apposite analytical tool for investigation of this area. The notion of ‘scale’ as a dynamic, interactive, constructed and reconstructed entity (Ellem, 2006) is an appropriate lens for viewing youth-union membership issues. In this non-linear view, scale is a relational element which interplays with space, place and the environment (Howett, in Marston, 2000) rather than being ‘sequential’ and hierarchical. Importantly, the thesis investigates the notion of unions as ‘spaces of dependence’ (Cox, 1998a, p.2), organisations whose space is centred upon realising essential interests. It also considers the quality of unions’ interactions with others – their ‘spaces of engagement‘(Cox, 1998a, p.2), and the impact that this has upon their ability to recruit youth. The findings reveal that most respondents across the spectrum of the union movement attribute the decline in youth membership levels to factors external to the movement itself, such as changes to industrial relations legislation and the impact of globalisation on employment markets. However, participants also attribute responsibility for declining membership levels to the union movement itself, citing factors such as a lack of resourcing and a need to change unions’ perceived identity and methods of operation. The research further determined that networks of connections across the union movement are tenuous and, to date, are not being fully utilised to assist unions to overcome the youth recruitment dilemma. The study concludes that potential connections between unions are hampered by poor resourcing, workload issues and some deeply entrenched attitudes related to unions ‘defending (and maintaining) their patch’.

The critical meets the cultural : International students’ responses to critical, dialogic postgraduate education in a Western university

What happens when international students encounter critical, dialogic approaches to postgraduate education in a Western university? This chapter works with the narrative accounts of two students from Asian countries about their varied experiences of and responses to critically-oriented, interactive, English-medium study in a Master of Education course in Australia. Beginning from researcher standpoint, it tables the students’ stories of cultural, academic, linguistic and personal border crossings, and their ‘readings’ of course demands prioritising critical analysis, dialogic exchange and problem-solving. Their responses raise ongoing, unresolved epistemological and experiential issues about the cross-cultural and transnational relevance and value of Western/Eurocentric ‘critical’ education.

Review of Dr. Richard Shapcott's International Ethics : A Critical Introduction. 2010. London: Polity Press. ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-3142-4.

This work by Richard Shapcott is, as the title provides, an introduction to international ethics. By taking a quick glance at the table of contents (see Figure 1) we see that he has systematically divided this particular discourse into its normative areas of concern (in other words its major areas of argument or research). When reading, we also see that a great deal of work has gone into the publication because the narrative is flowing, the arguments continuous, and because the tone of the work maintained its critical position throughout.

Spatiotemporal investigations of DNA damage repair using microbeams

Cellular response to radiation damage is made by a complex network of pathways and feedback loops whose spatiotemporal organisation is still unclear despite its decisive role in determining the fate of the damaged cell. Revealing the dynamic sequence of the repair proteins is therefore critical in understanding how the DNA repair mechanisms work. There are also still open questions regarding the possible movement of damaged chromatin domains and its role as trigger for lesion recognition and signalling in the DNA repair context. The single-cell approach and the high spatial resolution offered by microbeams provide the perfect tool to study and quantify the dynamic processes associated with the induction and repair of DNA damage. We have followed the development of radiation-induced foci for three DNA damage markers (i.e. γ-H2AX, 53BP1 and hSSB1) using normal fibroblasts (AG01522), human breast adenocarcinoma cells (MCF7) and human fibrosarcoma cells (HT1080) stably transfected with yellow fluorescent protein fusion proteins following irradiation with the QUB X-ray microbeam (carbon X-rays <2 µm spot). The size and intensity of the foci has been analysed as a function of dose and time post-irradiation to investigate the dynamics of the above-mentioned DNA repair processes and monitor the remodelling of chromatin structure that the cell undergoes to deal with DNA damage.

Single-stranded DNA-binding protein hSSB1 is critical for genomic stability

Single-strand DNA (ssDNA)-binding proteins (SSBs) are ubiquitous and essential for a wide variety of DNA metabolic processes, including DNA replication, recombination, DNA damage detection and repair1. SSBs have multiple roles in binding and sequestering ssDNA, detecting DNA damage, stimulating nucleases, helicases and strand-exchange proteins, activating transcription and mediating protein–protein interactions. In eukaryotes, the major SSB, replication protein A (RPA), is a heterotrimer1. Here we describe a second human SSB (hSSB1), with a domain organization closer to the archaeal SSB than to RPA. Ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) kinase phosphorylates hSSB1 in response to DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). This phosphorylation event is required for DNA damage-induced stabilization of hSSB1. Upon induction of DNA damage, hSSB1 accumulates in the nucleus and forms distinct foci independent of cell-cycle phase. These foci co-localize with other known repair proteins. In contrast to RPA, hSSB1 does not localize to replication foci in S-phase cells and hSSB1 deficiency does not influence S-phase progression. Depletion of hSSB1 abrogates the cellular response to DSBs, including activation of ATM and phosphorylation of ATM targets after ionizing radiation. Cells deficient in hSSB1 exhibit increased radiosensitivity, defective checkpoint activation and enhanced genomic instability coupled with a diminished capacity for DNA repair. These findings establish that hSSB1 influences diverse endpoints in the cellular DNA damage response.

Assessment of critical constructability activities among Malaysian building contractors

After the primary researches on constructability issue which were implemented in United States, United Kingdom and Australia, more explorations were applied on that in order to assess this unique scientific fact in East Asian country of Malaysia. Based on the latest researches done on constructability concept in Malaysia, the most Critical Constructability Activities (CCAs) are defined according to amount of contractors’ participation in each activity and amount of gap between actual and potential effects of each of them on achieving the overall objectives of the construction projects with more cost and time savings and better quality which is the whole aim of a beneficial constructability activity. The present research aims to assess the current findings on CCAs in order to identify the types of contractors and projects which these CCAs are getting performed in and also the types of contracts is used in these CCAs. Finally it was found that there are some significant differences in amount of contractors’ involvement in CCAs among various considered independent variables. This study uses the former researches to help Malaysian construction stakeholders to find out the barriers of constructability implementation in building projects via giving more details on application of CCAs among different IVs.

A Modified inverse integer Cholesky decorrelation method and the performance on ambiguity resolution

One of the research focuses in the integer least squares problem is the decorrelation technique to reduce the number of integer parameter search candidates and improve the efficiency of the integer parameter search method. It remains as a challenging issue for determining carrier phase ambiguities and plays a critical role in the future of GNSS high precise positioning area. Currently, there are three main decorrelation techniques being employed: the integer Gaussian decorrelation, the Lenstra–Lenstra–Lovász (LLL) algorithm and the inverse integer Cholesky decorrelation (IICD) method. Although the performance of these three state-of-the-art methods have been proved and demonstrated, there is still a potential for further improvements. To measure the performance of decorrelation techniques, the condition number is usually used as the criterion. Additionally, the number of grid points in the search space can be directly utilized as a performance measure as it denotes the size of search space. However, a smaller initial volume of the search ellipsoid does not always represent a smaller number of candidates. This research has proposed a modified inverse integer Cholesky decorrelation (MIICD) method which improves the decorrelation performance over the other three techniques. The decorrelation performance of these methods was evaluated based on the condition number of the decorrelation matrix, the number of search candidates and the initial volume of search space. Additionally, the success rate of decorrelated ambiguities was calculated for all different methods to investigate the performance of ambiguity validation. The performance of different decorrelation methods was tested and compared using both simulation and real data. The simulation experiment scenarios employ the isotropic probabilistic model using a predetermined eigenvalue and without any geometry or weighting system constraints. MIICD method outperformed other three methods with conditioning improvements over LAMBDA method by 78.33% and 81.67% without and with eigenvalue constraint respectively. The real data experiment scenarios involve both the single constellation system case and dual constellations system case. Experimental results demonstrate that by comparing with LAMBDA, MIICD method can significantly improve the efficiency of reducing the condition number by 78.65% and 97.78% in the case of single constellation and dual constellations respectively. It also shows improvements in the number of search candidate points by 98.92% and 100% in single constellation case and dual constellations case.

WaterFieldWork : a working lexicon for critical refugia in arid landscapes

Algebuckina Waterhole exists as a permanent waterhole near a north-south dirt road and an old trainline on the Oodnadatta Track - lines that once opened up the arid lands of central South Australia but are now bypassed. It also exists as the final and largest freshwater waterhole at the end of the Neales River system. It is a critical biodiversity site, a cultural place and a working environment. It is seen to need a resilient management plan that encompasses diverse interests and impacts. Its managers sense that the theories and practices emerging out of landscape disciplinary systems may be of help. Work-in-progress research towards a management methodology are presented through posing scenarios on how landscape thinking and design, informed by an emergent textual and visual lexicon for water landscapes, can intersect with scientific fieldwork to produce useful and transferable outcomes for Algebuckina.

Interfacial debonding behavior of composite beam/plates with PZT patch

This paper studies interfacial debonding behavior of composite beams which include piezoelectric materials, adhesive and host beam. The focus is put on crack initiation and growth of the piezoelectric adhesive interface. Closed-form solutions of interface stresses and energy release rates are obtained for adhesive layer in the piezoelectric composite beams. Finite element analyses have been carried out to study the initiation and growth of interfaces crack for piezoelectric beams with interface element by ANSYS, in which the interface element of FE model is based on the cohesive zone models to characterize the fracture behavior of the interfacial debonding. The results have been compared with analystical solution, and the influence of different geometry and material parameters on the interfacial behavior of piezoelectric composite beams have been discussed.

Children re-read and re-write their neighborhoods : critical literacies and identity work

This chapter considers the complex literate repertoires of 21st century children in multicultural primary classrooms in Adelaide South Australia. It draws on the curricular and pedagogical work of two experienced primary school teachers who explore culture, race and class, by positioning children as textual producers across a variety of media. In particular we discuss two child-authored texts – A is for Arndale – a local alphabet book co-authored by children aged between eight and ten, and – Cooking Afghani Style - a magazine style film produced by a multi-aged class of children (aged eight to thirteen) recently arrived in Australia. In the process of making these texts, primary children engaged in reading as a cultural practice – re-reading and re-writing their neighbourhoods and identities (both individual and collective). This involved frequent excursions to local key sites, both familiar and unfamiliar to the children. They investigated how diverse children experienced and lived their lives in particular places within changing communities.

Critical literacies in place : teachers who work for just and sustainable communities

This chapter draws upon theories of social justice, critical literacy and place-based pedagogies and two research projects to discuss how teachers are working ethically and creatively towards a sustainable and just society in their place(s).

Critical reading comprehension in an era of accountability

This paper argues for the need for critical reading comprehension in an era of accountability that often promotes reading comprehension as readily assessable through students answering multiple choice questions of unseen texts. Based upon a 1 year study investigating literacy in Years 4–9 the ways strong-performing primary schools develop serious and in-depth reading for learning are explored. School and teacher features which allow for the development of sophisticated pedagogical repertoires and space for critical reading comprehension, without losing the complexity of curriculum offerings, are outlined. How one experienced middle primary teacher operates strategically, ethically and critically in supporting her ESL students to learn to read is illustrated. The teacher’s work is situated within the complex accountability demands faced by classroom teachers. This was accomplished by a teacher whose pedagogical repertoire has been assembled across a career teaching in low-SES high ESL communities in a school with a balanced literacy program and high level of collegial support. Risks for schools and teachers whose circumstances work against their capacities for prioritisation and strategic decision-making are identified and discussed.

Limitations and challenges in MSC delivery for bone regeneration

Objective: Regeneration of osseous defects by tissue-engineering or cell delivery approach provides a novel means of treatment utilizing cell biology, materials sciences, and molecular biology. The concept of in vitro explanted mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) with an ability to induce new bone formation has been demonstrated in some small animal models. However, contradictory results have been reported regarding the regenerative capacity of MSCs after ex vivo expansion due to the lack of the understanding of microenvironment for MSC differentiation in vivo. ----- ----- Methods: In our laboratory tissue-derived and bone marrow-derived MSCs have been investigated in their osteogenesis. Cell morphology and proliferation were studied by microscopy, confocal microscopy, FACS and cell counting. Cell differentiation and matrix formation were analysed by matrix staining, quantitative PCR, and immunohistochemistry. A SCID skull defect model was used for cell transplantation studies.----- ----- Results: It was noted that tissue-derived and bone marrow-derived MSCs showed similar characteristics in cell surface marker expression, mesenchymal lineage differentiation potential, and cell population doubling. MSCs from both sources could initiate new bone formation in bone defects after delivery into a critical size defects. The bone forming cells were from both transplanted cells and endogenous cells from the host. Interestingly, the majority of in vitro osteogenic differentiated cells did not form new bone directly even though mineralized matrix was synthesized in vitro by MSCs. Furthermore, no new bone formation was detected when MSCs were transplanted subcutaneously.----- ----- Conclusion: This study unveiled the limitations of MSC delivery in bone regeneration and proposed that in vivo microenvironment needs to be optimized for MSC delivery in osteogenesis.

Size and habit of mineral particles in bone and mineralized callus during bone healing in sheep

Bone healing is known to occur through the successive formation and resorption of various tissues with different structural and mechanical properties. To get a better insight into this sequence of events, we used environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) together with scanning small-angle X-ray scattering (sSAXS) to reveal the size and orientation of bone mineral particles within the regenerating callus tissues at different healing stages (2, 3, 6, and 9 weeks). Sections of 200 µm were cut from embedded blocks of midshaft tibial samples in a sheep osteotomy model with an external fixator. Regions of interest on the medial side of the proximal fragment were chosen to be the periosteal callus, middle callus, intercortical callus, and cortex. Mean thickness (T parameter), degree of alignment (ρ parameter), and predominant orientation (ψ parameter) of mineral particles were deduced from resulting sSAXS patterns with a spatial resolution of 200 µm. 2D maps of T and ρ overlapping with ESEM images revealed that the callus formation occurred in two waves of bone formation, whereby a highly disordered mineralized tissue was deposited first, followed by a bony tissue with more lamellar appearance in the ESEM and where the mineral particles were more aligned, as revealed by sSAXS. As a consequence, degree of alignment and mineral particle size within the callus increased with healing time, whereas at any given moment there were structural gradients, for example, from periosteal toward the middle callus.

Strategy in developing cell based therapy for large bone

Regeneration of osseous defects by tissue-engineering approach provides a novel means of treatment utilizing cell biology, materials science, and molecular biology. The concept of in vitro cultured osteoblasts having an ability to induce new bone formation has been demonstrated in the critical size defects using small animal models. The bone derived cells can be incorporated into bioengineered scaffolds and synthesize bone matrix, which on implantation can induce new bone formation. In search of optimal cell delivery materials, the extracellular matrix as cell carriers for the repair and regeneration of tissues is receiving increased attention. We have investigated extracellular matrix formed by osteoblasts in vitro as a scaffold for osteoblasts transplantation and found a mineralized matrix, formed by human osteoblasts in vitro, can initiate bone formation by activating endogenous mesenchymal cells. To repair the large bone defects, osteogenic or stem cells need to be prefabricated in a large three dimensional scaffold usually made of synthetic biomaterials, which have inadequate interaction with cells and lead to in vivo foreign body reactions. The interstitial extracellular matrix has been applied to modify biomaterials surface and identified vitronectin, which binds the heparin domain and RGD (Arg-Gly-Asp) sequence can modulate cell spreading, migration and matrix formation on biomaterials. We also synthesized a tri-block copolymer, methoxy-terminated poly(ethylene glycol)(MPEG)-polyL-lactide(PLLA)-polylysine(PLL) for human osteoblasts delivery. We identified osteogenic activity can be regulated by the molecular weight and composition of the triblock copolymers. Due to the sequential loss of lineage differentiation potential during the culture of bone marrow stromal cells that hinderers their potential clinical application, we have developed a clonal culture system and established several stem cell clones with fast growing and multi-differentiation properties. Using proteomics and subtractive immunization, several differential proteins have been identified and verified their potential application in stem cell characterization and tissue regeneration