Aging in China and its impact on vehicle design

This study contributes to the growth of design knowledge in China, where vehicle design for the local, older user is in its initial developmental stages. Therefore, this research has explored the travel needs of older Chinese vehicle users in order to assist designers to better understand users’ current and future needs. A triangulation method consisting of interviews, logbook and co-discovery was used to collect multiple forms of data and so explore the research question. Grounded theory has been employed to analyze the research data. This study found that users’ needs are reflected through various ‘meanings’ that they attach to vehicles – meanings that give a tangible expression to their experiences. This study identified six older-user need categories: (i) safety, (ii) utility, (iii) comfort, (iv) identity, (v) emotion and (vi) spirituality. The interrelationships among these six categories are seen as an interactive structure, rather than as a linear or hierarchical arrangement. Chinese cultural values, which are generated from particular local context and users’ social practice, will play a dynamic role in linking and shaping the travel needs of older vehicle users in the future. Moreover, this study structures the older-user needs model into three levels of meaning, to give guidance to vehicle design direction: (i) the practical meaning level, (ii) the social meaning level and (ii) the cultural meaning level. This study suggests that a more comprehensive explanation exists if designers can identify the vehicle’s meaning and property associated with the fulfilled older users’ needs. However, these needs will vary, and must be related to particular technological, social, and cultural contexts. The significance of this study lies in its contributions to the body of knowledge in three areas: research methodology, theory and design. These theoretical contributions provide a series of methodological tools, models and approaches from a vehicle design perspective. These include a conditional/consequential matrix, a travel needs identification model, an older users’ travel-related needs framework, a user information structure model, and an Older-User-Need-Based vehicle design approach. These models suggest a basic framework for the new design process which might assist in the design of new vehicles to fulfil the needs of future, aging Chinese generations. The models have the potential to be transferred to other design domains and different cultural contexts.

The public management issues of access to electronic gaming machines (EGMs) : a case study of policy in Victoria, its effects and requirements for evaluation

Wynne and Schaffer (2003) have highlighted both the strong growth of gambling activity in recent years, and the revenue streams this has generated for governments and communities. Gambling activities and the revenues derived from them have, unsurprisingly, therefore also been seen as a way in which to increase economic development in deprived areas (Jinkner-Lloyd, 1996). Consequently, according to Brown et al (2003), gambling is now a large taxation revenue earner for many western governments, at both federal and state levels, worldwide (for example UK, USA, Australia). In size and importance, the Australian gambling industry in particular has grown significantly over the last three decades, experiencing a fourfold increase in real gambling turnover. There are, however, also concerns expressed about gambling and Electronic Gaming in particular, as illustrated in economic, social and ethical terms in Oddo (1997). There are also spatial aspects to understanding these issues. Marshall’s (1998) study, for example, highlights that benefits from gambling are more likely to accrue at the macro as opposed to the local level, because of centralised tax gathering and spending of tax revenues, whilst localities may suffer from displacement of activities with higher multipliers than the institutions with EGMs that replace them. This also highlights a regional context of costs, where benefits accrue to the centre, but the costs accrue to the regions and localities, as simultaneously resources leave those communities through both the gambling activities themselves (in the form of revenue for the EGM owners), and the government (through taxes).

Research productivity levels of Chinese TEFL academics

Since China’s Economic Reform and its Open Door Policy, China has entered a new era of education (Adamson, 2002; Hu, 2005a). English has gained status as a language for international relations (Graddol, 1997) and international trade (Qu, 2007). Hence, in 2001, China’s Ministry of Education (MOE) required universities to offer 5-10% of their course units in English, particularly in the fields of information technology, biotechnology, finance and law (Jen, 2001; MOE, 2001). However, “the upgrading of national English proficiency, then, is predicted largely on the professional competence of the teaching force” (Hu, 2005b, p. 655). For TEFL academics, one component of this competence is the capacity to conduct research (Day, 1991; Shu, 2002). Indeed, research productivity has become essential for university success, and academics’ employment and promotional prospects. This study aims to investigate 182 Chinese TEFL academics’ research outputs across three Chinese higher education institutions through the research question: What are the research productivity levels of Chinese TEFL academics? A survey instrument was devised to gather TEFL academics’ calculations of research productivity and, in particular, the quality and quantity of research outputs over a five-year period (2004-2008). Descriptive statistics through SPSS were used to analyse data across research output fields (e.g., journal articles, conference papers). Academic status varied (n=182; teaching assistants 23.6%, lecturers 47.3%, associate professors 22.5%, and professors 6.6%) as did years of teaching (1-5 years 27.4%, 6-10 years 24.7%, 11-15 18.1%, 16-20 years 13.7%, > 21 years 15.9%). Results (n=182, male=27%, females=73%) indicated 18% had not produced any research in the five-year period. Indeed, more than 70% had produced no research in all categories except non-core journal articles and provincial projects. An overwhelming majority of TEFL academics had zero productivity in 10 of the 12 categories. Nevertheless, there were highly-productive TEFL academics, who had produced five or more pieces of research across the 12 categories. In addition, there was not much difference between sole and co-authored research outputs, except non-core journal articles where sole authored work was 20% higher than co-authored work. China’s desire for international competitiveness in education will require measures that facilitate higher levels of research productivity. These measures must include professional development, support and mentoring programs, and employment of personnel who can guide these processes. Research performance is an outcome, hence there is a need to understand Chinese TEFL academics’ perceptions about research, and experiences that may hinder and facilitate higher research productivity.

Can governments use their construction contracts to improve training outcomes?

This paper explores the likely efficacy of government agencies using their contracting relationships with private firms to affect training outcomes in the construction industry. Specifically, it reports on the results of a study of two training policies of theWestern Australian government. Empirical data is drawn from the government’s Tender Registration System between 1997 and 2006. The main finding of the quantitative analysis is that in the absence of strong industry commitment to policy objectives, the contracting approach is likely to result in high levels of avoidance activity and generate very few benefits. The results of a qualitative investigation also support these findings.

Multi-Outcome Construction Policies : Industry-Focused Research Summary

The Multi-outcomes Construction Policies research project, funded by the Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation (Project 2006-036-A), sought to explore the costs and benefits of leveraging social outcomes on public construction contracts. The context of the research project was the trend towards the contracting out of public construction works and the attempts that have been made to use new contractual arrangements with construction companies to construction achieve a wide range of social outcomes. In federal and state jurisdictions it is now common for governments to impose a range of additional requirements on public works contractors that relate to broad social/community objectives. These requirements include commitments to train apprentices and trainees; to provide local and/or indigenous employment opportunities; to buy local materials; and to include art works. The cost and benefits of using public construction contracts to achieve social/community goals have, to our knowledge, not been thoroughly researched in an Australian context. This is likely to reflect in large part the relatively short history of contracting out public works. As Jensen and Stonecash (2004) explain, most previous empirical studies of contracting out have attempted to measure the cost savings achieved through privatization, as this was the focus of policy debate in the 1980s and 1990s. Relatively few studies have addressed the ability of contracting arrangements to ensure the delivery of desired ‘quality’ outcomes1, or the costs of achieving these outcomes via contracting arrangements. One of the potential costs of attempting to leverage social/community outcomes on public construction projects is a reduction in the amount of competition for these projects, with obvious consequences for average bid prices and choice. In jurisdictions, such as Western Australia and Queensland, where currently construction market conditions are already

A study of Chinese private passenger cars based on BP neural network

This study employs BP neural network to simulate the development of Chinese private passenger cars. Considering the uncertain and complex environment for the development of private passenger cars, indicators of economy, population, price, infrastructure, income, energy and some other fields which have major impacts on it are selected at first. The network is proved to be operable to simulate the progress of chinese private passenger cars after modeling, training and generalization test. Based on the BP neural network model, sensitivity analysis of each indicator is carried on and shows that the sensitivity coefficients of fuel price change suddenly. This special phenomenon reveals that the development of Chinese private passenger cars may be seriously affected by the recent high fuel price. This finding is also consistent with facts and figures

Stability of the learning and development survey : findings for mature aged local government and private healthcare organisations.

This article investigates work related learning and development amongst mature aged workers from a lifespan developmental psychology perspective. The current study follows on from research regarding the construction and revision of the Learning and Development Survey (LDS; Tones & Pillay, 2008). Designed to measure adaptive development for work related learning, the revised LDS (R-LDS) encompasses goal selection, engagement and disengagement from individual and organisational perspectives. Previous survey findings from a mixed age sample of local government workers suggest that mature aged workers aged over 45 years are less likely to report engagement in learning and development goals than younger workers, which is partly due to insufficient opportunities at work. In the current paper, exploratory factor analysis was used to investigate responses to the R-LDS amongst two groups of mature aged workers from a local government (LG) and private healthcare (PH) organisation to determine the stability of the R-LDS. Organisational constraints to development accounted for almost a quarter of the variance in R-LDS scores for both samples, while remaining factors emerged in different orders for each data set. Organisational opportunities for development explained about 17% of the variance in R-LDS scores in the LG sample, while the individual goal disengagement factor contributed a comparable proportion of variance to R-LDS scores for the PH sample. Findings from the current study indicate that opportunities for learning and development at work may be age structured and biased towards younger workers. Implications for professional practice are discussed and focus on improving the engagement of mature aged workers.

Crowd Counting Using Multiple Local Features

In public venues, crowd size is a key indicator of crowd safety and stability. Crowding levels can be detected using holistic image features, however this requires a large amount of training data to capture the wide variations in crowd distribution. If a crowd counting algorithm is to be deployed across a large number of cameras, such a large and burdensome training requirement is far from ideal. In this paper we propose an approach that uses local features to count the number of people in each foreground blob segment, so that the total crowd estimate is the sum of the group sizes. This results in an approach that is scalable to crowd volumes not seen in the training data, and can be trained on a very small data set. As a local approach is used, the proposed algorithm can easily be used to estimate crowd density throughout different regions of the scene and be used in a multi-camera environment. A unique localised approach to ground truth annotation reduces the required training data is also presented, as a localised approach to crowd counting has different training requirements to a holistic one. Testing on a large pedestrian database compares the proposed technique to existing holistic techniques and demonstrates improved accuracy, and superior performance when test conditions are unseen in the training set, or a minimal training set is used.

AITPM Email Newsletter Volume 0902, February 2009: Presidents Message

President’s Report Hello fellow AITPM members, Welcome to the first edition of the AITPM National Newsletter for 2009! I trust we all had a relaxing break and managed to lose track of all things transport for just a little while. I know I had trouble doing so when hunting for a car space at the shopping centre, and experiencing new projects such as the Tugun Bypass – the new gateway between New South Wales and Queensland. Byron Bay is now as close as Noosa for those high profile beach goers of Brisbane. There was also my experience of the reduced posted speed of 90km/h on the Bruce Highway around the troublesome Gympie stretch, when returning from a short Fraser Coast holiday. I expect that this relatively inexpensive safety improvement will pay substantial dividends in terms of crash reduction. The Newsletter took its annual leave last month and is refreshed and ready for a new year to keep us all informed of the latest in traffic and transport engineering, planning and management. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the ongoing significant contributions of many volunteers in the Newsletter’s production. Mr Andrew Hulse, AITPM’s Immediate Past National President, serves as the Editorial Coordinator on behalf of the Institute. Each Branch Committee also includes a Newsletter Coordinator and committee members frequently contribute as well. And the ongoing contributions of readers enable us to offer the Newsletter as a vehicle for dialogue and debate around our sector. If you would like to contribute please email AITPM’s administration officer Josephine Mitton at aitpm@aitpm.com or through your local Branch Committee. I would also like to welcome back on deck our Editor, Mr David Brown of Driven Media, who creates a fantastic package for us each month. Lastly, members would have received the Call for Papers for the AITPM 2009 National Conference, Traffic Beyond Tomorrow, to be held at the Adelaide Convention Centre between 5 – 7 August. Abstracts will be accepted up to 20 February 2009. We look forward to seeing everyone at this, our flagship event for the year. To all a good year ahead, Jon Bunker Post Script: We all will have seen through the media the enormous scale and nature of the two natural disasters Australia is experiencing at present. AITPM’s thoughts are with all of those members, family and friends who may be experiencing hardship as a result of the Victorian bushfires and North Queensland floods. AITPM is a not for profit organisation however the National Executive has taken the decision to donate in measure to the Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Disaster Relief fund and the Queensland Premier’s Disaster Relief fund as a gesture to support our fellow Australians in their time of need. Details about these funds can be found via the Victorian and Queensland Governments’ websites.

Developing a best practice framework for implementing public private partnerships (PPP) in Hong Kong

Public Private Partnership (PPP) is a well established methodology for procuring public works projects. By incorporating the private sector’s expertise, efficiency, innovation, business sense, risk sharing, financing etc. into public works projects, the quality of public services and facilities can be uplifted. Like many jurisdictions, Hong Kong is also keen to take aboard this methodology which is so familiar but yet so distant. Although they have been one of the first jurisdictions to utilise the private sector in public works projects, their comfortable financial reserves has meant that there has been no urge to push the movement until recently. PPP has become increasingly popular amongst governments. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government is no exception. Some of the more active works departments have commissioned studies to investigate the best ways to deliver these projects, others have even trialed the method themselves. The efficiency Unit of the HKSAR government has also become an active arm in conducting research in this area. Although so, the information that is currently available is still very broad. Building from their works there is a need to develop a best practice framework for implementing PPP projects in Hong Kong by incorporating international experiences. To develop a best practice framework will require thorough investigation into the benefits, difficulties and critical success factor of PPP. PPP should also be compared with other procurement methods. In order to do so it is important to clearly understand the local situation by an analysis of projects conducted to date. Lessons learnt can further be derived from other countries and incorporated to those derived locally. Finally the best conditions in terms of project nature, complexity, types, and scales for adopting PPP should be derived. The aim and objectives of this study were achieved via a comprehensive literature review, in-depth case analyses, interview survey with experts from both Hong Kong and overseas, and finally a large scale data collection was conducted via a questionnaire survey with PPP practitioners. These findings were further triangulated before they were used as the basis to form the best practice framework presented in this thesis. The framework was then further validated by PPP experts to ensure it is comprehensive, objective, reliable and practical. This study has presented a methodology that can be adopted for future studies. It has also updated our knowledge on the development trends of PPP as well as opened up the experiences of other jurisdictions. The findings have shown that the local industry is familiar with “what” should be done in PPP projects but they are unsure of “how” these goals can be achieved. This framework has allowed this further knowledge to be delivered to PPP practitioners. As a result, the development of this framework can help to resolve the current economic crisis by encouraging more developments and business opportunities for the private sector. In addition, the correct projects can be delivered by PPP, the advantages of PPP can be maximised, and the general public can benefit from the private sector’s participation.

Converse Bergmann cline in a eucalyptus herbivore, paropsis atomaria olivier (coleoptera: chrysomelidae) : phenotypic plasticity or local adaptation?

Aim To measure latitude-related body size variation in field-collected Paropsis atomaria Olivier (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) individuals and to conduct common-garden experiments to determine whether such variation is due to phenotypic plasticity or local adaptation. Location Four collection sites from the east coast of Australia were selected for our present field collections: Canberra (latitude 35°19' S), Bangalow (latitude 28°43' S), Beerburrum (latitude 26°58' S) and Lowmead (latitude 24°29' S). Museum specimens collected over the past 100 years and covering the same geographical area as the present field collections came from one state, one national and one private collection. Methods Body size (pronotum width) was measured for 118 field-collected beetles and 302 specimens from collections. We then reared larvae from the latitudinal extremes (Canberra and Lowmead) to determine whether the size cline was the result of phenotypic plasticity or evolved differences (= local adaptation) between sites. Results Beetles decreased in size with increasing latitude, representing a converse Bergmann cline. A decrease in developmental temperature produced larger adults for both Lowmead (low latitude) and Canberra (high latitude) individuals, and those from Lowmead were larger than those from Canberra when reared under identical conditions. Main conclusions The converse Bergmann cline in P. atomaria is likely to be the result of local adaptation to season length.

Intrusion detection techniques in wireless local area networks

This research investigates wireless intrusion detection techniques for detecting attacks on IEEE 802.11i Robust Secure Networks (RSNs). Despite using a variety of comprehensive preventative security measures, the RSNs remain vulnerable to a number of attacks. Failure of preventative measures to address all RSN vulnerabilities dictates the need for a comprehensive monitoring capability to detect all attacks on RSNs and also to proactively address potential security vulnerabilities by detecting security policy violations in the WLAN. This research proposes novel wireless intrusion detection techniques to address these monitoring requirements and also studies correlation of the generated alarms across wireless intrusion detection system (WIDS) sensors and the detection techniques themselves for greater reliability and robustness. The specific outcomes of this research are: A comprehensive review of the outstanding vulnerabilities and attacks in IEEE 802.11i RSNs. A comprehensive review of the wireless intrusion detection techniques currently available for detecting attacks on RSNs. Identification of the drawbacks and limitations of the currently available wireless intrusion detection techniques in detecting attacks on RSNs. Development of three novel wireless intrusion detection techniques for detecting RSN attacks and security policy violations in RSNs. Development of algorithms for each novel intrusion detection technique to correlate alarms across distributed sensors of a WIDS. Development of an algorithm for automatic attack scenario detection using cross detection technique correlation. Development of an algorithm to automatically assign priority to the detected attack scenario using cross detection technique correlation.

Word Segmentation for Chinese Wikipedia Using N-Gram Mutual Information

In this paper, we propose an unsupervised segmentation approach, named "n-gram mutual information", or NGMI, which is used to segment Chinese documents into n-character words or phrases, using language statistics drawn from the Chinese Wikipedia corpus. The approach alleviates the tremendous effort that is required in preparing and maintaining the manually segmented Chinese text for training purposes, and manually maintaining ever expanding lexicons. Previously, mutual information was used to achieve automated segmentation into 2-character words. The NGMI approach extends the approach to handle longer n-character words. Experiments with heterogeneous documents from the Chinese Wikipedia collection show good results.

Deeply divergent mitochondrial lineages reveal patterns of local endemism in chironomids of the Australian Wet Tropics

The Wet Tropics bioregion of north-eastern Australia has been subject to extensive fluctuations in climate throughout the late Pliocene and Pleistocene. Cycles of rainforest contraction and expansion of dry sclerophyll forest associated with such climatic fluctuations are postulated to have played a major role in driving geographical endemism in terrestrial rainforest taxa. Consequences for the distributions of aquatic organisms, however, are poorly understood.The Australian non-biting midge species Echinocladius martini Cranston (Diptera: Chironomidae), although restricted to cool, well-forested freshwater streams, has been considered to be able to disperse among populations located in isolated rainforest pockets during periods of sclerophyllous forest expansion, potentially limiting the effect of climatic fluctuations on patterns of endemism. In this study, mitochondrial COI and 16S data were analysed for E. martini collected from eight sites spanning theWet Tropics bioregion to assess the scale and extent of phylogeographic structure. Analyses of genetic structure showed several highly divergent cryptic lineages with restricted geographical distributions. Within one of the identified lineages, strong genetic structure implied that dispersal among proximate (<1 km apart) streams was extremely restricted. The results suggest that vicariant processes, most likely due to the systemic drying of the Australian continent during the Plio-Pleistocene, might have fragmented historical E. martini populations and, hence, promoted divergence in allopatry.

The Evolution of the creative industries : creative clusters, creative citizens and social network markets 創意產業的演化 : 創意集群 ,創意公民, 社會網絡市場 [published in Chinese]

The creative industries are important because they are clustered at the point of attraction for a billion or more young people around the world. They're the drivers of demographic, economic and political change. They start from the individual talent of the creative artist and the individual desire and aspiration of the audience. These are the raw materials for innovation, change and emergent culture, scaled up to form new industries and coordinated into global markets based on social networks.