Asynchronicity and the ‘time envelope’ of online annotation : the case of the photosharing website, Flickr

This paper examines a sequence of asynchronous interaction on the photosharing website, Flickr. In responding to a call for a focus on the performative aspects of online annotation (Wolff & Neuwirth, 2001), we outline and apply an interaction order approach to identify temporal and cultural aspects of the setting that provide for commonality and sharing. In particular, we study the interaction as a feature of a synthetic situation (Knorr Cetina, 2009) focusing on the requirements of maintaining a sense of an ongoing discussion online. Our analysis suggests that the rhetorical system of the Flickr environment, its appropriation by participants as a context for bounded activities, and displays of commonality, affiliation, and shared access provide for a common sense of participation in a time envelope. This, in turn, is argued to be central to new processes of consociation (Schutz, 1967; Zhao, 2004) occurring in the life world of Web 2.0 environments.

Building an Australasian Commons : Creative Commons case studies vol. 1

A collection of 60 case studies of the use of Creative Commons licensing in different sectors, including: music, social activism, film, visual arts, collecting, government, publishing and education.

More than experiential learning or volunteering : a case study of community service learning within the Australian context

Community service learning is the integration of experiential learning and community service into coursework such that community needs are met and students gain both professional skills and a sense of civic responsibility. A critical component is student reflection. This paper provides an example of the application of community service learning within an undergraduate health unit at the Queensland University of Technology. Based on survey data from 36 program participants, it demonstrates the impact of CSL on student outcomes. Results show that students benefited by developing autonomy through real world experiences, through increased self-assurance and achievement of personal growth, through gaining new insights into the operations of community service organisations and through moving towards becoming responsible citizens. Students expect their CSL experience to have long-lasting impact on their lives, with two-thirds of participants noting that they would like to continue volunteering as part of their future development.

Destination branding case study : tracking brand equity for an emerging destination between 2003 and 2007

Place branding has become a major focus of operations for destination marketing organizations (DMOs) striving for differentiation in cluttered markets. The topic of destination branding has only received attention in the tourism literature since the late 1990s, and there has been relatively little research reported in relations to analyzing destination brand effectiveness over time. This article reports an attempt to oprationalize the concept of consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) for an emerging destination over two points in time. The purpose of the project was to track the effectiveness of the brand in 2007 against benchmarks that were established in a 2003 student at the commencement of a new destination brand campaign. The key finding was there was no change in perceived performance for the destination across the brand's performance indicators and CBBE dimensions. Because of the common challenges faced by DMOs worldwide, it is suggested the CBBE hierarchy provides destination marketers with a practical tool for evaluation brand performance over time.

Printmaking as an expanding field in contemporary art practice : a case study of Japan, Australia and Thailand

This thesis proposes that contemporary printmaking, at its most significant, marks the present through reconstructing pasts and anticipating futures. It argues this through examples in the field, occurring in contexts beyond the Euramerican (Europe and North America). The arguments revolve around how the practice of a number of significant artists in Japan, Australia and Thailand has generated conceptual and formal innovations in printmaking that transcend local histories and conventions, whilst paradoxically, also building upon them and creating new meanings. The arguments do not portray the relations between contemporary and traditional art as necessarily antagonistic but rather, as productively dialectical. Furthermore, the case studies demonstrate that, in the 1980s and 1990s particularly, the studio practice of these printmakers was informed by other visual arts disciplines and reflected postmodern concerns. Departures from convention witnessed in these countries within the Asia-Pacific region shifted the field of the print into a heterogeneous and hybrid realm. The practitioners concerned (especially in Thailand) produced work that was more readily equated with performance and installation art than with printmaking per se. In Japan, the incursion of photography interrupted the decorative cast of printmaking and delivered it from a straightforward, craft-based aesthetic. In Australia, fixed notions of national identity were challenged by print practitioners through deliberate cultural rapprochements and technical contradictions (speaking across old and new languages).However time-honoured print methods were not jettisoned by any case study artists. Their re-alignment of the fundamental attributes of printmaking, in line with materialist formalism, is a core consideration of my arguments. The artists selected for in-depth analysis from these three countries are all innovators whose geographical circumstances and creative praxis drew on local traditions whilst absorbing international trends. In their radical revisionism, they acknowledged the specificity of history and place, conditions of contingency and forces of globalisation. The transformational nature of their work during the late twentieth century connects it to the postmodern ethos and to a broader artistic and cultural nexus than has hitherto been recognised in literature on the print. Emerging from former guild-based practices, they ambitiously conceived their work to be part of a continually evolving visual arts vocabulary. I argue in this thesis that artists from the Asia-Pacific region have historically broken with the hermetic and Euramerican focus that has generally characterised the field. Inadequate documentation and access to print activity outside the dominant centres of critical discourse imply that readings of postmodernism have been too limited in their scope of inquiry. Other locations offer complexities of artistic practice where re-alignments of customary boundaries are often the norm. By addressing innovative activity in Japan, Australia and Thailand, this thesis exposes the need for a more inclusive theoretical framework and wider global reach than currently exists for ‘printmaking’.

Practice briefing : Is BOT the best financing model to procure infrastructure projects? A case study of the Hong Kong-Shuhai-Macau Bridge

Abstract: Purpose – Several major infrastructure projects in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) have been delivered by the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model since the 1960s. Although the benefits of using BOT have been reported abundantly in the contemporary literature, some BOT projects were less successful than the others. This paper aims to find out why this is so and to explore whether BOT is the best financing model to procure major infrastructure projects. Design/methodology/approach – The benefits of BOT will first be reviewed. Some completed BOT projects in Hong Kong will be examined to ascertain how far the perceived benefits of BOT have been materialized in these projects. A highly profiled project, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, which has long been promoted by the governments of the People's Republic of China, Macau Special Administrative Region and the HKSAR that BOT is the preferred financing model, but suddenly reverted back to the traditional financing model to be funded primarily by the three governments with public money instead, will be studied to explore the true value of the BOT financial model. Findings – Six main reasons for this radical change are derived from the analysis: shorter take-off time for the project; difference in legal systems causing difficulties in drafting BOT agreements; more government control on tolls; private sector uninterested due to unattractive economic package; avoid allegation of collusion between business and the governments; and a comfortable financial reserve possessed by the host governments. Originality/value – The findings from this paper are believed to provide a better understanding to the real benefits of BOT and the governments' main decision criteria in delivering major infrastructure projects.

Validating the IS-Impact model : two exploratory case studies in China and Malaysia

For over a decade, IT expenditure in China and Malaysia has shown a significant increase, as organisations in these countries are increasingly dependent on information systems (IS) for achieving strategic advantages and business benefits. However, there have been numerous reports of dissatisfaction with IS, and in some cases the effectiveness of the information systems have yet to be reviewed. Two exploratory case studies reported in this paper are the first phase of an overall research in validating the IS-Impact model introduced by Gable, Sedera and Chan in two countries: China and Malaysia. This validation research aims to produce a standard measuring model across different contexts. The purpose of this paper is to present preliminary findings from two exploratory case studies, attempt to test the feasibility of the research design and to investigate applicability of the IS-Impact model in Chinese and Malaysian organisations. Twenty-nine respondents from a Chinese private company and seventeen respondents from a state government in Malaysia were involved in these studies. Findings indicated that most of existing IS-Impact measures are applicable in the study contexts, however, there are some new measures informed by the respondents. Feedback from the case studies also suggested necessary modifications to the Mandarin instrument.

Kallikrein-related peptidase 4 activation of protease-activated receptor family members and association with prostate cancer

Two areas of particular importance in prostate cancer progression are primary tumour development and metastasis. These processes involve a number of physiological events, the mediators of which are still being discovered and characterised. Serine proteases have been shown to play a major role in cancer invasion and metastasis. The recently discovered phenomenon of their activation of a receptor family known as the protease activated receptors (PARs) has extended their physiological role to that of signaling molecule. Several serine proteases are expressed by malignant prostate cancer cells, including members of the kallikreinrelated peptidase (KLK) serine protease family, and increasingly these are being shown to be associated with prostate cancer progression. KLK4 is highly expressed in the prostate and expression levels increase during prostate cancer progression. Critically, recent studies have implicated KLK4 in processes associated with cancer. For example, the ectopic over-expression of KLK4 in prostate cancer cell lines results in an increased ability of these cells to form colonies, proliferate and migrate. In addition, it has been demonstrated that KLK4 is a potential mediator of cellular interactions between prostate cancer cells and osteoblasts (bone forming cells). The ability of KLK4 to influence cellular behaviour is believed to be through the selective cleavage of specific substrates. Identification of relevant in vivo substrates of KLK4 is critical to understanding the pathophysiological roles of this enzyme. Significantly, recent reports have demonstrated that several members of the KLK family are able to activate PARs. The PARs are relatively new members of the seven transmembrane domain containing G protein coupled receptor (GPCR) family. PARs are activated through proteolytic cleavage of their N-terminus by serine proteases, the resulting nascent N-terminal binds intramolecularly to initiate receptor activation. PARs are involved in a number of patho-physiological processes, including vascular repair and inflammation, and a growing body of evidence suggests roles in cancer. While expression of PAR family members has been documented in several types of cancers, including prostate, the role of these GPCRs in prostate cancer development and progression is yet to be examined. Interestingly, several studies have suggested potential roles in cellular invasion through the induction of cytoskeletal reorganisation and expression of basement membrane-degrading enzymes. Accordingly, this program of research focussed on the activation of the PARs by the prostate cancer associated enzyme KLK4, cellular processing of activated PARs and the expression pattern of receptor and agonist in prostate cancer. For these studies KLK4 was purified from the conditioned media of stably transfected Sf9 insect cells expressing a construct containing the complete human KLK4 coding sequence in frame with a V5 epitope and poly-histidine encoding sequences. The first aspect of this study was the further characterisation of this recombinant zymogen form of KLK4. The recombinant KLK4 zymogen was demonstrated to be activatable by the metalloendopeptidase thermolysin and amino terminal sequencing indicated that thermolysin activated KLK4 had the predicted N-terminus of mature active KLK4 (31IINED). Critically, removal of the pro-region successfully generated a catalytically active enzyme, with comparable activity to a previously published recombinant KLK4 produced from S2 insect cells. The second aspect of this study was the activation of the PARs by KLK4 and the initiation of signal transduction. This study demonstrated that KLK4 can activate PAR-1 and PAR-2 to mobilise intracellular Ca2+, but failed to activate PAR-4. Further, KLK4 activated PAR-1 and PAR-2 over distinct concentration ranges, with KLK4 activation and mobilisation of Ca2+ demonstrating higher efficacy through PAR-2. Thus, the remainder of this study focussed on PAR-2. KLK4 was demonstrated to directly cleave a synthetic peptide that mimicked the PAR-2 Nterminal activation sequence. Further, KLK4 mediated Ca2+ mobilisation through PAR-2 was accompanied by the initiation of the extra-cellular regulated kinase (ERK) cascade. The specificity of intracellular signaling mediated through PAR-2 by KLK4 activation was demonstrated by siRNA mediated protein depletion, with a reduction in PAR-2 protein levels correlating to a reduction in KLK4 mediated Ca2+mobilisation and ERK phosphorylation. The third aspect of this study examined cellular processing of KLK4 activated PAR- 2 in a prostate cancer cell line. PAR-2 was demonstrated to be expressed by five prostate derived cell lines including the prostate cancer cell line PC-3. It was also demonstrated by flow cytometry and confocal microscopy analyses that activation of PC-3 cell surface PAR-2 by KLK4 leads to internalisation of this receptor in a time dependent manner. Critically, in vivo relevance of the interaction between KLK4 and PAR-2 was established by the observation of the co-expression of receptor and agonist in primary prostate cancer and prostate cancer bone lesion samples by immunohistochemical analysis. Based on the results of this study a number of exciting future studies have been proposed, including, delineating differences in KLK4 cellular signaling via PAR-1 and PAR-2 and the role of PAR-1 and PAR-2 activation by KLK4 in prostate cancer cells and bone cells in prostate cancer progression.

How useful is expert opinion for predicting the distribution of a species within and beyond the region of expertise? A case study using brush-tailed rock-wallabiesPetrogale penicillata

1. Species' distribution modelling relies on adequate data sets to build reliable statistical models with high predictive ability. However, the money spent collecting empirical data might be better spent on management. A less expensive source of species' distribution information is expert opinion. This study evaluates expert knowledge and its source. In particular, we determine whether models built on expert knowledge apply over multiple regions or only within the region where the knowledge was derived. 2. The case study focuses on the distribution of the brush-tailed rock-wallaby Petrogale penicillata in eastern Australia. We brought together from two biogeographically different regions substantial and well-designed field data and knowledge from nine experts. We used a novel elicitation tool within a geographical information system to systematically collect expert opinions. The tool utilized an indirect approach to elicitation, asking experts simpler questions about observable rather than abstract quantities, with measures in place to identify uncertainty and offer feedback. Bayesian analysis was used to combine field data and expert knowledge in each region to determine: (i) how expert opinion affected models based on field data and (ii) how similar expert-informed models were within regions and across regions. 3. The elicitation tool effectively captured the experts' opinions and their uncertainties. Experts were comfortable with the map-based elicitation approach used, especially with graphical feedback. Experts tended to predict lower values of species occurrence compared with field data. 4. Across experts, consensus on effect sizes occurred for several habitat variables. Expert opinion generally influenced predictions from field data. However, south-east Queensland and north-east New South Wales experts had different opinions on the influence of elevation and geology, with these differences attributable to geological differences between these regions. 5. Synthesis and applications. When formulated as priors in Bayesian analysis, expert opinion is useful for modifying or strengthening patterns exhibited by empirical data sets that are limited in size or scope. Nevertheless, the ability of an expert to extrapolate beyond their region of knowledge may be poor. Hence there is significant merit in obtaining information from local experts when compiling species' distribution models across several regions.

Dislodgement of commercial property public debt markets : the case of U.S. and Australia

The paper investigates if there are any discernible trends in the U.S. and Australian commercial property public debt markets with the onset of the global financial crisis (GFC). Commercial mortgage-backed securities and unsecured bonds issued by real estate investment trusts for the period 2000 to Q3:2009 are reviewed. It is shown that events in the equity markets have an impact on the pricing of these two instruments. Furthermore, the impact of subdued activity in these financing instruments on the commercial property market is discussed.

Determinants and market impact of seasoned equity offerings : the case of A-REITs

The paper examines the decision by Australian Real Estate Trusts (A-REITs) to issue seasoned equity offerings from 2000 - 2008 and stock market reaction to the offerings. The findings reveal that highly leveraged A-REITs with variable earnings are less likely to issue seasoned equity offerings. Inconsistent results for structure and type of properties held by the A-REIT do not allow for inference to be drawn. Similar to previous studies of seasoned equity offerings, we find a significant negative abnormal return associated with their announcement and no evidence of excessive leakage of information. Furthermore, market reaction differences to announcements of SEOs for the pre-global financial crisis (GFC) (2000-2006) and GFC eras (2007-2008) are noted with GFC era shareholders incurring larger abnormal return losses at 1.13% in comparison to the pre-GFC era shareholder loss of 0.34% on the SEO announcement day. Cross-sectional regressions show that the issued amount, leverage and profitability are significant factors affecting abnormal returns. Growth opportunities, tangibility, operating risk, size of A-REIT and other variables capturing A-REIT structure and property types held do not have an impact on abnormal returns

Homegardening as a panacea : a case study of South Tarawa

The Republic of Kiribati is a small, highly infertile Pacific Island nation and is one of the most challenging locations to attempt to support dense urban populations. Kiribati, like other nations in the Pacific, faces an urban future where food insecurity, unemployment, waste management and malnutrition will become increasing issues. Homegardening is suggested as one way to address many of these problems. However, the most recent study on agriculture production in urban centres in Kiribati shows that, in general, intensive cultivation of homegardens is not a common practice. This disparity between theory and practice creates an opportunity to re-examine homegardening in Kiribati and, more broadly, in the Pacific. This paper examines the practice of homegardening in urban centres in Kiribati and explores reasons why change has or has not occurred through interviews with homegardeners and government/donor representives. Results show that homegardening has increased significantly in the past five years, largely because of the promotion of homegardens and organic composting systems by donor organisations. While findings further endorse homegardening as an excellent theoretical solution to many of the problems that confront urban settlements in Kiribati and the Pacific, it raises additional questions regarding the continuation of homegarden schemes beyond donor support programmes.