Outsourcing income tax returns : convenient and/or controversial

This paper investigates the outsourcing of income tax return preparation by Australian accounting firms. It identifies the extent to which firms are currently outsourcing accounting services or considering outsourcing accounting services, with a focus on personal and business income tax return preparation. The motivations and barriers for outsourcing by Australian accounting firms are also considered in this paper. Privacy, security of client data, and the competence of the outsourcing provider's staff have been identified as risks associated with outsourcing. An expectation relating to confidentiality of client data is also examined in this paper. Statistical analysis of data collected from a random sample of Australian accounting firms using a survey questionnaire provided the empirical data for the paper. The results indicate that the majority of Australian accounting firms are either currently outsourcing or considering outsourcing accounting services, and firms are outsourcing taxation preparation both onshore and offshore. The results also indicate that firms expect the volume of outsourced work to increase in the future. In contrast to the literature identifying labour arbitrage as the primary driver for organisations choosing to outsource, this study found that the main factors considered by accounting firms in the decision to outsource were to expedite delivery of services to clients and to enable the firm to focus on core competencies. Data from this study also supports the literature which ndicates that not all tax practitioners are adhering to codes of conduct in relation to client confidentiality. Research identifying the extent to which accounting services are outsourced is limited, therefore significant contributions to the academic literature and the accounting profession are provided by this ndicates that not all tax practitioners are adhering to codes of conduct in relation to client confidentiality. Research identifying the extent to which accounting services are outsourced is limited, therefore significant contributions to the academic literature and the accounting profession are provided by this study.

Social enterprises and the performance advantages of a Vincentian marketing orientation

This study focuses on the managerial issue of should social enterprises (SEs) become more marketing oriented. It adapts the Kohli et al. (J Mark Res 30:467–477,1993) MARKOR marketing orientation scale to measure the adoption of marketing by SEs. The items capture Vincentian-based values to leverage business in service to the poor as a measure of a Vincentian marketing orientation (VMO). A VMO is an organisational wide value-driven philosophy of management that focuses a SE on meeting its objectives by adopting a more marketing orientated approach to serve the needy and poor in a just and sustainable manner. SEs that exhibit a VMO seek to understand and respond to both the needs of their beneficiaries and stakeholders. They are constantly generating,disseminating, and responding to environmental, beneficiary, and stakeholder information and develop their business propositions to more effectively and efficiently meet the needs of the poor, while guided by a philosophy of leveraging business for social good. This study of SEs in Australia found that a VMO is strongly and positively correlated with social, economic, and environmental performance. These findings suggest that SEs may benefit by leveraging marketing capabilities to better serve their beneificiaries and stakeholders.

Solo3

Solo3 is and evening of solo works collaboratively created by Jenny Roche and choreographers John Jasperse (US), Jodi Melnick (US) and Liz Roche (Ireland). It was commissioned by the Dublin Dance Festival 2008 for the culmination of Jenny Roche's residency as an artist with the festival. The three works address the role of the dancer as co-creator within choreographic practice and further examine how the dancer can inhabit multiple embodiments across various choreographies leading to a plurality of selfhood in line with post-modern and poststructuralist notions of subjectivity (Deleuze and Guattari 1987). Furthermore, the oscillation of real and imagined subjectivities in performance (Emilyn Claid 2006) and the interplay of intercorporeal and intersubjective relations between choreographer and dancer (Sally Gardner 2007) are highlighted in these works.

The outsourcing of accounting services and the subsequent accounting education implications

This paper examines the outsourcing of accounting services by Australian accounting firms. It considers what, if any, impact the outsourcing of accounting services may have on accounting graduates if entry level tasks normally completed by graduates are sent to offshore processing centres. This paper categorises the most important prerequisite skills requirements of new junior employees identified by accounting firms in Australia.

Specialist versus generic models of psychiatry training and service provision for people with intellectual disabilities

Background  Models of service provision and professional training differ between countries. This study aims to investigate a specialist intellectual disabilities model and a generic mental health model, specifically comparing psychiatrists’ knowledge and competencies, and service quality and accessibility in meeting the mental health needs of people with intellectual disabilities. Method  Data were collected from consultant and trainee psychiatrists within a specialist intellectual disabilities model (UK) and a generic mental health model (Australia). Results  The sample sizes were 294 (UK) and 205 (Australia). Statistically significant differences were found, with UK participants having positive views about the specialist intellectual disabilities service model they worked within, demonstrating flexible and accessible working practices and service provision, responsive to the range of mental health needs of the population with intellectual disabilities, and providing a wide range of treatments and supports. The UK participants were knowledgeable, well trained and confident in their work. They wanted to work with people with intellectual disabilities. In all of these areas, the converse was found from the Australian generic mental health service model. Conclusions  The specialist intellectual disabilities model of service provision and training has advantages over the generic mental health model.

Who are Australia’s information educators?

In recent years there has been considerable discussion afforded to the challenges facing the future of information education in Australia. This paper reports a study that explored the characteristics and experiences of Australia’s information educators. The study was undertaken as part of a larger project, which was designed to establish a consolidated and holistic picture of the Australian information profession, and identify how its future education could be mediated in a cohesive and sustainable manner. Sixty-nine of Australia’s information educators completed an online questionnaire that gathered data on aspects such as age, gender, rank, qualifications, work activities, and job satisfaction. The key findings from this study confirm that a number of pressing issues are confronting information educators in Australia. For example, Australia’s information educators are considerably older than that the total Australian academic workforce; over half the information educators who participated in the study are looking to retire in the next ten years; and, Australia’s information educators spend more time on service activities then other disciplines within Australia’s education system and are place a stronger importance on teaching over research. Left unaddressed these issues will have significant implications for the future of information education as well as the broader information profession. Many of the key observations drawn from this study may also have relevance to other disciplines in the Australian educational context.

Education for Australia’s information future

Digital disruption and an increasingly networked society drive rapid change in many professions and a corresponding need for change in tertiary education. Across the world, information education has, to date, prepared graduates for employment in discrete professions, such as librarianship, records management, archives, and teacher librarianship. However, contemporary information practices are less defined and are demanding of new professional skill-sets and understandings. This paper reports a study that consulted Australia’s tertiary academics about the current circumstances of information education in the academy and elicited a vision and a concern for future directions in Australian information education.

Understanding and analyzing a large collection of archived swimming videos

In elite sports, nearly all performances are captured on video. Despite the massive amounts of video that has been captured in this domain over the last 10-15 years, most of it remains in an 'unstructured' or 'raw' form, meaning it can only be viewed or manually annotated/tagged with higher-level event labels which is time consuming and subjective. As such, depending on the detail or depth of annotation, the value of the collected repositories of archived data is minimal as it does not lend itself to large-scale analysis and retrieval. One such example is swimming, where each race of a swimmer is captured on a camcorder and in-addition to the split-times (i.e., the time it takes for each lap), stroke rate and stroke-lengths are manually annotated. In this paper, we propose a vision-based system which effectively 'digitizes' a large collection of archived swimming races by estimating the location of the swimmer in each frame, as well as detecting the stroke rate. As the videos are captured from moving hand-held cameras which are located at different positions and angles, we show our hierarchical-based approach to tracking the swimmer and their different parts is robust to these issues and allows us to accurately estimate the swimmer location and stroke rates.

Eccentric hamstring strength and hamstring injury risk in Australian footballers

Purpose Is eccentric hamstring strength and between limb imbalance in eccentric strength, measured during the Nordic hamstring exercise, a risk factor for hamstring strain injury (HSI)? Methods Elite Australian footballers (n=210) from five different teams participated. Eccentric hamstring strength during the Nordic was taken at the commencement and conclusion of preseason training and in season. Injury history and demographic data were also collected. Reports on prospectively occurring HSIs were completed by team medical staff. Relative risk (RR) was determined for univariate data and logistic regression was employed for multivariate data. Results Twenty-eight HSIs were recorded. Eccentric hamstring strength below 256N at the start of preseason and 279N at the end of preseason increased risk of future HSI 2.7 (relative risk, 2.7; 95% confidence interval, 1.3 to 5.5; p = 0.006) and 4.3 fold (relative risk, 4.3; 95% confidence interval, 1.7 to 11.0; p = 0.002) respectively. Between limb imbalance in strength of greater than 10% did not increase the risk of future HSI. Univariate analysis did not reveal a significantly greater relative risk for future HSI in athletes who had sustained a lower limb injury of any kind within the last 12 months. Logistic regression revealed interactions between both athlete age and history of HSI with eccentric hamstring strength, whereby the likelihood of future HSI in older athletes or athletes with a history of HSI was reduced if an athlete had high levels of eccentric strength. Conclusion Low levels of eccentric hamstring strength increased the risk of future HSI. Interaction effects suggest that the additional risk of future HSI associated with advancing age or previous injury was mitigated by higher levels of eccentric hamstring strength.

The New Lawyer

This text is designed to implement the Threshold Learning Outcomes (TLOs) for law in the first year, and to incorporate Sally Kift’s First Year Curriculum principles: http://tls.vu.edu.au/portal/site/trans/Resources/KiftTransitonPedagogySixPrinciples_16Nov09.pdf This is a learning-centered text book intentionally designed for first year students and written by experts in legal education and the first year experience. It is written in a tone and style that engages and communicates effectively with first year law students, without compromising its rigour. It provides students with opportunities to contextualise and make sense of their learning by connecting that learning with what they already know, and with current contemporary issues and affairs. This work is designed to ease students through the transition from a diverse variety of backgrounds (such as high school, work or other disciplines) to the first year of law. It provides practical guidance about adjusting to law school and to university. Students are asked to regularly reflect upon why they are studying law. The book also prepares law students for success in their latter year studies in law by ensuring that they are equipped with the necessary threshold concepts and foundational skills to do well: for example, research skills (particularly, online research skills), reasoning skills, written communication skills, negotiation skills, and self-management skills. A range of practical tips on studying law are provided throughout the book. The work also asks students to engage with developing an emergent sense of professional identity – including what it means to ‘think like a lawyer’. In supporting the students to engage with the concept of professional identity, the work begins a process of preparing students for transition from law school to legal practice. This is achieved by providing explanations of how the material being presented relates to the practice of law, as well as practical information relating to employability skills as a new graduate. This work has a number of learning and teaching objectives to enhance the quality of student learning in their first year of law by engaging, motivating and supporting that learning. First, the work is designed to engage first year students with their legal education and with a future sense of professional identity. It does this through its: • Dynamic writing style • Engaging format • Inclusion of contemporary issues and events • Flowcharts, checklists, mind-maps, tables and timelines • Inclusion of real-world problems and dilemmas. Second, the text motivates student learning by promoting active learning. It does this by: • Demonstrating, and asking students to practice, what they need to do – that is, the work is not simply focussed on telling students what they need to know • Including regular self-directed learning exercises throughout each chapter, such as practical exercises for the development of important foundational legal skills • Including exercises that promote student collaboration, and that require students to apply their learning to practical situations, and • Incorporating a range of interesting active thinking points and research activities. Third, the book supports student learning by encouraging reflective learning and independent learning. It does this by including: • Specific content on how to be a reflective practitioner and an independent learner • Exercises that require students to engage in independent learning, particularly in relation to legal research skill development • Exercises requiring students to reflect upon what they have learned, and encouraging students to keep a reflective learning journal • Exercises requiring students to reflect upon their own views and beliefs • Reflection on whether students have achieved the learning objectives articulated at the beginning of the chapter. The work also: • Demonstrates respect for student experiences, views, opinions and values • Acknowledges student diversity • Recognises the importance of being globally minded law students and lawyers • Supports law teachers in using the work in their classrooms through the provision of comprehensive teaching materials.

Preventing infections following caesarean section

Surgical site infections following caesarean section are a serious and costly adverse event for Australian hospitals. In the United Kingdom, 9% of women are diagnosed with a surgical site infection following caesarean section either in hospital or post-discharge (Wloch et al 2012, Ward et al 2008). Additional staff time, pharmaceuticals and health supplies, and increased length of stay or readmission to hospital are often required (Henman et al 2012). Part of my PhD investigated the economics of preventing post-caesarean infection. This paper summarises a review of relevant infection prevention strategies. Administering antibiotic prophylaxis 15 to 60 minutes pre-incision, rather than post cordclamping, is probably the most important infection prevention strategy for caesarean section (Smaill and Gyte2010, Liu et al 2013, Dahlke et al 2013). However the timing of antibiotic administration is reportedly inconsistent in Australian hospitals. Clinicians may be taking advice from the influential, but out-dated RANZCOG and United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines (Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 2011, Mangram et al 1999). A number of other important international clinical guidelines, including Australia's NHMRC guidelines, recommend universal prophylactic antibiotics pre-incision for caesarean section (National Health and Medical Research Council 2010, National Collaborating Centre for Women's and Children's Health 2008, Anderson et al 2008, National Collaborating Centre for Women's and Children's Health 2011, Bratzler et al 2013, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists 2011a, Antibiotic Expert Group 2010). We need to ensure women receive preincision antibiotic prophylaxis, particularly as nurses and midwives play a significant role in managing an infection that may result from sub-optimal practice. It is acknowledged more explicitly now that nurses and midwives can influence prescribing and administration of antibiotics through informal approaches (Edwards et al 2011). Methods such as surgical safety checklists are a more formal way for nurses and midwives to ensure that antibiotics are administered pre-incision (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists 2011 b). Nurses and midwives can also be directly responsible for other infection prevention strategies such as instructing women to not remove pubic hair in the month before the expected date of delivery and wound management education (Ng et al 2013). Potentially more costly but effective strategies include using a Chlorhexidine-gluconate (CHG) sponge preoperatively (in addition to the usual operating room skin preparation) and vaginal cleansing with a povidone-iodine solution (Riley et al 2012, Rauk 2010, Haas, Morgan, and Contreras 2013).

Biceps femoris long-head architecture: A reliability and retrospective injury study

Purpose: To determine i) the reliability of two-dimensional ultrasonography for the assessment of biceps femoris long head (BFlh) architectural characteristics; ii) if limbs with a history of strain injury in the BFlh display different architecture and eccentric strength compared to uninjured limbs. Methods: This case-control study (control [n=20], injured group [n=16], males) assessed the BFlh architecture at rest and during graded isometric contractions using two-dimensional ultrasonography. The control group were assessed three times (>24hrs apart) to determine reliability. Previously injured individuals were evaluated once. Results The assessment of BFlh architecture was highly reliable (intraclass correlations >0.90). Fascicle length (p<0.001; d range: 0.67 to 1.34) and fascicle length relative to muscle thickness (p<0.001; d range: 0.58 to 0.85) of the previously injured BFlh were significantly less than the contralateral uninjured BFlh at all intensities. Pennation angle of the previously injured BFlh was significantly greater (p<0.001; d range: 0.62 to 0.88) than the contralateral uninjured BFlh at all intensities. Eccentric strength in the previously injured limb was significantly lower than the contralateral limb (-15.4%; -52.5N; 95% CI=-28.45 to -76.23; p<0.001, d=0.56). Conclusion These data indicate that two-dimensional ultrasonography is reliable for assessing BFlh architecture at rest and during graded isometric contractions. Fascicle length, fascicle length relative to muscle thickness and pennation angle are significantly different in previously injured BFlh compared to an uninjured contralateral BFlh. Eccentric strength of the previously injured limb is also significantly lower than the uninjured contralateral limb. These findings have implications for rehabilitation and injury prevention practices which should consider altered architectural characteristics.

Emotional climate and behavioral management during sleep time in early childhood education settings

The majority of children cease napping between 3 and 5 years of age yet, internationally, the allocation of a sleep time during the day for children of this age remains a practice in many early childhood education (ECE) settings. These dual circumstances present a disjuncture between children's sleep needs and center practices, that may cause conflict for staff, increase stress for children and escalate negative emotional climate in the room. Testing this hypothesis requires observation of both the emotional climate and behavioral management used in ECE rooms that extends into the sleep time. This study was the first to apply the Classroom Assessment and Scoring System (CLASS) Pre-K (Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008) to observe the emotional climate and behavioral management during sleep time. Pilot results indicated that the CLASS Pre-K functioned reliably to measure emotional climate and behavioral management in sleep time. However, new sleep-specific examples of the dimensions used were developed, to help orient fieldworkers to the CLASS Pre-K rating system in the sleep time context. The CLASS was then used to assess emotional climate and behavior management between the non-sleep and sleep time sessions, in 113 ECE rooms in Queensland, Australia. In these rooms 2.114 children were observed. Of these children, 71% did not sleep at any point during the allotted sleep times. There was a significant drop in emotional climate and behavioral management between the non-sleep and sleep-time sessions. Furthermore, the duration of mandated sleep time (a period of time where no activities are provided to non-sleeping children) accounted for significant independent variance in the observed emotional climate during sleep-time. The CLASS Pre-K presents a valuable tool to assess the emotional climate and behavior management during sleep-time and draws attention to the need for further studies of sleep time in ECE settings.

Q-RARA : a rapid and rigorous method for researching small, primary health care organisations

Understanding the organisational processes driving quality primary care is crucial to the maintaining and improving practice. Qualitative methods are increasingly popular in health services research, but this area is dominated by interview studies. Multiple qualitative methods are rarely used in a systematically integrated fashion. We developed a method to study small primary health care organizations using rapid appraisal and qualitative mixed methods: Q-RARA – Qualitative Rapid Appraisal, Rigorous Analysis

Transition Pedagogy Handbook : A Good Practice Guide for Policy and Practice in the First Year Experience at QUT

This Handbook has been specifically designed for academic and professional staff responsible for managing first year students and curriculum and co-curricular programs at QUT. As well as presenting examples of good practice, the handbook provides a brief overview of QUT’s First Year Experience Program, a summary of QUT’s First Year Experience and Retention Policy and the Transition Pedagogy that frames both curricular and co-curricular activities. We hope you find this resource both useful and informative.