Design and implementation of unified communications as a service based on the OpenStack cloud environment

Cloud Computing, based on early virtual computer concepts and technologies, is now itself a maturing technology in the marketplace and it has revolutionized the IT industry, being the powerful platform that many businesses are choosing to migrate their in-premises IT services onto. Cloud solution has the potential to reduce the capital and operational expenses associated with deploying IT services on their own. In this study, we have implemented our own private cloud solution, infrastructure as a service (IaaS), using the OpenStack platform with high availability and a dynamic resource allocation mechanism. Besides, we have hosted unified communication as a service (UCaaS) in the underlying IaaS and successfully tested voice over IP (VoIP), video conferencing, voice mail and instant messaging (IM) with clients located at the remote site. The proposed solution has been developed in order to give advice to bussinesses that want to build their own cloud environment, IaaS and host cloud services and applicatons in the cloud. This paper also aims at providing an alternate option for proprietary cloud solutions for service providers to consider.

Promoting youth participation in communities through youth master planning

A number of communities across the United States are creating visionary documents called youth master plans (YMPs) to promote youth participation, and to focus on youth needs. This article presents an analysis of 38 YMPs from communities across the United States. This multiple methods research included a questionnaire, interviews, and an extensive document analysis. Four key YMP ingredients which enable youth participation were revealed: valuing youth voice through an asset-based approach; providing specific and meaningful participation opportunities for youth in both everyday life and community governance; the presence of a community champion alongside the collaboration of multiple entities within a community; and specific implementation strategies to ensure participation occurs in meaningful ways. Recommendations for YMP improvement and suggestions for future research are also presented.

Can synchronous online counselling increase uptake of counselling services in secondary schools and what can promote or inhibit implementation?

This research showed that online counselling has the potential to increase the help-seeking of secondary school students - especially those who suffer from high levels of psychological distress. An investigation of why school counsellors are currently reluctant to provide an online counselling service identified a number of barriers to implementing such a potentially vital service. Response to focus groups and surveys completed by students and school counsellors indicated that more distressed students prefer to use online counselling and they would use it for sensitive topics. School counsellors remain concerned about effectiveness, ethical, legal and privacy issues as well as potential misuse of the service. Recommendations for implementation are made.

Examining the implementation of ISO 9001 in Indonesian construction companies

Purpose To examine the implementation of quality management systems (QMSs) of Grade 7 (G-7) Indonesian construction companies. This includes the initial motives that have driven the development of QMSs, barriers to effective QMS implementation, the current practice and integration of QMS-ISO 9001 principles and elements, and the performance of contractors implementing such QMSs. Design/methodology/approach A survey was conducted involving 403 respondents (Quality Management Representatives, Managers, and Project and Site Engineers) from 77 G-7 as well as ISO 9001 certified Indonesian construction companies. Findings The main motive for G-7 contractors in establishing and implementing ISO 9001 based QMSs are identified as being to effectively and efficiently control project activities. Respondents apparently do not often experience problems related to QMS implementation. However, issues of management attitude and purpose are identified as barriers that may affect effective QMS implementation. The study highlights the ISO 9001 principles and elements that still require to be more critically applied by G-7 contractors in order to fully implement and improve their current QMS effectiveness. The findings also suggest that, although certified, many G-7 contractors have not yet achieved a satisfactory level of performance to be truly competitive in global markets outside Indonesia. Originality/value To date, only limited research has been conducted into the application of ISO 9001 in the Indonesian construction industry. The research findings reinforced the value of pursuing more effective QMS implementation. They also support current attempts to introduce ISO 9001 QMSs to a much wider base of Indonesian construction companies, particularly small and medium sized contractors and builders.

Provincial mortality in South Africa, 2000 - priority-setting for now and a benchmark for the future

Background. Cause-of-death statistics are an essential component of health information. Despite improvements, underregistration and misclassification of causes make it difficult to interpret the official death statistics. Objective. To estimate consistent cause-specific death rates for the year 2000 and to identify the leading causes of death and premature mortality in the provinces. Methods. Total number of deaths and population size were estimated using the Actuarial Society of South Africa ASSA2000 AIDS and demographic model. Cause-of-death profiles based on Statistics South Africa's 15% sample, adjusted for misclassification of deaths due to ill-defined causes and AIDS deaths due to indicator conditions, were applied to the total deaths by age and sex. Age-standardised rates and years of life lost were calculated using age weighting and discounting. Results. Life expectancy in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga is about 10 years lower than that in the Western Cape, the province with the lowest mortality rate. HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of premature mortality for all provinces. Mortality due to pre-transitional causes, such as diarrhoea, is more pronounced in the poorer and more rural provinces. In contrast, non-communicable disease mortality is similar across all provinces, although the cause profiles differ. Injury mortality rates are particularly high in provinces with large metropolitan areas and in Mpumalanga. Conclusion. The quadruple burden experienced in all provinces requires a broad range of interventions, including improved access to health care; ensuring that basic needs such as those related to water and sanitation are met; disease and injury prevention; and promotion of a healthy lifestyle. High death rates as a result of HIV/AIDS highlight the urgent need to accelerate the implementation of the treatment and prevention plan. In addition, there is an urgent need to improve the cause-of-death data system to provide reliable cause-of-death statistics at health district level.

Managing peripheral intravenous devices in the adults' general surgical setting: a best practice implementation report

AIM The aim of this evidence-based practice (EBP) project was to promote adherence to the current best practice in monitoring and optimal replacement of peripheral intravenous device (PIVD). METHODS This EBP project took place in a 30-bed acute general surgical ward. Twenty in-patients with PIVD in situ for 4 days or more were recruited. There were five stages in the project: identification of EBP topic, criteria, sample and setting; baseline; dissemination of baseline audit results and identification of best practice barriers; identification of barriers to EBP and implementation of strategies promoting EBP; and postimplementation audit. RESULTS There were eight criteria in this project. The first audit showed moderate compliance in PIVD monitoring and optimal replacement. The project identified three barriers: lack of awareness of the current evidence-based guidelines, hospital policy not being aligned with current guidelines and no standard form of documentation. In order to overcome these barriers the following strategies were used: audit and feedback, interactive educational meetings, reminders and hospital policy change. The second audit showed minor improvements in each criterion. Compliance with documentation remained a challenge, possibly because of the lack of standardised documentation. DISCUSSION Although the project did not render us the results we aimed for, it was successful because it highlighted the current EBP in PIVD management. The major challenges of the project were time and the lack of opinion leaders in our project team. We felt that more time was needed to adapt to the practice change and standardised documentation could not be developed in such a short time period. Further, the role of the opinion leader proved to be vital in this project. We felt that had we recruited more than one opinion leader, the results would have been different.

Towards coordinated multirobot missions for lunar sample collection in an unknown environment

In this paper, the recent results of the space project IMPERA are presented. The goal of IMPERA is the development of a multirobot planning and plan execution architecture with a focus on a lunar sample collection scenario in an unknown environment. We describe the implementation and verification of different modules that are integrated into a distributed system architecture. The modules include a mission planning approach for a multirobot system and modules for task and skill execution within a lunar use-case scenario. The skills needed for the test scenario include cooperative exploration and mapping strategies for an unknown environment, the localization and classification of sample containers using a novel approach of semantic perception, and the skill of transporting sample containers to a collection point using a mobile manipulation robot. Additionally, we present our approach of a reliable communication framework that can deal with communication loss during the mission. Several modules are tested within several experiments in the domain of planning and plan execution, communication, coordinated exploration, perception, and object transportation. An overall system integration is tested on a mission scenario experiment using three robots.

Point Henry Bushfire Safety : 10 Year Plan

Bushfire responsive design and management strategy at the bioregion scale. 248 Page document containing text, original designs, photographs, masterplans and critique - created as an alternative community-based strategy for risk mitigation and management reponse to bushfire in the Point Henry and Bremer Bay region of Western Australia. Document drafted as an alternative to a local government commissioned plan which had many shortcomings. It was presented as a 'powerpoint' presentaion at a public meeting in Bremer Bay on 7th April 2014 and disseminated to local community members and councillors to encourage public debate and feedback to the Shire of Jerramungup, WA.

How to plan and implement an environmental education program for a conservation area : lessons from Australia and Borneo

The Augo Wetland Forest Park, along with other conservation areas around the world, provides an opportunity for a personal connection with the natural world - an opportunity for creating ways to convince people to reverse the degradation of the planet. In this presentation I use the settings approach, as used by the World Health Organisation in health promotion, as a framework. The WHO’s 1986 Ottawa Charter states that "Health is created and lived by people within the settings of their everyday life; where they learn, work, play, and love." I argue that, similarly, a conservation area provides a setting for people to connect with environmental issues and can be the place where positive behaviours and actions for the environment are created and enacted. In a wired and virtual world, such settings may be the only opportunity some people, especially children, get to connect with the environment. An evidence-based, intentionally designed and implemented environmental education program enhances the opportunities for the personal connection and subsequent action. Planning and implementing an Environmental education program for a conservation area requires an understanding of the principles of three domains: • Environmental Communication • Environmental Education • Environmental Interpretation In this presentation I define these domains and demonstrate how they become interdependent within the context of a particular setting such as a conservation area. I outline the principles of each domain and demonstrate how they can be enacted with reference to environmental education program case studies from settings in Australia and Borneo. The first case study is based around a proposal for a planned residential community at Eden’s Crossing, in Brisbane’s high growth Western corridor. The setting featured a number of important natural and heritage conservation characteristics and the developer wanted to be pro-active in informing the market what this development aims to achieve in terms of innovative community and environmental objectives. By designing an education and interpretation program in line with best practice education and interpretation principles the developers would be assisted in their efforts to build community, preserve heritage, and facilitate environmentally sensitive lifestyles for the future residents of Eden’s Crossing. Above all, the strategy focused on advancing sustainability in a way that made the Eden’s Crossing greenfield development significantly greener. It did this by interacting with prospective purchasers, and building knowledge about sustainability with a view to shaping the future community of Eden’s Crossing in terms of attitudes and behaviours. The second case study is based around the development of the Rainforest Interpretation Centre (RIC), now renamed the Rainforest Discovery Centre, an environmental education facility managed by the Sabah Forestry Department (SFD) and located at the edge of the Kabili-Sepilok Forest Reserve in the East Malaysian state of Sabah (Borneo). This setting is of paramount importance for biodiversity conservation and research and a vital habitat for orang utan. As an Environmental Education Consultant I was tasked with developing an environmental education program for this setting as part of the SFD’s long- term strategy towards sustainable forest management. By employing the principles of Environmental Education and Environmental Interpretation I designed and implemented a program with three major components: • an environmental education component for visiting primary and secondary school groups. • an environmental education component for in-service and pre-service teachers and teacher educators. • a public awareness and environmental interpretation component which caters for the general public and tourists. From these modest beginnings the program has expanded and new facilities have been developed to meet the demands of visitors, teachers and students. The effectiveness of the program can be traced back to the grounding in the principles of best practice environmental education, communication and interpretation.

Course evidence matrix : a collaborative evaluation using multiple lines of evidence

Welcome to the Evaluation of course matrix. This matrix is designed for highly qualified discipline experts to evaluate their course, major or unit in a systemic manner. The primary purpose of the Evaluation of course matrix is to provide a tool that a group of academic staff at universities can collaboratively review the assessment within a course, major or unit annually. The annual review will result in you being ready for an external curricula review at any point in time. This tool is designed for use in a workshop format with one, two or more academic staff, and will lead to an action plan for implementation. I hope you find this tool useful in your assessment review.

Stability analysis and implementation of Power-Hardware-in-the-Loop for power system testing

This project develops the required guidelines to assure stable and accurate operation of Power-Hardware-in-the-Loop implementations. The proposals of this research have been theoretically analyzed and practically examined using a Real-Time Digital Simulator. In this research, the interaction between software simulated power network and the physical power system has been studied. The conditions for different operating regimes have been derived and the corresponding analyses have been presented.

Illuminative evaluation as a method applied to Australian Government policy borrowing and implementation in higher education

Any government deciding to invoke widespread change in its higher education sector through implementation of new policies impacts on every institution and all staff and students, often in both the time taken up and the heightened emotions caused. The central phenomenon that this study addresses is the process and consequences of policy changes in higher education in Australia. The aim of this article is to record the research design through the perspective (evaluation research), theoretical framework (program evaluation) and methods (content analysis, descriptive statistical analysis and bibliometric analysis) applied to the investigation of the 2003 federal government higher education reform package. This approach allows both the intended and unintended consequences arising from the policy implementation of three national initiatives focused on learning and teaching in higher education in Australia to surface. As a result, this program evaluation, also known in some disciplines as policy implementation analysis, will demonstrate the applicability of illuminative evaluation as a methodology and reinforce how program evaluation will assist and advise future government reform and policy implementation, and will serve as a legacy for future evaluative research.Any government deciding to invoke widespread change in its higher education sector through implementation of new policies impacts on every institution and all staff and students, often in both the time taken up and the heightened emotions caused. The central phenomenon that this study addresses is the process and consequences of policy changes in higher education in Australia. The aim of this article is to record the research design through the perspective (evaluation research), theoretical framework (program evaluation) and methods (content analysis, descriptive statistical analysis and bibliometric analysis) applied to the investigation of the 2003 federal government higher education reform package. This approach allows both the intended and unintended consequences arising from the policy implementation of three national initiatives focused on learning and teaching in higher education in Australia to surface. As a result, this program evaluation, also known in some disciplines as policy implementation analysis, will demonstrate the applicability of illuminative evaluation as a methodology and reinforce how program evaluation will assist and advise future government reform and policy implementation, and will serve as a legacy for future evaluative research.

The relationship between teachers' perceptions of school leadership and their perceptions of the implementation of the national curriculum

The National Curriculum is a current innovation in Australian schooling history which is likely to have a widespread and long-term impact on schools, teachers and students. This paper has investigated educational change during the early phase of curriculum implementation in a large secondary school, north of Brisbane, Australia. Specifically, this study explored teachers’ perceptions of the principal’s transformational leadership skills during an early stage of the curriculum’s implementation along with teachers’ perceptions of implementing a National Curriculum in their classroom. For this research, sixty-nine teachers were surveyed about their perceptions of their principal’s leadership and their perceptions of the difficulty of implementation of the new curriculum. Findings indicated that teachers with positive perceptions of their principal's leadership also had positive perceptions of their capacity to implement the new National Curriculum. Specifically, teachers who perceived the principal as holding high expectations and providing intellectual stimulation believed they had the capacity to successfully implement curriculum change.

Ultrafine Particles from Traffic Emissions and Children’s Health (UPTECH) in Brisbane, Queensland (Australia): Study design and implementation

Ultrafine particles are particles that are less than 0.1 micrometres (µm) in diameter. Due to their very small size they can penetrate deep into the lungs, and potentially cause more damage than larger particles. The Ultrafine Particles from Traffic Emissions and Children’s Health (UPTECH) study is the first Australian epidemiological study to assess the health effects of ultrafine particles on children’s health in general and peripheral airways in particular. The study is being conducted in Brisbane, Australia. Continuous indoor and outdoor air pollution monitoring was conducted within each of the twenty five participating school campuses to measure particulate matter, including in the ultrafine size range, and gases. Respiratory health effects were evaluated by conducting the following tests on participating children at each school: spirometry, forced oscillation technique (FOT) and multiple breath nitrogen washout test (MBNW) (to assess airway function), fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO, to assess airway inflammation), blood cotinine levels (to assess exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke), and serum C-reactive protein (CRP) levels (to measure systemic inflammation). A pilot study was conducted prior to commencing the main study to assess the feasibility and reliably of measurement of some of the clinical tests that have been proposed for the main study. Air pollutant exposure measurements were not included in the pilot study.