Are Malaysian Teachers Ready to Assume the Duties of Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect?

Mandatory child abuse and neglect reporting laws apply to teachers in many countries of the world. However, such laws have not yet been introduced for teachers in Malaysia, and there is debate about whether the laws should be extended to teachers at all. This paper aimed to investigate the level of support among teachers to assume mandatory reporting duties and to identify factors determining this support in Malaysia. A total of 668 teachers from 14 randomly selected public primary schools completed an anonymous self-administered questionnaire. Results showed that 44.4 per cent of the respondents supported legislation requiring teachers to report child abuse. Teachers of Indian ethnicity, those with a shorter duration of service in teaching (< 5 years), the availability of knowledgeable and supportive school staff and a higher level of commitment to reporting were significant factors affecting teachers' support for mandatory reporting. This study provides important insights into factors influencing teachers' support for the introduction of mandatory reporting legislation for teachers in Malaysia. Teachers do not unanimously support these laws and there is a lack of clarity about what such laws will mean for teachers. The data highlight the need for specific training programmes to raise teachers' awareness, build their confidence and enhance their willingness to report child abuse.

China's foreign economic cooperation development : exporting Chinese construction services

Since the movement for economic reform started in China 20 years ago, the nation's GDP had grown on average from seven to nine per cent a year, making China's construction industry one of the largest in the world. This paper presents an overview of China's foreign economic cooperation development (FECD) in the context of exporting three major construction services namely; contracting, labour and design. The paper outlines the export market profile of Chinese contractors and discusses their current position in the international market. It then addresses challenges; they are facing in view of meeting the ambitious strategic targets set out by the Government for the FECD, which cover the export of construction services. Finally, the paper sheds some light on key exporting strategies currently adopted by Chinese contractors.

Professional development using informal learning networks : an empirical study in Australia’s digital content industry

Informal learning networks play a key role in the skill and professional development of professionals working in micro-businesses within Australia’s digital content industry as they do not necessarily have access to a learning and development or a human resources section that can assist in mapping their learning pathway. Professionals working in this environment would typically adopt an informal learning approach to their skill and professional development by utilising their social and business networks. The overall aim of this PhD research project is to study how these professionals manage their skill and professional development, and to explore what role informal learning networks play in this professional learning context. This paper will describe the theme of the research project and how it fits with previous research and other relevant studies. Secondly, it will present the study’s research focus, and the research questions. It will also present relevant theories and perspectives, and the methods for empirical data collection. Data collection will be through three distinct phases using a mixed methods research design: an online survey, interviews, and case studies. It should be noted the findings presented in this paper offer some early results of the research project.

Assessing the Impact of Sensor Accuracy and Sensor Choice on Air Traffic Conflict Risk Estimation using Risk-Ratio Concepts

One of the primary desired capabilities of any future air traffic separation management system is the ability to provide early conflict detection and resolution effectively and efficiently. In this paper, we consider the risk of conflict as a primary measurement to be used for early conflict detection. This paper focuses on developing a novel approach to assess the impact of different measurement uncertainty models on the estimated risk of conflict. The measurement uncertainty model can be used to represent different sensor accuracy and sensor choices. Our study demonstrates the value of modelling measurement uncertainty in the conflict risk estimation problem and presents techniques providing a means of assessing sensor requirements to achieve desired conflict detection performance.

Coordination of UAV path planning in 2D and 3D in environmental/bio sensing applications

This paper is concerned with the optimal path planning and initialization interval of one or two UAVs in presence of a constant wind. The method compares previous literature results on synchronization of UAVs along convex curves, path planning and sampling in 2D and extends it to 3D. This method can be applied to observe gas/particle emissions inside a control volume during sampling loops. The flight pattern is composed of two phases: a start-up interval and a sampling interval which is represented by a semi-circular path. The methods were tested in four complex model test cases in 2D and 3D as well as one simulated real world scenario in 2D and one in 3D.

Work-integrated learning courses : an essential component for preparing students to work in statutory child protection?

Undergraduate programs can play an important role in the development of individuals wanting professional employment within statutory child protection agencies: both the coursework and the work-integrated learning (WIL) components of degrees have a role in this process. This paper uses a collective case study methodology to examine the perceptions and experiences of first year practitioners within a specific statutory child protection agency in order to identify if they felt prepared for their current role. The sample of 20 participants came from a range of discipline backgrounds with just over half of the sample (55 per cent) completing a WIL placement as part of their undergraduate studies. The results indicate that while some participants were able to identify and articulate specific benefits from their undergraduate coursework studies all participants who had undertaken a WIL placement as part of their degree believed the WIL placement was beneficial for their current work.

Adaptive dynamic path re-planning RRT algorithms with game theory for UAVs

The main aim of this paper is to describe an adaptive re-planning algorithm based on a RRT and Game Theory to produce an efficient collision free obstacle adaptive Mission Path Planner for Search and Rescue (SAR) missions. This will provide UAV autopilots and flight computers with the capability to autonomously avoid static obstacles and No Fly Zones (NFZs) through dynamic adaptive path replanning. The methods and algorithms produce optimal collision free paths and can be integrated on a decision aid tool and UAV autopilots.

Sex discrimination and non-random sampling in the Australian labour market

Historically a significant gap between male and female wages has existed in the Australian labour market. Indeed this wage differential was institutionalised in the 1912 arbitration decision which determined that the basic female wage would be set at between 54 and 66 per cent of the male wage. More recently however, the 1969 and 1972 Equal Pay Cases determined that male/female wage relativities should be based upon the premise of equal pay for work of equal value. It is important to note that the mere observation that average wages differ between males and females is not sine qua non evidence of sex discrimination. Economists restrict the definition of wage discrimination to cases where two distinct groups receive different average remuneration for reasons unrelated to differences in productivity characteristics. This paper extends previous studies of wage discrimination in Australia (Chapman and Mulvey, 1986; Haig, 1982) by correcting the estimated male/female wage differential for the existence of non-random sampling. Previous Australian estimates of male/female human capital basedwage specifications together with estimates of the corresponding wage differential all suffer from a failure to address this issue. If the sample of females observed to be working does not represent a random sample then the estimates of the male/female wage differential will be both biased and inconsistent.

Immigrant wage differentials and the role of self-employment in Australia

Immigration has played an important role in the historical development of Australia. Thus, it is no surprise that a large body of empirical work has developed, which focuses upon how migrants fare in the land of opportunity. Much of the literature is comparatively recent, i.e. the last ten years or so, encouraged by the advent of public availability of Australian crosssection micro data. Several different aspects of migrant welfare have been addressed, with major emphasis being placed upon earnings and unemployment experience. For recent examples see Haig (1980), Stromback (1984), Chiswick and Miller (1985), Tran-Nam and Nevile (1988) and Beggs and Chapman (1988). The present paper contributes to the literature by providing additional empirical evidence on the native/migrant earnings differential. The data utilised are from the rather neglected Australian Bureau of Statistics, ABS Special Supplementary Survey No.4. 1982, otherwise known as the Family Survey. The paper also examines the importance of distinguishing between the wage and salary sector and the self-employment sector when discussing native/migrant differentials. Separate earnings equations for the two labour market groups are estimated and the native/migrant earnings differential is broken down by employment status. This is a novel application in the Australian context and provides some insight into the earnings of the selfemployed, a group that despite its size (around 20 per cent of the labour force) is frequently ignored by economic research. Most previous empirical research fails to examine the effect of employment status on earnings. Stromback (1984) includes a dummy variable representing self-employment status in an earnings equation estimated over a pooled sample of paid and self-employed workers. The variable is found to be highly significant, which leads Stromback to question the efficacy of including the self-employed in the estimation sample. The suggestion is that part of self-employed earnings represent a return to non-human capital investment, i.e. investments in machinery, buildings etc, the structural determinants of earnings differ significantly from those for paid employees. Tran-Nam and Nevile (1988) deal with differences between paid employees and the selfemployed by deleting the latter from their sample. However, deleting the self-employed from the estimation sample may lead to bias in the OLS estimation method (see Heckman 1979). The desirable properties of OLS are dependent upon estimation on a random sample. Thus, the 'Ran-Nam and Nevile results are likely to suffer from bias unless individuals are randomly allocated between self-employment and paid employment. The current analysis extends Tran-Nam and Nevile (1988) by explicitly treating the choice of paid employment versus self-employment as being endogenously determined. This allows an explicit test for the appropriateness of deleting self-employed workers from the sample. Earnings equations that are corrected for sample selection are estimated for both natives and migrants in the paid employee sector. The Heckman (1979) two-step estimator is employed. The paper is divided into five major sections. The next section presents the econometric model incorporating the specification of the earnings generating process together with an explicit model determining an individual's employment status. In Section 111 the data are described. Section IV draws together the main econometric results of the paper. First, the probit estimates of the labour market status equation are documented. This is followed by presentation and discussion of the Heckman two-stage estimates of the earnings specification for both native and migrant Australians. Separate earnings equations are estimated for paid employees and the self-employed. Section V documents estimates of the nativelmigrant earnings differential for both categories of employees. To aid comparison with earlier work, the Oaxaca decomposition of the earnings differential for paid-employees is carried out for both the simple OLS regression results as well as the parameter estimates corrected for sample selection effects. These differentials are interpreted and compared with previous Australian findings. A short section concludes the paper.

Analysing DBD plasma lamp intensity versus power consumption using a push-pull pulsed power supply

In this paper characteristic of a DBD (Dielectric Barrier Discharge) plasma lamp is investigated based on the lamp intensity and power consumption. A pulsed power supply with controllable parameters based on a push-pull converter is developed for lamp excitation at different voltage levels and repetition rate. The experimentations were conducted for 28 different operating points with the frequency range of 2 kHz to 15 Khz at output voltage levels of between 7.4 kV up to 13 kV. The obtained results show the feasibility of finding an optimum operation point due to nonlinear behaviour of the DBD lamp.

Rates of attendance at a smoking cessation clinic within a cardiac rehabilitation service

Objectives: Smoking cessation has been shown to be an important intervention for preventing cardiovascular events and improving the health of patients with heart disease. However, unaided quit attempts in these patients often leads to high rates of failure and a return to smoking. Outpatient smoking cessation clinics using face-to-face counseling, ongoing behavioral support, advice on smoking pharmacotherapy and objective monitoring, have been found to be one of the most effective interventions for improving quit smoking rates. An outpatient smoking cessation clinic was trialed within a cardiac rehabilitation service in order to explore its effects on smoking rates for patients with or at risk of heart disease. Attendance rates to the clinic were also monitored. Methods: A descriptive exploratory design was used for this newly developed clinic. Patients who currently smoked tobacco and who had a history of either coronary artery disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation or those seen under a chest pain assessment service were invited to an outpatient ‘Cardiac Patients Smokers Clinic’. Initially patients were offered up to 10 clinic visits over a 3 month period. Follow-up clinic visits were conducted at 3, 6 and 12 months. A portable carbon monoxide meter was used to objectively measure levels of smoking and validate smoking abstinence. Primary outcomes included rates of attendance. Results: Preliminary findings showed 24 per cent of participants (N = 6) completed all their clinic visits and remained smoke free as measured by their ongoing expired carbon monoxide readings. Clinic attendance rates appeared lowest for those with significant mental health issues such as schizophrenia or substance abuse. However, rates of attendance were improved by having an administration officer make reminder telephone calls prior to clinic visits. Conclusions: Early findings indicate the feasibility of providing a specialist smoking cessation clinic within a cardiac rehabilitation service. Further, that reminder telephone calls prior to appointments improved attendance rates in patients with heart disease to this type of clinic. However, future investigations are warranted.

The classic white formal shirt : a powerful emblem of social change

The classic white formal shirt is a widely and readily familiar object with considerable historical cultural significance to diverse social groups, and is therefore deserving of iconic status. For more than two hundred years, this singular item of apparel has been able to define and represent status, wealth, gender shifts and fashion norms. This garment, which has historically been relinquished to undergarment status, deserves an escalation of standing. The classic white formal shirt, for both men and women, can be used as a mirror to map considerable social change and the diversity of influence can be traced through many examples, including: Beau Brummell’s dandy status with his legendry white shirting; the Gibson Girl with her decorated white shirt style blouse defining ideals of female beauty; IBM business employees in the 1920s marketing trustworthiness through the uniformity of white shirts; the fictional advertising creation of the Arrow Collar Man, with his rigid white shirt, promoting American masculine ideals; and the iconic 1980s Hugo Boss style crisp white dress shirt symbolising power. The origins of the influence of the white shirt can be best traced in the Victorian era where it was an important symbol of wealth and class distinction and a powerful emblem of sobriety and uniformity for men. The pure white colour fulfilled masculine ideals of resolute austerity and the shirt, through its constancy, epitomised conformity and dependability. For women, the white cloth of the ‘shirt-waist’ from this period was also linked to ideals of cleanliness and purity and was seen as an iconic symbol of the new independent working class woman. This paper will propose that the classic white formal shirt, for both men and women, has been a powerful marker of social shifts in Western society and this underrated item of apparel, with limited scholarly writing, is worthy of iconic status. The discussion will trace the historical development of both the men’s and women’s white shirt, each with their own unique history, and in doing so highlight the considerable historical cultural significance associated with the white formal shirt. Discussed first will be the men’s white formal shirt.

Molecular dynamics simulation of fracture strength and morphology of defective graphene

Different types of defects can be introduced into graphene during material synthesis, and significantly influence the properties of graphene. In this work, we investigated the effects of structural defects, edge functionalisation and reconstruction on the fracture strength and morphology of graphene by molecular dynamics simulations. The minimum energy path analysis was conducted to investigate the formation of Stone-Wales defects. We also employed out-of-plane perturbation and energy minimization principle to study the possi-ble morphology of graphene nanoribbons with edge-termination. Our numerical results show that the fracture strength of graphene is dependent on defects and environmental temperature. However, pre-existing defects may be healed, resulting in strength recovery. Edge functionalization can induce compressive stress and ripples in the edge areas of gra-phene nanoribbons. On the other hand, edge reconstruction contributed to the tensile stress and curved shape in the graphene nanoribbons.

Predicting vitamin D deficiency in older Australian adults

OBJECTIVE There has been a dramatic increase in vitamin D testing in Australia in recent years, prompting calls for targeted testing. We sought to develop a model to identify people most at risk of vitamin D deficiency. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS This is a cross-sectional study of 644 60- to 84-year-old participants, 95% of whom were Caucasian, who took part in a pilot randomized controlled trial of vitamin D supplementation. MEASUREMENTS Baseline 25(OH)D was measured using the Diasorin Liaison platform. Vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency were defined using 50 and 25 nmol/l as cut-points, respectively. A questionnaire was used to obtain information on demographic characteristics and lifestyle factors. We used multivariate logistic regression to predict low vitamin D and calculated the net benefit of using the model compared with 'test-all' and 'test-none' strategies. RESULTS The mean serum 25(OH)D was 42 (SD 14) nmol/1. Seventy-five per cent of participants were vitamin D insufficient and 10% deficient. Serum 25(OH)D was positively correlated with time outdoors, physical activity, vitamin D intake and ambient UVR, and inversely correlated with age, BMI and poor self-reported health status. These predictors explained approximately 21% of the variance in serum 25(OH)D. The area under the ROC curve predicting vitamin D deficiency was 0·82. Net benefit for the prediction model was higher than that for the 'test-all' strategy at all probability thresholds and higher than the 'test-none' strategy for probabilities up to 60%. CONCLUSION Our model could predict vitamin D deficiency with reasonable accuracy, but it needs to be validated in other populations before being implemented.