Educational markets in space : gamekeeping professionals across Australian communities

This paper argues that the logic of neoliberal choice policy is typically blind to considerations of space and place, but inevitably impacts on rural and remote locations in the way that middle class professionals view the opportunities available in their local educational markets. The paper considers the value of middle class professionals’ educational capitals in regional communities and their problematic distribution, given that class fraction’s particular investment in choice strategies to ensure their children’s future. It then profiles the educational market in six communities along a transect between a major regional centre and a remote ‘outback’ town, using publicly available data from the Australian government’s ‘My School’ website. Comparison of the local markets shows how educational outcomes are distributed across the local markets and how dimensions of ‘choice’ thin out over the transect. Interview data offers insights into how professional families in these localities engage selectively with these local educational markets, or plan to transcend them. The discussion reflects on the growing importance of educational choices as a marker of place in the competition between localities to attract and retain professionals to staff vital human services in their communities.

Space, place and power : the spatial turn in literacy research

Place matters to literacy because the meanings of our language and actions are always materially and socially placed in the world (Scollon & Scollon, 2003). We cannot interpret signs, whether an icon, symbol, gesture, word, or action, without taking into account their associations with other meanings and objects in places. This chapter maps an emergent strand of literacy research that foregrounds place and space as constitutive, rather than a backdrop for the real action. Space and place are seen as relational and dynamic, not as fixed and unchanging. Space and place are socially produced, and hence, can be contested, re-imagined and re-made. In bringing space and place into the frame of literacy studies we see a subtle shift – a rebalancing of the semiotic with the materiality of lived, embodied, and situated experience. ...

Analytical and numerical solutions of the space and time fractional bloch-torrey equation

Fractional order dynamics in physics, particularly when applied to diffusion, leads to an extension of the concept of Brown-ian motion through a generalization of the Gaussian probability function to what is termed anomalous diffusion. As MRI is applied with increasing temporal and spatial resolution, the spin dynamics are being examined more closely; such examinations extend our knowledge of biological materials through a detailed analysis of relaxation time distribution and water diffusion heterogeneity. Here the dynamic models become more complex as they attempt to correlate new data with a multiplicity of tissue compartments where processes are often anisotropic. Anomalous diffusion in the human brain using fractional order calculus has been investigated. Recently, a new diffusion model was proposed by solving the Bloch-Torrey equation using fractional order calculus with respect to time and space (see R.L. Magin et al., J. Magnetic Resonance, 190 (2008) 255-270). However effective numerical methods and supporting error analyses for the fractional Bloch-Torrey equation are still limited. In this paper, the space and time fractional Bloch-Torrey equation (ST-FBTE) is considered. The time and space derivatives in the ST-FBTE are replaced by the Caputo and the sequential Riesz fractional derivatives, respectively. Firstly, we derive an analytical solution for the ST-FBTE with initial and boundary conditions on a finite domain. Secondly, we propose an implicit numerical method (INM) for the ST-FBTE, and the stability and convergence of the INM are investigated. We prove that the implicit numerical method for the ST-FBTE is unconditionally stable and convergent. Finally, we present some numerical results that support our theoretical analysis.

Their space, my space, our space? Report of the 2009 Redland City Council Youth and Public Space Survey

This report analyses data collected through the Redland City Council’s Young People and Public Space Survey of 2148 high school students aged 12-19. The survey conducted in 2009 explored their sense of safety and experiences in public spaces across the City, and views on what Council could do to improve these. It is apparent they base their assessment of a space as ‘public’ on their ‘use’ of a space alone or with friends, and where strangers may be present, rather than on a type of ownership of a space (public/ private). The findings of the survey are summarised according to the themes of safety, community attitudes towards young people being in public spaces, young people and authorities, young people’s views of what is needed, and understanding different young people’s experiences of public space.

The "free-factor" impact on value in health services

Purpose - This paper seeks to understand the impact of financial cost on customer value in health prevention services by comparing free government services with private fee-charging providers. This is important as there is a common belief that a free health service is of lower quality and thus lower value than a paid service. However there is no evidence to verify this notion. Design / Methodology / Approach - A large-scale online survey was administered nationwide to Australian women. The respondents were asked about the functional and emotional value derived from their service experiences. Findings - Structural equation modelling (SEM) revealed non significant relationships between fee/free services and functional and emotional value (FV/EV). The non-significant relationship with FV is contrary to the theory of price quality relationship in services. This could be attributed to consumer perceptions that the technical quality of health professionals is comparable across free and paid services. The non-significant relationship with EV could be explained by the indicators used to reflect EV. These indicators were reflective of breast screening behaviour, not breast screening services. Subsequently, it may be posited that the act of having a breast screen is sufficient for consumers to derive emotional value, regardless of the financial cost. Originality / Value - This research fills an important gap in the literature by investigating the impact of financial cost on a service that consumers use proactively(prevention), rather than reactively (treatment). Insights are provided into the impact of cost on customer value in preventive health services, which are valuable to social marketing academics, health practitioners, and governments

Pedigree-free animal models : the relatedness matrix reloaded

Animal models typically require a known genetic pedigree to estimate quantitative genetic parameters. Here we test whether animal models can alternatively be based on estimates of relatedness derived entirely from molecular marker data. Our case study is the morphology of a wild bird population, for which we report estimates of the genetic variance-covariance matrices (G) of six morphological traits using three methods: the traditional animal model; a molecular marker-based approach to estimate heritability based on Ritland's pairwise regression method; and a new approach using a molecular genealogy arranged in a relatedness matrix (R) to replace the pedigree in an animal model. Using the traditional animal model, we found significant genetic variance for all six traits and positive genetic covariance among traits. The pairwise regression method did not return reliable estimates of quantitative genetic parameters in this population, with estimates of genetic variance and covariance typically being very small or negative. In contrast, we found mixed evidence for the use of the pedigree-free animal model. Similar to the pairwise regression method, the pedigree-free approach performed poorly when the full-rank R matrix based on the molecular genealogy was employed. However, performance improved substantially when we reduced the dimensionality of the R matrix in order to maximize the signal to noise ratio. Using reduced-rank R matrices generated estimates of genetic variance that were much closer to those from the traditional model. Nevertheless, this method was less reliable at estimating covariances, which were often estimated to be negative. Taken together, these results suggest that pedigree-free animal models can recover quantitative genetic information, although the signal remains relatively weak. It remains to be determined whether this problem can be overcome by the use of a more powerful battery of molecular markers and improved methods for reconstructing genealogies.

A variable-stepsize Jacobian-free exponential integrator for simulating transport in heterogeneous porous media : application to wood drying

A Jacobian-free variable-stepsize method is developed for the numerical integration of the large, stiff systems of differential equations encountered when simulating transport in heterogeneous porous media. Our method utilises the exponential Rosenbrock-Euler method, which is explicit in nature and requires a matrix-vector product involving the exponential of the Jacobian matrix at each step of the integration process. These products can be approximated using Krylov subspace methods, which permit a large integration stepsize to be utilised without having to precondition the iterations. This means that our method is truly "Jacobian-free" - the Jacobian need never be formed or factored during the simulation. We assess the performance of the new algorithm for simulating the drying of softwood. Numerical experiments conducted for both low and high temperature drying demonstrates that the new approach outperforms (in terms of accuracy and efficiency) existing simulation codes that utilise the backward Euler method via a preconditioned Newton-Krylov strategy.