A framework for assessing social policy inclusion proposals

This document outlines a framework that could be used by government agencies in assessing policy interventions aimed at achieving social outcomes from government construction contracts. The framework represents a rational interpretation of the information gathered during the multi-outcomes construction policies project. The multi-outcomes project focused on the costs and benefits of using public construction contracts to promote the achievement of training and employment and public art objectives. The origin of the policy framework in a cost-benefit appraisal of current policy interventions is evidenced by its emphasis on sensitivity to policy commitment and project circumstances (especially project size and scope).The quantitative and qualitative analysis conducted in the multi-outcomes project highlighted, first, that in the absence of strong industry commitment to policy objectives, policy interventions typically result in high levels of avoidance activity, substantial administrative costs and very few benefits. Thus, for policy action on, for example, training or local employment to be successful compliance issues must be adequately addressed. Currently it appears that pre-qualification schemes (similar to the Priority Access Scheme) and schemes that rely on measuring, for example, the training investments of contractors within particular projects do not achieve high levels of compliance and involve significant administrative costs. Thus, an alternative is suggested in the policy framework developed here: a levy on each public construction project – set as a proportion of the total project costs. Although a full evaluation of this policy alternative was beyond the scope of the multi-outcomes construction policies project, it appears to offer the potential to minimize the transaction costs on contractors whilst enabling the creation of a training agency dedicated to improving the supply of skilled construction labour. A recommendation is thus made that this policy alternative be fully researched and evaluated. As noted above, the outcomes of the multi-outcomes research project also highlighted the need for sensitivity to project circumstances in the development and implementation of polices for public construction projects. Ideally a policy framework would have the flexibility to respond to circumstances where contractors share a commitment to the policy objectives and are able to identify measurable social outcomes from the particular government projects they are involved in. This would involve a project-by-project negotiation of goals and performance measures. It is likely to only be practical for large, longer term projects.

Multiple-choice versus short-response items: Differences in omit behavior

The overall rate of omission of items for 28,331 17 year old Australian students on a high stakes test of achievement in the common elements or cognitive skills of the senior school curriculum is reported for a subtest in multiple choice format and a subtest in short response format. For the former, the omit rates were minuscule and there was no significant difference by gender or by type of school attended. For the latter, where an item can be 'worth' up to five times that of a single multiple choice item, the omit rates were between 10 and 20 times that for multiple choice and the difference between male and female omit rate was significant as was the difference between students from government and non-government schools. For both formats, females from single sex schools omitted significantly fewer items than did females from co-educational schools. Some possible explanations of omit behaviour are alluded to.

Expression of Potato virus Y cytoplasmic inclusion protein in tobacco results in disorganization of parenchyma cells, distortion of epidermal cells, and induces mitochondrial and chloroplast abnormalities, formation of membrane whorls and atypical lipid accumulation

Infection of plant cells by potyviruses induces the formation of cytoplasmic inclusions ranging in size from 200 to 1000 nm. To determine if the ability to form these ordered, insoluble structures is intrinsic to the potyviral cytoplasmic inclusion protein, we have expressed the cytoplasmic inclusion protein from Potato virus Y in tobacco under the control of the chrysanthemum ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase small subunit promoter, a highly active, green tissue promoter. No cytoplasmic inclusions were observed in the leaves of transgenic tobacco using transmission electron microscopy, despite being able to clearly visualize these inclusions in Potato virus Y infected tobacco leaves under the same conditions. However, we did observe a wide range of tissue and sub-cellular abnormalities associated with the expression of the Potato virus Y cytoplasmic inclusion protein. These changes included the disruption of normal cell morphology and organization in leaves, mitochondrial and chloroplast internal reorganization, and the formation of atypical lipid accumulations. Despite these significant structural changes, however, transgenic tobacco plants were viable and the results are discussed in the context of potyviral cytoplasmic inclusion protein function.

Language and Inclusion in Mainstream Classrooms

Understanding what the teacher says or what is written in texts used in class is a key to academic engagement. Yet, for students who are learning the medium of instruction as an additional language, understanding is often elusive. The study reported in this chapter looked at how African middle school students and parents, and educators in Australian schools, talked about problems of understanding, and responsibility for redressing these, at intensive language school and in transition to a mainstream Australian high school. In general, participants assumed students should signal confusion and teachers should resolve it. However, student talk of current and past anxiety about asking for help in class warrants attention. Challenges include: (1) the need to create receptive peer environments for asking questions; and (2) to recognise when it is inappropriate to rely on students signalling confusion.

Examining the antecedents and consequences of ritualized fan behavior [Abstract]

One of the features of the sporting industry is the ritualized way in which it is consumed across the world. Fans of every sport have rituals and superstitions to help them enjoy the spectacle, socialize with other like-minded fans, and reduce some of the anxiety of watching their team play. These rituals include dress, barracking styles and pre and post match behaviors. What is not known are the factors that lead fans to engage in ritual behaviors and what relationship rituals have with desirable outcomes such as increased attendance, attitudinal loyalty or satisfaction. Given that some ritual behaviors are clearly undesirable, (e.g., hooliganism), understanding these relationships is important to managers who may be questioning whether rituals should be encouraged. Although ritualized behavior amongst fans is clearly visible, the symbolic and emotional nature of ritual poses challenges to researchers. Most previous ritual research is exploratory and qualitative in nature. This study, however, uses a behavior-based scale to measure fan ritual and relates it to desirable outcomes such as commitment and attendance. Over 2,000 season ticket holders of a football (soccer) team in Australia’s professional A-League competition were surveyed to investigate the antecedents and consequences of fan ritual behavior. Cluster analysis was used to explore the characteristics of respondents, and it revealed that those fans that engage in ritual behavior also differed on many other demographic and attitudinal dimensions. The associations between ritual and psychological commitment, and ritual and attendance are positive and significant. When used in conjunction with other constructs, fan ritual also improves the explanation of attendance behavior. The findings support previous research that found a significant and positive relationship between team identification, involvement and attendance, and extend previous research by finding a significant and positive relationship between rituals and attendance. For sports marketing practitioners, the results indicate the importance of developing and managing consumption rituals tied to game day attendance, with a view to generating uncommon loyalty.

Sharing knowledge at work : macro, social and relational individual influences on individual behavior

The impact of relations between an organization and its workers and the relations among workers on individual knowledge generation and sharing practices has not, to date, been addressed in an integrated way. This paper discusses the findings of a study analyzing issues at macro, locally-constructed and micro levels in a public sector organization, to identify and integrate the complex sets of mediators. Key factors were found to include (a) the contested nature of the process of knowledge construction, (b) the worker’s experience of the organization’s internal environment, (c) how the organization is understood to value knowledge sharing, (d) relations with colleagues, and (e) the perceived outcomes of knowledge sharing behaviors. Implications for practice are discussed.

The inclusion of first aid in an injury prevention curriculum

Prompt first aid can have considerable benefits. The Skills for Preventing Injury in Youth (SPIY) program aims to teach, in part, first aid skills along with additional injury prevention strategies. The approach to including first aid is both as an injury prevention strategy and a way in which to reduce the severity of injuries once they occur. This paper outlines an implementation trial of the SPIY program with particular emphasis on the delivery and implementation of first aid skills. SPIY demonstrated effectiveness with regard to first aid knowledge and as an injury prevention program. SPIY is taught in the Year 9 Health curriculum by HPE teachers. Students and teachers who undergo or deliver such training offer important perspectives about implementation. In addition independent observation of delivery provides further information about the program. The research aimed to examine teachers‟ and students‟ experiences of first aid activities within a school-based injury prevention and control program and identify key issues in delivery from independent observation of the program. Focus groups were held with 8 teachers who delivered, and 70 students who participated in the SPIY curriculum program. Results showed favourable reports on the delivery of first aid material however teachers noted challenges in delivering practical activities. In sum, first aid can be effectively implemented within the high school setting and both students and teachers identified multiple benefits and positive experiences after undertaking first aid training.

Interpersonal pattern dynamics and adaptive behavior in multiagent neurobiological systems : conceptual model and data

Ecological dynamics characterizes adaptive behavior as an emergent, self-organizing property of interpersonal interactions in complex social systems. The authors conceptualize and investigate constraints on dynamics of decisions and actions in the multiagent system of team sports. They studied coadaptive interpersonal dynamics in rugby union to model potential control parameter and collective variable relations in attacker–defender dyads. A videogrammetry analysis revealed how some agents generated fluctuations by adapting displacement velocity to create phase transitions and destabilize dyadic subsystems near the try line. Agent interpersonal dynamics exhibited characteristics of chaotic attractors and informational constraints of rugby union boxed dyadic systems into a low dimensional attractor. Data suggests that decisions and actions of agents in sports teams may be characterized as emergent, self-organizing properties, governed by laws of dynamical systems at the ecological scale. Further research needs to generalize this conceptual model of adaptive behavior in performance to other multiagent populations.

Adaptive and phase transition behavior in performance of discrete multi-articular actions by degenerate neurobiological systems

The identification of attractors is one of the key tasks in studies of neurobiological coordination from a dynamical systems perspective, with a considerable body of literature resulting from this task. However, with regards to typical movement models investigated, the overwhelming majority of actions studied previously belong to the class of continuous, rhythmical movements. In contrast, very few studies have investigated coordination of discrete movements, particularly multi-articular discrete movements. In the present study, we investigated phase transition behavior in a basketball throwing task where participants were instructed to shoot at the basket from different distances. Adopting the ubiquitous scaling paradigm, throwing distance was manipulated as a candidate control parameter. Using a cluster analysis approach, clear phase transitions between different movement patterns were observed in performance of only two of eight participants. The remaining participants used a single movement pattern and varied it according to throwing distance, thereby exhibiting hysteresis effects. Results suggested that, in movement models involving many biomechanical degrees of freedom in degenerate systems, greater movement variation across individuals is available for exploitation. This observation stands in contrast to movement variation typically observed in studies using more constrained bi-manual movement models. This degenerate system behavior provides new insights and poses fresh challenges to the dynamical systems theoretical approach, requiring further research beyond conventional movement models.

Youth, Sport and the Social Inclusion Agenda

The purpose of this paper is to assess aspects of the British Government's attempts to use sporting participation as a vehicle to re-integrate socially disadvantaged, excluded and 'at-risk' youth into mainstream society. A number of organisations, policy-makers, commentators, and practitioners with a stake in the 'sport and social inclusion agenda' were interviewed. General agreement was found on a number of points: that the field was overly crowded with policies, programmes and initiatives; that the field worked in a 'bottom-up' way, with the most significant factor determining success being effective local workers with good networks and cultural access; that the dichotomising rhetoric of inclusion/exclusion was counter-productive; that the notion of the 'at-risk youth' was problematic and unhelpful; and that they all now dealt with a marketplace, where 'clients' had to be enrolled in their own reformation. There was also disagreement on a number of points: that policy acts as a relatively accurate template for practice, as opposed to the argument that it was simply regarded as a cluster of suggestions for practice; that policy was exceptionally piecemeal in its formulation and application, as opposed to regarding policy as necessarily targeted and dispersed; and that the inclusion agenda was largely politically driven and transitory, as opposed to the optimistic view that it had become ingrained in local practice. Finally, the paper examines some issues that are the most likely points of contribution by researchers in the area: that more research needs to be done on the processes of identity formation associated with participation in sport; that more effective programme evaluation needs to be done for such forms of governmental intervention to work properly; and that the relationship between different kinds of physical activity and social and personal change needs to be more thoroughly theorised.

The use of the Index for Inclusion in a regional educational learning community

This project utilised the materials of the Index for Inclusion (Booth & Ainscow, 2002) to enhance the development of a learning community of educators in Education Queensland in 2009. The values, dimensions and indicators of the Index for Inclusion, were incorporated into the professional development package, On the Same Page (Education Queensland, 2008), to enhance its wider purpose to improve inclusive education practices explicit within the P-12 Curriculum Framework (Education Queensland, 2008). The incorporation of the values, dimensions and indicators of the Index enabled deeper reflection by participants about their expectations of students and their resulting teaching practices. The subsequent development of action plans assisted participants to develop “a curriculum for all” (Education Queensland, 2008, p. 9). Deeper reflection, action planning and ‘distance travelled’ in understanding of inclusive education were apparent in the comments by participants and their evaluation of the professional development package.

Inclusion Statement : a proposal for implementation

This paper proposes a plan to evaluate ways in which EQ Staff undertake their responsibility to implement the substantive policy, Inclusive Education Statement- 2005, Education Queensland. The Inclusive Education Statement, 2005 (Education Queensland), is a substantive policy that drove the development of the subsequent procedures, CRP-PR-009: Inclusive Education. These procedures state that “All Education Queensland (EQ) staff have responsibilities ........to implement the Inclusive Education Statement 2005”.

Analyzing web multimedia query reformulation behavior

Current multimedia Web search engines still use keywords as the primary means to search. Due to the richness in multimedia contents, general users constantly experience some difficulties in formulating textual queries that are representative enough for their needs. As a result, query reformulation becomes part of an inevitable process in most multimedia searches. Previous Web query formulation studies did not investigate the modification sequences and thus can only report limited findings on the reformulation behavior. In this study, we propose an automatic approach to examine multimedia query reformulation using large-scale transaction logs. The key findings show that search term replacement is the most dominant type of modifications in visual searches but less important in audio searches. Image search users prefer the specified search strategy more than video and audio users. There is also a clear tendency to replace terms with synonyms or associated terms in visual queries. The analysis of the search strategies in different types of multimedia searching provides some insights into user’s searching behavior, which can contribute to the design of future query formulation assistance for keyword-based Web multimedia retrieval systems.

Experimental studies of the shear behavior of LiteSteel Beams

This paper presents the details of experimental studies on the shear behaviour of a recently developed, cold-formed steel beam known as LiteSteel Beam (LSB). The LSB section has a unique shape of a channel beam with two rectangular hollow flanges and is produced by a patented manufacturing process involving simultaneous cold-forming and dual electric resistance welding. To date, no research has been undertaken on the shear behaviour of LiteSteel beams with torsionally rigid, rectangular hollow flanges. In the present investigation, experimental studies involving more than 30 shear tests were carried out to investigate the shear behaviour of 13 different LSB sections. It was found that the current design rules in cold-formed steel structures design codes are very conservative for the shear design of LiteSteel beams. Significant improvements to web shear buckling occurred due to the presence of rectangular hollow flanges while considerable post-buckling strength was also observed. Experimental results are presented and compared with corresponding predictions from the current design codes in this paper. Appropriate improvements have been proposed for the shear strength of LSBs based on AS/NZS 4600 design equations.