Consciousness, solidarity and hope as prevention and rehabilitation

This paper grapples with the question of how progressive criminologists might approach working with people who have committed violent or predatory crimes, or are ‘at risk’ of doing so. Progressives have often been uneasy about ‘intervention’ with people who offend: but in the face of the destructiveness of violence, especially in some parts of the world, a posture of simple non-intervention won’t suffice. I suggest three central principles – which I call consciousness, solidarity and hope – that may guide us in developing ways of working with offenders that are both progressive and effective.

Creating and sharing : teens' information practices in digital communities

Introduction In a connected world youth are participating in digital content creating communities. This paper introduces a description of teens' information practices in digital content creating and sharing communities. Method The research design was a constructivist grounded theory methodology. Seventeen interviews with eleven teens were collected and observation of their digital communities occurred over a two-year period. Analysis The data were analysed iteratively to describe teens' interactions with information through open and then focused coding. Emergent categories were shared with participants to confirm conceptual categories. Focused coding provided connections between conceptual categories resulting in the theory, which was also shared with participants for feedback. Results The paper posits a substantive theory of teens' information practices as they create and share content. It highlights that teens engage in the information actions of accessing, evaluating, and using information. They experienced information in five ways: participation, information, collaboration, process, and artefact. The intersection of enacting information actions and experiences of information resulted in five information practices: learning community, negotiating aesthetic, negotiating control, negotiating capacity, and representing knowledge. Conclusion This study contributes to our understanding of youth information actions, experiences, and practices. Further research into these communities might indicate what information practices are foundational to digital communities.

Circles of care : should community development redefine the practice of palliative care?

Specialist palliative care, within hospices in particular, has historically led and set the standard for caring for patients at end of life. The focus of this care has been mostly for patients with cancer. More recently, health and social care services have been developing equality of care for all patients approaching end of life. This has mostly been done in the context of a service delivery approach to care whereby services have become increasingly expert in identifying health and social care need and meeting this need with professional services. This model of patient centred care, with the impeccable assessment and treatment of physical, social, psychological and spiritual need, predominantly worked very well for the latter part of the 20th century. Over the last 13 years, however, there have been several international examples of community development approaches to end of life care. The patient centred model of care has limitations when there is a fundamental lack of integrated community policy, development and resourcing. Within this article, we propose a model of care which identifies a person with an illness at the centre of a network which includes inner and outer networks, communities and service delivery organisations. All of these are underpinned by policy development, supporting the overall structure. Adoption of this model would allow individuals, communities, service delivery organisations and policy makers to work together to provide end of life care that enhances value and meaning for people at end of life, both patients and communities alike.

Working knowledge for collaborative water planning in Australia’s Wet Tropics region

Cooperation between multiple environmental decision-makers and activities is necessary to address the impacts of diffuse sources of agricultural pollution on the water quality entering Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Water planning efforts requires available knowledge to inform this co-operative water program implementation and reform. This paper uses knowledge sharing, translation and feedback features of collaboration as a way to assess knowledge work practices during key phases of the water planning process. This enabled a systematic review of knowledge work practices in partnership with collaborative water planning groups established to inform water quality program investment decisions in the GBR’s Wet Tropics region. This research builds on the growing academic and policy interest in the conditions required to enable different types of knowledge to be successfully used for policy-making by focusing on when, how and why knowledge work to meet these conditions is required.

David Williamson's The Club : football politic, a dirty story

Watching David Williamson’s The Club (Bruce Beresford, 1980) now, as a scandal over performance‐enhancing drugs threatens to destroy at least one AFL club and permanently taint the League’s credibility, while in another form of football a player is bought and sold for a world record fee of almost $150 million, the indignant outrage of the film’s coach and players over the $120,000 fee paid for a pot‐smoking raw recruit appears quaint and comic in unintended ways. Were it ever true, it seems harder than ever now to agree with Nick Parson’s assertion that ‘in Australia the only sphere of endeavour that is considered morally pure is sport.

Reflections from early career graduates of the exceptional teachers for disadvantaged schools project

This paper aims to explore the experiences of newly qualified teachers and their supervising principals who work in schools situated in various high-poverty areas of Queensland, Australia. It is informed by data collected in the context of an Australian teacher education program, Exceptional Teachers for Disadvantaged Schools (ETDS). Now in its third year, this program was designed to prepare highly skilled pre-service teachers to work in schools that have large numbers of students from disadvantaged or low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds. Addressing the oft-stated need to prepare high-quality teachers for low SES schools, high-achieving undergraduate education students were invited to participate in two years of specialised curriculum to prepare them for the schools that need them the most, which are also the schools that are often difficult to staff. Pre-service teachers in this program do all their teaching practicum placements in challenging or complex schools. In 2011, some of this cohort did their practicum teaching in schools with large numbers of Indigenous students and several went on to teach in remote communities after graduation. These graduates and the leaders of the schools they work in are the primary informants for this paper.

Entropic bounds for multi-scale and multi-physics coupling in earth sciences

The ability to understand and predict how thermal, hydrological,mechanical and chemical (THMC) processes interact is fundamental to many research initiatives and industrial applications. We present (1) a new Thermal– Hydrological–Mechanical–Chemical (THMC) coupling formulation, based on non-equilibrium thermodynamics; (2) show how THMC feedback is incorporated in the thermodynamic approach; (3) suggest a unifying thermodynamic framework for multi-scaling; and (4) formulate a new rationale for assessing upper and lower bounds of dissipation for THMC processes. The technique is based on deducing time and length scales suitable for separating processes using a macroscopic finite time thermodynamic approach. We show that if the time and length scales are suitably chosen, the calculation of entropic bounds can be used to describe three different types of material and process uncertainties: geometric uncertainties,stemming from the microstructure; process uncertainty, stemming from the correct derivation of the constitutive behavior; and uncertainties in time evolution, stemming from the path dependence of the time integration of the irreversible entropy production. Although the approach is specifically formulated here for THMC coupling we suggest that it has a much broader applicability. In a general sense it consists of finding the entropic bounds of the dissipation defined by the product of thermodynamic force times thermodynamic flux which in material sciences corresponds to generalized stress and generalized strain rates, respectively.

Understanding the abnormal brain activity in epilepsy as a potential predictor of the onset of an epileptic seizure

The Brain Research Institute (BRI) uses various types of indirect measurements, including EEG and fMRI, to understand and assess brain activity and function. As well as the recovery of generic information about brain function, research also focuses on the utilisation of such data and understanding to study the initiation, dynamics, spread and suppression of epileptic seizures. To assist with the future focussing of this aspect of their research, the BRI asked the MISG 2010 participants to examine how the available EEG and fMRI data and current knowledge about epilepsy should be analysed and interpreted to yield an enhanced understanding about brain activity occurring before, at commencement of, during, and after a seizure. Though the deliberations of the study group were wide ranging in terms of the related matters considered and discussed, considerable progress was made with the following three aspects. (1) The science behind brain activity investigations depends crucially on the quality of the analysis and interpretation of, as well as the recovery of information from, EEG and fMRI measurements. A number of specific methodologies were discussed and formalised, including independent component analysis, principal component analysis, profile monitoring and change point analysis (hidden Markov modelling, time series analysis, discontinuity identification). (2) Even though EEG measurements accurately and very sensitively record the onset of an epileptic event or seizure, they are, from the perspective of understanding the internal initiation and localisation, of limited utility. They only record neuronal activity in the cortical (surface layer) neurons of the brain, which is a direct reflection of the type of electrical activity they have been designed to record. Because fMRI records, through the monitoring of blood flow activity, the location of localised brain activity within the brain, the possibility of combining fMRI measurements with EEG, as a joint inversion activity, was discussed and examined in detail. (3) A major goal for the BRI is to improve understanding about ``when'' (at what time) an epileptic seizure actually commenced before it is identified on an eeg recording, ``where'' the source of this initiation is located in the brain, and ``what'' is the initiator. Because of the general agreement in the literature that, in one way or another, epileptic events and seizures represent abnormal synchronisations of localised and/or global brain activity the modelling of synchronisations was examined in some detail. References C. M. Michel, G. Thut, S. Morand, A. Khateb, A. J. Pegna, R. Grave de Peralta, S. Gonzalez, M. Seeck and T. Landis, Electric source imaging of human brain functions, Brain Res. Rev. , 36 (2--3), 2001, 108--118. doi:10.1016/S0165-0173(01)00086-8 S. Ogawa, R. S. Menon, S. G. Kim and K. Ugurbil, On the characteristics of functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, Annu. Rev. Bioph. Biom. , 27 , 1998, 447--474. doi:10.1146/annurev.biophys.27.1.447 C. D. Binnie and H. Stefan, Modern electroencephalography: its role in epilepsy management, Clin. Neurophysiol. , 110 (10), 1999, 1671--1697. doi:10.1016/S1388-2457(99)00125-X J. X. Tao, A. Ray, S. Hawes-Ebersole and J. S. Ebersole, Intracranial eeg substrates of scalp eeg interictal spikes, Epilepsia , 46 (5), 2005, 669--76. doi:10.1111/j.1528-1167.2005.11404.x S. Ogawa, D. W. Tank, R. Menon, J. M. Ellermann, S. G. Kim, H. Merkle and K. Ugurbil, Intrinsic signal changes accompanying sensory stimulation: Functional brain mapping with magnetic resonance imaging, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA , 89 (13), 1992, 5951--5955. doi:10.1073/pnas.89.13.5951 J. Engel Jr., Report of the ilae classification core group, Epilepsia , 47 (9), 2006, 1558--1568. doi:10.1111/j.1528-1167.2006.00215.x L. Lemieux, A. Salek-Haddadi, O. Josephs, P. Allen, N. Toms, C. Scott, K. Krakow, R. Turner and D. R. Fish, Event-related fmri with simultaneous and continuous eeg: description of the method and initial case r port, NeuroImage , 14 (3), 2001, 780--7. doi:10.1006/nimg.2001.0853 P. Federico, D. F. Abbott, R. S. Briellmann, A. S. Harvey and G. D. Jackson, Functional mri of the pre-ictal state, Brain , 128 (8), 2005, 1811-7. doi:10.1093/brain/awh533 C. S. Hawco, A. P. Bagshaw, Y. Lu, F. Dubeau and J. Gotman, bold changes occur prior to epileptic spikes seen on scalp eeg, NeuroImage , 35 (4), 2007, 1450--1458. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.12.042 F. Moeller, H. R. Siebner, S. Wolff, H. Muhle, R. Boor, O. Granert, O. Jansen, U. Stephani and M. Siniatchkin, Changes in activity of striato-thalamo-cortical network precede generalized spike wave discharges, NeuroImage , 39 (4), 2008, 1839--1849. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.10.058 V. Osharina, E. Ponchel, A. Aarabi, R. Grebe and F. Wallois, Local haemodynamic changes preceding interictal spikes: A simultaneous electrocorticography (ecog) and near-infrared spectroscopy (nirs) analysis in rats, NeuroImage , 50 (2), 2010, 600--607. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.01.009 R. S. Fisher, W. Boas, W. Blume, C. Elger, P. Genton, P. Lee and J. Engel, Epileptic seizures and epilepsy: Definitions proposed by the international league against epilepsy (ilae) and the international bureau for epilepsy (ibe), Epilepsia , 46 (4), 2005, 470--472. doi:10.1111/j.0013-9580.2005.66104.x H. Berger, Electroencephalogram in humans, Arch. Psychiat. Nerven. , 87 , 1929, 527--570. C. M. Michel, M. M. Murray, G. Lantz, S. Gonzalez, L. Spinelli and R. G. de Peralta, eeg source imaging, Clin. Neurophysiol. , 115 (10), 2004, 2195--2222. doi:10.1016/j.clinph.2004.06.001 P. L. Nunez and R. B. Silberstein, On the relationship of synaptic activity to macroscopic measurements: Does co-registration of eeg with fmri make sense?, Brain Topogr. , 13 (2), 2000, 79--96. doi:10.1023/A:1026683200895 S. Ogawa, T. M. Lee, A. R. Kay and D. W. Tank, Brain magnetic resonance imaging with contrast dependent on blood oxygenation, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA , 87 (24), 1990, 9868--9872. doi:10.1073/pnas.87.24.9868 J. S. Gati, R. S. Menon, K. Ugurbil and B. K. Rutt, Experimental determination of the bold field strength dependence in vessels and tissue, Magn. Reson. Med. , 38 (2), 1997, 296--302. doi:10.1002/mrm.1910380220 P. A. Bandettini, E. C. Wong, R. S. Hinks, R. S. Tikofsky and J. S. Hyde, Time course EPI of human brain function during task activation, Magn. Reson. Med. , 25 (2), 1992, 390--397. K. K. Kwong, J. W. Belliveau, D. A. Chesler, I. E. Goldberg, R. M. Weisskoff, B. P. Poncelet, D. N. Kennedy, B. E. Hoppelm, M. S. Cohen and R. Turner, Dynamic magnetic resonance imaging of human brain activity during primary sensory stimulation, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA , 89 (12), 1992, 5675--5679. doi:10.1073/pnas.89.12.5675 J. Frahm, K. D. Merboldt and W. Hnicke, Functional mri of human brain activation at high spatial resolution, Magn. Reson. Med. , 29 (1), 1993, 139--144. P. A. Bandettini, A. Jesmanowicz, E. C. Wong and J. S. Hyde, Processing strategies for time-course data sets in functional MRI of the human brain, Magn. Reson. Med. , 30 (2), 1993, 161--173. K. J. Friston, P. Jezzard and R. Turner, Analysis of functional MRI time-series, Hum. Brain Mapp. , 1 (2), 1994, 153--171. B. Biswal, F. Z. Yetkin, V. M. Haughton and J. S. Hyde, Functional connectivity in the motor cortex of resting human brain using echo-planar mri, Mag. Reson. Med. , 34 (4), 1995, 537--541. doi:10.1002/mrm.1910340409 K. J. Friston, J. Ashburner, C. D. Frith, J. Poline, J. D. Heather and R. S. J. Frackowiak, Spatial registration and normalization of images, Hum. Brain Mapp. , 3 (3), 1995, 165--189. K. J. Friston, S. Williams, R. Howard, R. S. Frackowiak and R. Turner, Movement-related effects in fmri time-series, Magn. Reson. Med. , 35 (3), 1996, 346--355. G. H. Glover, T. Q. Li and D. Ress, Image-based method for retrospective correction of physiological motion effects in fmri: Retroicor, Magn. Reson. Med. , 44 (1), 2000, 162--167. doi:10.1002/1522-2594(200007)44:13.0.CO;2-E K. J. Friston, O. Josephs, G. Rees and R. Turner, Nonlinear event-related responses in fmri, Magn. Reson. Med. , 39 (1), 1998, 41--52. doi:10.1002/mrm.1910390109 K. Ugurbil, L. Toth and D. Kim, How accurate is magnetic resonance imaging of brain function?, Trends Neurosci. , 26 (2), 2003, 108--114. doi:10.1016/S0166-2236(02)00039-5 D. S. Kim, I. Ronen, C. Olman, S. G. Kim, K. Ugurbil and L. J. Toth, Spatial relationship between neuronal activity and bold functional mri, NeuroImage , 21 (3), 2004, 876--885. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.10.018 A. Connelly, G. D. Jackson, R. S. Frackowiak, J. W. Belliveau, F. Vargha-Khadem and D. G. Gadian, Functional mapping of activated human primary cortex with a clinical mr imaging system, Radiology , 188 (1), 1993, 125--130. L. Allison, Hidden Markov Models, Technical Report , School of Computer and Software Engineering, Monash University, 2000. R. J. Elliott, L. Aggoun and J.B. Moore, Hidden Markov Models: Estimation and Control, Appl. Math.-Czech. , 2004. B. Bhavnagri, Discontinuities of plane functions projected from a surface with methods for finding these , Technical Report, 2009. B. Bhavnagri, Computer Vision using Shape Spaces , Technical Report,1996, University of Adelaide. B. Bhavnagri, A method for representing shape based on an equivalence relation on polygons, Pattern Recogn. , 27 (2), 1994, 247--260. doi:10.1016/0031-3203(94)90057-4 D. F. Abbott, A. B. Waites, A. S. Harvey and G. D. Jackson, Exploring epileptic seizure onset with fmri, NeuroImage , 36(S1) (344TH-PM), 2007. M. C. Mackey and L. Glass, Oscillation and chaos in physiological control systems, Science , 197 , 1977, 287--289. S. H. Strogatz, SYNC - The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order , Theia, New York, 2003. J. W. Kim, J. A. Roberts and P. A. Robinson, Dynamics of epileptic seizures: Evolution, spreading, and suppression, J. Theor. Biol. , 257 (4), 2009, 527--532. doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2008.12.009 Y. Kuramoto, T. Aoyagi, I. Nishikawa, T. Chawanya T and K. Okuda, Neural network model carrying phase information with application to collective dynamics, J. Theor. Phys. , 87 (5), 1992, 1119--1126. V. B. Mountcastle, The columnar organization of the neocortex, Brain , 120 (4), 1997, 701. doi:10.1093/brain/120.4.701 F. L. Silva, W. Blanes, S. N. Kalitzin, J. Parra, P. Suffczynski and D. N. Velis, Epilepsies as dynamical diseases of brain systems: Basic models of the transition between normal and epileptic activity, Epilepsia , 44 (12), 2003, 72--83. F. H. Lopes da Silva, W. Blanes, S. N. Kalitzin, J. Parra, P. Suffczynski and D. N. Velis, Dynamical diseases of brain systems: different routes to epileptic seizures, ieee T. Bio-Med. Eng. , 50 (5), 2003, 540. L.D. Iasemidis, Epileptic seizure prediction and control, ieee T. Bio-Med. Eng. , 50 (5), 2003, 549--558. L. D. Iasemidis, D. S. Shiau, W. Chaovalitwongse, J. C. Sackellares, P. M. Pardalos, J. C. Principe, P. R. Carney, A. Prasad, B. Veeramani, and K. Tsakalis, Adaptive epileptic seizure prediction system, ieee T. Bio-Med. Eng. , 50 (5), 2003, 616--627. K. Lehnertz, F. Mormann, T. Kreuz, R.G. Andrzejak, C. Rieke, P. David and C. E. Elger, Seizure prediction by nonlinear eeg analysis, ieee Eng. Med. Biol. , 22 (1), 2003, 57--63. doi:10.1109/MEMB.2003.1191451 K. Lehnertz, R. G. Andrzejak, J. Arnhold, T. Kreuz, F. Mormann, C. Rieke, G. Widman and C. E. Elger, Nonlinear eeg analysis in epilepsy: Its possible use for interictal focus localization, seizure anticipation, and prevention, J. Clin. Neurophysiol. , 18 (3), 2001, 209. B. Litt and K. Lehnertz, Seizure prediction and the preseizure period, Curr. Opin. Neurol. , 15 (2), 2002, 173. doi:10.1097/00019052-200204000-00008 B. Litt and J. Echauz, Prediction of epileptic seizures, Lancet Neurol. , 1 (1), 2002, 22--30. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(02)00003-0 M. M{a}kiranta, J. Ruohonen, K Suominen, J. Niinim{a}ki, E. Sonkaj{a}rvi, V. Kiviniemi, T. Sepp{a}nen, S. Alahuhta, V. J{a}ntti and O. Tervonen, {bold} signal increase preceeds eeg spike activity--a dynamic penicillin induced focal epilepsy in deep anesthesia, NeuroImage , 27 (4), 2005, 715--724. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.05.025 K. Lehnertz, F. Mormann, H. Osterhage, A. M{u}ller, J. Prusseit, A. Chernihovskyi, M. Staniek, D. Krug, S. Bialonski and C. E. Elger, State-of-the-art of seizure prediction, J. Clin. Neurophysiol. , 24 (2), 2007, 147. doi:10.1097/WNP.0b013e3180336f16 F. Mormann, T. Kreuz, C. Rieke, R. G. Andrzejak, A. Kraskov, P. David, C. E. Elger and K. Lehnertz, On the predictability of epileptic seizures, Clin. Neurophysiol. , 116 (3), 2005, 569--587. doi:10.1016/j.clinph.2004.08.025 F. Mormann, R. G. Andrzejak, C. E. Elger and K. Lehnertz, Seizure prediction: the long and winding road, Brain , 130 (2), 2007, 314--333. doi:10.1093/brain/awl241 Z. Rogowski, I. Gath and E. Bental, On the prediction of epileptic seizures, Biol. Cybern. , 42 (1), 1981, 9--15. Y. Salant, I. Gath, O. Henriksen, Prediction of epileptic seizures from two-channel eeg, Med. Biol. Eng. Comput. , 36 (5), 1998, 549--556. doi:10.1007/BF02524422 J. Gotman and D.J. Koffler, Interictal spiking increases after seizures but does not after decrease in medication, Evoked Potential , 72 (1), 1989, 7--15. J. Gotman and M. G. Marciani, Electroencephalographic spiking activity, drug levels, and seizure occurence in epileptic patients, Ann. Neurol. , 17 (6), 1985, 59--603. A. Katz, D. A. Marks, G. McCarthy and S. S. Spencer, Does interictal spiking change prior to seizures?, Electroen. Clin. Neuro. , 79 (2), 1991, 153--156. A. Granada, R. M. Hennig, B. Ronacher, A. Kramer and H. Herzel, Phase Response Curves: Elucidating the dynamics of couples oscillators, Method Enzymol. , 454 (A), 2009, 1--27. doi:10.1016/S0076-6879(08)03801-9 doi:10.1016/S0076-6879(08)03801-9 H. Kantz and T. Schreiber, Nonlinear time series analysis , 2004, Cambridge Univ Press. M. V. L. Bennett and R. S Zukin, Electrical coupling and neuronal synchronization in the mammalian brain, Neuron , 41 (4), 2004, 495 --511. doi:10.1016/S0896-6273(04)00043-1 L.D. Iasemidis, J. Chris Sackellares, H. P. Zaveri and W. J. Williams, Phase space topography and the Lyapunov exponent of electrocorticograms in partial seizures, Brain Topogr. , 2 (3), 1990, 187--201. doi:10.1007/BF01140588 M. Le Van Quyen, J. Martinerie, V. Navarro, M. Baulac and F. J. Varela, Characterizing neurodynamic changes before seizures, J. Clin. Neurophysiol. , 18 (3), 2001, 191. J. Martinerie, C. Adam, M. Le Van Quyen, M. Baulac, S. Clemenceau, B. Renault and F. J. Varela, Epileptic seizures can be anticipated by non-linear analysis, Nat. Med. , 4 (10), 1998, 1173--1176. doi:10.1038/2667 A. Pikovsky, M. Rosenblum, J. Kurths and R. C. Hilborn, Synchronization: A universal concept in nonlinear science, Amer. J. Phys. , 70 , 2002, 655. H. R. Wilson and J. D. Cowan, Excitatory and inhibitory interactions in localized populations of model neurons, Biophys. J. , 12 (1), 1972, 1--24. D. Cumin and C. P. Unsworth, Generalising the Kuramoto model for the study of neuronal synchronisation in the brain, Physica D , 226 (2), 2007, 181--196. doi:10.1016/j.physd.2006.12.004 F. K. Skinner, H. Bazzazi and S. A. Campbell, Two-cell to N-cell heterogeneous, inhibitory networks: Precise linking of multistable and coherent properties, J. Comput. Neurosci. , 18 (3), 2005, 343--352. doi:10.1007/s10827-005-0331-1 W. W. Lytton, Computer modelling of epilepsy, Nat. Rev. Neurosci. , 9 (8), 2008, 626--637. doi:10.1038/nrn2416 R. D. Traub, A. Bibbig, F. E. N. LeBeau, E. H. Buhl and M. A. Whittington, Cellular mechanisms of neuronal population oscillations in the hippocampus in vitro, Ann. Rev. , 2004. R. D. Traub, A. Draguhn, M. A. Whittington, T. Baldeweg, A. Bibbig, E. H. Buhl and D. Schmitz, Axonal gap junc ions between principal neurons: A novel source of network oscillations, and perhaps epileptogenesis., Rev. Neuroscience , 13 (1), 2002, 1. doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.27.070203.144303 M. Scheffer, J. Bascompte, W. A. Brock, V. Brovkin, S. R. Carpenter, V. Dakos, H. Held, E. H. van Nes, M. Rietkerk and G. Sugihara, Early-warning signals for critical transitions, Nature , 461 (7260), 2009, 53--59. doi:10.1038/nature08227 K. Murphy, A Brief Introduction to Graphical Models and Bayesian Networks , 2008, http://www.cs.ubc.ca/murphyk/Bayes/bnintro.html . R. C. Bradley, An elementary

Lessons from a face-to-face meeting on embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives : ‘A contract of intimacy’

This paper presents the findings from a conversation between an Aboriginal educator and a non-Indigenous pre-service educator about the importance and complexities of building productive partnerships. Although the participants focused on the challenges and benefits of building relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educators and non-Indigenous educators in Australian early years settings, the more significant outcome of the meeting was the personal connection two young women were able to make when a friendship began to develop. The project was intended to enable an opportunity for the participants ‘to engage in reflexivity on their pedagogic work’, something Mills (2012) understands as crucial to the support of social justice and transformation in the classroom.

An investigation into the production of chloromethly furfual from bagasse and bagasse pulp

There are many attractive alternatives to produce chemicals similar to those currently produced from fossil fuel resources. The most viable renewable resource of fixed carbon is biomass. This paper examines processing conditions for the production and recovery of furanics from bagasse as well as bagasse pulp. It is shown that bio-oil consisting mainly of furanics (~84% chloromethly furfural) may be obtained in yields of ~78% and ~87% by weight from bagasse and bagasse pulp respectively using a biphasic acid hydrolysis system. The biphasic system consists of an organic layer of dichloroethane and an aqueous phase of concentrated hydrochloric acid. Generally the lower the impurity content and the higher the cellulose content, the higher the furanics yield.

Effect of trash on the coagulation and flocculation of sugarcane juice

The processing of juice expressed from whole green sugarcane crop (stalk and trash) leads to poor clarification performance, reduced sugar yield and poor raw sugar quality. The cause of these adverse effects is linked to the disproportionate contribution of impurities from the trash component of the crop. This paper reports on the zeta (ζ) potential, average size distribution (d50) and fractal dimension (Df) of limed juice particles derived from various juice types using laser diffraction and dynamic light scattering techniques. The influence of non-sucrose impurities on the interactive energy contributions between sugarcane juice particles was examined on the basis of Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory. Results from these investigations have provided evidence (in terms of particle stability) on why juice particles derived from whole green sugarcane crop are relatively difficult to coagulate (and flocculate). The presence of trash reduces the van der Waals forces of attraction between particles, thereby reducing coagulation and flocculation processes. It is anticipated that further fundamental work will lead to strategies that could be adopted for clarifying juices expressed from whole green sugarcane crop.

On-line scale monitoring device

Developments in evaporator cleaning have accelerated in the past 10 years as a result of an extended period of research into scale formation and scale composition. Chemical cleaning still provides the most cost effective method of cleaning the evaporators. The paper describes a system that was designed to obtain on-line samples of evaporator scale negating the need to open up hot evaporator vessels for scale collection. This system was successfully implemented in a number of evaporators at a sugar mill. This paper also describes a recent experience in a sugar factory in which the cleaning procedure was slightly modified resulting in effective removal of intractable scale.

A review on the production of levulinic acid and furanics from sugars

Sugarcane products represent an abundant and relatively low cost carbon resource that can be utilised to produce chemical intermediates such as levulinic acid and furanics. These chemicals can be easily upgraded to commodity and specialty chemicals and biofuels by high yielding and well established technologies. However, there are challenges and technical hurdles that need to be overcome before these chemical intermediates can be cost-effectively produced in commercial quantities. The paper reviews production of levulinic acid and furanics from sugars by homogeneous mineral acid catalysts, and reports on preliminary studies on the production of these compounds with environmentally friendly biodegradable sulfonic acids. The yields (>50% of theoretical) of levulinic acid, formic acid and furfural obtained with these organic acids are comparable to that of sulphuric acid currently used for their production.

Dry tropics water smart : a community based approach to residential outdoor water consumption

This paper discusses the Townsville City Council Dry Tropics Water Smart (DTWS) initiative, developed by TCC Integrated Sustainability Services (ISS) and Townsville Water, and informed by The University of Adelaide. The program draws on many years of experience by the TCC team to blend key community-based research approaches in order to develop this residential outdoor water conservation program. Several community pilots have been conducted to test different behaviour change strategies and messages. This paper outlines recent steps taken to develop the community trials, as guided by a combination of behaviour change theories including community-based social marketing and thematic communications methods. Some preliminary results are outlined focused on community uptake of different strategies, community perceptions of communication materials, and some insights into the effectiveness of outdoor water hardware.

When should private property rights give way to the public interest?

Since Queensland Wire Industries Pty Ltd v Broken Hill Pty Co Ltd (1989) 167 CLR 177 it has been recognised that corporations with substantial market power are subject to special responsibilities and restraints that corporations without market power are not. In NT Power Generation Pty Ltd v Power and Water Authority (2004) 219 CLR 90 McHugh A-CJ, Gummow, Callinan and Heydon JJ in their joint reasons stated (at [76]), that s 46 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) (CCA) can operate not only to prevent firms with substantial market power from doing prohibited things, but also compel them positively to do things they do not want to do. Their Honours also stated (at [126]) that the proposition that a private property owner who declines to permit competitors to use the property is immune from s 46 is “intrinsically unsound”. However, the circumstances in which a firm with substantial power must accommodate competitors, and private property rights give way to the public interest are uncertain. The purpose of this Note is to consider recent developments in two areas of the CCA where the law requires private property rights to give way to the public interest. The first part of the Note considers two recent cases which clarify the circumstances in which s 46 of the CCA can be used to compel a firm with substantial market power to accommodate a competitor and allow the competitor to make use of private property rights in the public interest. Secondly, on 12 February 2014 the Minister for Small Business, the Hon Bruce Billson,released the Productivity Commission’s Final Report, on the National Access Regime in Pt IIIA of the CCA (National Access Regime, Inquiry Report No 66, Canberra). Pt IIIA provides for the processes by which third parties may obtain access to infrastructure owned by others in the public interest. The Report recommends that Pt IIIA be retained but makes a number of suggestions for its reform, some of which will be briefly considered.