Improving work and life balance : building a multilevel model of work-life balance focusing on group structure and relational job design

One in five Australian workers believes that work doesn’t fit well with their family and social commitments. Concurrently, organisations are recognising that to stay competitive they need policies and practices that support the multiple aspects of employees’ lives. Many employees work in group environments yet there is currently little group level work-life balance research. This paper proposes a new theoretical framework developed to understand the design of work groups to better facilitate work-life balance. This new framework focuses on task and relational job designs, group structures and processes and workplace culture.

University students’ perspective on blended learning

This research project aimed to explore students’ perspective on an appropriate mix of online and-face-to-face activities in a master’s programme in library and information science at an Australian university. Identifying aspects that students evaluate as supportive, challenging and efficient in their learning is important for the design of an appropriate mix in blended learning courses. Twenty-three master’s students responded to a questionnaire containing 40 open-ended and closed questions. Applying both statistical and content analysis provides a deeper understanding of students’ responses. Students like the flexibility and the convenience of online learning, but also the possibilities of face-to-face interaction with teachers and peers for building personal learning networks. Students expect an equal quality of learning delivery and criticised the quality of online participation and lecture recordings. Blended learning is an approach that supports a range of learning styles and life styles.

Putting people in planning: participatory democracy, community building and social inclusion

Like other Western nations, since the nineteenth century Australia has been a representative democracy, in which citizens elect parliamentary representatives to make decisions and develop policies on their behalf (see chapter 5). These representatives are supported in their decision making by an ‘arm’s-length’, ‘techno-bureaucratic administration’, which includes experts such as environmental planners (Fung and Wright 2003, p. 3). However, as the issues for decision-making become increasingly complex, and societies increasingly diverse, the idea of citizen participation in decision-making is ever more accepted. There is now a significant body of political theory arguing for a more participatory model of democracy (participatory democracy), a model that strives to create opportunities for all members of a society to contribute meaningfully to decisions about the matters affecting their lives.

Building distributed leadership for effective supervision of creative practice higher research degrees : final report 2014

Building distributed leadership for effective supervision of creative practice higher research degrees is an Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) funded project, conducted in partnership between Queensland University of Technology, The University of Melbourne, Auckland University of Technology, University of New South Wales and University of Western Sydney. The project was initiated to develop a cooperative approach to establishing an understanding of the contextual frameworks of the emergent field of creative practice higher degrees by research (HDRs); capturing early insights of administrators and supervisors; gathering exemplars of good practices; and establishing an in-common understanding of effective approaches to supervision. To this end, the project has produced: • A literature review, to provide a research foundation for creative practice higher research degree supervision (Chapter 3). • A contextual review of disciplinary frameworks for HDR programs, produced through surveys of postgraduate research administrators (Section 4.1), and an analysis of institutional materials and academic development programs for supervisors (Section 4.2). • A National Symposium, Effective Supervision of Creative Arts Research Degrees (ESCARD), at QUT in Brisbane in February 2013, with 62 delegates from 20 Australasian Universities, at which project findings were disseminated, and delegates presented case studies and position papers, and participated in discussions on key issues for supervisors (Appendix 1). • Resources, including a booklet for supervisors: 12 Principles for the Effective Supervision of Creative Practice Higher Research Degrees, which encapsulates attitudes, insights and good practices of experienced and new supervisors. It was produced through a content analysis of interviews with twenty-five supervisors in creative disciplines (visual and performing arts, music, new media, creative writing and design) (Printed booklet, PDF, Appendix 3). • A project website to disseminate project outcomes , which holds project findings, relevant references, and a repository of case studies and position papers by supervisors and program administrators. • A call for papers for a special issue ‘Supervising Practice: Perspectives on the Supervision of Creative Practice Research Higher Degrees’ of ACCESS Journal: Critical Perspectives on Communication, Cultural & Policy Studies (ERA ranked A quality) in 2014 (Appendix 2). • A community of supervisory practice initiated through project partnerships, a national symposium where supervisors from across Australasia met in dialogue for the first time, resource sharing, and joint publishing opportunities. • A set of recommendations for supervision capacity building and academic development, produced through the triangulation of literature and contextual reviews, analysis of institutional frameworks, interviews with supervisors and national dialogues. It is anticipated that the project’s outcomes will support experienced and new supervisors in this emergent field, and so benefit HDR students, and will enable creative disciplines to build supervision capacity, and so to accommodate growth in postgraduate enrolments. Funded as a pilot project, the project set out to establish a robust research base to provide a foundation for future work involving sharing good practices, resource building, and designing effective approaches to academic development for supervisors. Recommendations that were produced out of this project include the need to extend beyond generic, formal training for supervisors to academic development that harnesses and extends distributed leadership; focuses on local, disciplinary contexts; has a strong emphasis on case studies; provides diverse resources; and facilitates dialogue between supervisors. Recommendations also include developing frameworks for mentoring new supervisors and building a national network to facilitate cross-institutional discourse, disseminate good practices, and share insights into the management of risk factors, ethical issues, and preparing candidates for examination. As a pilot investigation, the outcomes of this project lay the ground for this future work.

Implementing open licensing in government open data initiatives : a review of Australian government practice

As support grows for greater access to information and data held by governments, so does awareness of the need for appropriate policy, technical and legal frameworks to achieve the desired economic and societal outcomes. Since the late 2000s numerous international organizations, inter-governmental bodies and governments have issued open government data policies, which set out key principles underpinning access to, and the release and reuse of data. These policies reiterate the value of government data and establish the default position that it should be openly accessible to the public under transparent and non-discriminatory conditions, which are conducive to innovative reuse of the data. A key principle stated in open government data policies is that legal rights in government information must be exercised in a manner that is consistent with and supports the open accessibility and reusability of the data. In particular, where government information and data is protected by copyright, access should be provided under licensing terms which clearly permit its reuse and dissemination. This principle has been further developed in the policies issued by Australian Governments into a specific requirement that Government agencies are to apply the Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY) as the default licensing position when releasing government information and data. A wide-ranging survey of the practices of Australian Government agencies in managing their information and data, commissioned by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner in 2012, provides valuable insights into progress towards the achievement of open government policy objectives and the adoption of open licensing practices. The survey results indicate that Australian Government agencies are embracing open access and a proactive disclosure culture and that open licensing under Creative Commons licences is increasingly prevalent. However, the finding that ‘[t]he default position of open access licensing is not clearly or robustly stated, nor properly reflected in the practice of Government agencies’ points to the need to further develop the policy framework and the principles governing information access and reuse, and to provide practical guidance tools on open licensing if the broadest range of government information and data is to be made available for innovative reuse.

A survey of user modelling in social media websites

With the widespread of social media websites in the internet, and the huge number of users participating and generating infinite number of contents in these websites, the need for personalisation increases dramatically to become a necessity. One of the major issues in personalisation is building users’ profiles, which depend on many elements; such as the used data, the application domain they aim to serve, the representation method and the construction methodology. Recently, this area of research has been a focus for many researchers, and hence, the proposed methods are increasing very quickly. This survey aims to discuss the available user modelling techniques for social media websites, and to highlight the weakness and strength of these methods and to provide a vision for future work in user modelling in social media websites.

μAV - Design and implementation of an open source micro quadrotor

This paper presents the design of μAV, a palm size open source micro quadrotor constructed on a single Printed Circuit Board. The aim of the micro quadrotor is to provide a lightweight (approximately 86g) and cheap robotic research platform that can be used for a range of robotic applications. One possible application could be a cheap test bed for robotic swarm research. The goal of this paper is to give an overview of the design and capabilities of the micro quadrotor. The micro quadrotor is complete with a 9 Degree of Freedom Inertial Measurement Unit, a Gumstix Overo® Computer-On-Module which can run the widely used Robot Operating System (ROS) for use with other research algorithms.

'Water view' from cyberspace : building resilient communities by identifying water risks

The perceived desirability of water views continues to lead to increasing numbers relocating to coastal regions. Proximity to coastal water brings with it unique risks from rising sea levels; however, water can present a risk in any area, whether or not you have water views. Recent Australian and international disasters show that even inland populations not located in traditional flood areas are not immune from water risks. The author examines the nature of these risks and shows how the internet can be used as a tool in identifying risk areas. The author also highlights the need to ensure accuracy of the data for valuation and planning purposes and identifies flaws in the current data provision.

Magnetic convection heat transfer in an open-ended enclosure filled with paramagnetic fluids

Numerical simulations of thermomagnetic convection of paramagnetic fluids placed in a micro-gravity condition (g ≈ 0) and under a uniform vertical gradient magnetic field in an open ended square enclosure with ramp heating temperature condition applied on a vertical wall is investigated in this study. In presence of the strong magnetic gradient field thermal convection of the paramagnetic fluid might take place even in a zero-gravity environment as a direct consequence of temperature differences occurring within the fluid. The thermal boundary layer develops adjacent to the hot wall as soon as the ramp temperature condition is applied on it. There are two scenarios can be observed based on the ramp heating time. The steady state of the thermal boundary layer can be reached before the ramp time is finished or vice versa. If the ramp time is larger than the quasi-steady time then the thermal boundary layer is in a quasi-steady mode with convection balancing conduction after the quasi-steady time. Further increase of the heat input simply accelerates the flow to maintain the proper thermal balance. Finally, the boundary layer becomes completely steady state when the ramp time is finished. Effects of magnetic Rayleigh number, Prandtl number and paramagnetic fluid parameter on the flow pattern and heat transfer are presented.

Building indicators in media assistance; four ways evaluation reports present “change”

The international aid and development community has supported programs that aim to build the capacity of media professionals or contribute to an enabling environment throughout the past 20 years. However, two decades on from the first modern media assistance programs, the sector is still struggling to identify, measure and understand the changes effected by their programs. There are questions raised as to whether it is even feasible to identify impacts on society and governance. This paper draws on some preliminary findings from a comparative thematic analysis of 47 evaluation documents of media assistance programs. The aim of this analysis is to identify trends in impact evaluation practice in the media assistance field, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of different evaluation approaches. This paper presents four types of social change claims commonly presented in reports; hypothetical changes, introduction of new opportunities, concrete examples of immediate impacts, and analysis of ongoing social and political changes. Although these types may appear as a spectrum from weak to strong, the interactions are perhaps more accurately understood using metaphors such as building blocks. This paper explores these types in more detail and suggests that a robust set of impacts-types could be useful in developing more grounded theories of change and indicators.

Road safety knowledge exchange and capacity building between China and Australia

Road traffic injuries are one of the major public health burdens worldwide. The United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020) implores all nations to work to reduce this burden. This decade represents a unique and historic period of time in the field of road safety. Information exchange and co-operation between nations is an important step in achieving the goal. The burden of road crashes, fatalities and injuries is not equally distributed. We know that low and middle-income countries experience the majority of the road trauma burden. Therefore it is imperative that these countries learn from the successes of others that have developed and implemented road safety laws, public education campaigns and countermeasures over many years and have achieved significant road trauma reductions as a result. China is one of the countries experiencing a large road trauma burden. Vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists make up a large proportion of fatalities and injuries in China. Speeding, impaired/drug driving, distracted driving, vehicle overloading, inadequate road infrastructure, limited use of safety restraints and helmets, and limited road safety training have all been identified as contributing to the problem. Some important steps have been taken to strengthen China’s approach, including increased penalties for drunk driving in May 2011 and increased attention to school bus safety in 2011/12. However, there is still a large amount of work needed to improve the current road safety position in China. This paper provides details of a program to assist with road safety knowledge exchange between China and Australia that was funded by the Australian Government which was undertaken in the latter part of 2012. The four month program provided the opportunity for the first author to work closely with key agencies in Australia that are responsible for policy development and implementation of a broad range of road safety initiatives. In doing so, an in-depth understanding was gained about key road safety strategies in Australia and processes for developing and implementing them. Insights were also gained into the mechanisms used for road safety policy development, implementation and evaluation in several Australian jurisdictions. Road traffic law and enforcement issues were explored with the relevant jurisdictional transport and police agencies to provide a greater understanding of how Chinese laws and practices could be enhanced. Working with agencies responsible for public education and awareness campaigns about road safety in Australia also provided relevant information about how to promote road safety at the broader community level in China. Finally, the program provided opportunities to work closely with several world-renowned Australian research centres and key expert researchers to enhance opportunities for ongoing road safety research in China. The overall program provided the opportunity for the first author to develop knowledge in key areas of road safety strategy development, implementation and management which are directly relevant to the current situation in China. This paper describes some main observations and findings from participation in the program.

Academic legal research and academic research capacity enhancement working topic : "purposes and objectives of law schools beyond educating students (research, capacity building,community service and outreach)"

One of the main objectives of law schools beyond educating students is to produce viable legal research. The comments in this paper are basically confined to the Australian context, and to examine this topic effectively, it is necessary to briefly review the current tertiary research agenda in Australia. This paper argues that there is a need for recognition and support for an expanded legal research framework along with additional research training for legal academics. There also needs to be more effective methods of measuring and recognising quality in legal research. This method needs to be one that can engender respect in an interdisciplinary context.

A short-term production scheduling methodology for open-pit mines

A multi-resource multi-stage scheduling methodology is developed to solve short-term open-pit mine production scheduling problems as a generic multi-resource multi-stage scheduling problem. It is modelled using essential characteristics of short-term mining production operations such as drilling, sampling, blasting and excavating under the capacity constraints of mining equipment at each processing stage. Based on an extended disjunctive graph model, a shifting-bottleneck-procedure algorithm is enhanced and applied to obtain feasible short-term open-pit mine production schedules and near-optimal solutions. The proposed methodology and its solution quality are verified and validated using a real mining case study.