The predictors of active ageing of older Australians : the triple a study

The concept of older adults contributing to society in a meaningful way has been termed ‘active ageing’. Active ageing reflects changes in prevailing theories of social and psychological aspects of ageing, with a focus on individuals' strengths as opposed to their deficits or pathology. In order to explore predictors of active ageing, the Australian Active Ageing (Triple A) project group undertook a national postal survey of participants over the age of 50 years recruited randomly through their 2004 membership of a large Australia-wide senior's organisation. The survey comprised 178 items covering paid and voluntary work, learning, social, spiritual, emotional, health and home, life events and demographic items. A 45% response rate (2655 returned surveys) reflected an expected balance of gender, age and geographic representation of participants. The data were analysed using data mining techniques to represent generalizations on individual situations. Data mining identifies the valid, novel, potentially useful and understandable patterns and trends in data. The results based on the clustering mining technique indicate that physical and emotional health combined with the desire to learn were the most significant factors when considering active ageing. The findings suggest that remaining active in later life is not only directly related to the maintenance of emotional and physical health, but may be significantly intertwined with the opportunity to engage in on-going learning activities that are relevant to the individual. The findings of this study suggest that practitioners and policy makers need to incorporate older peoples' learning needs within service and policy framework developments.

Health service pathways for patients with chronic leg ulcers : identifying effective pathways for facilitation of evidence based wound care

Background: Chronic leg ulcers cause long term ill-health for older adults and the condition places a significant burden on health service resources. Although evidence on effective management of the condition is available, a significant evidence-practice gap is known to exist, with many suggested reasons e.g. multiple care providers, costs of care and treatments. This study aimed to identify effective health service pathways of care which facilitated evidence-based management of chronic leg ulcers. Methods: A sample of 70 patients presenting with a lower limb leg or foot ulcer at specialist wound clinics in Queensland, Australia were recruited for an observational study and survey. Retrospective data were collected on demographics, health, medical history, treatments, costs and health service pathways in the previous 12 months. Prospective data were collected on health service pathways, pain, functional ability, quality of life, treatments, wound healing and recurrence outcomes for 24 weeks from admission. Results: Retrospective data indicated that evidence based guidelines were poorly implemented prior to admission to the study, e.g. only 31% of participants with a lower limb ulcer had an ABPI or duplex assessment in the previous 12 months. On average, participants accessed care 2–3 times/week for 17 weeks from multiple health service providers in the twelve months before admission to the study clinics. Following admission to specialist wound clinics, participants accessed care on average once per week for 12 weeks from a smaller range of providers. The median ulcer duration on admission to the study was 22 weeks (range 2–728 weeks). Following admission to wound clinics, implementation of key indicators of evidence based care increased (p<0.001) and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis found the median time to healing was 12 weeks (95% CI 9.3–14.7). Implementation of evidence based care was significantly related to improved healing outcomes (p<0.001). Conclusions: This study highlights the complexities involved in accessing expertise and evidence based wound care for adults with chronic leg or foot ulcers. Results demonstrate that access to wound management expertise can promote streamlined health services and evidence based wound care, leading to efficient use of health resources and improved health.

Analysis of multilateral service conversations in global business networks

The rapid growth of services available on the Internet and exploited through ever globalizing business networks poses new challenges for service interoperability. New services, from consumer “apps”, enterprise suites, platform and infrastructure resources, are vying for demand with quickly evolving and overlapping capabilities, and shorter cycles of extending service access from user interfaces to software interfaces. Services, drawn from a wider global setting, are subject to greater change and heterogeneity, demanding new requirements for structural and behavioral interface adaptation. In this paper, we analyze service interoperability scenarios in global business networks, and propose new patterns for service interactions, above those proposed over the last 10 years through the development of Web service standards and process choreography languages. By contrast, we reduce assumptions of design-time knowledge required to adapt services, giving way to run-time mismatch resolutions, extend the focus from bilateral to multilateral messaging interactions, and propose declarative ways in which services and interactions take part in long-running conversations via the explicit use of state.

Service condition of railroad corridors around the insulated rail joints

Railroad corridors contain large number of Insulated Rail Joints (IRJs) that act as safety critical elements in the circuitries of the signaling and broken rail identification systems. IRJs are regarded as sources of excitation for the passage of loaded wheels leading to high impact forces; these forces in turn cause dips, cross levels and twists to the railroad geometry in close proximity to the sections containing the IRJs in addition to the local damages to the railhead of the IRJs. Therefore, a systematic monitoring of the IRJs in railroad is prudent to mitigate potential risk of their sudden failure (e.g., broken tie plates) under the traffic. This paper presents a simple method of periodic recording of images using time-lapse photography and total station surveying measurements to understand the ongoing deterioration of the IRJs and their surroundings. Over a 500 day period, data were collected to examine the trends in narrowing of the joint gap due to plastic deformation the railhead edges and the dips, cross levels and twists caused to the railroad geometry due to the settlement of ties (sleepers) around the IRJs. The results reflect that the average progressive settlement beneath the IRJs is larger than that under the continuously welded rail, which leads to excessive deviation of railroad profile, cross levels and twists.

The influence of online reviews on consumers’ attributions of service quality and control for service standards in hotels

Online travel reviews are emerging as a powerful source of information affecting tourists' pre-purchase evaluation of a hotel organization. This trend has highlighted the need for a greater understanding of the impact of online reviews on consumer attitudes and behaviors. In view of this need, we investigate the influence of online hotel reviews on consumers' attributions of service quality and firms' ability to control service delivery. An experimental design was used to examine the effects of four independent variables: framing; valence; ratings; and target. The results suggest that in reviews evaluating a hotel, remarks related to core services are more likely to induce positive service quality attributions. Recent reviews affect customers' attributions of controllability for service delivery, with negative reviews exerting an unfavorable influence on consumers' perceptions. The findings highlight the importance of managing the core service and the need for managers to act promptly in addressing customer service problems.

Mentoring pre-service teachers on school students’ differentiated learning

This Australian study explores the mentoring of pre-service teachers in selecting and implementing teaching strategies to meet students‟ learning needs. Two case studies involving 28 mentor teachers in a professional development program and a mentor-mentee partnership during a four week practicum provided data about mentoring teaching strategies for differentiated learning. Findings showed that contexts for learning about differentiation occurred at the pre action, in-action, and post-action stages. Central to each stage were pedagogical knowledge practices such as planning, preparation, classroom management, assessment, and problem solving (reflection-in-action to present solutions to problems) as key to in-action strategising and the mentoring processes. Mentoring pre-service teachers on how to devise teaching strategies for differentiated learning needs to be researched with a wider range of mentors and pre-service teachers, including those at different stages of development.

Situational non-flammable control valves for oxygen service

Past work has clearly demonstrated that numerous commonly used metallic materials will support burning in oxygen, especially at higher pressures. An approach to rectify this significant safety problem has been successfully developed and implemented by applying the concept of Situational Non-Flammability. This approach essentially removes or breaks one leg of the conceptual fire triangle, a tool commonly used to define the three things that are required to support burning; a fuel, an ignition source and an oxidizer. Since an oxidiser is always present in an oxygen system as are ignition sources, the concept of Situational Non-Flammability essentially removes the fuel leg of the fire triangle by only utilising materials that will not burn at the maximum pressure, for example, that the control valve is to be used in. The utilisation of this approach has lead to the development of a range of oxygen components that are practically unable to burn while in service at their design pressure thus providing an unparalleled level of first safety while not compromising on the performance or endurance required in the function of these components. This paper describes the concept of Situational Non-Flammability, how it was used to theoretically evaluate designs of components for oxygen service and the outcomes of the actual development, fabrication and finally utilisation of these components in real oxygen systems in a range of flow control devices.

Advanced practice nursing role development : factor analysis of a modified role delineation tool

Aim his study reports the use of exploratory factor analysis to determine construct validity of a modified advanced practice role delineation tool. Background Little research exists on specific activities and domains of practice within advanced practice nursing roles, making it difficult to define service parameters of this level of nursing practice. A valid and reliable tool would assist those responsible for employing or deploying advanced practice nurses by identifying and defining their service profile. This is the third paper from a multi-phase Australian study aimed at assigning advanced practice roles. Methods A postal survey was conducted of a random sample of state government employed Registered nurses and midwives, across various levels and grades of practice in the state of Queensland, Australia, using the modified Advanced Practice Role Delineation tool. Exploratory factor analysis, using principal axis factoring was undertaken to examine factors in the modified tool. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient determined reliability of the overall scale and identified factors. Results There were 658 responses (42% response rate). The five factors found with loadings of ≥.400 for 40 of the 41 APN activities were similar to the five domains in the Strong model. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was .94 overall and for the factors ranged from 0.83 to 0.95. Conclusion Exploratory factor analysis of the modified tool supports validity of the five domains of the original tool. Further investigation will identify use of the tool in a broader healthcare environment.

Public service versus private interest : a comparative analysis of the Australian and British debates

This paper will compare and evaluate the effectiveness of commercial media lobbying and advocacy against public service media in two countries, the United Kingdom and Australia. The paper will focus empirically on the commercial media coverage of public service media issues in these countries (relating to the BBC and ABC respectively) over the period since the election of the Conservative-led Coalition in Britain in June 2010, and the election of the Gillard government in Australia in August 2010. Reference will be made to preceding periods as relevant to an understanding of the current environment. In both countries the main commercial media rival to public service media is News Corp and its associated organisations – News Ltd and Sky News in Australia, and News International and BSkyB in the UK. The paper will examine with analysis of print and online news and commentary content how News Corp outlets have reported and commented on the activities and plans of public service media as the latter have developed and extended their presence on digital TV and online platforms. It will also consider the responses of the ABC and BBC to these interventions. It will consider, thirdly, the responses of Australian and British governments to these debates, and the policy outcomes. This section of the paper will seek to evaluate the trajectory of the policy-public-private dynamic in recent years, and to draw conclusions as to the future direction of policy. Particular attention will be devoted to recent key moments in this unfolding dialogue. In Britain, debates around the efforts of News Corp to take over 100% of BSkyB, both before and after the breaking of the phone-hacking scandal in July 2011; in Australia, the debate around the National Broadband Network and the competitive tender process for ABC World, that country’s public service transnational broadcaster; and other key moments where rivalry between News Corp companies and public service media became mainstream news stories provoking wider public debate. The paper will conclude with recommendations as to how public service media organisations might engage constructively with commercial organisations in the future, including News Corp, and taking into account emerging technological and financial challenges to traditional rationales for public service provision.

Walk@Work : an automated intervention to increase walking in university employees not achieving 10,000 daily steps

This study assessed the workday step counts of lower active (<10,000 daily steps) university employees using an automated, web-based walking intervention (Walk@Work). METHODS: Academic and administrative staff (n=390; 45.6±10.8years; BMI 27.2±5.5kg/m2; 290 women) at five campuses (Australia [x2], Canada, Northern Ireland and the United States), were given a pedometer, access to the website program (2010-11) and tasked with increasing workday walking by 1000 daily steps above baseline, every two weeks, over a six week period. Step count changes at four weeks post intervention were evaluated relative to campus and baseline walking. RESULTS: Across the sample, step counts significantly increased from baseline to post-intervention (1477 daily steps; p=0.001). Variations in increases were evident between campuses (largest difference of 870 daily steps; p=0.04) and for baseline activity status. Those least active at baseline (<5000 daily steps; n=125) increased step counts the most (1837 daily steps; p=0.001), whereas those most active (7500-9999 daily steps; n=79) increased the least (929 daily steps; p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Walk@Work increased workday walking by 25% in this sample overall. Increases occurred through an automated program, at campuses in different countries, and were most evident for those most in need of intervention.

Developing intercultural competence in pre-service teachers from Australia and Malaysia : insights from the “Patches” programme

Developing intercultural competence in pre-service teachers from Australia and Malaysia: Insights from a Patches program. Innovative pedagogies can offer pre-service teachers the opportunity to develop their intercultural competence and take up more globalised viewpoints. One such innovation is the Patches program which brought together Malaysian and Australian pre-service teachers who were studying at the same university in Brisbane, Australia, to actively explore issues of cultural and linguistic difference. The participants were 14 Australian fourth-year pre-service teachers who were enrolled in a program on inclusive education, and 58 Malaysian pre-service teachers who had recently arrived at the university in Brisbane to commence their second year of an international education program. In peer groupings, these domestic and international pre-service teachers engaged in a series of interactive tasks and reflective writing workshops exploring intercultural experiences, over a period of ten weeks. Each element or ‘patch’ in the program was designed to build up into a mosaic of intercultural learning. The flexible structuring of the Patches Program provided a supportive framework for participant interaction whilst allowing the groups to decide for themselves the nature and extent of their involvement in a series of community-related tasks. The process of negotiating and implementing these activities formed the basis for establishing meaningful relationships between the participants. The development of the participants’ intercultural competence is traced through their reflective narratives and focus group discussions, drawing on Byram’s concept of the five savoirs. Explaining aspects of Australian culture to their newly arrived Malaysian peers, allowed the Australian pre-service teachers to take a perspective of outsideness towards their own familiar social practices. In addition, being unusually positioned as the linguistic other amongst a group of Bahasa Melayu speakers, highlighted for the Australian pre-service teachers the importance of being inclusive. For the Malaysian pre-service teachers, participation in the Patches program helped to extend intercultural understandings, establish social networks with local students, and build a sense of community in their new learning environment. Both groups of pre-service teachers noted the power of “learning directly by interacting rather than through books”. In addition to interacting interculturally, the process of reflecting on these intercultural experiences is seen as integral to the development of intercultural competence.