Design on the future: developing and enacting sustainable living programs in primary schools

Sustainable living is high on the international agenda (Ginsberg & Frame, 2004; Sutton, 2004). If education is fundamental to global transformation towards sustainability, then schools are in strategic positions to facilitate this change. Over recent years, schools in Australia have become more active in encouraging sustainability with the implementation of programs such as Science Education for Sustainable Living (SESL) that focus on topics such as energy efficiency, recycling, enhancing biodiversity, protecting species, and managing resources. This paper reports on a government funded Australian School Innovation in Science, Technology and Mathematics (ASISTM) project titled “Integrating science, technology and mathematics for understanding sustainable living” in which teachers, preservice teachers and other science professionals worked collaboratively to plan and enact a range of SESL programs for primary school students. Participants in this study included: 6 teachers, 5 preservice teachers, 2 university partners, 2 scientists, 4 consultants, and over 250 primary students. The findings from this qualitative study revealed a need for: (1) professional development for understanding SESL, (2) procedures for establishing and implementing SESL, and (3) strategies to devise, implement and evaluate SESL units of work.

Fashion localisation in a global aesthetic market

This paper investigates how fashion circulates globally and is adapted and localised by consumers. The rise of fashion blogs, social networking, on-line retail and on-line streaming of fashion shows has exponentially increased the availability of fashion images globally, enabling a further multiplication of styles and looks. The geographical dispersion of production systems in third world countries, and the concentration of management and finance in first world countries are increasingly acknowledged as having an uneven social and economic effect. However, processes of hibridisation and creolisation give rise to new cultural forms where the local and the foreign are mixed in interesting ways. I argue that the current circulation of fashion must be understood as adaptation in which “outside aesthetic influence is integrated into and becomes part of an existing style tradition” (Lynch and Strauss, 2007, p. 154). This emergence of new local and eclectic styles denies assumptions in which consumers are disengaged while duped by a system of commodification. The paper argues that, through a process of “deterritorialisation”, “displacement” and “repatriation” (Appadurai 1996, p. 32), creative ordinary consumers are able to engage with fashion, reinventing it in the context of their local cultures.

AskNow Instant Messaging: innovation in virtual reference

In late 2006, the National Library of Australia implemented a trial Instant Messaging service that ran in parallel with the AskNow chat reference service for a six month period. The trial was a resounding success, proving both a demand for an IM service and the suitability of the medium for reference service provision in a collaborative environment. The trial also allowed the collection of a significant body of data on user expectations, librarian experience and the nature of enquiries. This article begins by introducing the concept of IM and discusses the impetus for its use as a channel for reference service provision. It presents and analyses data collected from user surveys, session transcripts, usage statistics, staff surveys and other staff feedback mechanisms, and explores the issues arising from the data analysis. The article concludes by discussing the IM system architecture that the NLA is currently developing, which will allow the Library to move forward with an ongoing IM service.

Domestic and international innovation partnerships : do they matter for innovation outcomes of South African firms?

This paper studies the impact of the diversity of domestic and international innovation partnerships on the innovation outcomes of South African firms. A number of competing hypotheses are formulated and tested empirically using a sample of South African firms in manufacturing and services by applying Ordinary Least Squares regression analyses. Results show that having an innovation partnership, particularly an international partnership, is beneficial to innovation outcomes. However, it also emerges that too diverse a set of international partnerships is detrimental to innovation outcomes. The paper concludes with a discussion and a number of proposals for future research.

Crime: local and global

Crime: Local and Global covers the way local events (such as prostitution) have wider aspects than previously thought. Links with people traffickers, international organised crime and violence cannot be ignored any longer. Each crime or area of activity selected within this text has a global reach, and is made ever more possible due to the way globalisation has opened up markets, both legitimate and illegitimate. The book's approach and scope emphasises that we can no longer view 'crime' as something which occurs within certain jurisdictions, at certain times and in particular places. For example, the chapter on cybercrime highlights the 'illegal' acts that can be perpetrated by second lifers, anywhere in the world, but are they a crime?

Urban food futures : ICTs and opportunities

Food is a vital foundation of all human life. It is essential to a myriad of political, socio-cultural, economic and environmental practices throughout history. However, those practices of food production, consumption, and distribution have the potential to now go through immensely transformative shifts as network technologies become increasingly embedded in every domain of contemporary life. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are one of the key foundations of global functionality and sustenance today and undoubtedly will continue to present new challenges and opportunities for the future. As such, this Symposium will bring together leading scholars across disciplines to address challenges and opportunities at the intersection of food and ICTs in everyday urban environment. In particular, the discussion will revolve around the question: What are the key roles that network technologies play in re-shaping the food systems at micro- to macroscopic level? The symposium will contribute a unique perspective on urban food futures through the lens of network society paradigm where ICTs enable innovations in production, organisation, and communication within society. Some of the topics addressed will include encouraging transparency in food commodity chains; value of cultural understanding and communication in global food sustainability; and technologies to social inclusion; all of which evoke and examine the question surrounding networked individuals as changes catalysts for urban food futures. The event will provide an avenue for new discussions and speculations on key issues surrounding urban food futures in the network era, with a particular focus on bottom-up micro actions that challenge the existing food systems towards a broader sociocultural, political, technological, and environmental transformations. One central area of concern is that current systems of food production, distribution, and consumption do not ensure food security for the future, but rather seriously threaten it. With the recent unprecedented scale of urban growth and rise of middle-class, the problem continues to intensify. This situation requires extensive distribution networks to feed urban residents, and therefore poses significant infrastructural challenges to both the public and private sectors. The symposium will also address the transferability of citizen empowerment that network technologies enable as demonstrated in various significant global political transformations from the bottom-up, such as the recent Egyptian Youth Revolution. Another key theme of the discussion will be the role of ICTs (and the practices that they mediate) in fostering transparency in commodity chains. The symposium will ask what differences these technologies can make on the practices of food consumption and production. After discussions, we will initiate an international network of food-thinkers and actors that will function as a platform for knowledge sharing and collaborations. The participants will be invited to engage in planning for the on-going future development of the network.

The business of fashion : entrepreneurship and enterprise learning for the new ‘creative’ global marketplace – the Australian case study [Abstract]

While the fashion industry is normally first to recognise trends and embrace creativity, fashion designers are sometimes the last to acknowledge that business acumen and entrepreneurial skills are needed. However, fashion designers and entrepreneurs are now all members of the new ‘creative’ global marketplace with its inherent need to sell globally and be competitive with international brands. For the Australian industry, this tension creates enormous pressures due to Australia’s small population (and market/s), the decreasing textile and manufacturing base, the increase of ‘creative’ micro businesses and with this the increasing number of young Australians wanting to start their own fashion business. This paper highlights the current size of the Australian fashion industry, the trend for small business models, the ‘career portfolio’ entrepreneur and strategies Australian universities are undertaking to address students wishing to enter the business of fashion. It also identifies case studies where enterprise learning pedagogy has been successfully implemented into the business education of an Australian fashion program and concludes with recommendations for an enterprise pedagogy that creates authentic learning, while working with industry and community stakeholders in flexible university formats.

Design led innovation as a means to sustain social innovation enterprises

This proposition challenges the notion that clean technology firms, who form part of the emerging social innovation enterprise sector, do not have the resources to gain value from Design Led innovation practices, due to their size and operational constraints. Much has been written on the benefits of linking design and design thinking to organisational strategy and business transformation. The term Design Led in the context of this proposition is defined as the tools and approaches which enable design thinking to be embedded as a cultural transformation within a business. Being Design Led requires a company to have a vision for top line growth within their business, which is based on deep customer insights and expanded through customer and stakeholder engagements, with the outcomes being mapped to all aspects of the business to enable the vision to be achieved.

Biomaterials in orthopedic bone plates : a review

This paper aims to review biomaterials used in manufacturing bone plates including advances in recent years and prospect in the future. It has found among all biomaterials, currently titanium and stainless steel alloys are the most common in production of bone plates. Other biomaterials such as Mg alloys, Ta alloys, SMAs, carbon fiber composites and bioceramics are potentially suitable for bone plates because of their advantages in biocompatibility, bioactivity and biodegradability. However, today either they are not used in bone plates or have limited applications in only some flexible small-size implants. This problem is mainly related to their poor mechanical properties. Additionally, production processes play an effective role. Therefore, in the future, further studies should be conducted to solve these problems and make them feasible for heavy-duty bone plates.

Chlamydia

Chlamydial infections of humans can cause blindness and infertility as a result of diseases such as keratoconjunctivitis (trachoma), urethritis and cervicitis. However, in greater than half of all chlamydial diseases in males and females there are no signs or symptoms of infection. Chlamydia trachomatis is the causative bacterial organism responsible for the global estimate of 40.6 million people currently suffering with active trachoma and for the five million new cases of sexually transmitted infections each year in the United States of America. Even though antibiotics are available to treat Chlamydia, the incidence of each of these primarily asymptomatic infections continues to increase. In this Chapter we review the current knowledge of C.trachomatis including clinicial diseases and sequelae, the chlamydial developmental cycle in vivo, immunobiology and immune responses to infections, chlamydial genomics and vaccine development.

Evaluation of novel Streptococcus pyogenes vaccine candidates incorporating multiple conserved sequences from the C-repeat region of the M-protein

A major challenge for Streptococcus pyogenes vaccine development is the identification of epitopes that confer protection from infection by multiple S. pyogenes M-types. Here we have identified and characterised the distribution of common variant sequences from individual repeat units of the C-repeat region (CRR) of M-proteins representing 77 different M-types. Three polyvalent fusion vaccine candidates (SV1, SV2 and SV3) incorporating the most common variants were subsequently expressed and purified, and demonstrated to be alpha-helical by Circular Dichroism (CD), a secondary conformational characteristic of the CRR in the M-protein. Antibodies raised against each of these constructs recognise M-proteins that vary in their CRR, and bind to the surface of multiple S. pyogenes isolates. Antibodies raised against SV1, containing five variant sequences, also kill heterologous S. pyogenes isolates in in vitro bactericidal assays. Further structural characterisation of this construct demonstrated the conformation of SV1 was stable at different pHs, and thermal unfolding of SV1 a reversible process. Our findings demonstrate that linkage of multiple variant sequences into a single recombinant construct overcomes the need to embed the variant sequences in foreign helix promoting flanking sequences for conformational stability, and demonstrates the viability of the polyvalent candidates as global S. pyogenes vaccine candidates.

Communications and learning structures that facilitate transfer of knowledge at innovation transition points

Innovation processes are rarely smooth and disruptions often occur at transition points were one knowledge domain passes the technology on to another domain. At these transition points communication is a key component in assisting the smooth hand over of technologies. However for smooth transitions to occur we argue that appropriate structures have to be in place and boundary spanning activities need to be facilitated. This paper presents three case studies of innovation processes and the findings support the view that structures and boundary spanning are essential for smooth transitions. We have explained the need to pass primary responsibility between agents to successfully bring an innovation to market. We have also shown the need to combine knowledge through effective communication so that absorptive capacity is built in process throughout the organisation rather than in one or two key individuals.

Utilizing industry-led innovation capacity to enhance supply chain performance : an empirical study

A fundamental principle of the resource-based (RBV) of the firm is that the basis for a competitive advantage lies primarily in the application of bundles of valuable strategic capabilities and resources at a firm’s or supply chain’s disposal. These capabilities enact research activities and outputs produced by industry funded R&D bodies. Such industry lead innovations are seen as strategic industry resources, because effective utilization of industry innovation capacity by sectors such as the Australian beef industry are critical, if productivity levels are to increase. Academics and practitioners often maintain that dynamic supply chains and innovation capacity are the mechanisms most likely to deliver performance improvements in national industries.. Yet many industries are still failing to capitalise on these strategic resources. In this research, we draw on the resource-based view (RBV) and embryonic research into strategic supply chain capabilities. We investigate how two strategic supply chain capabilities (supply chain performance differential capability and supply chain dynamic capability) influence industry-led innovation capacity utilization and provide superior performance enhancements to the supply chain. In addition, we examine the influence of size of the supply chain operative as a control variable. Results indicate that both small and large supply chain operatives in this industry believe these strategic capabilities influence and function as second-order latent variables of this strategic supply chain resource. Additionally respondents acknowledge size does impacts both the amount of influence these strategic capabilities have and the level of performance enhancement expected by supply chain operatives from utilizing industry-led innovation capacity. Results however also indicate contradiction in this industry and in relation to existing literature when it comes to utilizing such e-resources.

The internet and the changing global media environment

This chapter describes current trends in the global media environment, with a focus on their implications for the management of public agendas and political processes. It assesses the extent to which trends such as the growth of the blogosphere, "citizen journalism," and other forms if user-generated content, have complicated and problematized news and agenda management as engaged in by both media and political elites. It argues that, in large part due to the rise of the internet and the proliferation if online producers of information and commentary, alongside 24-hour news channels such as CNN and Al Jazeera, political and social actors today face a much more complex, chaotic communication environment than ever bifore, an environment characterized as one of cultural chaos. Having outlined the roots of this trend in the emergence of an expanded, globalized public sphere, the chapter goes on to ask if elite control over the political agenda has been eroded, and if it has, what the consequences for governmmt and the exercise if power might be. Can authoritarian regimes in China, the Middle East, and elsewhere survive the onset if internet-fueled global journalism, for example? In a political environment where public opinion is driven and buffeted by news coverage if unprecedented speed and volume, can democratic governments retain sufficient control over decision- and policy-making processes to enable competent social administration al'ld political management? Can the citizens of contemporary democracies use the emerging media environment to enhance elite accountability and strengthen the democratic process? The chapter concludes that the changing global media environment has the potmtial to strengthen democratic processes, though there is no sil'lgle template for the impact of the internet and other new media on specific countries.