Year 7 students’ approaches to understanding and solving NAPLAN numeracy problems

This study investigated how the interpretation of mathematical problems by Year 7 students impacted on their ability to demonstrate what they can do in NAPLAN numeracy testing. In the study, mathematics is viewed as a culturally and socially determined system of signs and signifiers that establish the meaning, origins and importance of mathematics. The study hypothesises that students are unable to succeed in NAPLAN numeracy tests because they cannot interpret the questions, even though they may be able to perform the necessary calculations. To investigate this, the study applied contemporary theories of literacy to the context of mathematical problem solving. A case study design with multiple methods was used. The study used a correlation design to explore the connections between NAPLAN literacy and numeracy outcomes of 198 Year 7 students in a Queensland school. Additionally, qualitative methods provided a rich description of the effect of the various forms of NAPLAN numeracy questions on the success of ten Year 7 students in the same school. The study argues that there is a quantitative link between reading and numeracy. It illustrates that interpretation (literacy) errors are the most common error type in the selected NAPLAN questions, made by students of all abilities. In contrast, conceptual (mathematical) errors are less frequent amongst more capable students. This has important implications in preparing students for NAPLAN numeracy tests. The study concluded by recommending that increased focus on the literacies of mathematics would be effective in improving NAPLAN results.

A review of optimization techniques used in the design of fibre composite structures for civil engineering applications

Fibre composite structures have become the most attractive candidate for civil engineering applications. Fibre reinforced plastic polymer (FRP) composite materials have been used in the rehabilitation and replacement of the old degrading traditional structures or build new structures. However, the lack of design standards for civil infrastructure limits their structural applications. The majority of the existing applications have been designed based on the research and guidelines provided by the fibre composite manufacturers or based on the designer’s experience. It has been a tendency that the final structure is generally over-designed. This paper provides a review on the available studies related to the design optimization of fibre composite structures used in civil engineering such as; plate, beam, box beam, sandwich panel, bridge girder, and bridge deck. Various optimization methods are presented and compared. In addition, the importance of using the appropriate optimization technique is discussed. An improved methodology, which considering experimental testing, numerical modelling, and design constrains, is proposed in the paper for design optimization of composite structures.

A node-based smoothed conforming point interpolation method (NS-CPIM) for elasticity problems

This paper formulates a node-based smoothed conforming point interpolation method (NS-CPIM) for solid mechanics. In the proposed NS-CPIM, the higher order conforming PIM shape functions (CPIM) have been constructed to produce a continuous and piecewise quadratic displacement field over the whole problem domain, whereby the smoothed strain field was obtained through smoothing operation over each smoothing domain associated with domain nodes. The smoothed Galerkin weak form was then developed to create the discretized system equations. Numerical studies have demonstrated the following good properties: NS-CPIM (1) can pass both standard and quadratic patch test; (2) provides an upper bound of strain energy; (3) avoid the volumetric locking; (4) provides the higher accuracy than those in the node-based smoothed schemes of the original PIMs.

Re-thinking how we plan to address technically complex problems : drawing on planning theory to guide practice in revision of land use plans in coastal high hazard zones

Queensland's new State Planning Policy for Coastal Protection, released in March and approved in April 2011 as part of the Queensland Coastal Plan, stipulates that local governments prepare and implement adaptation strategies for built up areas projected to be subject to coastal hazards between present day and 2100. Urban localities within the delineated coastal high hazard zone (as determined by models incorporating a 0.8 meter rise in sea level and a 10% increase in the maximum cyclone activity) will be required to re-evaluate their plans to accommodate growth, revising land use plans to minimise impacts of anticipated erosion and flooding on developed areas and infrastructure. While implementation of such strategies would aid in avoidance or minimisation of risk exposure, communities are likely to face significant challenges in such implementation, especially as development in Queensland is so intensely focussed upon its coasts with these new policies directing development away from highly desirable waterfront land. This paper examines models of planning theory to understand how we plan when faced with technically complex problems towards formulation of a framework for evaluating and improving practice.

Problems with a great idea : referral by prehospital emergency services to a community-based falls-prevention service

Background and aim Falls are the leading cause of injury in older adults. Identifying people at risk before they experience a serious fall requiring hospitalisation allows an opportunity to intervene earlier and potentially reduce further falls and subsequent healthcare costs. The purpose of this project was to develop a referral pathway to a community falls-prevention team for older people who had experienced a fall attended by a paramedic service and who were not transported to hospital. It was also hypothesised that providing intervention to this group of clients would reduce future falls-related ambulance call-outs, emergency department presentations and hospital admissions. Methods An education package, referral pathway and follow-up procedures were developed. Both services had regular meetings, and work shadowing with the paramedics was also trialled to encourage more referrals. A range of demographic and other outcome measures were collected to compare people referred through the paramedic pathway and through traditional pathways. Results Internal data from the Queensland Ambulance Service indicated that there were approximately six falls per week by community-dwelling older persons in the eligible service catchment area (south west Brisbane metropolitan area) who were attended to by Queensland Ambulance Service paramedics, but not transported to hospital during the 2-year study period (2008–2009). Of the potential 638 eligible patients, only 17 (2.6%) were referred for a falls assessment. Conclusion Although this pilot programme had support from all levels of management as well as from the service providers, it did not translate into actual referrals. Several explanations are provided for these preliminary findings.

Wound problems following hip arthroplasty before and after the introduction of a direct thrombin inhibitor for thromboprophylaxis

NICE guidelines have stated that patients undergoing elective hip surgery are at increased risk for venous thromboembolic events (VTE) following surgery and have recommended thromboprophylaxis for 28-35 days1, 2. However the studies looking at the new direct thrombin inhibitors have only looked at major bleeding. We prospectively looked at wound discharge in patients who underwent hip arthroplasty and were given dabigatran postoperatively between March 2010 and April 2010 (n=56). We retrospectively compared these results to a matched group of patients who underwent similar operations six months earlier when all patients were given dalteparin routinely postoperatively until discharge, and discharged home on 150mg aspirin daily for 6 weeks (n=67). Wound discharge after 5 days was significantly higher in the patients taking dabigatran (32% dabigatran n=18, 10% dalteparin n=17, p=0.003) and our rate of delayed discharges due to wound discharge significantly increased from 7% in the dalteparin group (n=5) to 27% for dabigatran (n=15, p=0.004). Patients who received dabigatran were more than five times as likely to return to theatre with a wound complication as those who received dalteparin (7% dabigatran n=4, vs. 1% dalteparin n=1), however, this was not statistically significant (p=0.18). The significantly higher wound discharge and return to theatre rates demonstrated in this study have meant that we have changed our practice to administering dalteparin until the wound is dry and then starting dabigatran. Our study demonstrates the need for further clinical studies regarding wound discharge and dabigatran.

Raising awareness of traffic pollution: the potential benefits and problems of using a warning smell

Exposure to traffic pollution is increasing worldwide as people move to cities, and as more vehicles join the roads, creating longer journeys and more traffic jams. Most traffic pollutants are odourless and invisible, which hides exposure from the public. If traffic pollution had a distinctive smell it would enable people to avoid exposure, and increase the political will for difficult policy changes. A smell may also instigate longer-term changes, such as switching to active transport for school pick-ups. A smell could be added using a fuel additive or a temporary device attached to vehicle exhausts.

Effective shear modulus approach for two dimensional solids and plate bending problems by meshless point collocation method

For the analysis of material nonlinearity, an effective shear modulus approach based on the strain control method is proposed in this paper by using point collocation method. Hencky’s total deformation theory is used to evaluate the effective shear modulus, Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio, which are treated as spatial field variables. These effective properties are obtained by the strain controlled projection method in an iterative manner. To evaluate the second order derivatives of shape function at the field point, the radial basis function (RBF) in the local support domain is used. Several numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method and comparisons have been made with analytical solutions and the finite element method (ABAQUS).

A descriptive approach for power system stability and security assessment

Power system dynamic analysis and security assessment are becoming more significant today due to increases in size and complexity from restructuring, emerging new uncertainties, integration of renewable energy sources, distributed generation, and micro grids. Precise modelling of all contributed elements/devices, understanding interactions in detail, and observing hidden dynamics using existing analysis tools/theorems are difficult, and even impossible. In this chapter, the power system is considered as a continuum and the propagated electomechanical waves initiated by faults and other random events are studied to provide a new scheme for stability investigation of a large dimensional system. For this purpose, the measured electrical indices (such as rotor angle and bus voltage) following a fault in different points among the network are used, and the behaviour of the propagated waves through the lines, nodes, and buses is analyzed. The impact of weak transmission links on a progressive electromechanical wave using energy function concept is addressed. It is also emphasized that determining severity of a disturbance/contingency accurately, without considering the related electromechanical waves, hidden dynamics, and their properties is not secure enough. Considering these phenomena takes heavy and time consuming calculation, which is not suitable for online stability assessment problems. However, using a continuum model for a power system reduces the burden of complex calculations

M-ary trees for combinatorial asset management decision problems

A novel m-ary tree based approach is presented to solve asset management decisions which are combinatorial in nature. The approach introduces a new dynamic constraint based control mechanism which is capable of excluding infeasible solutions from the solution space. The approach also provides a solution to the challenges with ordering of assets decisions.

Understanding user experience of mobile video : framework, measurement, and optimization

Since users have become the focus of product/service design in last decade, the term User eXperience (UX) has been frequently used in the field of Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI). Research on UX facilitates a better understanding of the various aspects of the user’s interaction with the product or service. Mobile video, as a new and promising service and research field, has attracted great attention. Due to the significance of UX in the success of mobile video (Jordan, 2002), many researchers have centered on this area, examining users’ expectations, motivations, requirements, and usage context. As a result, many influencing factors have been explored (Buchinger, Kriglstein, Brandt & Hlavacs, 2011; Buchinger, Kriglstein & Hlavacs, 2009). However, a general framework for specific mobile video service is lacking for structuring such a great number of factors. To measure user experience of multimedia services such as mobile video, quality of experience (QoE) has recently become a prominent concept. In contrast to the traditionally used concept quality of service (QoS), QoE not only involves objectively measuring the delivered service but also takes into account user’s needs and desires when using the service, emphasizing the user’s overall acceptability on the service. Many QoE metrics are able to estimate the user perceived quality or acceptability of mobile video, but may be not enough accurate for the overall UX prediction due to the complexity of UX. Only a few frameworks of QoE have addressed more aspects of UX for mobile multimedia applications but need be transformed into practical measures. The challenge of optimizing UX remains adaptations to the resource constrains (e.g., network conditions, mobile device capabilities, and heterogeneous usage contexts) as well as meeting complicated user requirements (e.g., usage purposes and personal preferences). In this chapter, we investigate the existing important UX frameworks, compare their similarities and discuss some important features that fit in the mobile video service. Based on the previous research, we propose a simple UX framework for mobile video application by mapping a variety of influencing factors of UX upon a typical mobile video delivery system. Each component and its factors are explored with comprehensive literature reviews. The proposed framework may benefit in user-centred design of mobile video through taking a complete consideration of UX influences and in improvement of mobile videoservice quality by adjusting the values of certain factors to produce a positive user experience. It may also facilitate relative research in the way of locating important issues to study, clarifying research scopes, and setting up proper study procedures. We then review a great deal of research on UX measurement, including QoE metrics and QoE frameworks of mobile multimedia. Finally, we discuss how to achieve an optimal quality of user experience by focusing on the issues of various aspects of UX of mobile video. In the conclusion, we suggest some open issues for future study.

When individual child psychotherapy exacerbates family systems problems in child abuse cases : a clinical analysis

Children who have suffered physical or sexual abuse are as vulnerable as adult trauma victims to experience "secondary trauma", in which the reactions of the family or broader system exacerbate the child's difficulties. Three clinical cases (a 7 yr old male, an 8 yr old male, and a 7 yr old female) are presented that suggest that this secondary trauma can be made worse by either excessive or insufficient provision of individual child psychotherapy, and the way the system interprets and reacts to these clinical decisions. Types of secondary trauma and their interactions with clinical decisions are discussed. Ways of framing clinical decisions to minimize the potential secondary trauma are presented.

Rethinking prefabricated construction management using the VP-based IKEA model in Hong Kong

Prefabricated construction is regarded by many as an effective and efficient approach to improving construction processes and productivity, ensuring construction quality and reducing time and cost in the construction industry. However, many problems occur with this approach in practice, including higher risk levels and cost or time overruns. In order to solve such problems, it is proposed that the IKEA model of the manufacturing industry and VP technology are introduced into a prefabricated construction process. The concept of the IKEA model is identified in detail and VP technology is briefly introduced. In conjunction with VP technology, the applications of the IKEA model are presented in detail, i.e. design optimization, production optimization and installation optimization. Furthermore, through a case study of a prefabricated hotel project in Hong Kong, it is shown that the VP-based IKEA model can improve the efficiency and safety of prefabricated construction as well as reducing cost and time.

Development priority zoning (DPZ)-led scenario simulation for regional land use change : the case of Suichang County, China

China has experienced an extraordinary level of economic development since the 1990s, following excessive competition between different regions. This has resulted in many resource and environmental problems. Land resources, for example, are either abused or wasted in many regions. The strategy of development priority zoning (DPZ), proposed by the Chinese National 11th Five-Year Plan, provides an opportunity to solve these problems by coordinating regional development and protection. In line with the rational utilization of land, it is proposed that the DPZ strategy should be integrated with regional land use policy. As there has been little research to date on this issue, this paper introduces a system dynamic (SD) model for assessing land use change in China led by the DPZ strategy. Land use is characterized by the prioritization of land development, land utilization, land harness and land protection (D-U-H-P). By using the Delphi method, a corresponding suitable prioritization of D-U-H-P for the four types of DPZ, including optimized development zones (ODZ), key development zones (KDZ), restricted development zones (RDZ), and forbidden development zones (FDZ) are identified. Suichang County is used as a case study in which to conduct the simulation of land use change under the RDZ strategy. The findings enable a conceptualization to be made of DPZ-led land use change and the identification of further implications for land use planning generally. The SD model also provides a potential tool for local government to combine DPZ strategy at the national level with land use planning at the local level.