Evaluation of the year 1 literacy and numeracy checkpoints assessments trial - 2010

The draft Year 1 Literacy and Numeracy Checkpoints Assessments were in open and supported trial during Semester 2, 2010. The purpose of these trials was to evaluate the Year 1 Literacy and Numeracy Checkpoints Assessments (hereafter the Year 1 Checkpoints) that were designed in 2009 as a way to incorporate the use of the Year 1 Literacy and Numeracy Indicators as formative assessment in Year 1 in Queensland Schools. In these trials there were no mandated reporting requirements. The processes of assessment were related to future teaching decisions. As such the trials were trials of materials and the processes of using those materials to assess students, plan and teach in year 1 classrooms. In their current form the Year 1 Checkpoints provide assessment resources for teachers to use in February, June and October. They aim to support teachers in monitoring children's progress and making judgments about their achievement of the targeted P‐3 Literacy and Numeracy Indicators by the end of Year 1 (Queensland Studies Authority, 2010 p. 1). The Year 1 Checkpoints include support materials for teachers and administrators, an introductory statement on assessment, work samples, and a Data Analysis Assessment Record (DAAR) to record student performance. The Supported Trial participants were also supported with face‐to‐face and on‐line training sessions, involvement in a moderation process after the October Assessments, opportunities to participate in discussion forums as well as additional readings and materials. The assessment resources aim to use effective early years assessment practices in that the evidence is gathered from hands‐on teaching and learning experiences, rather than more formal assessment methods. They are based in a model of assessment for learning, and aim to support teachers in the “on‐going process of determining future learning directions” (Queensland Studies Authority, 2010 p. 1) for all students. Their aim is to focus teachers on interpreting and analysing evidence to make informed judgments about the achievement of all students, as a way to support subsequent planning for learning and teaching. The Evaluation of the Year 1 Literacy and Numeracy Checkpoints Assessments Supported Trial (hereafter the Evaluation) aimed to gather information about the appropriateness, effectiveness and utility of the Year 1 Checkpoints Assessments from early years’ teachers and leaders in up to one hundred Education Queensland schools who had volunteered to be part of the Supported Trial. These sample schools represent schools across a variety of Education Queensland regions and include schools with:  - A high Indigenous student population; - Urban, rural and remote school locations; - Single and multi‐age early phase classes; - A high proportion of students from low SES backgrounds. The purpose of the Evaluation was to: Evaluate the materials and report on the views of school‐based staff involved in the trial on the process, materials, and assessment practices utilised. The Evaluation has reviewed the materials, and used surveys, interviews, and observations of processes and procedures to collect relevant data to help present an informed opinion on the Year 1 Checkpoints as assessment for the early years of schooling. Student work samples and teacher planning and assessment documents were also collected. The evaluation has not evaluated the Year 1 Checkpoints in any other capacity than as a resource for Year 1 teachers and relevant support staff.

Natural balancing of flying capacitor voltages in multicell inverter under PD carrier-based PWM

The flying capacitor multicell inverter (FCMI) possesses natural balancing property. With the phase-shifted (PS) carrier-based scheme, natural balancing can be achieved in a straightforward manner. However, to achieve natural balancing with the harmonically optimal phase-disposition (PD) carrierbased scheme, the conventional approaches require (n-1) x (n-1) trapezoidal carrier signals for an n-level inverter, which is (n-1) x (n-2) times more than that in the standard PD scheme. This paper proposes two improved natural balancing strategies for FMI under PD scheme, which use the same (n-1) carrier signals as used in the standard PD scheme. In the first scheme, on-line detection is performed of the band in which the modulation signal is located, corresponding period number of the carrier, and rising or falling half cycle of the carrier waveform to generate the switching signals based on certain rules. In the second strategy, the output voltage level selection is first processed and the switching signals are then generated according to a rule based on preferential cell selection algorithm. These methods are easy to use and can be simply implemented as compared to the other available methods. Simulation and experimental results are presented for a five-level inverter to verify these proposed schemes.

A critical analysis of global BPM demand

Business Process Management is accepted globally as an organisational approach that can be used to enhance productivity and drive cost efficiencies. Whilst there are numerous research articles that discuss this management approach, none clearly articulate the preferred BPM capabilities sought across geographic regions. This study aims to address this through a structured content analysis of leading on-line recruitment websites, supported by essential BPM capabilities - identified through leading academic BPM capability frameworks. Whilst the skills of process modelling, documentation and improvement were commonly sought, Enterprise level factors such as strategic alignment and process governance were less frequently mentioned. In addition, there are geographical differences in the BPM skill set requirements with an emphasis on process governance and organisational culture in European countries. This analysis can be used by prospective and current BPM professionals to understand organisational requirements globally, and academics to structure BPM education to suit these differing geographic demands.

The ecological dynamics of decision-making in sailing

Competitive sailing is characterised by continuous interdependencies of decisions and actions. All actions imply a permanent monitoring of the environmental conditions, such as intensity and direction of the wind, sea characteristics, and the behaviour of the opponent sailors. These constraints on sailors’ behavior are in constant change implying continuous adjustments in sailors’ actions and decisions. Among the different parts of a regatta, tactics and strategy at the start are particularly relevant. Among coaches there is an adage that says that “the start is 50% of a regatta” (Houghton, 1984; Saltonstall, 1983/1986). Olympic sailing regattas are performed with boats of the same class, by one, two or three sailors, depending on the boat class. Normally before the start, sailors visit the racing venue and analyse wind and sea characteristics, in order to fine- tune their boats accordingly. Then, five minutes before the start, sailors initiate starting procedures in order to be in a favourable position at the starting line (at the “second zero”). This position is selected during the start period according to wind shifts tendencies and the actions of other boats (Figure 11.1). Only after the start signal can the boats cross the imaginary starting line between the race committee signal boat “A” and the pin end boat. The start takes place against the wind (upwind), and the boats start racing in the direction of mark 1. Based on the evaluation of the sea and wind characteristics (e.g. if the wind is stronger at a particular place on the course), sailors re- adjust their strategy for the regatta. This strategy may change during the regatta, according to wind changes and adversary actions. More to the point, strategic decisions constrain and are constrained by on- line decisions during the regatta.

Libya and the international community’s 'responsibility to protect'

The Libyan regime’s attacks on its own civilian population are a test case for the international community’s commitment to the notion of a “responsibility to protect” (R2P). The UN Security Council’s statement on 22 February 2011 explicitly invoked this concept by calling on “the Government of Libya to meet its responsibility to protect its population”. Yet, with Muammar Gaddafi encouraging further violence against protesters and threatening to fight “until the last drop of blood” it seems unlikely that the Security Council’s warning will be heeded. Greater pressure from the international community will be needed to bring an end to the atrocities in Libya. The international response to the Libyan crisis represents an opportunity to translate the theory of R2P into practice.

Postcode segmentation and recognition using projections and bispectral features

A system to segment and recognize Australian 4-digit postcodes from address labels on parcels is described. Images of address labels are preprocessed and adaptively thresholded to reduce noise. Projections are used to segment the line and then the characters comprising the postcode. Individual digits are recognized using bispectral features extracted from their parallel beam projections. These features are insensitive to translation, scaling and rotation, and robust to noise. Results on scanned images are presented. The system is currently being improved and implemented to work on-line.

Practices for teaching moral values in the early years : a call for a pedagogy of participation

Schools have long been seen as institutions for preparing children for life, both academically and as moral agents in society. In order to become capable, moral citizens, children need to be provided with opportunities to learn moral values. However, little is known about how teachers enact social and moral values programs in the classroom. The aim of this paper is to investigate the practices that Australian early years teachers describe as important for teaching moral values. To investigate early years teachers’ understandings of moral pedagogy, 379 Australian teachers with experience teaching children in the early years were invited to participate in an on-line survey. This paper focuses on responses provided to an open-ended question relating to teaching practices for moral values. The responses were analysed using an interpretive methodology. The results indicate that the most prominent approaches to teaching moral values described by this group of Australian early years teachers were engaging children in moral activities. This was closely followed by teaching practices for transmitting moral values. Engaging children in building meaning and participatory learning for moral values were least often described.

Globally networked public spheres? The Australian media reaction to WikiLeaks

The global release of 250,000 US Embassy diplomatic cables to selected media sites worldwide through the WikiLeaks website, was arguably the major global media event of 2010. As well as the implications of the content of the cables for international politics and diplomacy, the actions of WikiLeaks and its controversial editor-in-chief, the Australian Julian Assange, bring together a range of arguments about how the media, news and journalism are being transformed in the 21st century. This paper will focus on the reactions of Australian online news media sites to the release of the diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks, including both the online sites of established news outlets such as The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, the ABC’s The Drum site, and online-only sites such as Crikey, New Matilda and On Line Opinion. The study focuses on opinion and commentary rather than straight news reportage, and analysis is framed around three issues: WikiLeaks and international diplomacy; implications of WikiLeaks for journalism; and WikiLeaks and democracy, including debates about the organisation and the ethics of its own practice. It also whether a “WikiLeaks Effect” has wider implications for how journalism is conducted in the future, particularly the method of ‘redaction’ of large amounts of computational data.

Adolescent experiences of 'family meals' in Australia

Popular discourse laments the decline of the ‘family meal’, leading to family fragmentation and nutritional compromise. This article reports findings of a study investigating beliefs and practices surrounding the ‘family meal’, using data drawn from an on-line survey completed by 625 adolescents in Perth, Western Australia. The results challenge current concerns about the loss of the ‘family meal’, demonstrating that, for a majority, meals are eaten together rather than in isolation; are home-made rather than store bought or fast food; and are sites of conversation regardless of the presence of a television. Adolescents are divided, however, on the value of the ‘family meal’, with half seeing it as a positive experience of family togetherness and half regarding it negatively or as unimportant. The findings go some way to dispelling the notion that the ‘family meal’ no longer exists in Australia.

An examination of the predictors of blood donors' intentions to donate during two phases of an avian influenza outbreak

BACKGROUND: Data from prior health scares suggest that an avian influenza outbreak will impact on people’s intention to donate blood; however research exploring this is scarce. Using an augmented theory of planned behavior (TPB), incorporating threat perceptions alongside the rational decision-making components of the TPB, the current study sought to identify predictors of blood donors’ intentions to donate during two phases of an avian influenza outbreak. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Blood donors (N = 172) completed an on-line survey assessing the standard TPB predictors as well as measures of threat perceptions from the health belief model (HBM; i.e., perceived susceptibility and severity). Path analyses examined the utility of the augmented TPB to predict donors’ intentions to donate during a low- and high-risk phase of an avian influenza outbreak. RESULTS: In both phases, the model provided a good fit to the data explaining 69% (low risk) and 72% (high risk) of the variance in intentions. Attitude, subjective norm, and perceived susceptibility significantly predicted donor intentions in both phases. Within the low-risk phase, gender was an additional significant predictor of intention, while in the high-risk phase, perceived behavioral control was significantly related to intentions. CONCLUSION: An augmented TPB model can be used to predict donors’ intentions to donate blood in a low-risk and a high-risk phase of an outbreak of avian influenza. As such, the results provide important insights into donors’ decision-making that can be used by blood agencies to maintain the blood supply in the context of an avian influenza outbreak.

Facilitating student self-direction in a blended learning environment

Business postgraduate education is rapidly adopting virtual learning environments to facilitate the needs of a time-poor stakeholder community, where part-time students find it difficult to attend face-to-face classes. Creating engaged, flexible learning opportunities in the virtual world is therefore the current challenge for many business academics. However, in the blended learning environment there is also the added pressure of encouraging these students to develop soft managerial or generic skills such as self-reflection. The current paper provides an overview of an action-research activity exploring the experiences of students who were required to acquire the skills of self-reflection within a blended learning unit dominated by on-line learning delivery. We present the responses of students and the changes made to our teaching and learning activities to improve the facilitation of both our face-to-face delivery as well as the on-line learning environment.

Classification of packet contents for malware detection

Many existing schemes for malware detection are signature-based. Although they can effectively detect known malwares, they cannot detect variants of known malwares or new ones. Most network servers do not expect executable code in their in-bound network traffic, such as on-line shopping malls, Picasa, Youtube, Blogger, etc. Therefore, such network applications can be protected from malware infection by monitoring their ports to see if incoming packets contain any executable contents. This paper proposes a content-classification scheme that identifies executable content in incoming packets. The proposed scheme analyzes the packet payload in two steps. It first analyzes the packet payload to see if it contains multimedia-type data (such as . If not, then it classifies the payload either as text-type (such as or executable. Although in our experiments the proposed scheme shows a low rate of false negatives and positives (4.69% and 2.53%, respectively), the presence of inaccuracies still requires further inspection to efficiently detect the occurrence of malware. In this paper, we also propose simple statistical and combinatorial analysis to deal with false positives and negatives.

Enduring documents : improving the forms, improving the outcomes

Most Australian states have introduced legislation to provide for enduring documents for financial, personal and health care decision making in the event of incapacity. Since the introduction of Enduring Powers of Attorney (EPAs) and Advance Health Directives (AHDs) in Queensland in 1998, concerns have continued to be raised by service providers, professionals and individuals about the uptake, understanding and appropriate use of these documents. In response to these concerns, the Department of Justice and Attorney-General (DJAG) convened a Practical Guardianship Initiatives Working Party. This group identified the limited evidence base available to address these concerns. In 2009, a multidisciplinary research team from the University of Queensland and the Queensland University of Technology was awarded $90,000 from the Legal Practitioners Interest on Trust Account Fund to undertake a review of the current EPA and AHD forms. The goal of the research was to gather data on the content and useability of the forms from the perspectives of a range of stakeholders, particularly those completing the EPA and AHD, witnesses of these documents, attorneys appointed under an EPA, and health professionals involved in the completion of an AHD or dealing with it in a clinical context. The researchers also sought to gather information from the perspective of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) individuals as well people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) groups. Although the focus of the research was on the forms and the extent to which the current design, content and format represents a barrier to uptake, in the course of the research, some broader issues were identified which have an impact on the effectiveness of the EPA and AHD in achieving the goals of planning for financial and personal and health care in advance of losing capacity. The data gathered enabled the researchers to achieve the primary goal of the research: to make recommendations to improve the content and useability of the forms which hopefully will lead to an increased uptake and appropriate use of the forms. However, the researchers thought it was important not to ignore broader policy issues that were identified in the course of the research. These broader issues have been highlighted in this Report, and the researchers have responded to them in a variety of ways. For some issues, the researchers have suggested alterations that could be made to the forms to address the particular concerns. For other issues, the researchers have suggested that Government may need to take specific action such as educating the broader community with some attention to strategies that engage particular groups within communities. Other concerns raised can only be dealt with by legislative reform and, in some of these cases, the researchers have identified issues that Government may wish to consider further. We do note, however, that it is beyond the scope of this Report to recommend changes to the law. This three stage mixed methods project aimed to provide systematic evidence from a broad range of stakeholders in regard to: (i) which groups use and do not use these documents and why, (ii) the contribution of the length/complexity/format/language of the forms as barriers to their completion and/or effective use, and (iii) the issues raised by the current documents for witnesses and attorneys. Understanding and use of EPAs and AHDs were generally explored in separate but parallel processes. A purposive sampling strategy included users of the documents as principals and attorneys, and professionals, witnesses and service providers who assist others to execute or use the forms. The first component of this study built on existing knowledge using a Critical Reference Group and material provided by the DJAG Practical Guardianship Initiatives Working Party. This assisted in the development of the data collection tools for subsequent stages. The second component comprised semi-structured interviews and focus groups with a targeted sample of current users of the forms, potential users, witnesses and other professionals to provide in-depth information on critical issues. Outreach to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders and individuals and workers with CALD groups ensured a broad sample of potential users of the two documents. Fifty individual interviews and three focus groups were completed. Most interviews and focus groups focused on perceptions of, and experiences with, either the EPA or the AHD form. In the interviews with Indigenous people and the CALD focus groups, however, respondents provided their perceptions and experiences of both documents. In general, these respondents had not used the forms and were responding to the documents made available in the interview or focus group. In total, seventy-seven individuals were involved in interviews or focus groups. The final component comprised on-line surveys for EPA principals, EPA attorneys, AHD principals, witnesses of EPAs and AHDs and medical practitioners with experience of AHDs as nominated and/or treating doctors. The surveys were developed from the initial component and the qualitative analysis of the interview and focus group data. A total of 116 surveys were returned from major cities and regional Queensland. The survey data was analysed descriptively for patterns and trends. It is important to note that the aim of the survey was to gain insight into issues and concerns relating to the documents and not to make generalisations to the broader population.

Photochemistry and chemometrics : an overview

Photochemistry has made significant contributions to our understanding of many important natural processes as well as the scientific discoveries of the man-made world. The measurements from such studies are often complex and may require advanced data interpretation with the use of multivariate or chemometrics methods. In general, such methods have been applied successfully for data display, classification, multivariate curve resolution and prediction in analytical chemistry, environmental chemistry, engineering, medical research and industry. However, in photochemistry, by comparison, applications of such multivariate approaches were found to be less frequent although a variety of methods have been used, especially with spectroscopic photochemical applications. The methods include Principal Component Analysis (PCA; data display), Partial Least Squares (PLS; prediction), Artificial Neural Networks (ANN; prediction) and several models for multivariate curve resolution related to Parallel Factor Analysis (PARAFAC; decomposition of complex responses). Applications of such methods are discussed in this overview and typical examples include photodegradation of herbicides, prediction of antibiotics in human fluids (fluorescence spectroscopy), non-destructive in- and on-line monitoring (near infrared spectroscopy) and fast-time resolution of spectroscopic signals from photochemical reactions. It is also quite clear from the literature that the scope of spectroscopic photochemistry was enhanced by the application of chemometrics. To highlight and encourage further applications of chemometrics in photochemistry, several additional chemometrics approaches are discussed using data collected by the authors. The use of a PCA biplot is illustrated with an analysis of a matrix containing data on the performance of photocatalysts developed for water splitting and hydrogen production. In addition, the applications of the Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) ranking methods and Fuzzy Clustering are demonstrated with an analysis of water quality data matrix. Other examples of topics include the application of simultaneous kinetic spectroscopic methods for prediction of pesticides, and the use of response fingerprinting approach for classification of medicinal preparations. In general, the overview endeavours to emphasise the advantages of chemometrics' interpretation of multivariate photochemical data, and an Appendix of references and summaries of common and less usual chemometrics methods noted in this work, is provided. Crown Copyright © 2010.

Distribution feeder voltage support and power factor control by distributed multiple inverters

The potential of distributed reactive power control to improve the voltage profile of radial distribution feeders has been reported in literature by few authors. However, the multiple inverters injecting or absorbing reactive power across a distribution feeder may introduce control interactions and/or voltage instability. Such controller interactions can be alleviated if the inverters are allowed to operate on voltage droop. First, the paper demonstrates that a linear shallow droop line can maintain the steady state voltage profile close to reference, up to a certain level of loading. Then, impacts of the shallow droop line control on line losses and line power factors are examined. Finally, a piecewise linear droop line which can achieve reduced line losses and close to unity power factor at the feeder source is proposed.