The Impact of Parental Attachment on Adolescent Perception of the School Environment and School Connectedness

The extent to which students feel accepted, valued, respected and included in the school has recently surfaced as one of the most important predictors of adolescent mental health (particularly depressive symptoms). The school environment is an established predictor of school connectedness, but we set out to examine whether parental attachment predicts both adolescents' perception of the school environment and school connectedness. A study of 171 high school students from years 8 to 12 showed that parent attachment strongly predicted both. We also confirmed that the relationship between parent attachment and school connectedness is not a direct one but that parent attachment influences individual differences in the way adolescents perceive the school environment, which in turn influences school connectedness. This finding shows how multiple systems might be interlinked in influencing wellbeing in adolescents, and confirms the importance of intervening at the double level of both the family and the school system.

Hydrothermal syntheses of zeolite N from kaolin

Zeolite N, an EDI type framework structure with ideal chemical formula K12Al10Si10O40Cl2•5H2O, was produced from kaolin between 100oC and 200oC in a continuously stirred reactor using potassic and potassic+sodic liquors containing a range of anions. Reactions using liquors such as KOH, KOH + KX (where X = F, Cl, Br, I, NO3, NO2), K2X (where X=CO3), KOH + NaCl or NaOH + KCl were complete (>95% product) in less than two hours depending on the batch composition and temperature of reaction. With KOH and KCl in the reaction mixture and H2O/Al2O3~49, zeolite N was formed over a range of concentrations (1M < [KOH] < 18M) and reaction times (0.5h < t < 60h). At higher temperatures or higher KOH molarity, other potassic phases such as kalsilite or kaliophyllite formed. In general, temperature and KOH molarity defined the extent of zeolite N formation under these conditions. The introduction of sodic reagents to the starting mixture or use of one potassic reagent in the starting mixture reduced the stability field for zeolite N formation. Zeolite N was also formed using zeolite 4A as a source of Al and Si albeit for longer reaction times at a particular temperature when compared with kaolin as the source material.

New perspectives on context-based chemistry education : using a dialectical sociocultural approach to view teaching and learning

Context-based chemistry education aims to improve student interest and motivation in chemistry by connecting canonical chemistry concepts with real-world contexts. Implementation of context-based chemistry programmes began 20 years ago in an attempt to make the learning of chemistry meaningful for students. This paper reviews such programmes through empirical studies on six international courses, ChemCom (USA), Salters (UK), Industrial Science (Israel), Chemie im Kontext (Germany), Chemistry in Practice (The Netherlands) and PLON (The Netherlands). These studies are categorised through emergent characteristics of: relevance, interest/attitudes motivation and deeper understanding. These characteristics can be found to an extent in a number of other curricular initiatives, such as science-technology-society approaches and problem-based learning or project based science, the latter of which often incorporates an inquiry-based approach to science education. These initiatives in science education are also considered with a focus on the characteristics of these approaches that are emphasised in context-based education. While such curricular studies provide a starting point for discussing context-based approaches in chemistry, to advance our understanding of how students connect canonical science concepts with the real-world context, a new theoretical framework is required. A dialectical sociocultural framework originating in the work of Vygotsky is used as a referent for analysing the complex human interactions that occur in context-based classrooms, providing teachers with recent information about the pedagogical structures and resources that afford students the agency to learn.

Strengthening the role of the adult education sector in training workers for the digital content industries in Australia and Singapore

In 2009, QUT’s Office of Research and the Institute for Adult Learning Singapore funded a six-month pilot project that represented the first stage of a larger international comparative study. The study is the first of its kind to investigate to what extent and how digital content workers’ learning needs are being met by adult education and training in Australia and Singapore. The pilot project involved consolidating key theoretical literature, studies, policies, programs and statistical data relevant to the digital content industries in Australia and Singapore. This had not been done before, and represented new knowledge generation. Digital content workers include professionals within and beyond the creative industries as follows: Visual effects and animation (including virtual reality and 3D products); Interactive multimedia (e.g. websites, CD-ROMs) and software development; Computer and online games; and Digital film & TV production and film & TV post-production. In the last decade, the digital content industries have been recognised as an industry sector of strong and increasing significance. The project compared Australia and Singapore on aspects of the digital content industries’ labour market, skill requirements, human capital challenges, the role of adult education in building a workforce for the digital content industries, and innovation policies. The consolidated report generated from the project formed the basis of the proposal for an ARC Linkage Project application submitted in the May 2010 round.

Sustainable housing: family experiences with supply chain ethics

Climate change, resource depletion and increasing urbanization are converging global issues that are challenging the way we design, construct and operate buildings. The housing sector is a significant contributor to these global issues through consumption of limited resources, waste generation and disposal (solid, liquid and atmospheric waste) and negative human health impacts (Senick 2006). Although the design and construction of ‘sustainable housing’ would appear to be an obvious and technically feasible solution, there remains multi-faceted issues affecting the delivery of sustainable housing (Holloway and Bunker 2006). Two fundamental issues - what makes a house sustainable, and to what extent regulation should be used to deliver sustainability - have been, and continue to be, debated at multiple levels in society. Despite personal, professional and political views on these issues, three key characteristics of the whole housing supply chain require fundamental change if we are to successfully address sustainability challenges (Birkeland 2008). These include: fragmentation; established methods, practices and processes, and the relationships between players. A more in-depth understanding of the role of ethics (values, beliefs and standards) and potential ethical conflicts within the supply chain will assist in better defining the nature of the fundamental changes required...

Book review: Ford, R.C., & Peeper, W.C. 2008. Managing Destination Marketing Organizations. Orlando: ForPer Publications

This volume represents the proceedings of the 13th ENTER conference, held at Lausanne, Switzerland during 2006. The conference brought together academics and practitioners across four tracks, which were eSolutions, refereed research papers, work-in-progress papers, and a Ph.D. workshop. This proceedings contains 40 refereed papers, which is less than the 51 papers presented in 2005. However, the editors advise that the scientific committee was stricter than in previous years, to the extent that the acceptance rate was 50%. A significant change in the current proceedings is the inclusion of extended abstracts of the 23 work-in-progress presentations. The papers cover a diverse range of topics across 16 research streams. This reviewer has adopted the approach of succinctly summarising the contribution of each of the 40-refereed papers, in the order in which they appear...

Book review of Hitz, M., Sigala., M., & Murphy. J, (Eds). Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2006

This volume represents the proceedings of the 13th ENTER conference, held at Lausanne, Switzerland during 2006. The conference brought together academics and practitioners across four tracks, which were eSolutions, refereed research papers, work-in-progress papers, and a Ph.D workshop. This proceedings contains 40 refereed papers, which is less that the 51 papers presented in 2005. However, the editors advise the scientific committee was stricter than in previous years, to the extent that the acceptance rate was 50%. A significant change in the current proceedings is the inclusion of extended abstracts of the 23 work-in-progress presentations. The papers cover a diverse range of topics across 16 research streams. This reviewer has adopted the approach of succinctly summarising the contribution of each of the 40 refereed papers, in the order in which they appear...

Are motivational deficits part of the behavioural phenotype of Down syndrome?

Motivational deficits are generally accepted to be part of the behavioural phenotype associated with Down syndrome (DS). A motivational profile comprising low or inconsistent levels of task persistence, avoidance of challenging activities and over-dependence on adult direction has been described. However, comparisons are usually made between children with DS and those who are developing typically, without the inclusion of samples with intellectual disability (ID) from aetiologies other than DS. Such comparisons are needed to determine the extent to which motivational deficits are specific to DS, as opposed to being a feature of ID generally. Methods: The current study collected data about the personality-motivation profiles of children in three groups matched for mental age. They consisted of 80 typically developing (TD)3–7 year old children, 62 children with DS aged 7–15 years, and 54 children with moderate ID aged 7–15 years. Parents completed the 37-item EZ-Personality Questionnaire (EZPQ; Zigler et al., 2002), a measure of personality-motivational functioning. Results: There were significant differences between TD children and those with ID on all EZPQ scales. In most respects children with DS did not differ significantly from others with moderate ID, although they were rated as having greater expectancy of success and fewer negative reactions. Conclusion: The finding that children with DS are less motivated than TD children of the same mental age is consistent with previous studies in which parents have rated motivation. It seems, however, that motivation difficulties are associated with ID more generally, rather than being specific to those with DS. The study raises questions about phenotypic versus experiential effects on motivation for children with ID.

A conceptual model of capability learning for the 21st century knowledge economy

This chapter proposes a conceptual model for optimal development of needed capabilities for the contemporary knowledge economy. We commence by outlining key capability requirements of the 21st century knowledge economy, distinguishing these from those suited to the earlier stages of the knowledge economy. We then discuss the extent to which higher education currently caters to these requirements and then put forward a new model for effective knowledge economy capability learning. The core of this model is the development of an adaptive and adaptable career identity, which is created through a reflective process of career self-management, drawing upon data from the self and the world of work. In turn, career identity drives the individual’s process of skill and knowledge acquisition, including deep disciplinary knowledge. The professional capability learning thus acquired includes disciplinary skill and knowledge sets, generic skills, and also skills for the knowledge economy, including disciplinary agility, social network capability, and enterprise skills. In the final part of this chapter, we envision higher education systems that embrace the model, and suggest steps that could be taken toward making the development of knowledge economy capabilities an integral part of the university experience.

An investigation of building physical properties selection to combat global warming

Global warming can have a significant impact on building energy performance and indoor thermal environment, as well as the health and productivity of people living and working inside them. Through the building simulation technique, this paper investigates the adaptation potential of different selections of building physical properties to increased outdoor temperature in Australia. It is found that overall, an office building with lower insulation level, smaller window to wall ratio and/or a glass type with lower shading coefficient, and lower internal load density will have the effect of lowering building cooling load and total energy use, and therefore have a better potential to adapt to the warming external climate. Compared with clear glass, it is shown that the use of reflective glass for the sample building with WWR being 0.5 reduces the building cooling load by more than 12%. A lower internal load can also have a significant impact on the reduction of building cooling load, as well as the building energy use. Through the comparison of results between current and future weather scenarios, it is found that the patterns found in the current weather scenario also exist in the future weather scenarios, but to a smaller extent.

Exploring the contested role of mandatory reporting laws in the identification of severe child abuse and neglect

Significant numbers of children are severely abused and neglected by parents and caregivers. Infants and very young children are the most vulnerable and are unable to seek help. To identify these situations and enable child protection and the provision of appropriate assistance, many jurisdictions have enacted ‘mandatory reporting laws’ requiring designated professionals such as doctors, nurses, police and teachers to report suspected cases of severe child abuse and neglect. Other jurisdictions have not adopted this legislative approach, at least partly motivated by a concern that the laws produce dramatic increases in unwarranted reports, which, it is argued, lead to investigations which infringe on people’s privacy, cause trauma to innocent parents and families, and divert scarce government resources from deserving cases. The primary purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which opposition to mandatory reporting laws is valid based on the claim that the laws produce ‘overreporting’. The first part of this paper revisits the original mandatory reporting laws, discusses their development into various current forms, explains their relationship with policy and common law reporting obligations, and situates them in the context of their place in modern child protection systems. This part of the paper shows that in general, contemporary reporting laws have expanded far beyond their original conceptualisation, but that there is also now a deeper understanding of the nature, incidence, timing and effects of different types of severe maltreatment, an awareness that the real incidence of maltreatment is far higher than that officially recorded, and that there is strong evidence showing the majority of identified cases of severe maltreatment are the result of reports by mandated reporters. The second part of this paper discusses the apparent effect of mandatory reporting laws on ‘overreporting’ by referring to Australian government data about reporting patterns and outcomes, with a particular focus on New South Wales. It will be seen that raw descriptive data about report numbers and outcomes appear to show that reporting laws produce both desirable consequences (identification of severe cases) and problematic consequences (increased numbers of unsubstantiated reports). Yet, to explore the extent to which the data supports the overreporting claim, and because numbers of unsubstantiated reports alone cannot demonstrate overreporting, this part of the paper asks further questions of the data. Who makes reports, about which maltreatment types, and what are the outcomes of those reports? What is the nature of these reports; for example, to what extent are multiple numbers of reports made about the same child? What meaning can be attached to an ‘unsubstantiated’ report, and can such reports be used to show flaws in reporting effectiveness and problems in reporting laws? It will be suggested that available evidence from Australia is not sufficiently detailed or strong to demonstrate the overreporting claim. However, it is also apparent that, whether adopting an approach based on public health and or other principles, much better evidence about reporting needs to be collected and analyzed. As well, more nuanced research needs to be conducted to identify what can reasonably be said to constitute ‘overreports’, and efforts must be made to minimize unsatisfactory reporting practice, informed by the relevant jurisdiction’s context and aims. It is also concluded that, depending on the jurisdiction, the available data may provide useful indicators of positive, negative and unanticipated effects of specific components of the laws, and of the strengths, weaknesses and needs of the child protection system.

Serious firearm offending in New Zealand : issues for gun controls and public safety

Reducing or preventing the misuse of firearms (whether criminal, suicidal or accidental) is central to gun controls policy. In June 1997 the New Zealand Government received the recommendations of the Review of Firearms Control, an independent inquiry commissioned by the Minister of Police and chaired by Sir Thomas Thorp.The Review comprehensively examined several firearm-related issues, including the nature and extent of serious firearm offending in New Zealand. The research presented in this article was commissioned by the Review. Based on a population of 709 offences for the 12 months ending 30 June 1996, this study provides an analysis of serious firearm offending in New Zealand and discusses the implications of these findings for gun controls policy.

Taking a leap of faith : are investors left short changed?

This dissertation examines the compliance and performance of a large sample of faith based (religious) ethical funds - the Shari'ah-compliant equity funds (SEFs), which may be viewed as a form of ethical investing. SEFs screen their investment for compliance with Islamic law, where riba (conventional interest expense), maysir (gambling), gharar (excessive uncertainty), and non-halal (non-ethical) products are prohibited. Using a set of stringent Shari'ah screens similar to those of MSCI Islamic, we first examine the extent to which SEFs comply with the Shari'ah law. Results show that only about 27% of the equities held by SEFs are Shari'ah-compliant. While most of the fund holdings pass the business screens, only about 42% pass the total debt to total assets ratio screen. This finding suggests that, in order to overcome a significant reduction in the investment opportunity, Shari'ah principles are compromised, with SEFs adopting lax screening rules so as to achieve a financial performance. While younger funds and funds that charge higher fees and are domiciled in more Muslim countries are more Shari'ah-compliant, we find little evidence of a positive relationship between fund disclosure of the Shari'ah compliance framework and Shari'ah-compliance. Clearly, Shari'ah compliance remains a major challenge for fund managers and SEF investors should be aware of Shari'ah-compliance risk since the fund managers do not always fulfill their fiduciary obligation, as promised in their prospectus. Employing a matched firm approach for a survivorship free sample of 387 SEFs, we then examine an issue that has been heavily debated in the literature: Does ethical screening reduce investment performance? Results show that it does but only by an average of 0.04% per month if benchmarked against matched conventional funds - this is a relatively small price to pay for religious faith. Cross-sectional regressions show an inverse relationship between Shari'ah compliance and fund performance: every one percentage increase in total compliance decreases fund performance by 0.01% per month. However, compliance fails to explain differences in the performance between SEFs and matched funds. Although SEFs do not generally perform better during crisis periods, further analysis shows evidence of better performance relative to conventional funds only during the recent Global Financial Crisis; the latter is consistent with popular media claims.

Good and bad Sharia : Australia's mixed response to Islamic law

Reflecting on the legal consequences of globalisation in the 21st century, Twining predicted that societies in the West would have to 'wrestle with the extent to which the state should recognise, make concessions to, or even enforce norms and values embedded in different religions, cultures or traditions'. This is borne out as the direction across the common law world moves towards entrenching legal pluralism. The concessions each nation has made to minorities with different religions, cultures and traditions have varied. The special character of Islam, as a comprehensive blueprint for life in which law and religion unite, has meant that the negotiations for a special place for Muslims within each common law jurisdiction has been at the forefront of new legal ordering possibilities. This is the crux of the pluralism debate. Cautiously, Australians have watched the, at times histrionic, discourse in Canada and Great Britain on official recognition for Islamic law.

The taxation of multinational banks : alternative apportionment through a unitary taxation regime aligning with economic reality

The taxation of multinational banks currently is governed by the general principles of international tax. However, it is arguable that there are characteristics exclusive to multinational banks that may warrant the consideration of a separate taxing regime. This article argues that because of the unique nature of multinational banks, the traditional international tax rules governing jurisdiction to tax and allocation of income do not produce a result which is optimal, as it does not reflect economic reality. That is, the current system does not produce a result that accurately reflects the economic source of the income or the location of the economic activity. The suggested alternative is unitary taxation using global formulary apportionment. Formulary apportionment is considered as an alternative that reflects economic reality by recognising the unique nature of multinational banks and allocating the income to the location of the economic activity. The unique nature of multinational banking is recognised in the fact that formulary apportionment does not attempt to undertake a transactional division of a highly integrated multinational entity. Rather, it allocates income to the jurisdictions based on an economically justifiable formula. Starting from this recognition, the purpose of this article is to demonstrate that formulary apportionment is a theoretically superior (or optimal) model for the taxation of multinational banks. An optimal regime, for the purposes of this article, is considered to be one that distributes the taxing rights in an equitable manner between the relevant jurisdictions, while, simultaneously allowing decisions of the international banks to be tax neutral. In this sense, neutrality is viewed as an economic concept and equity is regarded as a legal concept. A neutral tax system is one in which tax rules do not affect economic choices about commercial activities. Neutrality will ideally be across jurisdictions as well as across traditional and non-traditional industries. The primary focus of this article is jurisdictional neutrality. A system that distributes taxing rights in an equitable manner between the relevant jurisdictions ensures that each country receives its fair share of tax revenue. Given the increase in multinational banking, jurisdictions should be concerned that they are receiving their fair share. Inter-nation equity is concerned with re-determining the proper division of the tax base among countries. Richard and Peggy Musgrave argue that sharing of the tax base by countries of source should be seen as a matter of inter-nation equity requiring international cooperation. The rights of the jurisdiction of residency will also be at issue. To this extent, while it is agreed that inter-nation equity is an essential attribute to an international tax regime, there is no universal agreement as to how to achieve it. The current system attempts to achieve such equity through a combined residency and source regime, with the transfer pricing rules used to apportion income between the relevant jurisdictions. However, this article suggests, that as an alternative to the current regime, equity would be achieved through formulary apportionment. Opposition to formulary apportionment is generally based on the argument that it is not a theoretically superior (or optimal) model because of the implementation difficulties. Yet these are two separate issues. As such, this article is divided into two core parts. The first part examines the theoretical soundness of the formulary apportionment model concluding that it is theoretically superior to the arm’s length pricing requirement of the traditional transfer pricing regime. The second part examines the practical implications of accepting formulary apportionment as an optimal model with a view to disclosing the issues that arise when a formulary apportionment regime is adopted. Prior to an analysis of the theoretical and practical application of formulary apportionment to multinational banks, the unique nature of these banks is considered. The article concludes that, while there are significant implementation, compliance, and enforcement issues to overcome, the unitary taxation model may be theoretically superior to the current arm’s length model which applies to multinational banks. This conclusion is based on the unitary taxation model providing greater alignment with the unique features of these banks.