Education reform for at-risk youth : a social capital approach

Using the Education Queensland Reform Agenda to illustrate examples and approaches to education reform, this article discusses education reform for at-risk youth. It argues that the characteristics of modernity, the rise of Mode 2 Society, and the power asymmetries associated with the emergence of the politico-economic will contain the reform ambitions of the Education Queensland and other education reform agendas. It is proposed that the State adopt a transgressive and complimentary set of reform strategies including the adoption of distributed governance, making available meaningful school performance data, encouraging experimentation and facilitating broad stakeholder, community and neighbourhood engagement in school planning and operations. The article argues that measures such as these will assist to mobilize trust, minimise social fragmentation, generate and regenerate community resources, build cohesion, foster the socio-cultural-self-identities of 'at-risk' youth and will assist youth to achieve full participation in a robust and vibrant democracy.

History in the Australian Curriculum F-10 : providing answers without asking questions

This paper examines the most recent version of the Australian Curriculum: History F-10. It does so in two ways. First, it explores some of the strengths and weaknesses of this curriculum with reference to the decision to frame aspects of Australian history within the context of a world history approach. Whilst the positioning of Indigenous Histories is applauded, the curriculum’s lack of attention to the significance of the recent history of Australia’s Asian neighbours, and Australia’s relationship with them, is critiqued. This part of the paper also emphasises the need for comparative approaches and calls for greater emphasis on providing students with opportunities to critique and contest the construction of narratives about the past. Second, the paper introduces four invited articles that examine different aspects of the Australian Curriculum: History. Collectively these papers reiterate the significance of the richness of integrated and child-centred approaches and the importance of developing historical thinking, empathy and the historical imagination in the classroom.

History in the Australian Curriculum F-10: Providing answers without asking questions

Thi paper writer examines the most recent version of the Australian Curriculum: History F-10. It does so in two ways. First, it explores some of the strengths and weaknesses of this curriculum with reference to the decision to frame aspects of Australian history within the context of a world history approach. Whilst the positioning of Indigenous Histories is applauded, the curriculum’s lack of attention to the significance of the recent history of Australia’s Asian neighbours, and Australia’s relationship with them, is critiqued. This part of the paper also emphasises the need for comparative approaches and calls for greater emphasis on providing students with opportunities to critique and contest the construction of narratives about the past. Second, the paper introduces four invited articles that examine different aspects of the Australian Curriculum: History. Collectively these papers reiterate the significance of the richness of integrated and child-centred approaches and the importance of developing historical thinking, empathy and the historical imagination in the classroom.

Grey St. Xchange 2.0 by QUT

Partnerships between universities and public institutions such as this offer the beginning of a long term relationship to actively influence public policy, procedures and new ways to engage the many diverse communities to be integral in shaping the environments in which they live. It offers an opportunity to apply authentic positioning of research theories and build new methodologies for consulting, analysing and implementing innovation. SBC, as an established corporation offers a unique precinct to research and develop models with its different offers of tourism, leisure and neighbourhood. The Parklands and Little Stanley Street are well advanced in the goals however Grey Street, which connects the precinct to the greater surrounds, has been a complex issue that is now ready to be addressed. This project offers the ability to be of real worth at this critical time of development with the history of the past development combined with the desire for future visioning to be realised over the next 5 years. QUT has the unique opportunity to be part of this future.

Fatigue self-management : a survey of Chinese cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy

Aims and objectives. To examine Chinese cancer patients’ fatigue self-management, including the types of self-management behaviours used, their confidence in using these behaviours, the degree of relief obtained and the factors associated with patients’ use of fatigue self-management behaviours. Background. Fatigue places significant burden on patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy. While some studies have explored fatigue self-management in Western settings, very few studies have explored self-management behaviours in China. Design. Cross-sectional self- and/or interviewer-administered survey. Methods. A total of 271 participants with self-reported fatigue in the past week were recruited from a specialist cancer hospital in south-east China. Participants completed measures assessing the use of fatigue self-management behaviours, corresponding self-efficacy, perceived relief levels plus items assessing demographic characteristics, fatigue experiences, distress and social support. Results. A mean of 4_94 (_2_07; range 1–10) fatigue self-management behaviours was reported. Most behaviours were rated as providing moderate relief and were implemented with moderate self-efficacy. Regression analyses identified that having more support from one’s neighbourhood and better functional status predicted the use of a greater number of self-management behaviours. Separate regression analyses identified that greater neighbourhood support predicted greater relief from ‘activity enhancement behaviours’ and that better functional status predicted greater relief from ‘rest and sleep behaviours’. Higher self-efficacy scores predicted greater relief from corresponding behaviours. Conclusions. A range of fatigue self-management behaviours were initiated by Chinese patients with cancer. Individual, condition and environmental factors were found to influence engagement in and relief from fatigue self-managementbehaviours. Relevance to clinical practice. Findings highlight the need for nurses to explore patients’ use of fatigue self-management behaviours and the effectiveness of these behaviours in reducing fatigue. Interventions that improve patients’ self-efficacy and neighbourhood supports have the potential to improve outcomes from fatigue self-management behaviours.

Acquiring user information needs for recommender systems

Most recommender systems attempt to use collaborative filtering, content-based filtering or hybrid approach to recommend items to new users. Collaborative filtering recommends items to new users based on their similar neighbours, and content-based filtering approach tries to recommend items that are similar to new users' profiles. The fundamental issues include how to profile new users, and how to deal with the over-specialization in content-based recommender systems. Indeed, the terms used to describe items can be formed as a concept hierarchy. Therefore, we aim to describe user profiles or information needs by using concepts vectors. This paper presents a new method to acquire user information needs, which allows new users to describe their preferences on a concept hierarchy rather than rating items. It also develops a new ranking function to recommend items to new users based on their information needs. The proposed approach is evaluated on Amazon book datasets. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach can largely improve the effectiveness of recommender systems.

Spatial prediction of N2O emissions in pasture : a Bayesian model averaging analysis

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is one of the greenhouse gases that can contribute to global warming. Spatial variability of N2O can lead to large uncertainties in prediction. However, previous studies have often ignored the spatial dependency to quantify the N2O - environmental factors relationships. Few researches have examined the impacts of various spatial correlation structures (e.g. independence, distance-based and neighbourhood based) on spatial prediction of N2O emissions. This study aimed to assess the impact of three spatial correlation structures on spatial predictions and calibrate the spatial prediction using Bayesian model averaging (BMA) based on replicated, irregular point-referenced data. The data were measured in 17 chambers randomly placed across a 271 m(2) field between October 2007 and September 2008 in the southeast of Australia. We used a Bayesian geostatistical model and a Bayesian spatial conditional autoregressive (CAR) model to investigate and accommodate spatial dependency, and to estimate the effects of environmental variables on N2O emissions across the study site. We compared these with a Bayesian regression model with independent errors. The three approaches resulted in different derived maps of spatial prediction of N2O emissions. We found that incorporating spatial dependency in the model not only substantially improved predictions of N2O emission from soil, but also better quantified uncertainties of soil parameters in the study. The hybrid model structure obtained by BMA improved the accuracy of spatial prediction of N2O emissions across this study region.

The geography of travel journalism : mapping the flow of travel stories about foreign countries

While the study of foreign news flows has received considerable attention from communication scholars for quite some time, it has typically focused on political or ‘hard’ news, at the expense of other types of journalistic content. This article argues that, as the foreign news hole is shrinking, travel journalism is becoming an increasingly important source of information about foreign countries in the news media. It reports the results of a comparative study of newspaper travel sections in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK, and argues that travel journalism often replicates the imbalances found in foreign news flows. Well-known factors – such as regionalism, powerful nations, cultural proximity, the role played by big neighbours and the diversity of coverage – are also powerful determinants in travel journalism. At the same time, a country’s tourist behaviour also plays a role but is often overshadowed by other factors.

Chasing the great Australian dream : definition of "an ideal home" among baby boomers

In Australia, the idea of home ownership or The Great Australian Dream is still perceived as the main achievement of every Australian’s life. Perception of an ideal home is changing over the decades. Each generation has special requirements criteria which foster their dwelling space. This research identifies and compares three generations’ (Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y) demographics, special requirements and perceptions regarding their ideal home. The examination of previous research and literature into the Queensland context reveals that the Baby Boomers population of people 65 and older is currently 11.8% of the state population and is expected to grow to almost one quarter of the population by 2051. This is the highest growth rate among these three generations. Further analysis of these three generations’ status and requirements shows that aging is the most critical issue for the housing systems. This is especially the case for Baby Boomers due to their demand for support services and health care in the home. The study reveals that ‘ageing in place’, is a preferred option for the aged. This raises questions as to how well the housing system and neighbourhood environments are able to support ageing in place, and what aging factors should be taken into consideration when designing Baby boomer’s home to facilitate health and wellbeing. Therefore, this research designed a qualitative approach to investigate Australian Baby Boomers homes around Queensland, predominantly in the Brisbane area, using semi-structured interviews and observations. It aims to find out the level of satisfaction of Australian Baby Boomers with their current home and their preferences and requirements in light of their ideal home. The findings contribute new knowledge in the light of ideal home mechanisms. A set of strategies has been developed from the findings that may help improve the level of comfort, safety and satisfaction that Baby Boomers experience in their current and future homes.

Aineellista ja aineetonta turvaa : Ruokakunnat, ekologis-taloudelliset resurssit ja kontaktinmuodostus Valkealassa 1630 1750

Material and immaterial security. Households, ecological and economic resources and formation of contacts in Valkeala parish from the 1630s to the 1750s. The geographical area of the thesis, Valkeala parish in the region of Kymenlaakso, is a very interesting area owing to its diversity, both in terms of natural setting and economic and cultural structure. The study begins by outlining the ecological and economic features of Valkeala and by analysing household structures. The main focus of the research lies in the contacts of the households with the outside world. The following types of contacts are chosen as indicators of the interaction: trade and credit relations, guarantees, co-operation, marriages and godparentage. The main theme of the contact analysis is to observe the significance of three factors, namely geographical extent, affluence level and kinship, to the formation of contacts. It is also essential to chart the interdependencies between ecological and economic resources, changes in the structure of households and the formation of contacts during the period studied. The time between the 1630s and the 1750s was characterized by wars, crop losses and population changes, which had an effect on the economic framework and on the structural variation of households and contact fields. In the 17th and 18th centuries Valkeala could be divided, economically, into two sections according to the predominant cultivation technique. The western area formed the field area and the eastern and northern villages the swidden area. Multiple family households were dominant in the latter part of the 17th century, and for most of the study period, the majority of people lived in the more complex households rather than in simple families. Economic resources had only a moderate impact on the structure of contacts. There was a clear connection between bigger household size and the extent and intensity of contacts. The jurisdictional boundary that ran across Valkeala from the northwest to the southeast and divided the parish into two areas influenced the formation of contacts more than the parish boundaries. Support and security were offered largely by the primary contacts with one s immediate family, neighbours and friends. Economic support was channelled from the wealthier to the less well off by credits. Cross-marriages, cross-godparentage and marital networks could be seen as manifestations of an aim towards stability and the joining of resources. It was essential for households both to secure the workforce needed for a minimum level of subsistence and to ensure the continuation of the family line. These goals could best be reached by complex households that could adapt to the prevailing circumstances and also had wider and more multi-layered contacts offering material and immaterial security.

Worker piping triggers hissing for coordinated colony defence in the dwarf honeybee Apis florea

Defending a large social insect colony containing several thousands of workers requires the simultaneous action of many individuals. Ideally this action involves communication between the workers, enabling coordinated action and a fast response. The Asian dwarf honeybee, Apis florea, is a small honeybee with an open nesting habit and a comparatively small colony size, features that leave them particularly exposed to predators. We describe here a novel defence response of these bees in which the emission of an initial warning signal from one individual (“piping”) is followed 0.3 to 0.7 seconds later by a general response from a large number of bees (“hissing”). Piping is audible to the human ear, with a fundamental frequency of 384 ± 31Hz and lasting for 0.82 ± 0.35 seconds. Hissing is a broad band, noisy signal, clearly audible to the human observer and produced by slight but visible movements of the bees' wings. Hissing begins in individuals close to the piping bee, spreads rapidly to neighbours and results in an impressive coordinated crescendo occasionally involving the entire colony. Piping and hissing are accompanied by a marked decrease, or even cessation, of worker activities such as forager dancing and departures from the colony. We show that whereas hissing of the colony can be elicited without piping, the sequential and correlated piping and hissing response is specific to the presence of potential predators close to the colony. We suggest that the combined audio-visual effect of the hissing might deter small predators, while the cessation of flight activity could decrease the risk of predation by birds and insects which prey selectively on flying bees.

Israel: una sociedad en tensión constante

[ES]Israel es un país marcado por la excepcionalidad. Con esto quiero referirme a que su forma de nacer, el contexto regional donde está ubicado y su propio desarrollo, han hecho de este país un verdadero laboratorio social. El estado hebreo se ha constituido desde el concepto de judeidad y mediante la inmigración judía masiva, lo que ha hecho que en su seno se den numerosas opciones identitarias. Todo ello casi en constantes guerras con sus vecinos árabes y sufriendo el zarpazo del terrorismo. Esto ha hecho que en Israel aspectos como la seguridad, el ejército y los Derechos Humanos hayan sido variables que este país ha tenido y tiene que gestionar. Esta realidad ha determinado de manera decisiva su articulación como sociedad y su propio desarrollo político tanto nacional como internacional. Este artículo pretende dar algunas claves para entender la complejidad de una sociedad, la israelí, en tensión constante.

Overview of the marine fish hatchery industry in Taiwan

Although fish culture itself is an age-old tradition in Taiwan, it was in the 1960s that the first successes on artificial propagation were achieved, with several species of Chinese carps and tilapias. The first marine fish to be bred in captivity was the grey mullet; it was first induced to spawn in 1968. Various other species have since been added to the list of propagated marine fish. The characteristics of the marine fish hatchery industry in Taiwan are outlined, considering both the outdoor pond and indoor tank systems. Future prospects are very good; Taiwan now exports marine fish larvae and fingerlings to many of its Asian neighbours and there are some 60 marine fish species for which commercial larval production is possible.

Living with acquired brain injury

This study found that natural community supports were comprised of two distinct groupings; firstly immediate families, friends and peer support groups; secondly neighbours and local community groups such as sporting and activity- based organisations and groups. The findings of this study indicate that living with acquired brain injury involves a process where the person moves from acute high intensity health services onto rehabilitative services and then onto re-establishing independent lives. It is evident that smooth transitions and interconnectivity of services are essential in facilitating this recovery process. Instrumental to the recovery is the support of immediate family and close friends, who form people’s immediate natural support network and go a long way towards facilitating individuals in rebuilding their lives. A key finding of this study is that broader natural community supports do not appear to play as central a role in supporting individuals to live independent lives when compared to the role of family and friends. The lack of involvement of broader community groups, in many ways, prompted individuals to contact formal support services. For the majority of participants, independence is facilitated through the combination of immediate natural community supports and formal services. The role of formal support services is key to developing broader community support networks. This study found a blurred division between formal services and broader community support networks. The authors recommended that the role of formal supports services in acting as a bridge between the needs of the individual and the development of meaningful community networks, be formally recognised and further developed. Additionally, they argued that the importance of the role of broader natural community, supports such as those provided by community and sporting groups must be enhanced. Greater awareness of the issues faced by people living with acquired brain injury and its often invisible nature is necessary in this endeavour. The authors stated it is important to recognise that there are multiple issues impacting on independent living and these issues intersect, for instance with age, gender, employment, qualifications and so on. A lack of public awareness of acquired brain injury was found to be a key barrier to independent living, along with issues relating to socialising, access to employment and finances. The findings of this study reflect the complexities of living with acquired brain injury and the need for holistic support that is cognisant of the factors which impact on integration. It is vital that flexible, personalised services are developed which are fit for purpose and meet the needs of not only people with acquired brain injury but also their immediate natural community support network. Recognition of the intersection between immediate/ broader natural community supports and formal services is also key to developing the comprehensive and practical supports required to achieve an independent life. This was a qualitative study and all participants were sourced through Headway, a community based service provider for people with ABI. Data collection was divided into two stages: firstly focus groups, followed by individual interviews. Four focus groups were convened in Cork (2), Dublin (1) and Limerick (1). Each focus group was facilitated by at least two members of the research team and a total of twenty-six individuals participated in the focus groups. Thematic analysis of the data was undertaken to guide and inform the second stage of the study; the individual interviews. Ten interviews were undertaken with individuals who presented with ABI in the Cork and Limerick regions.

Are gatekeepers to renal services referring patients equitably?

Objective: Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) benefit from specialist interventions to retard progression of renal failure and prevent cardiovascular events. Certain patient groups have poor access to specialist renal services when dialysis is required. This study used a population-based laboratory database to investigate access to and timeliness of referral to renal specialists relatively early in the course of the disease.

Methods: All tests for serum creatinine and haemoglobin (Hb) A1c in Northern Ireland in a two-year period (2001 and 2002) were retrieved for 345,441 adults. Of these, 16,856 patients had at least one serum creatinine level above 150 µmol/L in 2001 not deemed to be due to acute renal failure (crude prevalence 1.42%). This cohort was followed until the end of 2002 and the differences in the time to referral to a specialist were assessed using Cox's proportional hazards regression.

Results: Diabetic patients, older patients and those living in deprived areas were significantly more likely to have serum creatinine testing, compared with non-diabetic, younger and those living in more affluent areas. Delays in referral to renal specialists for patients with raised serum creatinine levels were significantly shorter among diabetic patients, women, younger individuals, those living in rural areas, those living close to renal centres and those living in deprived areas. Overall, only 19% of diabetic patients and 6% of non-diabetic patients who had CKD had seen a renal specialist within 12 months of their index creatinine test.

Conclusion: Contrary to other diseases, disadvantaged patients do not seem to be under-investigated for renal disease compared with their more affluent neighbours and are generally referred earlier for specialist assessment. However, the absolute rate of timely specialist assessment is low. Recent changes in referral criteria for CKD will result in more referrals and will have serious resource implications. Opportunities for health gain among patients with declining renal function are being missed, particularly among the old and those living furthest from specialist centres.