Laughing & disability : comedy, collaborative authorship and Down Under Mystery Tour

This thesis is an exploration of representation, authorship and creative collaboration in disability comedy, the centre piece of which is a feature-length film starring, co-created and co-written by three intellectually-disabled people. The film, entitled Down Under Mystery Tour, aims to entertain, and be accessible to, a mainstream audience, one that would not normally care about disability or listen to disabled voices. In the past, the failure of these voices to reach audiences has been blamed on poor training, marginal timeslots and indifferent audiences. But this project seeks an alternative approach, building collaboration between disabled and non-disabled people to express voice, conceive, construct and produce a filmed narrative, and engage willing audiences who want to listen.

Rare chicken rescue

Sound design for documentary is an under-researched field. The specific context of representation of emotional or mental states is particularly open to clichéd treatment. Such treatment in the media often ‘perpetuates inaccurate or negative assumptions about mental health issues in the wider community’ (Francis et al 2005: 11) by employing, for example, either jarring sound/music combinations to signify ‘madness’ or overtly saccharine music to educe sympathy. This project adopted a practice-based approach to discovering a considered aesthetic treatment designed to elicit a more empathetic audience response. A more discriminating engagement with the intentions of the film was cultivated by abandoning both the ‘representational naturalism’ and the ‘distilled, evocative realism’ of documentary sound design (Davies 2007: 18) in favour of a more lyrical or musical approach. To achieve this we manipulated perspective, tonal character and perceptions of space in the final mixing stage. The project was funded by the Film Australia National Interest Program, ABC TV and the Pacific Film and Television Commission. As a crucial contributor to the aesthetic of the project I was nominated in the funding application, and ultimately received an AFI Award for Best Sound in a Documentary in 2008. The film was honoured by The Film Critics Circle of Australia, The Slamdance Film Festival in Utah and The Sydney Film Festival. It has been favourably reviewed in national and international print media (The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, among others) as well as online film/culture zines and blogs.

Johnno

The field of research was internationally-oriented contemporary theatre practice. The research challenge was to adapt an iconic Queensland novel – David Malouf’s Johnno - to the stage in a way that would engage, resonate with and be relevant to national and international audiences. This project represented an international collaboration between La Boite Theatre Company, the Derby Playhouse, UK, and the Brisbane Festival. It was the first time that an English and an Australian company had collaborated in such a way, sharing both creative vision and financial costs and providing performances on both continents. The production was well received in both countries, suggesting that a culturally idiosyncratic work such as Johnno can be created that can fulfil not only the needs of the localised audience but also have broad global cultural resonance. The work was performed at the Brisbane Festival and the Derby Playhouse. In Brisbane, it was performed at the Brisbane Powerhouse as the signature work of the 2006 festival, with 30 performances, receiving favourable national reviews and achieving 90% box office. In the UK, it was performed at the Derby Playhouse for 22 performances, once again to favourable national reviews and 60% audiences, a good result for a new work in a regional theatre in the UK. The success of Johnno was also in the power of the collaboration between the three creative companies involved in the work.

Factors of process model comprehension : findings from a series of experiments

In order to make good decisions about the design of information systems, an essential skill is to understand process models of the business domain the system is intended to support. Yet, little knowledge to date has been established about the factors that affect how model users comprehend the content of process models. In this study, we use theories of semiotics and cognitive load to theorize how model and personal factors influence how model viewers comprehend the syntactical information of process models. We then report on a four-part series of experiments, in which we examined these factors. Our results show that additional semantical information impedes syntax comprehension, and that theoretical knowledge eases syntax comprehension. Modeling experience further contributes positively to comprehension efficiency, measured as the ratio of correct answers to the time taken to provide answers. We discuss implications for practice and research.

Learning science through real-world contexts

Curriculum developers and researchers have promoted context based programmes to arrest waning student interest and participation in the enabling sciences at high school and university. Context-based programmes aim for connections between scientific discourse and real-world contexts to elevate curricular relevance without diminishing conceptual understanding. Literature relating to context-based approaches to learning will be reviewed in this chapter. In particular, international trends in curricular development and results from evaluations of major projects (e.g. PLON, Salters Advanced Chemistry, ChemCom) will be highlighted. Research projects that explore context-based interventions focusing on such outcomes as student interest, perceived relevance and conceptual understanding also will feature in the review. The chapter culminates with a discussion of current context-based research that interprets classroom actions from a dialectical socio-cultural framework, and identifies possible new directions for research.

The use of virtual prototyping for hazard identification in the early design stage

Purpose: The construction industry is well known for its high accident rate and many practitioners consider a preventative approach to be the most important means of bringing about improvements. This paper addresses previous research and the weaknesses of existing preventative approaches and a new application is described and illustrated involving the use of a multi-dimensional simulation tool - Construction Virtual Prototyping (CVP). Methodology: A literature review was conducted to investigate previous studies of hazard identification and safety management and to develop the new approach. Due to weaknesses in current practice, the research study explored the use of computer simulation techniques to create virtual environments where users can explore and identify construction hazards. Specifically, virtual prototyping technology was deployed to develop typical construction scenarios in which unsafe or hazardous incidents occur. In a case study, the users’ performance was evaluated their responses to incidents within the virtual environment and the effectiveness of the computer simulation system established though interviews with the safety project management team. Findings: The opinions and suggestions provided by the interviewees led to the initial conclusion that the simulation tool was useful in assisting the safety management team’s hazard identification process during the early design stage. Originality: The research introduces an innovative method to support the management teams’ reviews of construction site safety. The system utilises three-dimensional modelling and four-dimensional simulation of worker behaviour, a configuration that has previously not been employed in construction simulations. An illustration of the method’s use is also provided, together with a consideration of its strengths and weaknesses.

The duplicitous nature of inflammation in wound repair

Skin plays a key role in protecting the body from the onslaught of pathogens and toxins we meet during our lifetime; thus, out of necessity, we have developed a rapid repair mechanism that quickly plugs any holes in this vital organ. Upon injury, a series of highly coordinated overlapping events, that include inflammatory, proliferation and maturation phases, result in the hasty closure of the wound and restoration of skin integrity. Over the past decade it has become clear that a number of immune cells that regulate the inflammatory phase, whilst important for removal of invading pathogens, are not necessary for repair and in fact may be responsible for the subsequent scar formation that seems to have resulted from having such a rapid repair process. The magnitude and length of inflammation in the wound not only appears to dictate the extent of scar formation but also in some cases may even prevent wound closure. In this review we will explore the two sides of inflammation in wound healing and review current and future drug therapies that target inflammation to modulate the healing outcome.

Officers' perspectives of policing alcohol-related incidents in and around licensed premises

Alcohol-related harms are disproportionately represented in licensed-premises. This study aimed to investigate the practices and perceived capabilities of a group of police officers who engage in policing activities in and around licensed premises in a capital city policing district in an Australian jurisdiction. Analysis of the self-reported data revealed that the 254 participants were much more likely to attend to alcohol-related incidents outside rather than inside licensed premises. Policing licensed premises that involved an alcohol-related event was perceived as the most difficult task compared to other forms of police activities, which was mirrored by low levels of perceived knowledge regarding effective intervention strategies to deal with incidents inside licensed premises. The findings have direct implication in regards to training police officers, particularly increasing their perceived knowledge and skill level to deal with incidents inside licensed premises.

Protecting Vulnerable Young People in Cyberspace from Sexual Abuse: Raising Awareness and Responding Globally

This paper explores the danger that young people may be exposed to when using the Internet. The first part sets out the context by considering new developments in UK and international legislation and then explores educational moves to protect children. Focus is upon findings from research undertaken on behalf of the London Metropolitan Police Service in evaluating the Safer Surfing programme designed to enable young people’s safe Internet use. In the final part of this paper it is argued that more must however be done internationally both to protect children online and to curb the growing trade in indecent child images.

Canadian Crime Control in the New Millennium: The Influence of Neo-conservative U.S. Policies and Practices

An important issue facing Canadians today is crime control and prevention. Research done in the late 1980s and early 1990s by three sociologists shows that Canadian federal criminal justice policies and practices adopted by the Mulroney government from 1984 to 1990 were inconsistent with US ‘law and order’ models in place at that time. However, since the mid‐1990s, Canadian federal and provincial governments have mimicked some US authoritarian and gender‐blind means of curbing crime. The main objective of this paper is to provide some key examples of criminal justice policy transfer from the USA in Canada. At first glance, Canada may appear to be a ‘kinder, gentler nation,’ but not to the extent assumed by many, if not most, outside observers.

Creating Institutions: Linking the Local and the Global in the Travel of Crime Policies

Institutions represent the ‘technologies of the social.’ They are increasingly modelled and transported to other cultures and societies, and criminal justice institutions—traditional, parochial, and local as they are—are no exception to this. Problems of crime and insecurity have engendered the travelling of institutions from the centre to the periphery and vice versa. This paper will explore the problems which arise from travelling and modelling, and from the transport and creation of institutions in the area of criminal justice. An important feature in the travel of criminal justice institutions is the use of ‘local knowledge’ and its role in this process.

The influence of service quality and trade show effectiveness on post-show purchase intention

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop and test an integrative services framework to investigate the role of perceived trade show effectiveness on overall trade show service outcome, conceptualised as the intention to purchase a related product after, rather than during, a show. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the services marketing and trade show literature, the authors test a model of trade show effectiveness with data collected from 592 attendees at a major automotive trade show in a large metropolitan centre. Findings Results show that improving trade show visitors' perceived service quality positively affects visitor perceptions of trade show effectiveness. Furthermore, both trade show effectiveness and service quality directly influence future purchase intention. Research limitations/implications Employing a services theoretical framework to evaluate trade show visitor experiences provides an alternative to the traditional marketing communications approach. By viewing such visits as service encounters, managers must inevitably consider the effects of service quality and service outcomes in determining the likely success of their shows. The study primarily focuses on one large consumer show and therefore does not constitute a complete, nor necessarily representative, sample of the trade show industry. Originality/value The original contribution of the paper stems from the paucity of research conceptualising trade shows as services and the comparative lack of emphasis placed on visitors rather than exhibitors in the literature. The research not only has utility for trade show organisers but also provides necessary theory-based research in the trade show domain.

Victimization experiences of adolescents in Malaysia

Purpose There has been little community-based research regarding multiple-type victimization experiences of young people in Asia, and none in Malaysia. This study aimed to estimate prevalence, explore gender differences, as well as describe typical perpetrators and family and social risk factors among Malaysian adolescents. Methods A cross-sectional survey of 1,870 students was conducted in 20 randomly selected secondary schools in Selangor state (mean age: 16 years; 58.8% female). The questionnaire included items on individual, family, and social background and different types of victimization experiences in childhood. Results Emotional and physical types of victimization were most common. A significant proportion of adolescents (22.1%) were exposed to more than one type, with 3% reporting all four types. Compared with females, males reported more physical, emotional, and sexual victimization. The excess of sexual victimization among boys was due to higher exposure to noncontact events, whereas prevalence of forced intercourse was equal for both genders (3.0%). Although adult male perpetrators predominate, female adults and peers of both genders also contribute substantially. Low quality of parent–child relationships and poor school and neighborhood environments had the strongest associations with victimization. Family structure (parental divorce, presence of step-parent or single parent, or household size), parental drug use, and rural/urban location were not influential in this sample. Conclusion This study extends the analysis of multiple-type victimization to a Malaysian population. Although some personal, familial, and social factors correlate with those found in western nations, there are cross-cultural differences, especially with regard to the nature of sexual violence based on gender and the influence of family structure.

Influence tactics and leader effectiveness : how effective, contemporary leaders influence subordinates

Defining the difference between successful and mediocre leaders is a quest that has attracted many renowned scholars, drawing vast amounts of research effort. Yet while there are excellent theoretical explanations of what leaders should do: exhibit transformational behaviours, demonstrate authenticity, build productive relationships with followers and so on; there is still a scarcity of empirically-based research advising practicing leaders how to do these things. This study seeks to provide guidance about the fine-grained processes that effective leaders use on a daily basis to undertake the core process of all leadership activity; influencing followers. Using a grounded research approach, this study employs qualitative methods to capture the detail of effective leader behaviour and the micro-level influence processes that leaders use to create effective follower outcomes. Conducted in the health services industry with medical and allied health leaders, the study sought to answer the question: What influence methods might effective, contemporary leaders be using? The study builds on existing influence research, seeking to extend and update the typology of 11 influence tactics originally developed by Yukl and others, and which has been static since the late 1990s. Eight new influence tactics were identified, offering practicing leaders a powerful suite of potential strategies and representing a significant contribution to the field. Further research is recommended to confirm the identified influence constructs and test the generalisability of these findings to broader leader populations in health organisations and other knowledge-based organisations.

Evaluating the success of large-scale, integrated information systems through the lens of IS-impact and IS-support

This study proceeds from a central interest in the importance of systematically evaluating operational large-scale integrated information systems (IS) in organisations. The study is conducted within the IS-Impact Research Track at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). The goal of the IS-Impact Track is, "to develop the most widely employed model for benchmarking information systems in organizations for the joint benefit of both research and practice" (Gable et al, 2009). The track espouses programmatic research having the principles of incrementalism, tenacity, holism and generalisability through replication and extension research strategies. Track efforts have yielded the bicameral IS-Impact measurement model; the ‘impact’ half includes Organisational-Impact and Individual-Impact dimensions; the ‘quality’ half includes System-Quality and Information-Quality dimensions. Akin to Gregor’s (2006) analytic theory, the ISImpact model is conceptualised as a formative, multidimensional index and is defined as "a measure at a point in time, of the stream of net benefits from the IS, to date and anticipated, as perceived by all key-user-groups" (Gable et al., 2008, p: 381). The study adopts the IS-Impact model (Gable, et al., 2008) as its core theory base. Prior work within the IS-Impact track has been consciously constrained to Financial IS for their homogeneity. This study adopts a context-extension strategy (Berthon et al., 2002) with the aim "to further validate and extend the IS-Impact measurement model in a new context - i.e. a different IS - Human Resources (HR)". The overarching research question is: "How can the impacts of large-scale integrated HR applications be effectively and efficiently benchmarked?" This managerial question (Cooper & Emory, 1995) decomposes into two more specific research questions – In the new HR context: (RQ1): "Is the IS-Impact model complete?" (RQ2): "Is the ISImpact model valid as a 1st-order formative, 2nd-order formative multidimensional construct?" The study adhered to the two-phase approach of Gable et al. (2008) to hypothesise and validate a measurement model. The initial ‘exploratory phase’ employed a zero base qualitative approach to re-instantiating the IS-Impact model in the HR context. The subsequent ‘confirmatory phase’ sought to validate the resultant hypothesised measurement model against newly gathered quantitative data. The unit of analysis for the study is the application, ‘ALESCO’, an integrated large-scale HR application implemented at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), a large Australian university (with approximately 40,000 students and 5000 staff). Target respondents of both study phases were ALESCO key-user-groups: strategic users, management users, operational users and technical users, who directly use ALESCO or its outputs. An open-ended, qualitative survey was employed in the exploratory phase, with the objective of exploring the completeness and applicability of the IS-Impact model’s dimensions and measures in the new context, and to conceptualise any resultant model changes to be operationalised in the confirmatory phase. Responses from 134 ALESCO users to the main survey question, "What do you consider have been the impacts of the ALESCO (HR) system in your division/department since its implementation?" were decomposed into 425 ‘impact citations.’ Citation mapping using a deductive (top-down) content analysis approach instantiated all dimensions and measures of the IS-Impact model, evidencing its content validity in the new context. Seeking to probe additional (perhaps negative) impacts; the survey included the additional open question "In your opinion, what can be done better to improve the ALESCO (HR) system?" Responses to this question decomposed into a further 107 citations which in the main did not map to IS-Impact, but rather coalesced around the concept of IS-Support. Deductively drawing from relevant literature, and working inductively from the unmapped citations, the new ‘IS-Support’ construct, including the four formative dimensions (i) training, (ii) documentation, (iii) assistance, and (iv) authorisation (each having reflective measures), was defined as: "a measure at a point in time, of the support, the [HR] information system key-user groups receive to increase their capabilities in utilising the system." Thus, a further goal of the study became validation of the IS-Support construct, suggesting the research question (RQ3): "Is IS-Support valid as a 1st-order reflective, 2nd-order formative multidimensional construct?" With the aim of validating IS-Impact within its nomological net (identification through structural relations), as in prior work, Satisfaction was hypothesised as its immediate consequence. The IS-Support construct having derived from a question intended to probe IS-Impacts, too was hypothesised as antecedent to Satisfaction, thereby suggesting the research question (RQ4): "What is the relative contribution of IS-Impact and IS-Support to Satisfaction?" With the goal of testing the above research questions, IS-Impact, IS-Support and Satisfaction were operationalised in a quantitative survey instrument. Partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modelling employing 221 valid responses largely evidenced the validity of the commencing IS-Impact model in the HR context. ISSupport too was validated as operationalised (including 11 reflective measures of its 4 formative dimensions). IS-Support alone explained 36% of Satisfaction; IS-Impact alone 70%; in combination both explaining 71% with virtually all influence of ISSupport subsumed by IS-Impact. Key study contributions to research include: (1) validation of IS-Impact in the HR context, (2) validation of a newly conceptualised IS-Support construct as important antecedent of Satisfaction, and (3) validation of the redundancy of IS-Support when gauging IS-Impact. The study also makes valuable contributions to practice, the research track and the sponsoring organisation.