HIV vaccines : brief review and discussion of future directions

This article reviews data relevant to the development of cocktail vaccines for HIV which have been designed to elicit a wide range of envelope glycoprotein-specific B- and T-cell responses.

Online discussion in engineering education : student responses and learning outcomes

A ubiquitous and widely used feature of online learning environments is the asynchronous discussion board. This chapter presents a case study of the introduction and evaluation of student use of an online discussion in an engineering management study unit. We introduced an assessable assignment task based on student use of an online discussion, in response to falling student unit evaluation results after we initially moved the unit to wholly online delivery mode. Both quantitative and qualitative unit evaluation data suggest that students perceive value in the online discussion activities. A regression analysis based on discussion usage data suggests that students derived significant learning outcome benefit toward their final unit grade from making reflective postings in the online discussion.

Australia's informal venture capitalists : an exploratory profile

In Australia, as elsewhere, finding and acquiring equity capital is one of the major problems facing start-up or growing entrepreneurial ventures. The informal venture capital market, comprising high net worth non-institutional private equity investors (or 'business angels') provides risk capital directly to new and growing businesses and has been shown to be considerably more significant than institutional providers as a source of finance for entrepreneurial businesses. Building upon research undertaken internationally, this study generated and evaluated data resulting from an investigation of 36 carefully screened Australian business angels. It focused upon three primary research questions: (i) Who are Australia's informal venture capitalists (business angels)? (ii) How do they behave? (iii) What are their investment criteria? The study initiates Australian angel research into the developing international continuum of informal venture capital research and can serve as the generator of empirically testable hypotheses for future research and theory development.

The seraphim profile of Australia's business angels : a survey of the identifying characteristics, behaviour patterns and investment criteria of informal venture capitalists in Australia

In Australia, as it is all over the world, finding and acquiring equity capital is one of the major problems facing entrepreneurs who are starting or growing entrepreneurial ventures. The informal venture capital market, made up of high net worth non-institutional private equity investors (or 'business Angels') provides risk capital directly to new and growing businesses and has been shown to be considerably more significant than institutional providers as a source of finance for entrepreneurial businesses. Building upon and comporting with Angel research undertaken overseas, this study generated and evaluated data resulting from an investigation of Australian business Angels which focused upon three primary research questions: (i) Who are Australia's Informal Venture Capitalists (Business Angels)? (ii) How do they behave? (iii) What are their investment criteria? Analysis of answers resulting from the in-depth survey of 36 carefully screened respondents produced a detailed portrait, summarised and depicted in twelve key graphs. Together, the graphs form a descriptive construct - the 'Seraphim Profile' - which articulates Australian business Angels' identifying characteristics, patterns of investment behaviour and investment criteria.

An exploratory survey of Australia's informal venture capitalists : a predicate to theory building in the context of international angel research

In Australia, as it is all over the world, finding and acquiring equity capital is one of the major problems facing entrepreneurs who are starting or growing entrepreneurial ventures. The informal venture capital market, made up of high net worth non-institutional private equity investors (or ‘business Angels’) provides risk capital directly to new and growing businesses and has been shown to be considerably more significant than institutional providers as a source of finance for entrepreneurial businesses. Building upon and comporting with Angel research undertaken overseas, this study generated and evaluated data resulting from an investigation of Australian business Angels which focused upon three primary research questions: (i) Who are Australia's Informal Venture Capitalists (Business Angels)? (ii) How do they behave? (iii) What are their investment criteria? Analysis of answers resulting from a survey of 36 carefully screened respondents produced a descriptive profile, depicted in twelve key graphs, of Australian Angels' identifying characteristics, patterns of investment behaviour and investment criteria. The study initiates Australian Angel research into the developing international continuum of formal Angel research and can serve as the generator of empirically sensible hypotheses for future research and theory development.

An exploratory investigation of informal venture capitalists in Singapore

The paper presents a tentative profile of Singapore’s informal venture capitalists (business angels) resulting from case analysis of 29 investee businesses. The inquiry closely referenced the research designs of previous international studies of business angels, but with due regard to the cultural distinctions of Western and Singapore societies, developed its own methodology and survey instrument. While application of inferential statistical techniques is not possible, results of the investigation find their value in their ability to underpin structured hypotheses for future research and the challenge they deliver to traditional ways of thinking about capital provision to new ventures in the Singapore environment.

Reintegration services for long-term dangerous offenders : a case study and discussion

Successfully reintegrating long-term prisoners back into the community often presents significant challenges for service providers. Ex-prisoners typically experience high levels of social stigma; present with multiple needs; and can struggle to find meaningful employment, stable accommodation, and to maintain supportive relationships. There have, however, been relatively few published evaluations of the outcomes achieved by postrelease services on managing the risk of reoffending and, as such, it is difficult for service providers to meet these multiple and complex levels of need in ways that might be considered to be evidence based. In this article we describe a specialized prerelease support, reentry, and reintegration service that is offered to long-term prisoners, many of whom have been legally labelled as ‘‘dangerous.’’ The current model of service delivery is reviewed and discussed in the context of current theories of offender rehabilitation and reintegration. These are then used to discuss the way in which services for this group of offenders might best be conceptualized.

Reflections on the mentoring process with academics entering a 'new' educational experience

Purpose – Increasingly, academics new to higher education find themselves in a “publish or perish” environment, with little if any formal or informal support structures. This is a situation that many academics have faced and lamented. The discussion in this paper emanates from the objective of seeking to change this environment. The mentoring provided an opportunity to work collaboratively with accounting academics who are new to the higher education sector, and focuses on developing and/or enhancing a scholarly approach to teaching and learning.

Design/methodology/approach – The reflective practitioner model provides the theoretical framework that underpins this mentoring process. The discussion in this research paper provides an opportunity to explore this mentoring process, primarily aimed at developing and encouraging a scholarly approach to teaching and learning by academics new to the environment. Data on the process were collected using a survey questionnaire and as a result of informal discussions during the mentoring process.

Findings – The findings indicate an overall positive response to the process for both the mentor and the mentee and the achievement of the planned research outcomes.

Originality/value – The discussion in this paper outlines a framework and process that others may follow when mentoring academics entering a “new” educational experience.