Information sharing in distance collaboration: A software engineering perspective

Information sharing in distance collaboration: A software engineering perspective, QueenslandFactors in software engineering workgroups such as geographical dispersion and background discipline can be conceptually characterized as "distances", and they are obstructive to team collaboration and information sharing. This thesis focuses on information sharing across multidimensional distances and develops an information sharing distance model, with six core dimensions: geography, time zone, organization, multi-discipline, heterogeneous roles, and varying project tenure. The research suggests that the effectiveness of workgroups may be improved through mindful conducts of information sharing, especially proactive consideration of, and explicit adjustment for, the distances of the recipient when sharing information.

Modelling interactions between farm-level structural adjustment and a regional economy: A case of the Australian rice industry

Climate change and on-going water policy reforms will likely contribute to on-farm and regional structural adjustment in Australia. This paper gathers empirical evidence of farm-level structural adjustments and integrates these with a regional equilibrium model to investigate sectoral and regional impacts of climate change and recent water use policy on rice industry. We find strong evidence of adjustments to the farming system, enabled by existing diversity in on-farm production. A further loss of water with additional pressures to adopt less intensive and larger-scale farming, will however reduce the net number of farm businesses, which may affect regional rice production. The results from a regional CGE model show impacts on the regional economy over and above the direct cost of the environmental water, although a net reduction in real economic output and real income is partially offset by gains in rest of the Australia through the reallocation or resources. There is some interest within the industry and from potential new corporate entrants in the relocation of some rice production to the north. However, strong government support would be crucial to implement such relocation.

Israel Food Industry Commemorative Medal

Obverse: Stylized pictures of different kinds of food. Reverse: Emblem of Israel Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism. Stylized menorah within globe.

A design approach to innovation in the Australian energy industry

Electricity businesses across Australia are facing many market disruptions, such as the increasing demand from the rapid uptake of domestic air conditioners and the contrasting problematic generation from solar power connections to the grid. In this context, the opportunity to proactively leverage forthcoming technological advances in battery storage and electric vehicles to address the steeply rising cost of electricity supply has emerged. This research explores a design approach to support a business to navigate such disruptions in the current market.This study examines a design-led approach to innovation conducted over a ten month action research study within a large, risk-averse firm in the Australian energy sector. This article presents results describing a current foresight gap within the business; the response of the business to using design-led innovation to address this issue; and the tools, approaches and processes used. The business responses indicate their perception of the value of qualitative customer engagement as a path to addressing, and potentially benefiting from, disruptive innovation. It is anticipated that these results will further business model development within the company, and assist in leveraging disruptive innovations for this industry participant, thus limiting future increases in the cost of electricity supply for customers in Australia.

Australian feature films and distribution: Industry or cottage industry?

Feature films remain critical flagships to any national film industry. Australian feature films can be highly commercial endeavours that also perform symbolic functions by embodying the national imaginary in big screen based sound and imagery. They conduct a dialogue with domestic audiences as well as showcase key aspects of Australia in the global film festival circuit. As the pre-eminent filmmaking form, feature films also serve as important launchpads for the careers of many Australian writers, directors, actors and technical crew. In the wake of over a decade of diminished share of local box office obtained by Australian feature films, Australian Feature Films and Distribution: Industry or cottage industry, examines issues in the production sector affecting the performance of Australian feature films and some responses by the central funding and support screen agency, Screen Australia.

Improving Profitability to Industry Through the Identification and Management of 'tough' Fish Syndrome in Tropical Saddletail Snapper (Lutjanus Malabaricus)

OBJECTIVES: 1. To determine whether incomplete rigor mortis resolution and 'cold shock' play a role in development of tough fish syndrome (TFS) in tropical Saddletail snapper. 2. To identify links between TFS and specific physiological factors in tropical Saddletail snapper. 3. Communicate findings and recommendations to stakeholders and assist with implementation of any changes to fishing or handling practices required.

Application of shock waves in pencil manufacturing industry

A new shock wave generator has been designed, fabricated and tested for preservative impregnation studies into wood slats used for manufacturing pencils in the Shock Waves Laboratory, IISc, Bangalore. Series of experiments have been carried out in the laboratory to achieve satisfactory preservative impregnation into VATTA wood slats. The experiments have shown that it is indeed possible to impregnate preservatives into VATTA wood slats using shock waves and the depth of penetration and the retention of preservatives by wood slats is as good as the conventional methods. This method is expected to result in substantial reduction in the treatment process time compared to conventional methods that are currently being used by the pencil manufacturing industry.

Exotic plant pests–a threat to the sustainability of Australia’s grains industry

Exotic plant pests (EPPs) threaten production, market access and sustainability of Australian plant production systems. For the grains industry there are over 600 identified EPPs of which 54 are considered high priority, posing a significant threat. Despite Australia’s geographical isolation and strong quarantine systems, the threat from EPPs has never been higher with the increasing levels of travel and trade, emphasising the need for improving our efforts in prevention, preparedness and surveillance for EPPs.

Using Big Data to manage safety-related risk in the upstream oil and gas industry: A research agenda

Despite considerable effort and a broad range of new approaches to safety management over the years, the upstream oil & gas industry has been frustrated by the sector’s stubbornly high rate of injuries and fatalities. This short communication points out, however, that the industry may be in a position to make considerable progress by applying “Big Data” analytical tools to the large volumes of safety-related data that have been collected by these organizations. Toward making this case, we examine existing safety-related information management practices in the upstream oil & gas industry, and specifically note that data in this sector often tends to be highly customized, difficult to analyze using conventional quantitative tools, and frequently ignored. We then contend that the application of new Big Data kinds of analytical techniques could potentially reveal patterns and trends that have been hidden or unknown thus far, and argue that these tools could help the upstream oil & gas sector to improve its injury and fatality statistics. Finally, we offer a research agenda toward accelerating the rate at which Big Data and new analytical capabilities could play a material role in helping the industry to improve its health and safety performance.

Free/Open Source Software Development : Results and Research Methods

Free and open source software development is an alternative to traditional software engineering as an approach to the development of complex software systems. It is a way of developing software based on geographically distributed teams of volunteers without apparent central plan or traditional mechanisms of coordination. The purpose of this thesis is to summarize the current knowledge about free and open source software development and explore the ways on which further understanding on it could be gained. The results of research on the field as well as the research methods are introduced and discussed. Also adapting software process metrics to the context of free and open source software development is illustrated and the possibilities to utilize them as tools to validate other research are discussed.

Cryptographic Software Export Controls in the EU

Certain software products employing digital techniques for encryption of data are subject to export controls in the EU Member States pursuant to Community law and relevant laws in the Member States. These controls are agreed globally in the framework of the so-called Wassenaar Arrangement. Wassenaar is an informal non-proliferation regime aimed at promoting international stability and responsibility in transfers of strategic (dual-use) products and technology. This thesis covers provisions of Wassenaar, Community export control laws and export control laws of Finland, Sweden, Germany, France and United Kingdom. This thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter discusses the ratio of export control laws and the impact they have on global trade. The ratio is originally defence-related - in general to prevent potential adversaries of participating States from having the same tools, and in particular in the case of cryptographic software to enable signals intelligence efforts. Increasingly as the use of cryptography in a civilian context has mushroomed, export restrictions can have negative effects on civilian trade. Information security solutions may also be took weak because of export restrictions on cryptography. The second chapter covers the OECD's Cryptography Policy, which had a significant effect on its member nations' national cryptography policies and legislation. The OECD is a significant organization,because it acts as a meeting forum for most important industrialized nations. The third chapter covers the Wassenaar Arrangement. The Arrangement is covered from the viewpoint of international law and politics. The Wassenaar control list provisions affecting cryptographic software transfers are also covered in detail. Control lists in the EU and in Member States are usually directly copied from Wassenaar control lists. Controls agreed in its framework set only a minimum level for participating States. However, Wassenaar countries can adopt stricter controls. The fourth chapter covers Community export control law. Export controls are viewed in Community law as falling within the domain of Common Commercial Policy pursuant to Article 133 of the EC Treaty. Therefore the Community has exclusive competence in export matters, save where a national measure is authorized by the Community or falls under foreign or security policy derogations established in Community law. The Member States still have a considerable amount of power in the domain of Common Foreign and Security Policy. They are able to maintain national export controls because export control laws are not fully harmonized. This can also have possible detrimental effects on the functioning of internal market and common export policies. In 1995 the EU adopted Dual-Use Regulation 3381/94/EC, which sets common rules for exports in Member States. Provisions of this regulation receive detailed coverage in this chapter. The fifth chapter covers national legislation and export authorization practices in five different Member States - in Finland, Sweden, Germany, France and in United Kingdom. Export control laws of those Member States are covered when the national laws differ from the uniform approach of the Community's acquis communautaire. Keywords: export control, encryption, software, dual-use, license, foreign trade, e-commerce, Internet

A distributed services based conference planner application using software agents, grid services and web services

This demonstration highlights the applications of our research work i.e. second generation (Scalable Fault Tolerant Agent Grooming Environment - SAGE) Multi Agent System, Integration of Software Agents and Grid Computing and Autonomous Agent Architecture in the Agent Platform. It is a conference planner application that uses collaborative effort of services deployed geographically wide in different technologies i.e. Software Agents, Grid computing and Web services to perform useful tasks as required. Copyright 2005 ACM.

Knowledge management research in the construction industry: a review

Purpose: Knowledge management (KM) is important to the knowledge-intensive construction industry. The diversified and changing nature of works in this field warrants us to stocktake, identify changes and map out KM research framework for future exploration. Design/methodology/approach: The study involves three aspects. First, three stages of KM research in construction were distinguished in terms of the time distribution of 217 target publications. Major topics in the stages were extracted for understanding the changes of research emphasis from evolutionary perspective. Second, the past works were summed up in a three-dimensional research framework in terms of management organization, managerial methodology and approach, and managerial objective. Finally, potential research orientations in the future were predicted to expand the existing research framework. Findings: It was found that (1) KM research has significantly blossomed in the last two decades with a great potential; (2) major topics of KM were changing in terms of technology, technique, organization, attribute of knowledge and research objectives; (3) past KM studies centred around management organization, managerial methodology and approach, and managerial objective thus a three-dimensional research framework was proposed; (4) within the research framework, team-level, project-level and firm-level KM were studied to achieve project, organizational and competitive objectives by integrated methodologies of information technology, social technique and KM process tool; and (5) nine potential research orientations were predicted corresponding to the three dimensions. Finally, an expanded research framework was proposed to encourage and guide future research works in this field. Research limitations/implications: The paper only focused on the construction industry. The findings need further exploration in order to discover any possible missing important research works which were not published in English or not included in the time period. Originality/value: The paper formed a systematic framework of KM research in construction and predicted the potential research orientations. It provides much value for the researchers who want to understand the past and the future of global KM research in the construction industry.

NUVIEW:software for display and interactive manipulation of nucleic acid models

The NUVIEW software package allows skeletal models of any double helical nucleic acid molecule to be displayed out a graphics monitor and to apply various rotations, translations and scaling transformations interactively, through the keyboard. The skeletal model is generated by connecting any pair of representative points, one from each of the bases in the basepair. In addition to the above mentioned manipulations, the base residues can be identified by using a locator and the distance between any pair of residues can be obtained. A sequence based color coded display allows easy identification of sequence repeats, such as runs of Adenines. The real time interactive manipulation of such skeletal models for large DNA/RNA double helices, can be used to trace the path of the nucleic acid chain in three dimensions and hence get a better idea of its topology, location of linear or curved regions, distances between far off regions in the sequence etc. A physical picture of these features will assist in understanding the relationship between base sequence, structure and biological function in nucleic acids.