Online self-and-peer-assessment for teamwork in architecture and business communications

There is considerable evidence of general student scepticism regarding the purpose of team assignments and high levels of concern for the fairness of assessment procedures when all members of a team receive the same grade. Some educators are similarly anxious about not only the validity of team grades, but also the need to assess ongoing team processes in addition to the final assignment product. This paper offers self-andpeer-assessment (SAPA) as a fair, valid and reliable method of producing information about ongoing team processes. The paper examines a pilot study investigating an online SAPA tool originally developed for a small class of architecture students. This tool is adapted for use for by students completing team assignment in two further architecture design units and for a very large class of 800 business communication students. The sample students studied on four campuses, as well as in off campus and offshore modes. The paper focuses on the initial stages of the study to demonstrate how researchers from very different backgrounds collaborated to adapt the online tool and implement a pilot study whilst maintaining both comparability of assessment and integrity of research design.

Web communities analysis and construction

Yanchun Zhang and his co-authors explain how to construct and analyse Web communities based on information like Web document contents, hyperlinks, or user access logs. Their approaches combine results from Web search algorithms, Web clustering methods, and Web usage mining. They also detail the necessary preliminaries needed to understand the algorithms presented, and they discuss several successful existing applications. Researchers and students in information retrieval and Web search find in this all the necessary basics and methods to create and understand Web communities. Professionals developing Web applications will additionally benefit from the samples presented for their own designs and implementations

Criticisms of auditors and earnings management during the Asian economic crisis

Auditors were criticised during and after the Asian economic crisis for supplying variable quality across global audit markets. This study examines
the level of earnings management as measured by discretionary accruals in the pre-crisis compared to the post-crisis periods as they impacted Malaysia. Both the Jones (1991) and earnings per share frequency distribution methods are used to examine earnings management behaviour. As hypothesised, the pre-crisis period is associated with significantly higher levels of absolute discretionary accruals and increased propensity to meet or beat the prior year earnings per share, whereas the post-crisis period is not. This finding is consistent with auditors responding to the criticisms that were made. However, the propensity to avoid losses is found to be higher in the post-crisis period, indicating that earnings management is not fully constrained.

Overexpression and Purification of the Oat (Avena Fatua) Protein AFN1 and Construction of a pMAL/AFN1 Expression Plasmid

Abscisic acid (ABA) is an important phytohormone with regulatory roles in many physiological processes. ABA expression is induced by environmental stresses such as drought and it is known to be an inhibitor of seed germination. A wild oat (Avena fatua) called AFN1 has been hypothesized to initiate the early stages of germination as its mRNA accumulates in nondormant seed embryos during imbibition. The polypeptide sequence of AFN1 suggests that it is an ABA glucosyl transferase. Glucosylation by AFN1 and thereby inactivation of ABA could lead to seed germination. In order to understand the role of AFN1 in germination, an ample quantity of AFN1 polypeptide is needed to test for enzymatic ABA glucosylase activity. My work has been to overexpress recombinant AFN1containing a (His)6 tag using a pRSETC E.coli expression system followed by Purification of the AFN1 protein by means of a nickel-affinity column that bind to the (His)6 tag. Due to the insufficient yield of AFN1 fusion protein obtained with this procedure, another method using a pMAL-c2x vector is now being employed. The pMAL expression system provides a method for expressing and purifying protein by tagging proteins with maltose-binding protein (MBP). It is anticipated that MBP tag will be advantageous as it can make the fusion protein more soluble and thereby yield a larger quantity of protein. Currently, work is underway on the construction of pMAL/AFN1 plasmid.

Sedation and analgesia management for mechanically ventilated adults: literature review, case study and recommentations for practice.

The quality of sedation management in mechanically ventilated patients has been a source of concern in recent years. This paper summarises the literature on the principles of optimal sedation, discusses the consequences of over and undersedation, highlighting the importance of appropriate pain management, and presents a case study using the results of an audit of 48 mechanically ventilated adults. As a result of the review and audit, we are implementing changes to practice.

The most important recommendations from the literature are the use of a sedation scale, setting of a goal sedation score, appropriate pain management and implementation of a nurse initiated sedation algorithm. Other recommendations include use of bolus rather than continuous sedative infusions and recommencing regular medications for anxiety, depression and other phychiatric disorders as soon as possible. A recommendation arising from our audit was the need to identify patients at high risk of oversedation and undersedation and adopt a proactive rather than reactive approach to management. The practice goal is to provide adequate and appropriate analgesia and anxiolysis for patients. This will improve patient comfort while reducing length of mechanical ventilation and minimising risk of complications.

Talent identification and risk management at AFL clubs : 'We'll only recruit public school boys in the future'

This paper will report on a research project funded by the Australian Football League (AFL).The research mobilises Foucault's later work on the care of the Self to focus on the ways in which player identities are regulated; and the manner in which players conduct themselves in ways that can be characterised as professional - or not.

The paper explores the forms of risk management that Clubs use in the processes of talent identification that they engage in as a consequence of AFL rules. The paper discusses how psychological profiling is used to identify character traits prior to initial recruitment in the draft or trading processes - and reports on suggestions that risk management in this increasingly commerciaIised context may lead to recruitment practices that exclude certain types of persons. from
certain types of backgrounds.