Collective futures: How projections about the future of society are related to actions and attitudes supporting social change

We identified the active ingredients in people’s visions of society’s future (“collective futures”) that could drive political behavior in the present. In eight studies (N = 595), people imagined society in 2050 where climate change was mitigated (Study 1), abortion laws relaxed (Study 2), marijuana legalized (Study 3), or the power of different religious groups had increased (Studies 4-8). Participants rated how this future society would differ from today in terms of societal-level dysfunction and development (e.g., crime, inequality, education, technology), people’s character (warmth, competence, morality), and their values (e.g., conservation, self-transcendence). These measures were related to present-day attitudes/intentions that would promote/prevent this future (e.g., act on climate change, vote for a Muslim politician). A projection about benevolence in society (i.e., warmth/morality of people’s character) was the only dimension consistently and uniquely associated with present-day attitudes and intentions across contexts. Implications for social change theories, political communication, and policy design are discussed.

Review of Public Trustee Files - Families and generational asset transfers: Making and challenging wills in contemporary Australia

The Public Trustee file review was designed to address research questions relating to will disputes and socio-cultural and family norms, expectations and obligations that underpin challenges to wills. Findings from this review will augment the earlier review of all adjudicated succession law cases in Australia between January and December 2011. The research team obtained 139 cases for the review. Within the reviewed cases, parties generally needed some kind of formalised assistance to resolve disputes and almost a third ended up going to court. Most claims launched to contest wills were successful i.e. led to a change in distribution. The existence of poor and/or complex personal relationships between beneficiaries, disputants and/or the deceased were a feature of most cases involving will disputes, particularly where disputes were escalated to court. There are significant costs of will contestation both for the estate and the individuals involved in disputes. Previous research has identified that in addition to the direct costs is the indirect cost of extending the time for probate of the will. This review highlights that one of the most significant costs of will contestation is the damage to familial relationships that appears to both drive and be worsened by contestation. Findings of this review highlight the role of Public Trustees in providing financial management and advocacy services to protect and support vulnerable people in the community such as those with impaired capacity, as well as offering services such as will drafting and deceased estate administration.

Empirical evaluation of the travel time reliability indicators: A case study for Brisbane corridor under recurrent and non-recurrent conditions

This research quantifies traffic congestion and travel time reliability with case study on a major arterial road in Brisbane. The focus is on the analysis of impact of incidents (e.g., road accidents) on travel time reliability. Real traffic (Bluetooth) and incident records from Coronation Drive, Brisbane are utilized for the study. The findings include significant impact of incidents on traffic congestion and travel time reliability. The knowledge gained is useful in various applications such as traveler information systems, and cost-benefit analysis of various strategies to reduce the traffic incidents and its' impacts.

The implicit structure of positive characteristics

The implicit structure of positive character traits was examined in two studies of 190 and 100 undergraduates. Participants judged the pairwise covariation or semantic similarity of 42 positive characteristics using a sorting or a rating task. Characteristics were drawn from a new classification of strengths and virtues, the Five-Factor Model, and a taxonomy of values. Participants showed consistent patterns of perceived association among the characteristics across the study conditions. Multidimensional scaling yielded three consistent dimensions underlying these judgments (“warmth vs. self-control,” “vivacity vs. decency,” and “wisdom vs. power”). Cluster analyses yielded six consistent groupings—“self-control,” “love,” “wisdom,” “drive,” “vivacity,” and “collaboration”—that corresponded only moderately to the virtue classification. All three taxonomies were systematically related to this implicit structure, but none captured it satisfactorily on its own. Revisions to positive psychology’s classification of strengths are proposed.

Deterrence of drug driving: The impact of the ACT drug driving legislation and detection techniques

The study sought to explore the initial impact of the ACT's implementation of roadside oral fluid drug screening program. The results suggest that a number of individuals reported intentions to drug drive in the future. The classical deterrence theory variables of certainty of apprehension, severity and swiftness of sanctions were not predictive of intentions to drug drive in the future. In contrast, having avoided apprehension and having known of others that have avoided apprehension were predictive of intentions to drug drive in the future. Increasing perceptions of the certainty of apprehension, increased testing frequency, and increased awareness of the oral fluid drug screening program could potentially lead to reductions of drug driving and result in safer road environment for all ACT community members.

The Wzy O-antigen polymerase of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis O:2a has a dependence on the Wzz chain-length determinant for efficient polymerization

Lipopolysaccharide is a major immunogenic structure for the pathogen Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, which contains the O-specific polysaccharide (OPS) that is presented on the cell surface. The OPS contains many repeats of the oligosaccharide O-unit and exhibits a preferred modal chain length that has been shown to be crucial for cell protection in Yersinia. It is well established that the Wzz protein determines the preferred chain length of the OPS, and in its absence, the polymerization of O units by the Wzy polymerase is uncontrolled. However, for Y. pseudotuberculosis, a wzz mutation has never been described. In this study, we examine the effect of Wzz loss in Y. pseudotuberculosis serotype O:2a and compare the lipopolysaccharide chain-length profile to that of Escherichia coli serotype O111. In the absence of Wzz, the lipopolysaccharides of the two species showed significant differences in Wzy polymerization. Yersinia pseudotuberculosis O:2a exhibited only OPS with very short chain lengths, which is atypical of wzz-mutant phenotypes that have been observed for other species. We hypothesise that the Wzy polymerase of Y. pseudotuberculosis O:2a has a unique default activity in the absence of the Wzz, revealing the requirement of Wzz to drive O-unit polymerization to greater lengths.

Report to VicRoads: Extent of unlicensed driving - follow up Ref 143 - Alcohol Harms Inquiry

Unlicensed driving is a serious problem in many countries, despite ongoing improvements in traffic law enforcement practices and technology. The term "unlicensed driver" is generally used to refer to people who drive or ride a motor vehicle without a valid driver's licence, including those who: • Have let their licence expire, • Have been disqualified or suspended from driving, • Hold an inappropriate licence for the class of vehicle they drive, • Drive outside the restrictions of a special licence, • Don’t currently hold a licence, or • Have never held a licence (Watson, 2003, 2004a)...

A comparison of methods to estimate the extent of unlicensed driving: Literature review. Final report to Queensland Transport

Unlicensed driving is a serious problem in many countries, despite ongoing improvements in traffic law enforcement practices and technology. The term ‘unlicensed driver' is generally used to refer to people who operate a motor vehicle or motorcycle without a valid driver's licence, including those who: • have let their licence expire; • have been disqualified or suspended from driving; • hold an inappropriate class of licence for the vehicle they drive; • drive outside the restrictions of a special licence; • don’t currently hold a licence; or • have never held a licence.

Report to VicRoads: Vehicle based sanctions to address drink driving

Licence sanctions including suspension, disqualification, or revocation have been effective in reducing recidivism and crash rates among those convicted of driving while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. Nonetheless, studies have indicated that many offenders continue to drive while they are unlicensed. Consequently, more recent attention has been given to vehicle sanctions that separate the offender from their vehicle. Vehicle based interventions focus on incapacitating the vehicle or separating it from the offending driver rather than relying on the threat of further sanctions to encourage compliance. Following on from a previous review conducted by Dr. Ron Christie (2006) for VicRoads, which examined the effectiveness of vehicle based sanctions in deterring unlicensed driving, this report considers the effectiveness of the aforementioned vehicle based sanctions for addressing drink driving.

Enablers of sense-making and responding and their impact on the effectiveness of management accounting practices

Management accounting practices are expected to adapt and evolve with changing information requirements. The purpose of this study is to determine the factors that enable management accounting adaptability and effectiveness. This study identifies three factors that drive management accounting adaptability through their support of sense-making and responding. Specifically, it is examined how top management team knowledge, team-based structures, and information system flexibility affect management accounting adaptability. The hypotheses are tested using data collected from an online survey of Australian and New Zealand companies. The results support the proposed relationships. Also a positive association between management accounting adaptability and management accounting effectiveness was found. This empirical study contributes to the literature on management accounting change by determining a number of drivers that improve upon the agility of organizational management accounting practices.

Country review on the main building energy-efficiency policy instrument

Building energy-efficiency (BEE) is the key to drive the promotion of energy saving in building sector. A large variety of building energy-efficiency policy instrument exist. Some are mandatory, some are soft scheme, and some use economic incentives from country to country. This paper presents the current development of implementing BEE policy instruments by examining the practices of BEE in seven selected countries and regions. In the study, BEE policy instruments are classified into three groups, including mandatory administration control instruments, economic incentive instruments and voluntary scheme instruments. The study shows that different countries have adopted different instruments in their practices for achieving the target of energy-saving and gained various kinds of experiences. It is important to share these experiences gained.

Identifying satisfaction factors in tertiary education: The case of an information systems program

This paper introduces a modified Kano approach to analysing and classifying quality attributes that drive student satisfaction in tertiary education. The approach provides several benefits over the traditional Kano approach. Firstly, it uses existing student evaluations of subjects in the educational institution instead of purpose-built surveys as the data source. Secondly, since the data source includes qualitative comments and feedback, it has the exploratory capability to identify emerging and unique attributes. Finally, since the quality attributes identified could be tied directly to students’ detailed feedback, the approach enables practitioners to easily translate the results into concrete action plans. In this paper, the approach is applied to analysing 26 subjects in the information systems school of an Australia university. The approach has enabled the school to uncover new quality attributes and paves the way for other institutions to use their student evaluations to continually understand and addressed students’ changing needs.

Teaching scenario analysis – An action learning pedagogy

In this paper we provide an introduction to our teaching of scenario analysis. Scenario analysis offers an excellent instructional vehicle for investigating ‘wicked problems’; issues that are complex and ambiguous and require trans-disciplinary inquiry. We outline the pedagogical underpinning based on action learning and provide a critical approach from the intuitive logics school of scenario analysis. We use this in our programme in which student groups engage in semi-structured, but divergent and inclusive analysis of a selected focal issue. They then develop a set of scenario storylines that outline the limits of possibility and plausibility for a selected time-horizon year. The scenarios are portrayed not as narratives, but as vehicles for exploration of the causes and outcomes of the interplay between forces in the contextual environment that drive the unfolding future in the context of the focal issue. In this way, we provide internally-generated challenges to both individual pre-conceptions and group-level thinking.

India’s indigenization of military aircraft design and manufacturing: Towards a fifth-generation fighter

India’s desire to transform itself into an international military power has brought about a rapid shift in its approach to procuring military hardware. The indigenization of India’s military manufacturing capacity forms an integral part of the strategic objectives of Indian military services, with its realization being a function of significant government investment in strategic technologies. This has a number of ramifications. An indigenous Indian military capacity, particularly in the field of aviation, forms a key part of India’s ambition of achieving regional air superiority, or even supremacy, and being capable of power projection. This is particularly in response to China’s increasing presence in South Asian airspace. A burgeoning Indian military manufacturing machine based on a comparative advantage in skilled technicians and lower-cost labour, together with strategic collaboration with foreign military hardware manufacturers, may also lead to neighbouring countries looking to India as a source of competitively priced military hardware. In short, this chapter seeks to analyse the rationale behind India’s attempt to become militarily self-sufficient in the field of aviation, discuss the technical, economic and political context in which it is achieving this transformation, and assess the potential outlook of success for India’s drive to achieve self-sufficiency in the arena of military aviation. This chapter will do so by using the case of India’s attempt to develop a fifth-generation fighter aircraft.

A LIN inspired optical bus for signal isolation in multilevel or modular power electronic converters

Proposed in this paper is a low-cost, half-duplex optical communication bus for control signal isolation in modular or multilevel power electronic converters. The concept is inspired by the Local Interconnect Network (LIN) serial network protocol as used in the automotive industry. The proposed communications bus utilises readily available optical transceivers and is suitable for use with low-cost microcontrollers for distributed control of multilevel converters. As a signal isolation concept, the proposed optical bus enables very high cell count modular multilevel cascaded converters (MMCCs) for high-bandwidth, high-voltage and high-power applications. Prototype hardware is developed and the optical bus concept is validated experimentally in a 33-level MMCC converter operating at 120 Vrms and 60 Hz.