Inward exporting of professional services : lessons from an exploratory study of Australian educational firms

Inward export activities for services companies have been largely neglected in the literature. Little is known about how professional service firms export to overseas consumers who travel to the domestic market of the firm. This study utilizes a resource-based perspective (RBV) to explore the main barriers and drivers of export performance for professional education services. A case study of Australia’s education industry, as well as interviews with executives from four Australian education institutions, was conducted. Findings show that inward exporters confront most barriers in the domestic market where the service is provided, and drivers of export performance combine firm- and country-specific resources.

Disposable maps : ad hoc location sharing

The gathering of people in everyday life is intertwined with travelling to negotiated locations. As a result, mobile phones are often used to rearrange meetings when one or more participants are late or cannot make it on time. Our research is based on the hypothesis that the provision of location data can enhance the experience of people who are meeting each other in different locations. This paper presents work-in-progress on a novel approach to share one’s location data in real-time which is visualised on a web-based map in a privacy conscious way. Disposable Maps allows users to select contacts from their phone’s address book who then receive up-to-date location data. The utilisation of peer-to-peer notifications and the application of unique URLs for location storage and presentation enable location sharing whilst ensuring users’ location privacy. In contrast to other location sharing services like Google Latitude, Disposable Maps enables ad hoc location sharing to actively selected location receivers for a fixed period of time in a specific given situation. We present first insights from an initial application user test and show future work on the approach of disposable information allocation.

Determining heavy vehicle suspension health from vibratory wheel loads

A low-cost test bed was made from a modified heavy vehicle (HV) brake tester. By rotating a test HV’s wheel on an eccentric roller, a known vibration was imparted to the wheel under test. A control case for dampers in good condition was compared with two test cases of ineffective shock absorbers. Measurement of the forces at the bearings of the roller provided an indication of the HV wheel-forces. Where the level of serviceability of the shock absorbers varied, differences in wheel load provided a quality indicator corresponding to a change of damper characteristic. Conclusions regarding the levels of damper maintenance beyond which HV suspensions cause road damage and dynamic wheel forces at the threshold of tyre wear at which HV shock absorbers are normally replaced are presented.

The quality of interface design for educational courseware development in Malaysian educational context

Interactive educational courseware has been adopted in diverse education sectors such as primary, secondary, tertiary education, vocational and professional training. In Malaysian educational context, the ministry of education has implemented Smart School Project that aims to increase high level of academic achievement in primary and secondary schools by using interactive educational courseware. However, many researchers have reported that many coursewares fail to accommodate the learner and teacher needs. In particular, the interface design is not appropriately designed in terms of quality of learning. This paper reviews educational courseware development process in terms of defining quality of interface design and suggests a conceptual model of interface design through the integration of design components and interactive learning experience into the development process. As a result, it defines the concept of interactive learning experience in a more practical approach in order to implement each stage of the development process in a seamless and integrated way.

Adaptive unsupervised learning of human actions

Automatic detection of suspicious activities in CCTV camera feeds is crucial to the success of video surveillance systems. Such a capability can help transform the dumb CCTV cameras into smart surveillance tools for fighting crime and terror. Learning and classification of basic human actions is a precursor to detecting suspicious activities. Most of the current approaches rely on a non-realistic assumption that a complete dataset of normal human actions is available. This paper presents a different approach to deal with the problem of understanding human actions in video when no prior information is available. This is achieved by working with an incomplete dataset of basic actions which are continuously updated. Initially, all video segments are represented by Bags-Of-Words (BOW) method using only Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) features. Then, a data-stream clustering algorithm is applied for updating the system's knowledge from the incoming video feeds. Finally, all the actions are classified into different sets. Experiments and comparisons are conducted on the well known Weizmann and KTH datasets to show the efficacy of the proposed approach.

Non-motorized public transport development : present scenario and future approach in developing cities

Over the last few decades, most large cities in the developing world have been experiencing rapid and imbalanced transport sector development resulting in severe congestion and poor levels of service. The most common response at a policy level under this circumstance has been to focus on private and public motorized transport modes, and especially on traffic control measures and mass transit systems. Despite their major role in the overall transport system in many developing cities in Asia & Latin America, relatively little attention is given to non-motorized transport (NMT) modes (walk, bicycle and cycle-rickshaw). In particular, this ideology is applicable to the paid category of non-motorized public transport (NMPT), notably three-wheeler cycle rickshaws that still have an important socio-economic, environmental and trip-making role in many developing cities. Despite, they are often seen as inefficient and backward; an impediment to progress; and inconsistent with modern urban image. Policy measures therefore, to restrict or eliminate non-motorized transport from urban arterials and other feeder networks have been implemented in cities as diverse as Dhaka, Delhi, Karachi, Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, Surabaya and Beijing . This paper will primarily investigate the key contribution of NMPT in the sustainable transport system and urban fabric of developing cities, with Dhaka as case study. The paper will also highlight in detail the impediments towards NMPT development and provide introductory concept on possible role this mode is expected to play into the future of these cities

A University Support Model for eResearch

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is faced with a rapidly growing research agenda built upon a strategic research capacity-building program. This presentation will outline the results of a project that has recently investigated QUT’s research support requirements and which has developed a model for the support of eResearch across the university. QUT’s research building strategy has produced growth at the faculty level and within its research institutes. This increased research activity is pushing the need for university-wide eResearch platforms capable of providing infrastructure and support in areas such as collaboration, data, networking, authentication and authorisation, workflows and the grid. One of the driving forces behind the investigation is data-centric nature of modern research. It is now critical that researchers have access to supported infrastructure that allows the collection, analysis, aggregation and sharing of large data volumes for exploration and mining in order to gain new insights and to generate new knowledge. However, recent surveys into current research data management practices by the Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories (APSR) and by QUT itself, has revealed serious shortcomings in areas such as research data management, especially its long term maintenance for reuse and authoritative evidence of research findings. While these internal university pressures are building, at the same time there are external pressures that are magnifying them. For example, recent compliance guidelines from bodies such as the ARC, and NHMRC and Universities Australia indicate that institutions need to provide facilities for the safe and secure storage of research data along with a surrounding set of policies, on its retention, ownership and accessibility. The newly formed Australian National Data Service (ANDS) is developing strategies and guidelines for research data management and research institutions are a central focus, responsible for managing and storing institutional data on platforms that can be federated nationally and internationally for wider use. For some time QUT has recognised the importance of eResearch and has been active in a number of related areas: ePrints to digitally publish research papers, grid computing portals and workflows, institutional-wide provisioning and authentication systems, and legal protocols for copyright management. QUT also has two widely recognised centres focused on fundamental research into eResearch itself: The OAK LAW project (Open Access to Knowledge) which focuses upon legal issues relating eResearch and the Microsoft QUT eResearch Centre whose goal is to accelerate scientific research discovery, through new smart software. In order to better harness all of these resources and improve research outcomes, the university recently established a project to investigate how it might better organise the support of eResearch. This presentation will outline the project outcomes, which include a flexible and sustainable eResearch support service model addressing short and longer term research needs, identification of resource requirements required to establish and sustain the service, and the development of research data management policies and implementation plans.

Foldback current control for a DG to achieve Fast Arc Extinction in a distribution network

The distribution network reliability can be increased if distributed generators (DGs) are allowed to operate in both grid-connected and islanded operations when the network has a high DG penetration level. However, the current utility regulations do not allow for the islanded operation. The arc faults are the one of the major issues preventing the islanded operation, since the arc will not extinguish if the DGs are not disconnected. In this paper, the effect of a converter interfaced DG on an arc fault is investigated by considering different control strategies for the converter. The foldback current control characteristic is proposed to a converter interfaced DG to achieve quick arc extinction and self-restoration without disconnecting the DG in the event of an arc fault. The results are validated through PSCAD/EMTDC simulations.