Relationship between emotional climate and the fluency of classroom interactions

This study examined emotional climate in relation to the teaching and learning of grade 7 science. A multi-method and multi-theoretic approach used sociocultural frameworks as a foundation for interpretive research, conversation analysis, prosody analysis, and studies of nonverbal conduct. Emotional climate varied continuously throughout a lesson. Dialogues occurred and afforded learning when interactions between the teacher and students were fluent and included humour and collective effervescence. Emotional climate was negatively valenced when the teacher and/or students endeavoured to establish and maintain power by restricting others’ participation to spectator roles. The teacher’s endeavours to maintain and establish control over students were potentially detrimental to teaching and learning, teachers and learners. This type of teaching gradually evolved into a form we referred to as cranky teaching, whereby the teacher and her students showed signs of frustration and the enacted teaching and learning roles lacked fluency. The methods we pioneered in the present study might be helpful for other teachers who wish to participate in research on their classes to ascertain what works and should be strengthened, and identify practices and rituals that are deleterious and in need of change.

Procuring OSM : base-line models of off-site manufacture business processes in Australia

A pressing cost issue facing construction is the procurement of off-site pre-manufactured assemblies. In order to encourage Australian adoption of off-site manufacture (OSM), a new approach to underlying processes is required. The advent of object oriented digital models for construction design assumes intelligent use of data. However, the construction production system relies on traditional methods and data sources and is expected to benefit from the application of well-established business process management techniques. The integration of the old and new data sources allows for the development of business process models which, by capturing typical construction processes involving OSM, provides insights into such processes. This integrative approach is the foundation of research into the use of OSM to increase construction productivity in Australia. The purpose of this study is to develop business process models capturing the procurement, resources and information flow of construction projects. For each stage of the construction value chain, a number of sub-processes are identified. Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN), a mainstream business process modelling standard, is used to create base-line generic construction process models. These models identify OSM decision-making points that could provide cost reductions in procurement workflow and management systems. This paper reports on phase one of an on-going research aiming to develop a proto-type workflow application that can provide semi-automated support to construction processes involving OSM and assist in decision-making in the adoption of OSM thus contributing to a sustainable built environment.

Years lived with disability (YLDs) for 1160 sequelae of 289 diseases and injuries 1990–2010 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010

Background Non-fatal health outcomes from diseases and injuries are a crucial consideration in the promotion and monitoring of individual and population health. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) studies done in 1990 and 2000 have been the only studies to quantify non-fatal health outcomes across an exhaustive set of disorders at the global and regional level. Neither effort quantified uncertainty in prevalence or years lived with disability (YLDs). Methods Of the 291 diseases and injuries in the GBD cause list, 289 cause disability. For 1160 sequelae of the 289 diseases and injuries, we undertook a systematic analysis of prevalence, incidence, remission, duration, and excess mortality. Sources included published studies, case notification, population-based cancer registries, other disease registries, antenatal clinic serosurveillance, hospital discharge data, ambulatory care data, household surveys, other surveys, and cohort studies. For most sequelae, we used a Bayesian meta-regression method, DisMod-MR, designed to address key limitations in descriptive epidemiological data, including missing data, inconsistency, and large methodological variation between data sources. For some disorders, we used natural history models, geospatial models, back-calculation models (models calculating incidence from population mortality rates and case fatality), or registration completeness models (models adjusting for incomplete registration with health-system access and other covariates). Disability weights for 220 unique health states were used to capture the severity of health loss. YLDs by cause at age, sex, country, and year levels were adjusted for comorbidity with simulation methods. We included uncertainty estimates at all stages of the analysis. Findings Global prevalence for all ages combined in 2010 across the 1160 sequelae ranged from fewer than one case per 1 million people to 350 000 cases per 1 million people. Prevalence and severity of health loss were weakly correlated (correlation coefficient −0·37). In 2010, there were 777 million YLDs from all causes, up from 583 million in 1990. The main contributors to global YLDs were mental and behavioural disorders, musculoskeletal disorders, and diabetes or endocrine diseases. The leading specific causes of YLDs were much the same in 2010 as they were in 1990: low back pain, major depressive disorder, iron-deficiency anaemia, neck pain, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, anxiety disorders, migraine, diabetes, and falls. Age-specific prevalence of YLDs increased with age in all regions and has decreased slightly from 1990 to 2010. Regional patterns of the leading causes of YLDs were more similar compared with years of life lost due to premature mortality. Neglected tropical diseases, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and anaemia were important causes of YLDs in sub-Saharan Africa. Interpretation Rates of YLDs per 100 000 people have remained largely constant over time but rise steadily with age. Population growth and ageing have increased YLD numbers and crude rates over the past two decades. Prevalences of the most common causes of YLDs, such as mental and behavioural disorders and musculoskeletal disorders, have not decreased. Health systems will need to address the needs of the rising numbers of individuals with a range of disorders that largely cause disability but not mortality. Quantification of the burden of non-fatal health outcomes will be crucial to understand how well health systems are responding to these challenges. Effective and affordable strategies to deal with this rising burden are an urgent priority for health systems in most parts of the world. Funding Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Exploring governance issues on collaborative contracts in the construction industry

This paper reports the findings of an in-depth literature review, which was designed as the first phase of a study that ultimately aims to rank the importance of key governance mechanisms on collaborative construction projects, in terms of impact on value-for-money. The absence of such information in the global knowledge base has prompted the current study. Seminal research completed recently concluded that deductive evidence with regard to the performance outcomes of collaborative procurement mechanisms is currently limited (Eriksson and Westerberg 2011). The authors aim to address this gap in current understanding. The literature review identifies key features of both formal and informal mechanisms which have been applied within collaborative contracting contexts. The literature review lays a solid foundation for designing a deductive research strategy to be implemented in the second phase of the study, which will employ a large-scale quantitative survey to shed light on the governance structures of collaborative contracts, and the ways in which they impact on realisation of VfM during project delivery in the Australian infrastructure industry. The current paper aims to identify the main categories of formal and informal governance mechanisms currently being employed globally. This will provide structure for the development of the survey in the second phase of the study.

‘Hot chicks’, ‘better parties’ or academic stuff : perceptions of a regional university campus using Repertory Grid Analysis and Importance-performance Analysis

In the increasingly competitive Australian tertiary education market, a consumer orientation is essential. This is particularly so for small regional campuses competing with larger universities in the state capitals. Campus management need to carefully monitor both the perceptions of prospective students within the catchment area, and the (dis)satisfaction levels of current students. This study reports the results of an exploratory investigation into the perceptions held of a regional campus, using two techniques that have arguably been underutilised in the education marketing literature. Repertory Grid Analysis, a technique developed almost fifty years ago, was used to identify attributes deemed salient to year 12 high school students at the time they were applying for university places. Importance-performance analysis (IPA), developed three decades ago, was then used to identify attributes that were determinant for a new cohort of first year undergraduate students. The paper concludes that group applications of Repertory Grid offer education market researchers a useful means for identifying attributes used by high school students to differentiate universities, and that IPA is a useful technique for guiding promotional decision making. In this case, the two techniques provided a quick, economical and effective snapshot of market perceptions, which can be used as a foundation for the development of an ongoing market research programme.

Crowdsourcing information systems : definition, typology and design

Crowdsourcing has become a popular approach for capitalizing on the potential of large and open crowds of people external to the organization. While crowdsourcing as a phenomenon is studied in a variety of fields, research mostly focuses on isolated aspects and little is known about the integrated design of crowdsourcing efforts. We introduce a socio-technical systems perspective on crowdsourcing, which provides a deeper understanding of the components and relationships in crowdsourcing systems. By considering the function of crowdsourcing systems within their organizational context, we develop a typology of four distinct system archetypes. We analyze the characteristics of each type and derive a number of design requirements for the respective system components. The paper lays a foundation for IS-based crowdsourcing research, channels related academic work, and helps guiding the study and design of crowdsourcing information systems.

The application of fiber Bragg grating sensor to high precision temperature measurement [基于光纤光栅的高精度测温传感器研究]

Basing on the character that Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) is sensitive to both temperature and strain, by using Al and Fe-Ni alloy’s bimetal structure, we successfully design and manufacture a high accuracy FBG temperature sensor for earthquake premonition. Furthermore, we analyze the accuracy of the FBG sensors with enhanced sensitivity for the first time, and get its accuracy is up to ±0.05℃ with highest resolution ever in all FBG temperature sensors (0.0014℃/pm). This work experimentally proves the feasibility of using FBG in the earthquake premonition monitoring, and builds the foundation for the application of optic technology in earthquake premonition monitoring.

Deriving construction features from an IFC model

In recent years, there has been a growing interest from the design and construction community to adopt Building Information Models (BIM). BIM provides semantically-rich information models that explicitly represent both 3D geometric information (e.g., component dimensions), along with non-geometric properties (e.g., material properties). While the richness of design information offered by BIM is evident, there are still tremendous challenges in getting construction-specific information out of BIM, limiting the usability of these models for construction. In this paper, we describe our approach for extracting construction-specific design conditions from a BIM model based on user-defined queries. This approach leverages an ontology of features we are developing to formalize the design conditions that affect construction. Our current implementation analyzes the component geometry and topological relationships between components in a BIM model represented using the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) to identify construction features. We describe the reasoning process implemented to extract these construction features, and provide a critique of the IFC’s to support the querying process. We use examples from two case studies to illustrate the construction features, the querying process, and the challenges involved in deriving construction features from an IFC model.

Use of brain computer interface to drive : preliminary results

This paper reports on the implementation of a non-invasive electroencephalography-based brain-computer interface to control functions of a car in a driving simulator. The system is comprised of a Cleveland Medical Devices BioRadio 150 physiological signal recorder, a MATLAB-based BCI and an OKTAL SCANeR advanced driving experience simulator. The system utilizes steady-state visual-evoked potentials for the BCI paradigm, elicited by frequency-modulated high-power LEDs and recorded with the electrode placement of Oz-Fz with Fz as ground. A three-class online brain-computer interface was developed and interfaced with an advanced driving simulator to control functions of the car, including acceleration and steering. The findings are mainly exploratory but provide an indication of the feasibility and challenges of brain-controlled on-road cars for the future, in addition to a safe, simulated BCI driving environment to use as a foundation for research into overcoming these challenges.

Prediction of IBD based on population history for fine gene mapping

A novel multiple regression method (RM) is developed to predict identity-by-descent probabilities at a locus L (IBDL), among individuals without pedigree, given information on surrounding markers and population history. These IBDL probabilities are a function of the increase in linkage disequilibrium (LD) generated by drift in a homogeneous population over generations. Three parameters are sufficient to describe population history: effective population size (Ne), number of generations since foundation (T), and marker allele frequencies among founders (p). IBD L are used in a simulation study to map a quantitative trait locus (QTL) via variance component estimation. RM is compared to a coalescent method (CM) in terms of power and robustness of QTL detection. Differences between RM and CM are small but significant. For example, RM is more powerful than CM in dioecious populations, but not in monoecious populations. Moreover, RM is more robust than CM when marker phases are unknown or when there is complete LD among founders or Ne is wrong, and less robust when p is wrong. CM utilises all marker haplotype information, whereas RM utilises information contained in each individual marker and all possible marker pairs but not in higher order interactions. RM consists of a family of models encompassing four different population structures, and two ways of using marker information, which contrasts with the single model that must cater for all possible evolutionary scenarios in CM.

Tackling the health burden from household air pollution (HAP) : development and implementation of new WHO Guidelines

Household air pollution (HAP), arising mainly from the combustion of solid and other polluting fuels, is responsible for a very substantial public health burden, most recently estimated as causing 3.5 million premature deaths in 2010. These patterns of household fuel use have also important negative impacts on safety, prospects for poverty reduction and the environment, including climate change. Building on previous air quality guidelines, the WHO is developing new guidelines focused on household fuel combustion, covering cooking, heating and lighting, and although global, the key focus is low and middle income countries reflecting the distribution of disease burden. As discussed in this paper, currently in development, the guidelines will include reviews of a wide range of evidence including fuel use in homes, emissions from stoves and lighting, household air pollution and exposure levels experienced by populations, health risks, impacts of interventions on HAP and exposure, and also key factors influencing sustainable and equitable adoption of improved stoves and cleaner fuels. GRADE, the standard method used for guidelines evidence review may not be well suited to the variety and nature of evidence required for this project, and a modified approach is being developed and tested. Work on the guidelines is being carried out in close collaboration with the UN Foundation Global Alliance on Clean cookstoves, allowing alignment with specific tools including recently developed international voluntary standards for stoves, and the development of country action plans. Following publication, WHO plans to work closely with a number of countries to learn from implementation efforts, in order to further strengthen support and guidance. A case study on the situation and policy actions to date in Bhutan provide an illustration of the challenges and opportunities involved, and the timely importance of the new guidelines and associated research, evaluation and policy development agendas.

Soil-pile interaction in deep layered marine sediment under seismic excitation

Under seismic loads neither the response of the pile nor the response of ground are independent of each other, contrary what is normally assumed. In seismic design of buildings, dynamic response of a structure is determined by assuming a fixed base on sub-grade and neglecting the physical interaction between foundation and soil profile in which it is embedded. However, the seismic response of pile foundations in vibration sensitive soil profiles is significantly affected by the behaviour of supporting soil. This research uses validated Finite Element techniques to simulate the seismic behaviour of pile foundations embedded in multilayered vibration sensitive soils.

Data requirements and graph data structures for a multi-modal, multi-objective trip planner

Traffic congestion has a significant impact on the economy and environment. Encouraging the use of multimodal transport (public transport, bicycle, park’n’ride, etc.) has been identified by traffic operators as a good strategy to tackle congestion issues and its detrimental environmental impacts. A multi-modal and multi-objective trip planner provides users with various multi-modal options optimised on objectives that they prefer (cheapest, fastest, safest, etc) and has a potential to reduce congestion on both a temporal and spatial scale. The computation of multi-modal and multi-objective trips is a complicated mathematical problem, as it must integrate and utilize a diverse range of large data sets, including both road network information and public transport schedules, as well as optimising for a number of competing objectives, where fully optimising for one objective, such as travel time, can adversely affect other objectives, such as cost. The relationship between these objectives can also be quite subjective, as their priorities will vary from user to user. This paper will first outline the various data requirements and formats that are needed for the multi-modal multi-objective trip planner to operate, including static information about the physical infrastructure within Brisbane as well as real-time and historical data to predict traffic flow on the road network and the status of public transport. It will then present information on the graph data structures representing the road and public transport networks within Brisbane that are used in the trip planner to calculate optimal routes. This will allow for an investigation into the various shortest path algorithms that have been researched over the last few decades, and provide a foundation for the construction of the Multi-modal Multi-objective Trip Planner by the development of innovative new algorithms that can operate the large diverse data sets and competing objectives.

The interface of the national Australian curriculum and the pre-Year 1 class in school : exploring tensions

The Australian state -based educational system of a national school curriculum that includes a pre-Year 1 Foundation Year has raised questions about the purpose of this year of early education. A document analysis was undertaken across three Australian states, examining three constructions of the pre-Year 1 class and tensions arising from varied perspectives. Tensions have emerged over state-based adaptations of the national curriculum, scripted pedagogies for change management, differing ideological perspectives and positioning of stakeholders. The results indicate that since 2012 there has been a shift in constructions of the pre-Year 1 class towards school-based ideologies, especially in Queensland. Accordingly, positioning of children, parents and teachers has also changed. These results resonate with previous international indications of ‘schooling’ early education. The experiences of Australian early adopters of the curriculum offer insights for other jurisdictions in Australia and internationally, and raise questions about future development in early years education.

Who's asking for what? Fundraising and leadership in Australian nonprofits

The nonprofit funding landscape is in flux. Many organisations are having to think differently and develop fresh skills either to enter the fundraising market or to cope better with rising competition for community and corporate support. This new reality affects boards, CEOs and fundraisers alike. Against this backdrop, our exploratory study aimed to build an evidence base and spark more discussion about: - the role Australian nonprofit CEOs and boards play in supporting fundraising/development; - current engagement levels; and - perceptions of leadership in fundraising from two possibly contrasting perspectives: NP leaders (board members and CEOs); and fundraisers. This research has been supported by the Perpetual Foundation, the EF and SL Gluyas Trust and the Edward Corbould Charitable Trust under the management of Perpetual Trustee Company Ltd.