Informing engineering education for sustainable development using a deliberative dynamic model for curriculum renewal

Literature from around the world clearly suggests that engineering education has been relatively slow to incorporate significant knowledge and skill areas, including the rapidly emerging area of sustainable development. Within this context, this paper presents the findings of research that questioned how engineering educators could consistently implement systematic and intentional curriculum renewal that is responsive to emerging engineering challenges and opportunities. The paper presents a number of elements of systematic and intentional curriculum renewal that have been empirically distilled from a qualitative multiple-method iterative research approach including literature review, narrative enquiry, pilot trials and peer-review workshops undertaken by the authors with engineering educators from around the world. The paper also presents new knowledge arising from the research, in the form of a new model that demonstrates a dynamic and deliberative mechanism for strategically accelerating for curriculum renewal efforts. Specifically the paper discusses implications of this model to achieve education for sustainable development, across all disciplines of engineering. It concludes with broader research and practice implications for the field of education research.

A game theoretical approach to construction safety in the Repair, Maintenance, Alteration and Addition (RMAA) sector

Safety has long been a problem in the construction industry. Repair, maintenance, alteration and addition (RMAA) sector has emerged to play an important role in the construction industry. It accounted for 53% of the total construction market in Hong Kong in 2007. Safety performance of the RMAA words has been alarming. Statistics indicate that the percentage of fatal industrial accidents arising from RMAA work in Hong Kong was over 56% in 2006 while the remaining 44% was from new works. Effective safety measures to address the safety problems and improve safety performance of the RMAA sector are urgently needed. Unsafe behaviour has been attributed to one of the major causes of accidents. Traditional cost-benefit analysis of workers' safety behaviour seems to be inadequate. This paper proposes to adopt a game theoretical approach to analyse safety behaviour of RMAA workers. Game theory is concerned with the decision-making process in situations where outcomes depend upon choices made by one or more players. A game theoretical model between contractor and worker has been proffered. Mathematical analysis of this game model has been done and implications of the analysis have been discussed.

Integrated approach for diagnostics and prognostics of HP LNG pump based on health state probability estimation

Effective machine fault prognostic technologies can lead to elimination of unscheduled downtime and increase machine useful life and consequently lead to reduction of maintenance costs as well as prevention of human casualties in real engineering asset management. This paper presents a technique for accurate assessment of the remnant life of machines based on health state probability estimation technique and historical failure knowledge embedded in the closed loop diagnostic and prognostic system. To estimate a discrete machine degradation state which can represent the complex nature of machine degradation effectively, the proposed prognostic model employed a classification algorithm which can use a number of damage sensitive features compared to conventional time series analysis techniques for accurate long-term prediction. To validate the feasibility of the proposed model, the five different level data of typical four faults from High Pressure Liquefied Natural Gas (HP-LNG) pumps were used for the comparison of intelligent diagnostic test using five different classification algorithms. In addition, two sets of impeller-rub data were analysed and employed to predict the remnant life of pump based on estimation of health state probability using the Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. The results obtained were very encouraging and showed that the proposed prognostics system has the potential to be used as an estimation tool for machine remnant life prediction in real life industrial applications.

A Lagrangian approach to nonlinear modeling of anti-roll tanks

This paper presents two novel nonlinear models of u-shaped anti-roll tanks for ships, and their linearizations. In addition, a third simplified nonlinear model is presented. The models are derived using Lagrangian mechanics. This formulation not only simplifies the modeling process, but also allows one to obtain models that satisfy energy-related physical properties. The proposed nonlinear models and their linearizations are validated using model-scale experimental data. Unlike other models in the literature, the nonlinear models in this paper are valid for large roll amplitudes. Even at moderate roll angles, the nonlinear models have three orders of magnitude lower mean square error relative to experimental data than the linear models.

An ontology-based service discovery approach for the provisioning of product-service bundles

More and more traditional manufacturing companies form or join inter-organizational networks to bundle their physical products with related services to offer superior value propositions to their customers. Some of these product-related services can be digitized completely and thus fully delivered electronically. Other services require the physical integration of external factors, but can still be coordinated electronically. In both cases companies and consumers face the problem of discovering appropriate product-related service offerings in the network or market. Based on ideas from the web service discovery discipline we propose a meet-in-the-middle approach between heavy-weight semantic technologies and simple boolean search to address this issue. Our approach is able to consider semantic relations in service descriptions and queries and thus delivers better results than syntax-based search. However – unlike most semantic approaches – it does not require the use of any formal language for semantic markup and thus requires less resources and skills for both service providers and consumers. To fully realize the potentials of the proposed approach a domain ontology is needed. In this research-in-progress paper we construct such an ontology for the domain of product-service bundles through analysis and synthesis of related work on service description. This will serve as an anchor for future research to iteratively improve and evaluate the ontology through collaborative design efforts and practical application.

Process model abstraction : a slider approach

Process models provide companies efficient means for managing their business processes. Tasks where process models are employed are different by nature and require models of various abstraction levels. However, maintaining several models of one business process involves a lot of synchronization effort and is erroneous. Business process model abstraction assumes a detailed model of a process to be available and derives coarse grained models from it. The task of abstraction is to tell significant model elements from insignificant ones and to reduce the latter. In this paper we argue that process model abstraction can be driven by different abstraction criteria. Criterion choice depends on a task which abstraction facilitates. We propose an abstraction slider - a mechanism that allows user control of the model abstraction level. We discuss examples of combining the slider with different abstraction criteria and sets of process model transformation rules.

A multi-genome analysis approach enables tracking of the invasion of a single Russian wheat aphid (Diuraphis noxia) clone throughout the New World

This study investigated the population genetics, demographic history and pathway of invasion of the Russian wheat aphid (RWA) from its native range in Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe to South Africa and the Americas. We screened microsatellite markers, mitochondrial DNA and endosymbiont genes in 504 RWA clones from nineteen populations worldwide. Following pathway analyses of microsatellite and endosymbiont data, we postulate that Turkey and Syria were the most likely sources of invasion to Kenya and South Africa, respectively. Furthermore, we found that one clone transferred between South Africa and the Americas was most likely responsible for the New World invasion. Finally, endosymbiont DNA was found to be a high resolution population genetic marker, extremely useful for studies of invasion over a relatively short evolutionary history time frame. This study has provided valuable insights into the factors that may have facilitated the recent global invasion by this damaging pest.

Developing a culture of peer review of teaching through a distributive leadership approach

Teaching is a core function of higher education and must be effective if it is to provide students with learning experiences that are stimulating, challenging and rewarding Obtaining feedback on teaching is indispensable to enhancing the quality of learning design, facilitating personal and/or professional development and maximising student learning outcomes. Peer review of teaching has the potential to improve the quality of teaching at tertiary level, by encouraging critical reflection on teaching, innovation in teaching practice and scholarship of teaching at all academic levels. However, embedding peer review within the culture of teaching and learning is a significant challenge that requires sustained commitment from senior leadership as well as those in leadership roles within local contexts.

Time for a national approach to donor conception in Australia

There is a growing recognition of the interests and rights of individuals conceived using donated gametes in assisted reproductive technology to information about their biological parentage. In Australia these rights vary between jurisdictions according to differing statutory provisions. In February 2011 the Senate's Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee published its report on Donor Conception Practices in Australia. The report recommended the development of a nationally consistent approach to donor conception and recommended the enactment of legislation in those Australian jurisdictions without legislation regulating donor conception. This editorial reviews the Senate Committee report and its recommendations and supports calls for a nationally harmonised approach to donor conception in Australia.

Dry tropics water smart : a community based approach to residential outdoor water consumption

This paper discusses the Townsville City Council Dry Tropics Water Smart (DTWS) initiative, developed by TCC Integrated Sustainability Services (ISS) and Townsville Water, and informed by The University of Adelaide. The program draws on many years of experience by the TCC team to blend key community-based research approaches in order to develop this residential outdoor water conservation program. Several community pilots have been conducted to test different behaviour change strategies and messages. This paper outlines recent steps taken to develop the community trials, as guided by a combination of behaviour change theories including community-based social marketing and thematic communications methods. Some preliminary results are outlined focused on community uptake of different strategies, community perceptions of communication materials, and some insights into the effectiveness of outdoor water hardware.

Simulation of plant cell shrinkage during drying : A SPH–DEM approach

Plant based dried food products are popular commodities in global market where much research is focused to improve the products and processing techniques. In this regard, numerical modelling is highly applicable and in this work, a coupled meshfree particle-based two-dimensional (2-D) model was developed to simulate micro-scale deformations of plant cells during drying. Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) was used to model the viscous cell protoplasm (cell fluid) by approximating it to an incompressible Newtonian fluid. The visco-elastic characteristic of the cell wall was approximated to a Neo-Hookean solid material augmented with a viscous term and modelled with a Discrete Element Method (DEM). Compared to a previous work [H. C. P. Karunasena, W. Senadeera, Y. T. Gu and R. J. Brown, Appl. Math. Model., 2014], this study proposes three model improvements: linearly decreasing positive cell turgor pressure during drying, cell wall contraction forces and cell wall drying. The improvements made the model more comparable with experimental findings on dried cell morphology and geometric properties such as cell area, diameter, perimeter, roundness, elongation and compactness. This single cell model could be used as a building block for advanced tissue models which are highly applicable for product and process optimizations in Food Engineering.

A controlled, rapid approach to curriculum change

Teachers are continually bombarded with change programs for improvements in areas such as literacy and numeracy, however; the focus is often on the program and not on results (Pertuzé, Calder, Greitzer & Lucas, 2010). When the inevitable failure follows (Fullan, 2005; Gross, Giacquinta & Bernstein, 1971)the school moves on to a new activities-based model.

Don't think but look : a Gestalt interactionist approach to legal thinking

We propose here a new approach to legal thinking that is based on principles of Gestalt perception. Using a Gestalt view of perception, which sees perception as the process of building a conceptual representation of the given stimulus, we articulate legal thinking as the process of building a representation for the given facts of a case. We propose a model in which top-down and bottom-up processes interact together to build arguments (or representations) in legal thinking. We discuss some implications of our approach, especially with respect to modeling precedential reasoning and creativity in legal thinking.

Manoeuvring control of fully-actuated marine vehicles : a Port-Hamiltonian system approach to tracking

This paper presents a novel control strategy for trajectory tracking of marine vehicles manoeuvring at low speed. The model of the marine vehicle is formulated as a Port-Hamiltonian system, and the tracking controller is designed using energy shaping and damping assignment. The controller guarantees global asymptotic stability and includes integral action for output variables with relative degree greater than one.

Revolute joint approach to model joint mechanism in water-filled road safety barriers

Portable water-filled road barriers (PWFB) are roadside structures placed on temporary construction zones to separate work site from traffic. Recent changes in governing standards require PWFB to adhere to strict compliance in terms of lateral displacement and vehicle redirectionality. Actual PWFB test can be very costly, thus researchers resort to Finite Element Analysis (FEA) in the initial designs phase. There has been many research conducted on concrete barriers and flexible steel barriers using FEA, however not many was done pertaining to PWFB. This research probes a new technique to model joints in PWFB. Two methods to model the joining mechanism are presented and discussed in relation to its practicality and accuracy. Moreover, the study of the physical gap and mass of the barrier was investigated. Outcome from this research will benefit PWFB research and allow road barrier designers better knowledge in developing the next generation of road safety structures.