CADET - Centre for Advanced Design in Engineering Training

BACKGROUND : The Centre for Advanced Design in Engineering Training (CADET) is a partnership of Deakin University and the Gordon Institute of TAFE that will improve access and pathways into careers to address Australia’s critical engineering skills shortage (Walton, C). Local high schools, Belmont High and Matthew Flinders Girls Secondary College are included as strategic partners. CADET is proposed to be a teaching and learning facility providing a project focused modern engineering approach to students at regional schools and TAFE as well as Deakin’s degree programs. CADET will emphasize engineering design and development through virtual and physical modelling, simulation and prototyping – skills at the heart of the 21st century engineering challenges, and will serve as an attractor to engineering and related professions.

PURPOSE : The purpose of this paper is to present an argument toward the development of a Centre for advanced design in engineering training. CADET is proposed to increase the awareness and attractiveness of engineering as an education and career option, particularly for women, in regional schools, provide under one roof state-of-the-art engineering design, modelling and prototyping facilities, facilitate access and articulation pathways between school, VET and Higher Education, increase the physical capacity to serve student demand in western Victoria, and reinvigorate engineering as an essential component of a skilled regional economy.

DESIGN/METHOD : The evidenced based argument towards the proposed centre for advanced design in engineering training is based on a detailed literature review as well as a research study with industry representatives in engineering design. The learning principles of the model are also investigated and aligned to the proposed centre.

RESULTS : CADET is a change to the way engineering has traditionally been taught. The outcomes of CADET will be to provide a broad range of contemporary/relevant teaching programs, improve the social benefits gained from teaching programs, improve retention rates, advance partnerships that link with rural and regional victoria, and collaborate with local communities to encourage governments to support regional capacity building. Through focus group interviews and open discussions with industry and academia over the past 12 months on the integration of design skills in engineering education, results indicate that the following key skills are essential elements required for a successful project oriented design based learning curriculum are creative & innovative skills, successful industry engagement, and awareness of design skills in early years. Feedback also showed that 80% of the industry representatives are looking to recruit graduates who acquired design-equipped skill and 60% indicated that they want graduates who acquired knowledge through projects.

CONCLUSIONS : CADET projected benefits are significant at the strategic and operational levels. They include access for more women in engineering, facilitates articulation pathways between VET and HE, targeted recognised critical current engineering skills shortage in Australia, improvement of regional access, attractiveness and participation in tertiary education, achievement of a significant improvement in the teaching-research nexus.

Physics practicals for distance education in an undergraduate engineering course

BACKGROUND : Providing engineering practicals to undergraduates by means of distance education is a significant challenge. The past 30 years have seen the rapid development of the distance education. For many years, Deakin University has offered a full Bachelor of Engineering degree programme via distance education. All first-year students study a unit in physics. This unit includes practicals. Providing practical experiences to students is distance education’s greatest challenge.

PURPOSE : The purpose of this work was to develop the means for off-campus students to complete practical exercises in first-year engineering physics. The solution to the problem also had to comply with accreditation requirements set by Engineers Australia.

METHOD : The long-term solution to the problem was running on-campus lab classes either on weekends or as part of the annual first-year residential school for engineering professional practice. Students work was assessed by means of standard laboratory reports. On-campus marks and off-campus lab marks have been collected and compared over the past 12 years.

RESULTS : The results indicate that the off-campus lab experience is similar to the on-campus experience. Marks for the two cohorts were comparable. Those few students who completed their pracs at home faced and overcame significant challenges.

CONCLUSIONS : We found that performance in their lab reports for off-campus students was similar to that of the on-campus students. Accreditation requirements has shifted the focus from developing activities that students could perform at home to offering timely and efficient on-campus lab classes for off-campus students. Future work will focus on on-campus lab classes in accordance with accreditation requirements and perhaps on-line broadcasts of prac classes for those students who cannot attend lab on-campus.

A review of mathematical equations to assign individual marks from a team mark

BACKGROUND : Team-based learning is an integral part of engineering education today. Development of team skills is now a part of the curriculum at universities as employers demand these skills on graduates. Higher education institutions enforce academic staff to teach, practise and assess team skills, and at the same time, they ask academic staff to supply individual marks and/or grades. Allocating individual marks from a team mark is a very complex and sensitive task that may adversely affect both individual and team performance. A number of both qualitative and quantitative methods are available to address this issue. Quantitative mathematical methods are favoured over qualitative subjective methods as they are more straightforward to explain to the students and they may help minimise conflicts between assessors and students. PURPOSE : This study presents a review of commonly used mathematical equations to allocate individual marks from a team mark. Quantitative analytical equations are favoured over qualitative subjective methods because they are more straightforward to explain to the students and if explained to the students in advance, they may help minimise conflicts between assessors and students. Some of these analytical equations focus primarily on the assessment of the quality of teamwork product (product assessment) while the others put greater emphasis on the assessment of teamwork performance (process assessment). The remaining equations try to strike a balance between product assessment and process assessment. The primary purpose of this study is to discuss the qualitative aspects of quantitative equations. DESIGN/METHOD : This study simulates a set of scenarios of team marks and individual contributions that collectively cover all possible teamwork assessment environments. The available analytical equations are then applied to each case to examine their relative merits with respect to a set of evaluation criteria with exhaustive graphical plots. RESULTS : Although each analytical equations discussed and analysed in this study has its own merits for a particular application scenario, the recent methods such as knee formula in SPARKPLUS and cap formula, are relatively better in terms of a number of evaluation criteria such as fairness, teamwork attitude, balance between process and product assessments etc. In addition to having all favourable properties of knee formula, cap formula explicitly considers the quality of teamwork (i.e., team mark) while allocating individual marks. Cap formula may, however, be difficult to explain to the students due to relatively complex mathematical equations involved. CONCLUSIONS : Not all existing analytical equations that allocate individual marks from a team mark have similar characteristics. Recent methods, knee formula and cap formula, are advantageous in terms of a number of evaluation criteria and are recommended to apply in practice. However, it is important to examine these equations with respect to enhancing students’ learning achievements rather than the students and academic staff’s preferences.

Emerging nutritional and lifestyle risk factors for bone health in young women: a mixed longitudinal twin study

Late adolescence and early adulthood are times of major behavioral transition in young women as they become more independent and make choices about lifestyle that will affect their long-term health. We prospectively evaluated nutritional and lifestyle factors in 566 15 30-year-old female twins participating in a mixed longitudinal study of diet and lifestyle.Twins completed 790 visits including questionnaires and measures of anthropometry. Nonparametric tests (chi-square, Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskal-Wallis; SPSS) were used to examine age-related differences in selected variables. Dietary calcium intake by short food frequency questionnaire was relatively low [511 (321,747)] mg/day (median, IQR; 60 % of estimated daily total) and did not vary significantly with age. The number of young women who reported ever consuming alcohol (12+ standard drinks ever) increased from 50 % under 18 years to 93 99 % for the 18+ age groups. Of those who consumed alcohol in the preceding year, monthly intake doubled from under 18 years (5.7, 3.9, 19.0 standard drinks; median, IQR) to 18+ years (12.0, 4.7, 26.0; P < 0.001) with the highest consumers being 21 23 and 27 29 years. At age 15 17 years, 14 % reported ever smoking and by age 27–29, 51 % had smoked (P = 0.002). Under the age of 20 years, average cigarette consumption in smokers was six cigarettes per day, increasing to ten above age 20 (P < 0.001). Participation in sporting activity decreased with age (P < 0.001): 47.5 % of 15–17-year-olds undertook 4 or more hour/week of sport, compared with 23.5 % at age 27–29 years. Conversely, sedentary behavior increased with age: 25.0 % of 15–17-year-olds reported 1 or less hour/week of exercise compared with 50.0 % at age 27–29 years. BMI increased with age (P = 0.011), from 21.3 (19.5, 23.6; median, IQR) in the youngest to 23.1 (21.5, 25.9) in the oldest. These highly significant changes in behavior in young women as they transitioned into independent adult living are predicted to impact adversely on bone and other health outcomes in later life. It is crucial to improve understanding of the determinants of these changes and to develop effective interventions to improve long-term health outcomes in young women.

Detecting female precise natal philopatry in green turtles using assignment methods

It is well established that sea turtles return to natal rookeries to mate and lay their eggs, and that individual females are faithful to particular nesting sites within the rookery. Less certain is whether females are precisely returning to their natal beach. Attempts to demonstrate such precise natal philopatry with genetic data have had mixed success. Here we focused on the green turtles of three nesting sites in the Ascension Island rookery, separated by 5–15 km. Our approach differed from previous work in two key areas. First, we used male microsatellite data (five loci) reconstructed from samples collected from their offspring (N = 17) in addition to data for samples taken directly from females (N = 139). Second, we employed assignment methods in addition to the more traditional F-statistics. No significant genetic structure could be demonstrated with FST. However, when average assignment probabilities of females were examined, those for nesting populations in which they were sampled were indeed significantly higher than their probabilities for other populations (Mann–Whitney U-test: P < 0.001). Further evidence was provided by a significant result for the mAIC test (P < 0.001), supporting greater natal philopatry for females compared with males. The results suggest that female natal site fidelity was not sufficient for significant genetic differentiation among the nesting populations within the rookery, but detectable with assignment tests.

Rheumatoid arthritis and incident fracture in women: a case-control study

Background:
To examine fracture incidence in women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) for an entire geographical region of south-eastern Australia.

Methods:
Women aged 35 years and older, resident in the Barwon Statistical Division (BSD) and clinically diagnosed with RA 1994–2001 were eligible for inclusion as cases (n =1,008). The control population (n = 172,422) comprised the entire female BSD population aged 35 years and older, excluding those individuals identified as cases. Incident fractures were extracted from the prospective Geelong Osteoporosis Study Fracture Grid. We calculated rate ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) to compare the age- adjusted rate of fracture between the RA and non-RA populations, and used a chi-square test to compare proportions of fractures between women with and without RA, and a two-sided Mann–Whitney U-test to examine age-differences.

Results:
Among 1,008 women with RA, 19 (1.9%) sustained a fracture, compared to 1,981 fractures sustained by the 172,422 women without RA (1.2%). Fracture rates showed a trend for being greater among women diagnosed with RA (age-adjusted RR 1.43, 95%CI 0.98-2.09, p= 0.08). Women with RA sustained vertebral fractures at twice the expected frequency, whereas hip fractures were underrepresented in the RA population (p< 0.001). RA status was not associated with the likelihood of sustaining a fracture at sites adjacent to joints most commonly affected by RA (p= 0.22).

Conclusion:
Given that women with RA have a greater risk of fracture compared to women without RA, these patients may be a suitable target population for anti-resorptive agents; however, larger studies are warranted.

The expectation-performance gap in generic skills in accounting graduates : Evidence from Sri Lanka

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the generic skills that are important for the career success of accounting graduates in Sri Lanka from the perspectives of university educators and employers.

Design/methodology/approach
Bui and Porter's (2010) expectation-performance gap framework was modified to match with the context of the current study. Data collected via questionnaire survey was analysed for non-parametric tests: the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and the Mann-Whitney test, using SPSS version 20, and quantified the expectation-performance gap and its components.

Findings
The major finding of this research is that the main cause for the expectation-performance gap, as identified in the analysis of the constraint gap is university educators’ low confidence in teaching the required generic skills for career success of graduates. However, university educators are aware of the employer expectations of graduate accountants in terms of generic skills. Employers indicated that many of the generic skills are not achieved by the accounting graduates.

Practical implications
Findings of this study reflect the importance of expanding the accounting curricula by embedding and assessing generic skill development activities. In addition, it is vital to develop the capacities of university educators in terms of teaching and assessing generic skills in accounting degree programmes.

Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature as one of few studies that investigate the generic skills development of accounting graduates in Asia, particularly in Sri Lanka.

Maternal hair selenium levels as a possible long-term nutritional indicator of recurrent pregnancy loss

BackgroundApproximately 1% of all couples trying to conceive will suffer from recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). Nutritional deficiencies have been postulated as a possible cause of RPL and in particular, selenium deficiency has been associated with reproductive failure in animal studies and more recently, in some human studies. This study was undertaken to assess the maternal hair selenium levels in women with RPL without an identified cause and to compare these results with those of women with successful reproductive histories.MethodsTwenty four patients with RPL and twenty four control subjects with at least one successful pregnancy and no pregnancy failures, who were matched for age and ethnicity, were recruited. A questionnaire was completed, which included demographic and social information and a dietary history. Hair samples were collected and analyzed for selenium content by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.ResultsThe control subjects had a higher mean income and had completed more years of education compared with the RPL patients. There was no significant difference in the intake of selenium rich foods between the 2 groups. The patients, however, consumed significantly more fruit, cheese, potatoes and chocolate than the controls. The median (range) selenium content was 0.80 ppm (0.19-4.15) and 0.68 ppm (0.43-3.76) in patients and controls respectively (Mann Whitney U test 209.5 p = 0.74).ConclusionsWhile there were significant differences in the 2 groups with regard to resources, education and diet our results show that hair selenium concentrations and dietary selenium intake, were similar in the two groups. Both groups had low levels of this important element.

Nurse-led clinic: Effective and efficient delivery of assessment and review of patients with Hepatitis B and C

Hepatology and gastroenterology services are increasingly utilising the skills and experience of nurse practitioners and nurse specialists to help meet the increasing demand for health care. A new nurse-led assessment clinic has been established in the liver clinic at Geelong Hospital to utilise the expertise of nurses to assess and triage new patients and streamline their pathway through the health care system. The aim of this study is to quantitatively assess the first two years of operation of the nurse assessment clinic at Geelong Hospital, and to assess advantages and disadvantages of the nurse-led clinic. Data was extracted retrospectively from clinical records of new patients at the liver clinic. Quarterly one-month periods were recorded over two-years. Patients were categorised according to the path via which they saw a physician, including missed and rescheduled appointments. The number of appointments, the waiting time from referral to appointments and the number of ‘did-not-attend’ occasions were analysed before and after the institution of the nurse-led assessment clinic. The Mann-Whitney rank sum test of ordinal data was used to generate median wait times. There was shown to be a statistically significant longer waiting time for physician appointment if seen by the nurse first. The difference in waiting time was 10 days. However, there was also a reduction in the number of missed appointments at the subsequent physician clinic. Other advantages have also been identified including effective triage of patients, and organisation of appropriate investigations from the initial nurse assessment.

Reliance of external auditors on internal audit work : a corporate governance perspective

The literature suggests an increasing need for interactions among board of directors, management, internal audit and external audit as the four components of corporate governance and presents internal audit as a resource for the other components. External auditing standards that originated in the Western world, which are also being applied in developing countries, recommend external auditor’s reliance on internal audit to achieve audit efficiency. Nevertheless, whether this efficiency motive explains such reliance in corporate governance settings that differ from the West has not been sufficiently explored as yet. This study examines external auditor reliance on internal audit work using questionnaire survey of 119 external auditors in Ethiopia. Mann-Whitney U test results suggest that external auditors’ reliance on internal audit work is not significantly associated with the competitiveness of external audit sub-markets in Ethiopia. Results of multiple discriminant analysis indicate internal audit work performance is the most important factor that determines the extent of external auditors’ reliance on internal audit work. Overall, findings suggest that organizations can enhance corporate governance effectiveness by strengthening internal audit and fostering internal-external auditor coordination.

Effect of nutritional supplements on wound healing in home-nursed elderly: a randomized trial

 Objective: The objective was to determine whether provision of oral nutritional supplements, delivered by community nurses, could improve nutritional status and wound healing in home-nursed elderly. Methods: This was a double-blind, randomized trial in 50 elderly patients referred for wound management. Patients received 237 mL/d of 4 or 8 kJ/mL of an oral nutritional supplement for 4 wk. Nutritional status was measured with the Subjective Global Assessment and the Mini-Mental State Examination questionnaire to determine cognitive function and wound characteristics to assess healing. Differences between variables were examined with the Mann-Whitney or Student's t test for comparing two groups, one-way analysis of variance when there was more than two groups, and chi-square analysis for comparing two categorical variables. Associations between variables were examined with Pearson's correlation and regression analysis. Results: At baseline, 34% subjects were moderately malnourished and 8% were severely malnourished. In both groups, there was significantly greater improvement in Mini-Mental State Examination scores at week 4 (95% confidence interval -2.0 to -0.001, P = 0.04) and a greater decrease in the wound effusion score (95% confidence interval -2.0 to 0.0, P = 0.045). Median length of stay did not differ between groups (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Malnutrition is common in elderly patients who are nursed at home for wound management. Provision of energy- and protein-dense oral supplements by community nurses is effective in improving some indices of wound healing and cognitive function in this group. Although further study is needed to determine the effect on length of stay, the nutritional needs of this vulnerable group should not be overlooked. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Patient costs during tuberculosis treatment in Bangladesh and Tanzania: the potential of shorter regimens

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the costs incurred by patients during the intensive and continuation phases of the current 6-month tuberculosis (TB) regimen in Bangladesh and Tanzania, and thus identify potential benefits to patients of a shorter, 4-month treatment regimen. DESIGN: The validated Stop TB patient cost questionnaire was adapted and used in interviews with 190 patients in the continuation phase of treatment with current regimens. RESULTS: In both countries, overall patient costs were lower during 2 months of the continuation phase (US$74 in Tanzania and US$56 in Bangladesh) than during the 2 months of the intensive phase of treatment (US$150 and US$111, respectively). However, continuation phase patient costs still represented 89% and 77% of the 2-month average national income in the respective countries. Direct travel costs in some settings were kept low by local delivery system features such as community treatment observation. Lost productivity and costs for supplementary foods remained significant. CONCLUSIONS: Although it is not a straightforward exercise to determine the exact magnitude of likely savings, a shorter regimen would reduce out-of-pocket expenses incurred by patients in the most recent 2 months of the continuation phase and allow an earlier return to productive activities. © 2014 The Union.