The rationale for using microscopic units of a donor matrix in cartilage defect repair

The efficacy of existing articular cartilage defect repair strategies are limited. Native cartilage tissue forms via a series of exquisitely orchestrated morphogenic events spanning through gestation into early childhood. However, defect repair must be achieved in a non-ideal microenvironment over an accelerated time-frame compatible with the normal life of an adult patient. Scaffolds formed from decellularized tissues are commonly utilized to enable the rapid and accurate repair of tissues such as skin, bladder and heart valves. The intact extracellular matrix remaining following the decellularization of these relatively low-matrix-density tissues is able to rapidly and accurately guide host cell repopulation. By contrast, the extraordinary density of cartilage matrix limits both the initial decellularization of donor material as well as its subsequent repopulation. Repopulation of donor cartilage matrix is generally limited to the periphery, with repopulation of lacunae deeper within the matrix mass being highly inefficient. Herein, we review the relevant literature and discuss the trend toward the use of decellularized donor cartilage matrix of microscopic dimensions. We show that 2-µm microparticles of donor matrix are rapidly integrate with articular chondrocytes, forming a robust cartilage-like composites with enhanced chondrogenic gene expression. Strategies for the clinical application of donor matrix microparticles in cartilage defect repair are discussed.

STEM futures and practice, can we teach STEM in a more meaningful and integrated way?

Integrating Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects can be engaging for students, can promote problem-solving and critical thinking skills and can help build real-world connections. However, STEM has long been an area of some confusion for some educators. While they can see many of the conceptual links between the various domains of knowledge they often struggle to meaningfully integrate and simultaneously teach the content and methodologies of each these areas in a unified and effective way for their students. Essentially the question is;how can the content and processes of four disparate and yet integrated learning areas be taught at the same time? How can the integrity of each of the areas be maintained and yet be learnt in a way that is complementary? Often institutional barriers exitin schools and universities to the integration of STEM. Organizationally, at a departmental and administrative level, the teaching staff may be co-located, but when it comes to classroom practice or the teaching and learning of these areas they are usually taught very separately. They are usually taught in different kinds of spaces, in different ways (using different pedagogical approaches) and at different times. But is this the best way for students to engage with the STEM areas of learning? How can we make learning more integrated, meaningful and engaging for the students?

Emerging from student to practitioner : a cumulative development tool for students

PURPOSE: This pilot project’s aim was to trial a tool and process for developing students’ ability to engage in self-assessment using reflection on their clinical experiences, including feedback from workplace learning, in order to aid them in linking theory to practice and develop strategies to improve performance. BACKGROUND: In nursing education, students can experience a mismatch in performance compared to theoretical learning, this is referred to as the ‘theory practice gap’ (Scully 2011, Chan Chan & Liu 2011). One specific contributing factor seems to be students’ inability to engage in meaningful reflection and self-correcting behaviours. A self-assessment strategy was implemented within a third year clinical unit to ameliorate this mismatch with encouraging results, as students developed self-direction in addressing learning needs. In this pilot project the above strategy was adapted for implementation between different clinical units, to create a whole of course approach to integrating workplace learning. METHOD: The methodology underpinning this project is a scaffolded, supported reflective practice process. Improved self-assessment skills is achieved by students reflecting on and engaging with feedback, then mapping this to learning outcomes to identify where performance can be improved. Evaluation of this project includes: collation of student feedback identifying successful strategies along with barriers encountered in implementation; feedback from students and teachers via above processes and tools; and comparison of the number of learning contracts issued in clinical nursing units with similar cohorts. RESULTS: Results will be complete by May 2012 and include analysis of the data collected via the above evaluation methods. Other outcomes will include the refined process and tool, plus resources that should improve cost effectiveness without reducing student support. CONCLUSION: Implementing these tools and processes over the entire student’s learning package, will assist them to demonstrate progressive development through the course. Students will have learnt to understand feedback and integrate these skills for life-long learning.

Framing local stories for community consumption facilitation and evaluation in narrative driven arts-based projects

Cyclone Yasi struck the Cassowary Coast of Queensland in the early hours of Feb 3, 2011, destroying many homes sand property, including the destruction of the Cardwell and district historical society’s premises. With their own homes flattened, many were forced to live in mobile accommodation, with extended family, or leave altogether. The historical society members however were more devastated by their flattened foreshore museum and loss of their collection material. A call for assistance was made through the OHAA Qld branch, who along with QUT sponsored a trip to somehow plan how they could start to pick up the pieces to start again. This presentation highlights the need for communities to gather, preserve and present their own stories, in a way that is sustainable and meaningful to them, but that good advice and support along the way is important. Two 2 day workshops were held in March and then September, augmented by plenty of email correspondence and phone calls in between. Participants learnt that if they could conduct quality oral history interviews, they could later use these in many exhibitable ways including: documentary pieces; digital stories; photographic collections; creative short stories; audio segments –while also drawing closely together a suffering community. This story is not only about the people who were interviewed about the night Yasi struck, but the amazing women (all over 50) of the historical society who were willing to try and leap the digital divide that faces older Australians, especially those in rural Australia, so that their older local stories would not be lost and so that new stories could also be remembered.

Skill development and social inclusion via peer assisted learning in first-year higher education : an evaluation of student experiences across two law units

Because professions seek graduates who can 'collaborate, share skills and knowledge, and communicate' (Kruck and Reif, 2001, p 37), it is important that university graduates are not equipped solely with the content knowledge of their discipline, but also with prospective employment skills. Furthermore, when students 'interact more in positive ways with their teachers and peers, they gain more in terms of essential skills and competencies, such as critical thinking, problem~solving [and] effective communication' (NSSE, 2000, p 2)./n this way, peer assisted fellowing has the potential to enhance students' professional development, and provide the social inclusion and engagement necessary for effective learning. This session describes two peer assisted learning models embedded within first year QUT Faculty of Law units. Through a partnership between teaching staff, student mentors and mentees, the models aim to facilitate student socialisation whilst supplementing understanding of substantive law with the development of academic and work·related skills. Mentor and mentee perceptions, and program implications, are considered.

The story behind the stories: Qualitative criminology research in Australia

Qualitative Criminology: Stories from the Field brings to life the stories behind the research of both emerging and established scholars in Australian criminology. The book’s contributors provided honest, reflective, and decidedly unsanitised accounts of their qualitative research journeys - the lively tales of what really happens when conducting research of this nature, the stories that often make for parenthetical asides in conference papers but tend to be excised from journal articles. This book considers the gap between research methods and the realities of qualitative research. As such, it aims to help researchers and students who conduct qualitative criminological research reflect upon their role as researchers, and the practical, ideological and ethical issues which may arise in the course of their research. It is also a call to criminologists to make public the ‘failures’ and missteps of their research endeavours so that we can learn from one another and become better informed and more reflexive qualitative criminologists.

Life of SYN : a story of the digital generation

SYN (Student Youth Network) is a media organisation run by people between the ages of 12 and 26. In this ‘coming of age story’, Ellie Rennie follows the SYNners as they build Australia’s most unusual media empire against enormous odds. Over the course of the book, social networking becomes the most popular use of the internet and traditional media institutions are forced to acknowledge the rise of amateur content. In response, SYN rethinks its approach to the online environment, kills its print publication, deals with the introduction of digital broadcasting and teaches schoolteachers about a new kind of literacy. In just two years dozens of careers are launched, the SYN radio audience doubles and they get told off for swearing. Life of SYN takes on the big issues of the media through the story of a small media organisation. This humorous and insightful book describes a media environment in flux, where audiences and producers express their freedom in unruly and contradictory ways. Life of SYN gives structure to the new media world without curtailing its inventiveness and possibility. Life of SYN combines story with media theory, encompassing: digital literacy and media participation; the future of community media; youth media and media industries.

The artful life story : the oral history interview as fiction

This practice-led PhD project consists of two parts. The first is an exegesis documenting how a fiction writer can enter a dialogue with the oral history project in Australia. I identify two philosophical mandates of the oral history project in Australia that have shaped my creative practice: an emphasis on the analysis of the interviewee’s subjective experience as a means of understanding the past, and the desire to engage a wide audience in order to promote empathy towards the subject. The discussion around fiction in the oral history project is in its infancy. In order to deepen the debate, I draw on the more mature discussion in ethnographic fiction. I rely on literary theorists Steven Greenblatt, Dorrit Cohn and Gerard Genette to develop a clear understanding of the distinct narrative qualities of fiction, in order to explore how fiction can re-present and explore an interviewee’s subjective experience, and engage a wide readership. I document my own methodology for producing a work of fiction that is enriched by oral history methodology and theory, and responds to the mandates of the project. I demonstrate the means by which fiction and the oral history project can enter a dialogue in the truest sense of the word: a two-way conversation that enriches and augments practice in both fields. The second part of the PhD is a novel, set in Brisbane and based on oral history interviews and archival material I gathered over the course of the project. The novel centres on Brisbane artist Evelyn, who has been given an impossible task: a derelict old house is about to be demolished, and she must capture its history in a sculpture that will be built on the site. Evelyn struggles to come up with ideas and create the sculpture, realising that she has no way to discover who inhabited the house. What follows is a series of stories, each set in a different era in Brisbane’s history, which take the reader backwards through the house’s history. Hidden Objects is a novel about the impossibility of grasping the past and the powerful pull of storytelling. The novel is an experiment in a hybrid form and is accompanied by an appendix that identifies the historically accurate sources informing the fiction. The decisions about the aesthetics of the novel were a direct result of my engagement with the mandates of the oral history project in Australia. The novel was shortlisted in the 2012 Queensland Literary Awards, unpublished manuscript category.

Smart coordination of energy storage units (ESUs) for voltage and loading management in distribution networks

This paper proposes a distributed control approach to coordinate multiple energy storage units (ESUs) to avoid violation of voltage and thermal constraints, which are some of the main power quality challenges for future distribution networks. ESUs usually are connected to a network through voltage source converters. In this paper, both ESU converters active and reactive power are used to deal with the above mentioned power quality issues. ESUs' reactive power is proposed to be used for voltage support, while the active power is to be utilized in managing network loading. Two typical distribution networks are used to apply the proposed method, and the simulated results are illustrated in this paper to show the effectiveness of this approach.

Residential care workers and residents : the New Zealand story

Aims To describe the nature and size of long-term residential care homes in New Zealand; funding of facilities; and the ethnic and gender composition of residents and residential care workers nationwide. Methods A postal, fax, and email survey of all long-term residential care homes in New Zealand. Results Completed surveys were received from an eligible 845 facilities (response rate: 55%). The majority of these (54%) facilities housed less than 30 residents. Of the 438 (94%) facilities completing the questions about residents’ ethnicity, 432 (99%) housed residents from New Zealand European (Pakeha) descent, 156 (33%) housed at least 1 Maori resident, 71 (15%) at least 1 Pacific (Islands) resident, and 61 (13%) housed at least 1 Asian resident. Facilities employed a range of ethnically diverse staff, with 66% reporting Maori staff. Less than half of all facilities employed Pacific staff (43%) and Asian staff (33%). Registered nursing staff were mainly between 46 and 60 years (47%), and healthcare assistant staff were mostly between 25 and 45 years old (52%). Wide regional variation in the ethnic make up of staff was reported. About half of all staff were reported to have moved within the previous 2 years. Conclusions The age and turnover of the residential care workforce suggests the industry continues to be under threat from staffing shortages. While few ethnic minority residents live in long-term care facilities, staff come from diverse backgrounds, especially in certain regions.

The recovery concept and crisis intervention : time for a revolution in the realm of acute psychiatric care

“Mental illness is a tough illness to survive, it is incurable but manageable. Living with the illness when at its full potency can disrupt your life at any moment.” Intensive care for patients experiencing acute psychiatric distress is an essential yet complex part of mental health services as a whole system. Psychiatric intensive care units remain a source of controversy; despite promising developments to health services incorporating recovery goals and processes outlined by people with a mental illness themselves. In past decades changes in the provision of mental health services have focused on the restoration of a meaningful and empowered life with choice and hope as a defining attribute of recovery. Yet, what does recovery mean and how are recovery principles accomplished in psychiatric intensive care arrangements for someone experiencing acute psychiatric distress?

A stepped-wedge cluster randomised controlled trial for evaluating rates of falls among inpatients in aged care rehabilitation units receiving tailored multimedia education in addition to usual care : a trial protocol

Introduction Falls are the most frequent adverse event reported in hospitals. Approximately 30% of in-hospital falls lead to an injury and up to 2% result in a fracture. A large randomised trial found that a trained health professional providing individualised falls prevention education to older inpatients reduced falls in a cognitively intact subgroup. This study aims to investigate whether this efficacious intervention can reduce falls and be clinically useful and cost-effective when delivered in the real-life clinical environment. Methods A stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial will be used across eight subacute units (clusters) which will be randomised to one of four dates to start the intervention. Usual care on these units includes patient's screening, assessment and implementation of individualised falls prevention strategies, ongoing staff training and environmental strategies. Patients with better levels of cognition (Mini-Mental State Examination >23/30) will receive the individualised education from a trained health professional in addition to usual care while patient's feedback received during education sessions will be provided to unit staff. Unit staff will receive training to assist in intervention delivery and to enhance uptake of strategies by patients. Falls data will be collected by two methods: case note audit by research assistants and the hospital falls reporting system. Cluster-level data including patient's admissions, length of stay and diagnosis will be collected from hospital systems. Data will be analysed allowing for correlation of outcomes (clustering) within units. An economic analysis will be undertaken which includes an incremental cost-effectiveness analysis. Ethics and dissemination The study was approved by The University of Notre Dame Australia Human Research Ethics Committee and local hospital ethics committees. Results The results will be disseminated through local site networks, and future funding and delivery of falls prevention programmes within WA Health will be informed. Results will also be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and medical conferences.

Innovation & workplace culture in the Australian interactive entertainment industry : the Halfbrick story

A recent success story of the Australian videogames industry is Brisbane based Halfbrick Studios, developer of the hit game for mobile devices, Fruit Ninja. Halfbrick not only survived the global financial crisis and an associated downturn in the Australian industry, but grew strongly, moving rapidly from developing licensed properties for platforms such as Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and Playstation Portable (PSP) to becoming an independent developer and publisher of in-house titles, generating revenue both through App downloads and merchandise sales. Amongst the reasons for Halfbrick’s success is their ability to adaptively transform by addressing different technical platforms, user dynamics, business models and market conditions. Our ongoing case-study research from 2010 into Halfbrick’s innovation processes, culminating with some 10 semi-structured interviews with senior managers and developers, has identified a strong focus on workplace organisational culture, with staff reflecting that the company is a flat, team-based organisation devolving as much control as possible to the development teams directly, and encouraging a work-life balance in which creativity can thrive. The success of this strategy is evidenced through Halfbrick’s low staff turnover; amongst our interviewees most of the developers had been with the company for a number of years, with all speaking positively of the workplace culture and sense of creative autonomy they enjoyed. Interviews with the CEO, Shainiel Deo, and team leaders highlighted the autonomy afforded to each team and the organisation and management of the projects on which they work. Deo and team leaders emphasised the collaboration and communication skills they require in the developers that they employ, and that these characteristics were considered just as significant in hiring decisions as technical skills. Halfbrick’s developers celebrate their workplace culture and insist it has contributed to their capacity for innovation and to their commercial success with titles such as Fruit Ninja. This model of organisational management is reflected in both Stark’s (2009) idea of heterarchy, and Neff’s (2012) concept of venture labour, and provides a different perspective on the industry than the traditional political economy critique of precarious labour exploited by gaming conglomerates. Nevertheless, throughout many of the interviews and in our informal discussions with Halfbrick developers there is also a sense that this rewarding culture is quite tenuous and precarious in the context of a rapidly changing and uncertain global videogames industry. Whether such a workplace culture represents the future of the games industry, or is merely a ‘Prague Spring’ before companies such as Halfbrick are swallowed by traditional players’ remains to be seen. However, as the process of rapid and uncertain transformation plays out across the videogames industry, it is important to pay attention to emerging modes of organisation and workplace culture, even whilst they remain at the margins of the industry. In this paper we investigate Halfbrick’s workplace culture and ask how sustainable is this kind of rewarding and creative workplace?