Communicating with first year students ; so many channels but is anyone listening? A practice report

Communicating with first year students has become a far more complex prospect in the digital age. There is a lot of competition for limited attentional resources from media sources in almost endless channels. Getting important messages to students when there is so much competing information is a difficult prospect for academic and professional divisions of the university alike. Students’ preferences for these communication channels are not well understood and are constantly changing with the introduction of new technology. A first year group was surveyed about their use and preference for various sources of information. Students were generally positive about the use of social networking and other new online media but strongly preferred more established channels for official academic and administrative information. A discussion of the findings and recommendations follows.

Technical report : acoustic analysis of the natural environment

This technical report is concerned with one aspect of environmental monitoring—the detection and analysis of acoustic events in sound recordings of the environment. Sound recordings offer ecologists the potential advantages of cheaper and increased sampling. An acoustic event detection algorithm is introduced that outputs a compact rectangular marquee description of each event. It can disentangle superimposed events, which are a common occurrence during morning and evening choruses. Next, three uses to which acoustic event detection can be put are illustrated. These tasks have been selected because they illustrate quite different modes of analysis: (1) the detection of diffuse events caused by wind and rain, which are a frequent contaminant of recordings of the terrestrial environment; (2) the detection of bird calls using the spatial distribution of their component events; and (3) the preparation of acoustic maps for whole ecosystem analysis. This last task utilises the temporal distribution of events over a daily, monthly or yearly cycle.

Safety impacts of alcohol and other drugs in construction : a mid term report

Estimated 640,700 persons suffered a work-related injury or illness in 2009-2010 and 444 lost their lives as a result in 2008-2009, in Australia Very little is known about what proportion of accidents are directly attributable to the effects of AOD Anecdotal evidence highlights issues of AOD and its association with safety risk on construction sites

An explorative qualitative analysis of participants' experience of using kava versus placebo in an RCT. (Clinical report)

Many randomised controlled trials (RCT) have been conducted using Piper methysticum (kava), however no qualitative research exploring the experience of taking kava during a clinical trial has previously been reported. ---------- Patients and methods: A qualitative research component (in the form of semi structured and open ended written questions) was incorporated into an RCT to explore the experiences of those participating in a clinical trial of kava. The written questions were provided to participants at weeks 2 and 3 (after randomisation, after each controlled phase). The researcher and participants were blinded as to whether they were taking kava or placebo. Two open ended questions were posed to elucidate their experiences from taking either kava or placebo. Thematic analysis was undertaken and researcher triangulation employed to ensure analytical rigour. Key themes after the kava phases were a reduction in anxiety and stress, and calming or relaxing mental effects. Other themes related to improvement in sleep and in somatic anxiety symptoms. ---------- Results: Kava use did not cause any serious adverse reactions although a few respondents reported nausea or other gastrointestinal side effects. This represents the first documented qualitative investigation of the experience of taking kava during a clinical trial. The primary themes involved anxiolytic and calming effects, with only a minor theme reflecting side effects. Our exploratory qualitative data was consistent with the significant quantitative results revealed in the study and provides additional support to suggest the trial results did not exclude any important positive or negative effects (at least as experienced by the trial participants).

Reflections on the Hong Kong CIRC report

The Government of the Hong Kong SAR sponsored a report investigating the Hong Kong construction inudstry and published the investigating committee's findings in 2001 (HK CIRC 2001). Since then the Provisional Construction Industry Coordination Board (PCICB), and its successor, the Construction Industry Council (CIC), also set up by the Government, has made progress with the necessary reforms. Now that seven years have passed, it is time for an independent evaluation of the impact of the CIRC initiative in order to assist the CIC and the Government decision-makers in refining the efforts to improve the industry's performance. This paper reports on the interim results of a study that seeks to provide such an evaluation.

Burnett Lane : Curatorial Rationale & Scoping Report

Mindful of time line and budget limitations this document, as requested by BBC, acts as an inspirational scope, identifying more ‘live’ opportunities than possible within the current budget. The document's secondary purpose is to identify through consultation, concept development of ideas and budgetary costs associated, a number of projects within this document that can be successfully achieved within the current circumstance. A limited, but successful outcome in this initial phase will help to ensure the continuing invested support of stake-holders, not only in Burnett Lane but in relation to the creative scope of other laneways as identified in the BCC laneway document.

ePortfolio use by university students in Australia : Informing excellence in policy and practice. Supplementary report : October 2010

In April 2007, the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC)commissioned a study to examine the diverse approaches to ePortfolio use by students in Australian universities. The goals were to consider the scope, penetration and reasons for use of ePortfolios, and to examine the issues associated with their implementation in higher education. One of the central research activities in the project was a national audit which sought to establish a picture of current and emerging ePortfolio activities in Australian academic institutions. The data collection activities took place in late 2007 and the findings were presented and discussed in the final project report, published in October 2008. In 2010, the idea of a ‘follow up survey’ was developed. The resulting supplementary research activity was undertaken to update the data collected by the AeP project team in late 2007. The plan behind this ‘postscript to AeP’ project was to refresh the picture of ePortfolio practice in Australia by collecting new data to identify and map the use of ePortfolios in adult learning across the higher education, vocational education and training (VET) and the adult community education (ACE) sectors. The supplementary project has been referred to as the ‘AeP PS survey’.