Ageing of people with an intellectual disability: Effective training for frontline workers

While the attainment of late life represents a significant achievement for people with an intellectual disability, increased life expectancy has resulted in growing concerns about the extent to which disability service providers are ready to meet the changing needs of increasing numbers of older people and facilitate their ongoing social inclusion. Training of frontline disability staff is widely accepted as an effective strategy for increasing organisational capacity to contribute to improved quality of life for people with an intellectual disability. The study identifies training needs analyses and 'ready-to-deliver' training programs for frontline disability services staff working with adults with an intellectual disability who are ageing, assesses whether the training programs contribute to improved quality of life outcomes for service users, and makes recommendations for future research and development of training for disability services staff who work with older people with intellectual disability.

Influence tactics and leader effectiveness : how effective, contemporary leaders influence subordinates

Defining the difference between successful and mediocre leaders is a quest that has attracted many renowned scholars, drawing vast amounts of research effort. Yet while there are excellent theoretical explanations of what leaders should do: exhibit transformational behaviours, demonstrate authenticity, build productive relationships with followers and so on; there is still a scarcity of empirically-based research advising practicing leaders how to do these things. This study seeks to provide guidance about the fine-grained processes that effective leaders use on a daily basis to undertake the core process of all leadership activity; influencing followers. Using a grounded research approach, this study employs qualitative methods to capture the detail of effective leader behaviour and the micro-level influence processes that leaders use to create effective follower outcomes. Conducted in the health services industry with medical and allied health leaders, the study sought to answer the question: What influence methods might effective, contemporary leaders be using? The study builds on existing influence research, seeking to extend and update the typology of 11 influence tactics originally developed by Yukl and others, and which has been static since the late 1990s. Eight new influence tactics were identified, offering practicing leaders a powerful suite of potential strategies and representing a significant contribution to the field. Further research is recommended to confirm the identified influence constructs and test the generalisability of these findings to broader leader populations in health organisations and other knowledge-based organisations.

Developing key concepts in physics : Is it more effective to teach using scientific visualizations?

A quantitative, quasi-experimental study of the effectiveness of computer-based scientific visualizations for concept learning on the part of Year 11 physics students (n=80) was conducted in six Queensland high school classrooms. Students’ gender and academic ability were also considered as factors in relation to the effectiveness of teaching with visualizations. Learning with visualizations was found to be equally effective as learning without them for all students, with no statistically significant difference in outcomes being observed for the group as a whole or on the academic ability dimension. Male students were found to learn significantly better with visualizations than without, while no such effect was observed for female students. This may give rise to some concern for the equity issues raised by introducing visualizations. Given that other research shows that students enjoy learning with visualizations and that their engagement with learning is enhanced, the finding that the learning outcomes are the same as for teaching without visualizations supports teachers’ use of visualizations.

Effective discrimination of acoustic emission source signals for structural health monitoring

Acoustic emission (AE) is the phenomenon where stress waves are generated due to rapid release of energy within a material caused by sources such as crack initiation or growth. AE technique involves recording the stress waves by means of sensors and subsequent analysis of the recorded signals to gather information about the nature of the source. Though AE technique is one of the popular non destructive evaluation (NDE) techniques for structural health monitoring of mechanical, aerospace and civil structures; several challenges still exist in successful application of this technique. Presence of spurious noise signals can mask genuine damage‐related AE signals; hence a major challenge identified is finding ways to discriminate signals from different sources. Analysis of parameters of recorded AE signals, comparison of amplitudes of AE wave modes and investigation of uniqueness of recorded AE signals have been mentioned as possible criteria for source differentiation. This paper reviews common approaches currently in use for source discrimination, particularly focusing on structural health monitoring of civil engineering structural components such as beams; and further investigates the applications of some of these methods by analyzing AE data from laboratory tests.

Numerical and experimental studies of cold-formed steel floor systems under standard fire conditions

Light gauge cold-formed steel frame (LSF) structures are increasingly used in industrial, commercial and residential buildings because of their non-combustibility, dimensional stability, and ease of installation. A floor-ceiling system is an example of its applications. LSF floor-ceiling systems must be designed to serve as fire compartment boundaries and provide adequate fire resistance. Fire rated floor-ceiling assemblies formed with new materials and construction methodologies have been increasingly used in buildings. However, limited research has been undertaken in the past and hence a thorough understanding of their fire resistance behaviour is not available. Recently a new composite panel in which an external insulation layer is used between two plasterboards has been developed at QUT to provide a higher fire rating to LSF floors under standard fire conditions. But its increased fire rating could not be determined using the currently available design methods. Research on LSF floor systems under fire conditions is relatively recent and the behaviour of floor joists and other components in the systems is not fully understood. The present design methods thus require the use of expensive fire protection materials to protect them from excessive heat increase during a fire. This leads to uneconomical and conservative designs. Fire rating of these floor systems is provided simply by adding more plasterboard sheets to the steel joists and such an approach is totally inefficient. Hence a detailed fire research study was undertaken into the structural and thermal performance of LSF floor systems including those protected by the new composite panel system using full scale fire tests and extensive numerical studies. Experimental study included both the conventional and the new steel floor-ceiling systems under structural and fire loads using a gas furnace designed to deliver heat in accordance with the standard time- temperature curve in AS 1530.4 (SA, 2005). Fire tests included the behavioural and deflection characteristics of LSF floor joists until failure as well as related time-temperature measurements across the section and along the length of all the specimens. Full scale fire tests have shown that the structural and thermal performance of externally insulated LSF floor system was superior than traditional LSF floors with or without cavity insulation. Therefore this research recommends the use of the new composite panel system for cold-formed LSF floor-ceiling systems. The numerical analyses of LSF floor joists were undertaken using the finite element program ABAQUS based on the measured time-temperature profiles obtained from fire tests under both steady state and transient state conditions. Mechanical properties at elevated temperatures were considered based on the equations proposed by Dolamune Kankanamge and Mahendran (2011). Finite element models were calibrated using the full scale test results and used to further provide a detailed understanding of the structural fire behaviour of the LSF floor-ceiling systems. The models also confirmed the superior performance of the new composite panel system. The validated model was then used in a detailed parametric study. Fire tests and the numerical studies showed that plasterboards provided sufficient lateral restraint to LSF floor joists until their failure. Hence only the section moment capacity of LSF floor joists subjected to local buckling effects was considered in this research. To predict the section moment capacity at elevated temperatures, the effective section modulus of joists at ambient temperature is generally considered adequate. However, this research has shown that it leads to considerable over- estimation of the local buckling capacity of joist subject to non-uniform temperature distributions under fire conditions. Therefore new simplified fire design rules were proposed for LSF floor joist to determine the section moment capacity at elevated temperature based on AS/NZS 4600 (SA, 2005), NAS (AISI, 2007) and Eurocode 3 Part 1.3 (ECS, 2006). The accuracy of the proposed fire design rules was verified with finite element analysis results. A spread sheet based design tool was also developed based on these design rules to predict the failure load ratio versus time, moment capacity versus time and temperature for various LSF floor configurations. Idealised time-temperature profiles of LSF floor joists were developed based on fire test measurements. They were used in the detailed parametric study to fully understand the structural and fire behaviour of LSF floor panels. Simple design rules were also proposed to predict both critical average joist temperatures and failure times (fire rating) of LSF floor systems with various floor configurations and structural parameters under any given load ratio. Findings from this research have led to a comprehensive understanding of the structural and fire behaviour of LSF floor systems including those protected by the new composite panel, and simple design methods. These design rules were proposed within the guidelines of the Australian/New Zealand, American and European cold- formed steel structures standard codes of practice. These may also lead to further improvements to fire resistance through suitable modifications to the current composite panel system.

What pre-service teachers need to know to be effective at values-based education

Evidence is mounting that values education is providing positive outcomes for students, teachers and schools (Benninga, Berkowitz, Kuehn, & Smith, 2006; DEST, 2008; Hattie, 2003; Lovat, Clement, Dally, & Toomey, 2010). Despite this, Australian pre-service teacher education does not appear to be changing in ways necessary to support skilling teachers to teach with a values focus (Lovat, Dally, Clement, and Toomey, 2011). This article presents findings from a case study that explored current teachers’ perceptions of the skills pre-service teachers need to teach values education effectively. Teachers who currently teach with a values focus highlighted that pre-service teacher education degrees need to encourage an ongoing commitment to continual learning, critical reflection and growth in pre-service teachers, along with excellent questioning and listening skills. Further, they argued that pre-service teachers need to be skilled in recognising and responding to student diversity. This article ends by arguing for some changes that need to occur in pre-service teacher education in order for teachers to teach effectively with a values focus, including the need for stronger connections between pre-service and experienced teachers.

Effective planning approach to interconnect bulk quantities of wind generation

Over the past few years, the Midwest ISO has experienced a surge in requests to interconnect large amounts of wind generation, driven largely by a favorable political environment and an abundant wind resource in the Midwestern US. This tremendous influx of proposed generators along with a highly constrained transmission system adversely impacted interconnection queue processing, resulting in an unmanageable backlog. Under these circumstances, Midwest ISO successfully reformed the interconnection tariff to improve cycle times and provide increased certainty to interconnection customers. One of the key features of the reformed queue process is the System Planning and Analysis (SPA) phase which allows integration of the interconnection studies with regional transmission planning. This paper presents a brief background of the queue reform effort and then delves deeply in to the work performed at the Midwest ISO during the first SPA cycle - the study approach, the challenges faced in having to study over 50,000 MWs of wind generation and the effective solutions designed to complete these studies within tariff timelines.

Influence of pre-exsiting surface defects on the vibrational properties of Ag nanowires

Large-scale molecular dynamics simulations are performed to characterize the effects of pre-existing surface defects on the vibrational properties of Ag nanowires. It is found that the first order natural frequency of the nanowire appears insensitive to different surface defects, indicating a defect insensitivity property of the nanowire’s Young’s modulus. In the meanwhile, an increase of the quality (Q)-factor is observed due to the presence of defects. Particular, a beat phenomenon is observed for the nanowire with the presence of a surface edge defect, which is driven by a single actuation. It is concluded that different surface defects could act as an effective mean to tune the vibrational properties of nanowires. This study sheds lights on the better understanding of nanowire’s mechanical performance when surface defects are presented, which would benefit the development of nanowire-based devices.

Is simulation training effective in increasing podiatrists' confidence in foot ulcer management?

Background: Foot ulcers are a frequent reason for diabetes-related hospitalisation. Clinical training is known to have a beneficial impact on foot ulcer outcomes. Clinical training using simulation techniques has rarely been used in the management of diabetes-related foot complications or chronic wounds. Simulation can be defined as a device or environment that attempts to replicate the real world. The few non-web-based foot-related simulation courses have focused solely on training for a single skill or “part task” (for example, practicing ingrown toenail procedures on models). This pilot study aimed to primarily investigate the effect of a training program using multiple methods of simulation on participants’ clinical confidence in the management of foot ulcers. Methods: Sixteen podiatrists participated in a two-day Foot Ulcer Simulation Training (FUST) course. The course included pre-requisite web-based learning modules, practicing individual foot ulcer management part tasks (for example, debriding a model foot ulcer), and participating in replicated clinical consultation scenarios (for example, treating a standardised patient (actor) with a model foot ulcer). The primary outcome measure of the course was participants’ pre- and post completion of confidence surveys, using a five-point Likert scale (1 = Unacceptable-5 = Proficient). Participants’ knowledge, satisfaction and their perception of the relevance and fidelity (realism) of a range of course elements were also investigated. Parametric statistics were used to analyse the data. Pearson’s r was used for correlation, ANOVA for testing the differences between groups, and a paired-sample t-test to determine the significance between pre- and post-workshop scores. A minimum significance level of p < 0.05 was used. Results: An overall 42% improvement in clinical confidence was observed following completion of FUST (mean scores 3.10 compared to 4.40, p < 0.05). The lack of an overall significant change in knowledge scores reflected the participant populations’ high baseline knowledge and pre-requisite completion of web-based modules. Satisfaction, relevance and fidelity of all course elements were rated highly. Conclusions: This pilot study suggests simulation training programs can improve participants’ clinical confidence in the management of foot ulcers. The approach has the potential to enhance clinical training in diabetes-related foot complications and chronic wounds in general.

Effective interviewing of culturally and linguistically diverse clients

Effective interviewing of culturally and linguistically diverse clients Tips from Dr Nigar Khawaja MAPS, Convenor, APS Psychology and Cultures Interest Group

Understanding injury-related disability in non-Western societies can contribute to more effective road safety policies and programs

• Road crashes as a cause of disability • Disability in the study of road safety • Thai spinal injury study – Contextual information – beliefs and community – Transport system and hidden safety costs – Cambodia experience – Pakistan fatalism study • Feedback to policies and programs

Change-induced stressors and effective coping strategies in nursing

This study seeks to examine the causality of non-nursing and nursing stressors on the job satisfaction of nurses and how coping strategies have a mediating influence on this relationship in the context of sector-wide reform. To conceptualize the relationships, a mediation path model was developed. Data were collected at two time points using a self-completed online survey over a six monthly interval. During time 1, 306 Australian nurses completed the online survey. In the first wave (time 1), 306 Australian nurses completed the survey. In the second wave (time 2), matched survey data were collected from 119 nurses. The analysis showed a significant causal relationship between time 1 administrative and role stressors and an increase in nursing stress in time 2. A significant relationship was also identified between job specific context stressors and the adoption of effective coping strategies to deal with increased level of change-induced stress and strain and the likelihood of reporting higher level of job satisfaction in time 2. This study contributes by providing an integrated theoretical perspective on how stress affects retention that has so far been elusive. This is useful to researchers wanting to examine this phenomenon further and practitioners responsible for implementing change programs.

Building sustainable and effective assurance of learning process in a changing higher education environment

In a study of assuring learning in Australian Business Schools, 25 Teaching and Learning Associate Deans were interviewed to identify current issues in developing and measuring the quality of teaching and learning outcomes. Results indicate that for most institutions developing a perspective on graduate attributes and mapping assessments to measure outcomes across an entire program required knowledge creation and the building of new inclusive processes. Common elements of effective practice, namely those which offered consistently superior outcomes, included: inclusive processes; embedded graduate attributes throughout a program; alongside consistent and appropriate assessment. Results indicate that assurance of learning processes are proliferating nationally while quality of teaching and learning outcomes and in the processes for assuring it is increasing as a result.