How I became the first Aboriginal person in Australia to lead a national education organisation

In this paper, Bronwyn Fredericks reflects on how, in 1997, she became the National President of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations Inc. (CAPA). The paper describes the election process faced by Fredericks, and identifies some of her key achievements during her time as National President. In becoming the National President, Bronwyn became the first Aboriginal person in Australia to lead a national education organisation. The story within this paper is told from the author’s autobiographical memory, drawing on the cultural, social and political context in which the story and the author were (and are) situated (Wojecki 2007). In this way the story teller reveals story lines which have not previously been articulated (Wojecki 2007). Throughout this paper, Fredericks ‘re-stories’ her experiences of leadership.

Visual assessment of pedestrian crashes

Of the numerous factors that play a role in fatal pedestrian collisions, the time of day, day of the week, and time of year can be significant determinants. More than 60% of all pedestrian collisions in 2007 occurred at night, despite the presumed decrease in both pedestrian and automobile exposure during the night. Although this trend is partially explained by factors such as fatigue and alcohol consumption, prior analysis of the Fatality Analysis Reporting System database suggests that pedestrian fatalities increase as light decreases after controlling for other factors. This study applies graphical cross-tabulation, a novel visual assessment approach, to explore the relationships among collision variables. The results reveal that twilight and the first hour of darkness typically observe the greatest frequency of pedestrian fatal collisions. These hours are not necessarily the most risky on a per mile travelled basis, however, because pedestrian volumes are often still high. Additional analysis is needed to quantify the extent to which pedestrian exposure (walking/crossing activity) in these time periods plays a role in pedestrian crash involvement. Weekly patterns of pedestrian fatal collisions vary by time of year due to the seasonal changes in sunset time. In December, collisions are concentrated around twilight and the first hour of darkness throughout the week while, in June, collisions are most heavily concentrated around twilight and the first hours of darkness on Friday and Saturday. Friday and Saturday nights in June may be the most dangerous times for pedestrians. Knowing when pedestrian risk is highest is critically important for formulating effective mitigation strategies and for efficiently investing safety funds. This applied visual approach is a helpful tool for researchers intending to communicate with policy-makers and to identify relationships that can then be tested with more sophisticated statistical tools.

The relationship between Australians and the overseas graves of the First World War

The purpose of this thesis is to outline the relationship that existed in the past and exists in the present, between Australians and the War Graves and Memorials to the Missing. commemorations of Australians who died during the First World War. Their final resting places are scattered all over the world and provide a tangible record of the sacrifice of men and women in the war, and represent the final result by Official Agencies such as the Imperial, and later, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and its agency representative, the Office of Australian War Graves, of an attempt to appropriately commemorate them. The study follows the path of history from the event of death of an individual in the First World War, through their burial; temporary grave or memorial commemoration; the permanent commemoration; the family and public reaction to the deaths; how the Official Agencies of related Commonwealth Governments dealt with the dead; and finally, how the Australian dead are represented on the battlefields of the world in the 21st century. Australia.s war dead of the First World War are scattered around the globe in more than 40 countries and are represented in war cemeteries and civil cemeteries; and listed on large „Memorials to the Missing., which commemorate the individuals devoid of a known graves or final resting place.

The first global entertainment company : explaining Pathe's dominance in the pre-Hollywood film industry

For almost a decade before Hollywood existed, French firm Pathe towered over the early film industry with estimates of its share of all films sold around the world varying between 50-70%. Pathe was the first global entertainment company. This paper analyses its rise to market leadership by applying a theoretical framework drawn from the business literature on causes of industry dominance, which provides insights into how firms acquire and maintain market dominance and in this case the film industry. This paper uses evidence presented by film historians to argue that Pathe "fits" the expected theoretical model of a dominant firm because it had a marketing orientation, used an effective quality-based competitive strategy and possessed the six critical marketing capabilities that business research shows enable the best performing firms to consistently outperform rivals.

Peer-to-Patent Australia: First Anniversary Report, December 2010

Peer-to-Patent Australia will initially run as a 12 month pilot project designed to test whether an open community of reviewers can effectively locate prior art that might not otherwise be located by the patent office during a typical examination. Patent applications will be made available for peer review for a period of 6 months and there will follow a 6 month period of joint qualitative and quantitative assessment of the pilot project by IP Australia and QUT. The objective of Peer-to-Patent Australia is to improve the patent examination process and the quality of issued patents by utilising the knowledge and skills of experts in the broader community. It is a way of linking the scientific and technical expertise of anyone with an Internet connection with the expertise of a patent examiner. That community participation consists of members of the public reviewing patent applications and contributing relevant prior art references and comments within a web-based forum. The aim is to bring to light prior art, particularly non-patent prior art, that might otherwise not be identified by patent examiners. The better the prior art resources a patent examiner has at his or her disposal, the more likely a patent application will be assessed properly in terms of novelty and inventive step. The role of Peer-to-Patent Australia in this regard is to act as both a facilitator of discussion and a collector of prior art submissions. Peer-to-Patent Australia collects relevant prior art references on behalf of the reviewing community and forwards that prior art to IP Australia. Section 27 of the Patents Act 1990 (Cth) allows for the Commissioner of Patents to receive submissions of prior art by third parties relevant to the novelty and inventiveness of a particular patent application.

Creative industries after the first decade of debate

It has now been over a decade since the concept of creative industries was first put into the public domain through the Creative Industries Mapping Documents developed by the Blair Labour government in Britain. The concept has developed traction globally, but it has also been understood and developed in different ways in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and North America, as well as through international bodies such as UNCTAD and UNESCO. A review of the policy literature reveals that while questions and issues remain around definitional coherence, there is some degree of consensus emerging about the size, scope and significance of the sectors in question in both advanced and developing economies. At the same time, debate about the concept remains highly animated in media, communication and cultural studies, with its critics dismissing the concept outright as a harbinger of neo-liberal ideology in the cultural sphere. This paper couches such critiques in light of recent debates surrounding the intellectual coherence of the concept of neo-liberalism, arguing that this term itself possesses problems when taken outside of the Anglo-American context in which it originated. It is argued that issues surrounding the nature of participatory media culture, the relationship between cultural production and economic innovation, and the future role of public cultural institutions can be developed from within a creative industries framework, and that writing off such arguments as a priori ideological and flawed does little to advance debates about 21st century information and media culture.

Delivering value for money in the procurement of public sector major infrastructure : a new first-order decision making model

The significant challenge faced by government in demonstrating value for money in the delivery of major infrastructure resolves around estimating costs and benefits of alternative modes of procurement. Faced with this challenge, one approach is to focus on a dominant performance outcome visible on the opening day of the asset, as the means to select the procurement approach. In this case, value for money becomes a largely nominal concept and determined by selected procurement mode delivering, or not delivering, the selected performance outcome, and notwithstanding possible under delivery on other desirable performance outcomes, as well as possibly incurring excessive transaction costs. This paper proposes a mind-set change in this particular practice, to an approach in which the analysis commences with the conditions pertaining to the project and proceeds to deploy transaction cost and production cost theory to indicate a procurement approach that can claim superior value for money relative to other competing procurement modes. This approach to delivering value for money in relative terms is developed in a first-order procurement decision making model outlined in this paper. The model developed could be complementary to the Public Sector Comparator (PSC) in terms of cross validation and the model more readily lends itself to public dissemination. As a possible alternative to the PSC, the model could save time and money in preparation of project details to lesser extent than that required in the reference project and may send a stronger signal to the market that may encourage more innovation and competition.

Using biological motion to enhance the conspicuity of roadway workers

This study examined whether the conspicuity of road workers at night can be enhanced by distributing retroreflective strips across the body to present a pattern of biological motion (biomotion). Twenty visually normal drivers (mean age = 40.3 years) participated in an experiment conducted at two open-road work sites (one suburban and one freeway) at night-time. At each site, four road workers walked in place wearing a standard road worker night vest either (a) alone, (b) with additional retroreflective strips on thighs, (c) with additional retroreflective strips on ankles and knees, or (d) with additional retroreflective strips on eight moveable joints (full biomotion). Participants, seated in stationary vehicles at three different distances (80 m, 160 m, 240 m), rated the relative conspicuity of the four road workers. Road worker conspicuity was maximized by the full biomotion configuration at all distances and at both sites. The addition of ankle and knee markings also provided significant benefits relative to the standard vest alone. The effects of clothing configuration were more evident at the freeway site and at shorter distances. Overall, the full biomotion configuration was ranked to be most conspicuous and the vest least conspicuous. These data provide the first evidence that biomotion effectively enhances conspicuity of road workers at open-road work sites.

Talking the talk : oracy demands in first year university assessment tasks

With more constructivist approaches to learning in higher education and more value on teamwork skills, students’ oracy (speaking and listening) features more prominently in curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. The paper reports on a study of two first-year Australian university courses in disciplines with explicit industry orientations and high proportions of international students. Drawing on classroom observations and interviews with the lecturers, this paper investigates their pedagogical designs on oracy and the oracy demands of their assessment tasks. The study found that talk-based assessment tasks (a group project and a group oral presentation) featured in both courses but the two courses treated students’ oracy differently: as product or process. The contrast between the two assessment designs explicates issues around EAL student needs, authentic links to industry, the provenance of criteria used to assess performance, perceptions about the relevance of talk and the ‘hidden assessment’ of oracy.

Experiences of the FIRST LEGO League in China and Australia

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was initiated in the U.S. by accomplished inventor Dean Kamen in 1989. FIRST LEGO League (FLL) is one of the five competitions conducted by this organization. Dean’s vision was “to create a world where science and technology are celebrated……where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes”. Each year FLL creates opportunities for young people aged 9-16 to engage in problem solving, teamwork and collaborative learning around a real-world theme. In the 2009/2010 season, more than 145,000 young people in over 50 countries participated in this competition. As they tackle the challenges; they construct and de-construct their own knowledge through hands-on engagement in a constructivist learning environment. The challenges are presented at least eight weeks before the competition. In most events the participants are judged in four categories - robot game, robot design, team project and team challenge. “Gracious professionalism” is an essential element of the competition. This paper compares and contrasts the FLL in China and Australia and presents some of the achievements of the event. It also highlights some of the models which have been adopted in the two countries to facilitate participation. The educational benefits of embedding the FLL will also be discussed.

Perceptions of visability and conspicuity of biomotion clothing configuration for road workers at road work sites

Aims: This study determined whether the visibility benefits of positioning retroreflective strips in biological motion configurations were evident at real world road worker sites. ---------- Methods: 20 visually normal drivers (M=40.3 years) participated in this study that was conducted at two road work sites (one suburban and one freeway) on two separate nights. At each site, four road workers walked in place wearing one of four different clothing options: a) standard road worker night vest, b) standard night vest plus retroreflective strips on thighs, c) standard night vest plus retroreflective strips on ankles and knees, d) standard night vest plus retroreflective strips on eight moveable joints (full biomotion). Participants seated in stationary vehicles at three different distances (80m, 160m, 240m) rated the relative conspicuity of the four road workers using a series of a standardized visibility and ranking scales. ---------- Results: Adding retroreflective strips in the full biomotion configuration to the standard night vest significantly (p<0.001) enhanced perceptions of road worker visibility compared to the standard vest alone, or in combination with thigh retroreflective markings. These visibility benefits were evident at all distances and at both sites. Retroreflective markings at the ankles and knees also provided visibility benefits compared to the standard vest, however, the full biomotion configuration was significantly better than all of the other configurations. ---------- Conclusions: These data provide the first evidence that the benefits of biomotion retroreflective markings that have been previously demonstrated under laboratory and closed- and open-road conditions are also evident at real work sites.

The First Steps Program : a case study of a new model of community child health service

Community Child Health Nursing Services provide support for new mothers; however, the focus has often been on individual consultations, complemented by a series of group sessions soon after birth. We describe a new model of community care for first-time mothers that centres on group sessions throughout the whole contact period. The model was developed by practicing child health nurses for a large health service district in south-east Queensland, which offers a comprehensive community child health service. Issues identified by clinicians working within existing services, feedback from clients and the need for more resource-efficient methods of service provision underpinned the development of the model. The pilot program was implemented in two community child health centres in Brisbane. An early individual consultation to engage the family with the service was added in response to feedback from clinicians and clients. The modified model has since been implemented service-wide as the ‘First Steps Program’. The introduction of this model has ensured that the service has been able to retain a comprehensive service for first-time parents from a universal population, while responding to the challenges of population growth and the increasing number of complex clients placing demands on resources.

Who are the real “first offenders”?

Drink driving causes more fatal crashes than any other single factor on Australian roads, with a third of crashes having alcohol as a contributing factor. In recent years there has been a plateau in the numbers of drink drivers apprehended by RBT, and around 12% of the general population in self report surveys admit to drinking and driving. There is limited information about the first offender group, particularly the subgroup of these offenders who admit to prior drink driving, the offence therefore being the “first time caught”. This research focuses on the differences between those who report drink driving prior to apprehension for the offence and those who don’t. Methods: 201 first time drink driving offenders were interviewed at the time of their court appearance. Information was collected on socio-demographic variables, driving behaviour, method of apprehension, offence information, alcohol use and self reported previous drink driving. Results: 78% of respondents reported that they had driven over the legal alcohol limit in the 6 months prior to the offence. Analyses revealed that those offenders who had driven over the limit previously without being caught were more likely to be younger and have an issue with risky drinking. When all variables were taken into account in a multivariate model using logistic regression, only risky drinking emerged as significantly related to past drink driving. High risk drinkers were 4.8 times more likely to report having driven over the limit without being apprehended in the previous 6 months. Conclusion: The majority of first offenders are those who are “first time apprehended” rather than “first time drink drivers”. Having an understanding of the differences between these groups may alter the focus of educational or rehabilitation countermeasures. This research is part of a larger project aiming to target first time apprehended offenders for tailored intervention.

Beyond sanctions : is there a need to treat first-time offenders?

Aims: Driving Under the Influence (DUI) enforcement can be a broad screening mechanism for alcohol and other drug problems. The current response to DUI is focused on using mechanical means to prevent inebriated persons from driving, with little attention the underlying substance abuse problems. ---------- Methods: This is a secondary analysis of an administrative dataset of over 345,000 individuals who entered Texas substance abuse treatment between 2005 and 2008. Of these, 36,372 were either on DUI probation, referred to treatment by probation, or had a DUI arrest in the past year. The DUI offenders were compared on demographic characteristics, substance use patterns, and levels of impairment with those who were not DUI offenders and first DUI offenders were compared with those with more than one past-year offense. T tests and chi square tests were used to determine significance. ---------- Results: DUI offenders were more likely to be employed, to have a problem with alcohol, to report more past-year arrests for any offense, to be older, and to have used alcohol and drugs longer than the non-DUI clients who reported higher ASI scores and were more likely to use daily. Those with one past-year DUI arrest were more likely to have problems with drugs other than alcohol and were less impaired than those with two or more arrests based on their ASI scores and daily use. Non-DUI clients reported higher levels of mood disorders than DUIs but there was no difference in their diagnosis of anxiety. Similar findings were found between those with one or multiple DUI arrests. ----------Conclusion: Although first-time DUIs were not as impaired as non-DUI clients, their levels of impairment were sufficient to cause treatment. Screening and brief intervention at arrest for all DUI offenders and treatment in combination with abstinence monitoring could decrease future recidivism.

A first extension of geometric control theory to underwater vehicles

This paper serves as a first study on the implementation of control strategies developed using a kinematic reduction onto test bed autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The equations of motion are presented in the framework of differential geometry, including external dissipative forces, as a forced affine connection control system. We show that the hydrodynamic drag forces can be included in the affine connection, resulting in an affine connection control system. The definitions of kinematic reduction and decoupling vector field are thus extended from the ideal fluid scenario. Control strategies are computed using this new extension and are reformulated for implementation onto a test-bed AUV. We compare these geometrically computed controls to time and energy optimal controls for the same trajectory which are computed using a previously developed algorithm. Through this comparison we are able to validate our theoretical results based on the experiments conducted using the time and energy efficient strategies.