Informational constraints on performance of dynamic interceptive actions

Utilising quantitative and qualitative research methods the thesis explored how movement patterns were coordinated under different conditions in elite athletes. Results revealed each elite athlete's ability to use multiple, varied information sources to guide successful task performance, highlighting the specific role of surrounding objects in the performance environment to perceptually guide behaviour. Combining elite coaching knowledge with empirical research enhanced understanding of the role of vision in regulating interceptive behaviours, enhancing the representative design of training environments. The main findings have been applied to training design of the Athletics Australia National Jumps Centre at the Queensland Academy of Sport in preparation for the World Indoor Championships, World Championships, and Olympic Games for Australian long and triple jumpers.

Psychological predictors of injury among elite athletes

Objectives: To establish injury rates among a population of elite athletes, to provide normative data for psychological variables hypothesised to be predictive of sport injuries, and to establish relations between measures of mood, perceived life stress, and injury characteristics as a precursor to introducing a psychological intervention to ameliorate the injury problem. Methods: As part of annual screening procedures, athletes at the Queensland Academy of Sport report medical and psychological status. Data from 845 screenings (433 female and 412 male athletes) were reviewed. Population specific tables of normative data were established for the Brunel mood scale and the perceived stress scale. Results: About 67% of athletes were injured each year, and about 18% were injured at the time of screening. Fifty percent of variance in stress scores could be predicted from mood scores, especially for vigour, depression, and tension. Mood and stress scores collectively had significant utility in predicting injury characteristics. Injury status (current, healed, no injury) was correctly classified with 39% accuracy, and back pain with 48% accuracy. Among a subset of 233 uninjured athletes (116 female and 117 male), five mood dimensions (anger, confusion, fatigue, tension, depression) were significantly related to orthopaedic incidents over the preceding 12 months, with each mood dimension explaining 6–7% of the variance. No sex differences in these relations were found. Conclusions: The findings support suggestions that psychological measures have utility in predicting athletic injury, although the relatively modest explained variance highlights the need to also include underlying physiological indicators of allostatic load, such as stress hormones, in predictive models.

Psychological predictors of injury in elite athletes

The Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS) supports over 600 high-level athletes across 20 sports. Given the high cost of injuries (e.g., time out of sport and consequent detraining, expense of rehabilitation, adverse social and economic effects), comprehensive injury management and prevention has become a priority for the QAS. Considering the potential for developing cost-effective, preventative programs, knowledge gained by examination of psychological screening predictors of injury may also prove beneficial for the broader sports medicine community. Aims were to: Objectively summarise existing injury characteristics, including the creation of population-specific norms for scholarship holders at the QAS. Assess relationships between injuries, specific medical factors (e.g., asthma, back pain) and psychological risk factors including life stress, mood, previous psychological diagnoses and disordered eating behaviour over a three-year period. Evaluate the effectiveness of the psychological component of the QAS Health Screening Questionnaire.

Psychological screening and injury among elite athletes

The purpose of the present investigation was to evaluate the effectiveness of the psychological component of the Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS) Health Screening Questionnaire in screening for injury/illness characteristics among elite athletes. In total, 793 scholarship athletes (409 females and 384 males) ranging in age from 11 to 41 years (M = 19, SD = 4.4) across 20 sports at the QAS in Brisbane, Australia, completed the QAS Health Screening Questionnaire. Psychological risk factors examined were life stress and mood, as measured by the Perceived Stress Scale - 10 (PSS-10) and the Brunel Mood Scale (BRUMS) respectively, in addition to disordered eating behaviours and history of diagnosed psychological disorders. Medical risk factors examined included asthma and back pain. Single-factor MANOVAs showed multivaritate effects for injury, second injury, back pain, asthma, anxiety disorder diagnosis, and fasting. Discriminant function analyses demonstrated that life stress and mood scores had significant utility in correctly classifying injury and second injury status, asthma, back pain, anxiety, and eating disorder diagnosis, in addition to the use of fasting and vomiting as weight control methods. The present findings suggest that the psychology component of the QAS Health Screening Questionnaire demonstrates significant utility as a screening tool regarding injury/illness characteristics among elite athletes.

High performance sport coaching: Institutes of sport as sites for learning

There has been a marked increase in the number of government-funded, high performance institutes and academies of sport within Australia. Given that these organisations employ significant numbers of full-time performance sport coaches, they may be accurately characterised as workplaces. Performance sport coaches have underscored the importance of experience in developing their coaching skill. However, despite wide acceptance of the view that learning occurs everywhere but to different extents and with different efficiency, and the acknowledgement of current national coach education programs as insufficient, no sport coaching research has focused specifically on sport workplaces as sites for learning. This paper will review the current nature of coach development with a view to examining the interaction between what the workplace (institute/academy) affords the individual and the personal agency of the individual (high performance sports coaches).

Administrative Placement of the Information Systems Discipline in Universities - A SWOT Analysis of Queensland University of Technology

In some Queensland universities, Information Systems academics have moved out of Business Faculties. This study uses a pilot SWOT analysis to examine the ramifications of Information Systems academics being located within or outside of the Business Faculty. The analysis provides a useful basis for decision makers in the School studied, to exploit opportunities and minimise external threats. For Information Systems academics contemplating administrative relocation of their group, the study also offers useful insights. The study presages a series of further SWOT analyses to provide a range of perspectives on the relative merits of having Information Systems academics administratively located inside versus outside Business faculties.

An innovative learning model for teaching architectural technology using building information modelling : a Queensland University of Technology perspective

In architecture courses, instilling a wider understanding of the industry specific representations practiced in the Building Industry is normally done under the auspices of Technology and Science subjects. Traditionally, building industry professionals communicated their design intentions using industry specific representations. Originally these mainly two dimensional representations such as plans, sections, elevations, schedules, etc. were produced manually, using a drawing board. Currently, this manual process has been digitised in the form of Computer Aided Design and Drafting (CADD) or ubiquitously simply CAD. While CAD has significant productivity and accuracy advantages over the earlier manual method, it still only produces industry specific representations of the design intent. Essentially, CAD is a digital version of the drawing board. The tool used for the production of these representations in industry is still mainly CAD. This is also the approach taken in most traditional university courses and mirrors the reality of the situation in the building industry. A successor to CAD, in the form of Building Information Modelling (BIM), is presently evolving in the Construction Industry. CAD is mostly a technical tool that conforms to existing industry practices. BIM on the other hand is revolutionary both as a technical tool and as an industry practice. Rather than producing representations of design intent, BIM produces an exact Virtual Prototype of any building that in an ideal situation is centrally stored and freely exchanged between the project team. Essentially, BIM builds any building twice: once in the virtual world, where any faults are resolved, and finally, in the real world. There is, however, no established model for learning through the use of this technology in Architecture courses. Queensland University of Technology (QUT), a tertiary institution that maintains close links with industry, recognises the importance of equipping their graduates with skills that are relevant to industry. BIM skills are currently in increasing demand throughout the construction industry through the evolution of construction industry practices. As such, during the second half of 2008, QUT 4th year architectural students were formally introduced for the first time to BIM, as both a technology and as an industry practice. This paper will outline the teaching team’s experiences and methodologies in offering a BIM unit (Architectural Technology and Science IV) at QUT for the first time and provide a description of the learning model. The paper will present the results of a survey on the learners’ perspectives of both BIM and their learning experiences as they learn about and through this technology.

Strategy for the development of investment decision-making framework for road asset management for queensland department of main roads

The aim of this project is to develop a systematic investment decision-making framework for infrastructure asset management by incorporation economic justification, social and environmental consideration in the decision-making process. This project assesses the factors that are expected to provide significant impacts on the variability of expenditures. A procedure for assessing risk and reliability for project investment appraisals will be developed. The project investigates public perception, social and environmental impacts on road infrastructure investment. This research will contribute to the debate about how important social and environmental issues should be incorporated into the investment decision-making process for infrastructure asset management.

The evolution of a community of practice at the Queensland University of Technology for lecturers involved in large first year units

Communities of practice (CoPs) may be defined as groups of people who are mutually bound by what they do together (Wenger, 1998, p. 2), that is, they “form to share what they know, to learn from one another regarding some aspects of their work and to provide a social context for that work” (Nickols, 2000, para. 1). They are “emergent” in that the shape and membership emerges in the process of activity (Lees, 2005, p. 7). People in CoPs share their knowledge and experiences freely with the purpose of finding inventive ways to approach new problems (Wenger & Snyder, 2000, p. 2). They can be seen as “shared histories of learning” (Wenger, 1998, p. 86). For some time, QUT staff have been involved in a number of initiatives aimed at sharing ideas and resources for teaching first year students such as the Coordinators of Large First Year Units Working Party. To harness these initiatives and maximise their influence, the leaders of the Transitions In Project (TIP)1 decided to form a CoP around the design, assessment and management of large first year units.

Mandates: An Australian example at the Queensland University of Technology

This presentation describes a situation where an open access mandate was developed and implemented at an institutional level, in this case, an Australian University. Some conclusions are drawn about its effect over a five year period of implementation.