Green skills for the construction industry

The skill shortage issues have long existed in the construction industry in countries like Australia. Couple this with the lead and lag time between market demand and resultant supply has traditionally seen cyclical fluctuation of skills demand within the construction industry. Skills demand and shortages are generally well documented and can even have a level of predictability in Australia given the tendency to have a delayed reaction to global economic downturns. Sustainability issues in the construction industry have attracted growing public awareness. Traditionally driven by ever increasing, if only gradual, mandated minimum requirements, drive towards sustainable developments is now increasingly being created by the client. As this demand increases, accordingly a demand for people with the skills to provide these services should be felt. This research examines the green skill shortage issues within the context of construction industry. Stakeholders from across relevant sectors of the built environment were engaged to ascertain the industry’s utilisation and demand for ‘green skilled’ personnel. These findings will assist stakeholders within the construction industry in negating the effects of a skills shortage in the event of accelerated demand for sustainable construction.

Modern Training Tools for Binding Design and Paper Conservation of Antique Books, Albums and Documents (BBINDING)

Report published in the Proceedings of the National Conference on "Education in the Information Society", Plovdiv, May, 2013

Decision support to green technology implementation on Australian university campuses

As the societal awareness on sustainability is gaining momentum worldwide, the higher education sector is expected to take the lead in education, research and the promotion of sustainable development. Universities have the diversity of skills and knowledge to explore new concepts and issues, the academic freedom to offer unbiased observations, and the capacity to engage in experimentation for solutions. There is a global trend that universities have realized and responded to sustainability challenge. By adopting green technologies, buildings on university campuses have the potential to offer highly productive and green environments for a quality learning experience for students, while minimising environmental impacts. Despite the potential benefits and metaphorical link to sustainability, few universities have moved towards implementing Green Roof and Living Wall on campuses widely, which have had more successful applications in commercial and residential buildings. Few past research efforts have examined the fundamental barriers to the implementation of sustainable projects on campuses from organizational level. To address this deficiency, an on-going research project is undertaken by Queensland University of Technology in Australia. The research is aimed at developing a comprehensive framework to facilitate better decision making for the promotion of Green Roof and Living Wall application on campuses. It will explore and highlight organizational factors as well as investigate and emphasize project delivery issues. Also, the critical technical indicators for Green Roof and Living Wall implementation will be identified. The expected outcome of this research has the potential to enhance Green Roof and Living Wall delivery in Australian universities, as a vital step towards realizing sustainability in higher education sectors.

On the importance of pro-environmental organizational climate for employee green behavior

In their call to action, Ones and Dilchert(2012) discuss several possible individual and some contextual determinants of employee green behavior that await examination by industrial and organizational I–O) psychologists. Although these authors briefly mentioned organizational climate, specifically ethical climate, as a potentially relevant predictor of green behaviors, they mostly emphasized the role of individual difference characteristics and traditional job performance determinants such as knowledge, skills, abilities, and other person factors (KSAOs).

Field effectiveness of stimulus equivalence for teaching reading skills to children with autism

Stimulus equivalence involves teaching two conditional discriminations that share one stimulus in common and testing all possible conditional discriminations not taught (Saunders & Green, 1999). Despite considerable research in the laboratory, applied studies of stimulus equivalence have been limited (Vause, Martin, Marion, & Sakko, 2005). This study investigated the field-effectiveness of stimulus equivalence in teaching reading skills to children with Autism. Participants were four children with Autism receiving centre-based intensive behavioural intervention (lBI) treatment. Three of the participants, who already matched pictures to their dictated names, demonstrated six to eight more emergent performances after being taught only to match written words to the same names. One participant struggled with the demands of the study and his participation was discontinued. Results suggest that stimulus equivalence provided an effective and efficient teaching strategy for three of the four participants in this study.

Empower 1 : giving you key English skills.

Diseñado para ayudar al alumno, que tiene un nivel de conocimientos más bajo que las expectativas del programa nacional de inglés, a avanzar en una serie de habilidades. Cada una de las cinco secciones en que se estructura el volumen se ocupa de un área determinada como por ejemplo los medios de comunicación y las TIC, poesía, y literatura de ficción y no ficción, entre otras. Le acompaña un CD-ROM diseñado para proporcionar una gran cantidad de recursos como apoyo al libro del alumno.

Empower 2 : giving you key English skills.

Diseñado para ayudar al alumno que tiene un nivel de conocimientos más bajo que las expectativas del programa nacional de inglés a avanzar en una serie de habilidades. Cada una de las cinco secciones en que se estructura el volumen se ocupa de un área determinada como por ejemplo los medios de comunicación y las TIC, poesía, y literatura de ficción y no ficción, entre otras. Le acompaña un CD-ROM diseñado para proporcionar una gran cantidad de recursos como apoyo al libro del alumno.

Empower 3 : giving you key English skills.

Diseñado para ayudar al alumno que tiene un nivel de conocimientos más bajo que las expectativas del programa nacional de inglés a avanzar en una serie de habilidades. Cada una de las cinco secciones en que se estructura el volumen se ocupa de un área determinada como por ejemplo los medios de comunicación y las TIC, poesía, y literatura de ficción y no ficción, entre otras. Tiene una sección para prepararse las pruebas de la etapa clave tres (Key Stage 3) y una sección de Shakespeare. Le acompaña un CD-ROM diseñado para proporcionar una gran cantidad de recursos como apoyo al libro del alumno.

Empower 1 CD : giving you key English skills.

CD-ROM de apoyo para que los docentes estimulen a los alumnos que tienen un nivel de conocimientos más bajo que las expectativas del programa nacional de estudios inglés. Potencia el uso del libro de texto 1. Hace énfasis en la escritura y en los modelos de los principales tipos de texto. Incluye, para motivar a los estudiantes, actividades para completar e imprimir y archivos de PowerPoint.

Empower 2 CD : giving you key English skills.

CD-ROM de apoyo para que los docentes estimulen a los alumnos que tienen un nivel de conocimientos más bajo que las expectativas del programa nacional de estudios inglés. Potencia el uso del libro de texto 2. Hace énfasis en la escritura y en los modelos de los principales tipos de texto. Incluye, para motivar a los estudiantes, actividades para completar e imprimir y archivos de PowerPoint.

Empower 3 CD : giving you key English skills.

CD-ROM de apoyo para que los docentes estimulen a los alumnos que tienen un nivel de conocimientos más bajo que las expectativas del programa nacional de estudios inglés. Potencia el uso del libro de texto 1. Hace énfasis en la escritura y en los modelos de los principales tipos de texto. Incluye, para motivar a los estudiantes, actividades para completar e imprimir y archivos de PowerPoint.

Impairment in movement skills of children with autistic spectrum disorders

We undertook this study to explore the degree of impairment in movement skills in children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and a wide IQ range. Movement skills were measured using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC) in a large, well defined, population-derived group of children (n=101: 89 males,12 females; mean age 11y 4mo, SD 10mo; range 10y-14y 3mo) with childhood autism and broader ASD and a wide range of IQ scores. Additionally, we tested whether a parent-completed questionnaire, the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ), was useful in identifying children who met criteria for movement impairments after assessment (n=97 with complete M-ABCs and DCDQs). Of the children with ASD, 79% had definite movement impairments on the M-ABC; a further 10% had borderline problems. Children with childhood autism were more impaired than children with broader ASD, and children with an IQ less than 70 were more impaired than those with IQ more than 70. This is consistent with the view that movement impairments may arise from a more severe neurological impairment that also contributes to intellectual disability and more severe autism. Movement impairment was not associated with everyday adaptive behaviour once the effect of IQ was controlled for. The DCDQ performed moderately well as a screen for possible motor difficulties. Movement impairments are common in children with ASD. Systematic assessment of movement abilities should be considered a routine investigation.

The green campus is also a virtual one

This paper analyses the role of education for sustainability as enabling future sustainability practitioners to become key change agents and leaders. It is important that generic skills and understandings are married to a capability to lead beyond one's disciplinary or professional authority. 'Academic' education for future (and current) sustainability professionals should focus on transdisciplinary learning and research, new media affordances and distributed learning. This raises important questions about the nature of experiential learning and the meaning of 'living sustainability'. With reference to various developments in e-learning, including the European Union's aim to establish a virtual campus for a sustainable Europe, this paper argues that the digital environment is an integral part of our lifeworld connecting people to place, with each other and to possibilities for creative transdisciplinary inquiry. The role of new media in education for sustainability is rarely discussed, is under theorised and its potential largely ignored. © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.