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Investigating spiritual well-being among Islamic Divinity and religious education students in Turkey

- Coskun, Mehmet, Fisher, John

  • Authors: Coskun, Mehmet , Fisher, John
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Religious Education Journal of Australia Vol. 29, no. 2 (2013), p. 21-28
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  • Description: In light of increased emphasis on universities being called to facilitate spiritual growth among students, the Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure was used to assess four domains of spiritual well-being among 122 Divinity and 137 Religious Education students in Turkey. Students provided three responses to 20 items reflecting spiritual well-being, indicating their ideals for spiritual well-being, lived experience and how much university helped in each area. Another 16 potential factors were explored to help students develop their spiritual well-being, ranging from self-improvement to scripture. High scores on ideals for spiritual well-being, reported by both groups of students, underpin the lived experiences of Religious Education and Divinity students in each of four domains of spiritual well-being. Relating with God significantly influenced aspects of spiritual well-being but it appears that the highly religious students overstate the influence of religious activities, such as prayer and scripture, on their spiritual well-being. Universities provide small yet significant support in developing the four domains of spiritual well-being for these students. Overall, this study has shown many similarities, yet some significant variations in spiritual well-being between these Divinity and Religious Education students in Turkey. This project provides a sound base from which future studies can be launched to review, enhance and monitor university students' spiritual well-being and to determine the influence of these students' spiritual well-being on the clients they will serve after graduating and gaining employment.

Investigating the social implications of biometrics and the need for global biometric uniformity

- Leicester, Phillip, Kulkarni, Siddhivinayak

  • Authors: Leicester, Phillip , Kulkarni, Siddhivinayak
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: International Journal for Infonomics Vol. 6, no. 3/4 (2013), p. 731-735
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  • Description: This research paper looks at the social implications of biometrics pertaining to the ethics of privacy and the ownership of individual biometric data, including how these issues can be resolved through the establishment of a Biometric Commission by introducing global standardised biometric uniformity and the guidelines that will ensure their technological foundations. Much of the distrust that engulfs society is due to the past performances and policy implementations that governments have initiated surrounding biometric technology and its miss use beyond the realms of individual identification for security purposes. There needs to be total transparency from governments and organisations that use biometric technology for security identification in how every individuals biometric data will be used, stored and the ethical standards provided in eliminating many of the implications that every society has towards on how their biometric data will be used.

Investigation of adaptation after liver transplantation using Roy's Adaptation Model

- Ordin, Yaprak, Karayurt, Özgül, Wellard, Sally

  • Authors: Ordin, Yaprak , Karayurt, Özgül , Wellard, Sally
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Nursing and Health Sciences Vol. 15, no. 1 (2013), p. 31-38
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  • Description: In this study we explored the adaptation of transplant recipients in Turkey using the Roy Adaptation Model. A descriptive qualitative design was used with data collected from liver transplant recipients in either individual or group interviews between May 2009 and February 2010. Using deductive content analysis, four themes were identified in the data: physiological mode, self-concept mode, role function mode, and interdependence mode. Each theme included both adaptive and ineffective behaviors of liver transplant recipients. The findings of this study indicate that liver transplant recipients need information and support about their ineffective behaviors in all modes of the Roy Adaptation Model. The findings also support the use of a nursing model in the delivery of nursing care for liver transplantation recipients. © 2012 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.
  • Description: 2003010860

Is there a conflict between teaching and research? the views of engineering academics in Europe

- Aarrevaara, Timo, Dobson, Ian

  • Authors: Aarrevaara, Timo , Dobson, Ian
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Global Journal of Engineering Education Vol. 15, no. 2 (2013), p. 75-81
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  • Description: This article presents an analysis of data from the international Changing Academic Profession (CAP) and the Academic Profession in Europe: Response to Societal Changes (EUROAC) surveys to compare engineering academics that prefer teaching over research, and vice versa. It also highlights the attitudes of each of these groups to teaching and research, the two major academic activities. There has long been debate about whether research and teaching are mutual activities or in competition with each other. According to the survey results, the majority stated a leaning towards research, but this preference was stronger in some countries than in others. In fact, data from the CAP survey reveal that 30% of engineering academics from the 12 participating European countries believe that teaching and research are hardly compatible with each other, but opinions from different countries vary considerably. Even though much higher proportions of academics agree that their research reinforces teaching, even on this measure, there are considerable gaps between countries. © WIETE 2013.
  • Description: 2003011212

Isolation of Vibrio cholerae and other enteric microbiota from patients with suspected cholera during the 2009 outbreak in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea

- Kas, Monalisa, Horwood, Paul, Laman, Moses, Manning, Laurens, Atua, Vincent, Siba, Peter, Greenhill, Andrew

  • Authors: Kas, Monalisa , Horwood, Paul , Laman, Moses , Manning, Laurens , Atua, Vincent , Siba, Peter , Greenhill, Andrew
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Papua and New Guinea medical journal Vol. 56, no. 3-4 (2013), p. 110-115
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  • Description: When cholera was first detected in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in mid-2009, national diagnostic capacity faced many challenges. This was in part due to the non-endemic status of the outbreak, resulting in few local staff experienced in Vibrio cholerae detection and poor access to the required consumables. The PNG Institute of Medical Research conducted culture on specimens from suspected cholera patients in Madang Province, with presumptive V. cholerae isolates sent to Goroka for confirmation. Of 98 samples analysed 15 were culture positive, with V. cholerae detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in an additional 3 samples. Further analyses were conducted to identify other pathogenic bacteria from thiosulphate citrate bile salt sucrose (TCBS) agar. Molecular-based assays detected enteropathogenic (n = 1) and enterotoxigenic (n = 1) strains of Escherichia coli. No other major enteric pathogens were detected. The low detection rate of V. cholerae at the provincial level reflects challenges in the laboratory diagnosis of cholera and in-country challenges in responding to an outbreak of a non-endemic disease, such as lack of in-country diagnostic expertise and available consumables in the early stages. It also suggests that full aetiological investigations are warranted in future outbreaks of acute watery diarrhoea in PNG to fully elucidate the potentially complex aetiology, which could in turn guide diagnostic, treatment and prevention measures.

Junior Mining Sector capital-raisings: The effects of information asymmetry and uncertainity issues

- Iddon, Casey, Hettihewa, Samanthala, Wright, Christopher

  • Authors: Iddon, Casey , Hettihewa, Samanthala , Wright, Christopher
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Journal of Applied Business and Economics Vol. 15, no. 3 (2013), p. 56-67
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  • Description: While prospecting by junior mining companies (JMCs) is a vital contributor to modern wealth creation, attributes of the junior mining sector (JMS) limit JMC-fund raisings to external equity (shares). In considering responses by JMC principals to deep discounting and other JMC-investor strategies, potential responses were found to: increase returns to principals, increase JMS moral-hazard issues, and further deepen price discounts on JMC share offerings, especially IPOs. It is suggested that the attractiveness and moral-hazard consequences of these potential responses can be greatly diminished if mining-tenement fees are raised and JMC prospecting costs are allowed as an offset against those fees

Just for the fun of it : making playgrounds accessible to all children

- Burke, Jenene

  • Authors: Burke, Jenene
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: World Leisure Journal Vol. 55, no. 1 (2013), p. 83-95
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  • Description: There seems to be growing interest worldwide in the concept of purpose-built public playground facilities that are intended specifically to provide play experiences for all children, regardless of their abilities. As this article will reveal, the complex principle of inclusion underpins the concept of shared play in inclusive playgrounds. However, despite generally being identified as important, inclusion, particularly for children with impairments within play environments, seems to be often poorly understood and sometimes overlooked in existing literature about children’s play in playgrounds. This article draws attention to the current situation surrounding public playground accessibility and teases out two discernible ways of approaching playground provision for people with impairments. The first is technically driven and mandated by guidelines and legislation. The other is child-centred or community-focused, in which participation in play in a playground is supported as a desirable social activity within a connected, inclusive community. Furthermore, this article will provide an outline of legislation and policies in Australia that are relevant to inclusive playground provision, along with some approaches that have been adopted in some other countries (notably, the United States and the United Kingdom) to provide playground access for children with impairments.
  • Description: 2003011114

Keeping Australia's island free of introduced rodents: The Barrow Island example

- Greenslade, Penelope, Burbidge, Andrew, Lynch, Jasmyn

  • Authors: Greenslade, Penelope , Burbidge, Andrew , Lynch, Jasmyn
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Pacific conservation Biology Vol. 19, no. (2013), p. 284-294
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  • Description: Abstract: Islands are important reservoirs of endemic and threatened species, but anthropogenic influences have impacted their biotas. Australia has over 8000 islands, both continental and oceanic, but because of considerably increased traffic, both tourist and commercial, many of these islands have been and are subject to increased threats from invasive species. The invasive Black Rat Rattus rattus is of particular concern as it can negatively impact mammal, bird, reptile, invertebrate and plant populations. Barrow Island, in northwest Western Australia, is an island requiring particular protection from Black Rats as it is a Class A nature reserve with many unique and threatened taxa that is subject to major disturbances from activities associated with oil extraction and a large liquefied natural gas processing plant. Strict quarantine is currently imposed on all materials and persons being sent to the island and there is an intense on-island surveillance programme. So far the protocols used have prevented Black Rats establishing on this island, but such a level of biosecurity is clearly impossible for all islands. In this paper we discuss the effectiveness of quarantine inspections and surveillance together and alone in protecting high-risk, high-value Australian islands against introduced rodents and we document eradication costs for other islands. World-wide, it has only been possible so far to eradicate rats from relatively small islands, mostly with no non-target indigenous mammals and larger islands only where there are no non-target indigenous mammals. Models based largely on economic considerations have suggested it is more cost effective to use surveillance alone without quarantine for Black Rats on Barrow Island and that if rats become widespread (an estimated 4% risk), it may be more cost effective not to attempt eradication. Such models provide useful guidance for managers where biodiversity values are relatively low or where there are no non-target species, but for Barrow island we argue for continuation of quarantine as well as surveillance and an increased level of quarantine controls at the point of departure on all people, vessels and aircraft visiting other vulnerable Australian islands.

Kiarostami's picture theory : Cinematic skepticism in the Wind Will Carry Us

- Abbott, Mathew

  • Authors: Abbott, Mathew
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Sub-Stance Vol. 42, no. 1 (2013), p. 165-179
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  • Description: The Wind Will Carry Us (1999) opens with a series of long takes of a car winding steadily down a road in the Iranian countryside. In other words, it opens with a sequence which, to anybody who knows Kiarostami's work, will be immediately recognizable as typical of it: Life and Nothing More (1992) returns repeatedly to such sequences, and ends with one; such sequences turn up in Through the Olive Trees (1994) and Taste of Cherry (1997); the protagonist of Where is the Friend's Home? (1987) is too young to drive, but we see him from a distance meandering in a similar pattern on more than one occasion (and sequences of the same type return in Certified Copy (2010)). As with the other sequences, the opening of The Wind Will Carry Us is beautiful, intriguing and, with its muted semi-screwball feel, kind of funny. By the time of the film's release, however, the car on screen was bringing this cinematic history with it. Thus there is something self-aware or even self-effacing about these opening images: Kiarostami is referring here, both seriously and playfully, not only to his previous works but also perhaps to himself, and to the by-then internationally recognizable figure called "Kiarostami." So if Jean-Luc Nancy is right to say that such long aerial takes are Kiarostami's "signature" ( Evidence of Film, 10)—that "a person or a car's zigzagging path on the background of an unchanging landscape traverses, like a single trajectory, five movies [...] and turns into an emblematic summary of all the films" (24)—then this is complicated here by a certain irony. Indeed it would be possible to read the reflexivity of these images as playfully mocking Kiarostami's own signature, and thus perhaps as problematizing the very notion: Kiarostami doesn't let us forget that we are watching one of his films, and pokes fun at us, and at himself, in reminding that fact. This is to say that in the opening sequence of the film Kiarostami cites his own signature, with all the epistemological and metaphysical complications that such a gesture entails. Yet this self-effacing gesture is not simply ironic, and it is not in spite but also partly because of its extreme reflexivity that the opening sequence of this film in particular is so beautiful, intriguing, and gently funny. After all, gestures of self effacement—ironic nods to the mediality of cinema—are perhaps as typical of Kiarostami's films as are long aerial takes of meandering cars. If Kiarostami is citing his own signature, then that is also his signature. Thus I want to disagree with Nancy when he writes that "there is no room for reflexivity" (18) in Kiarostami's cinema. Yet I also want to agree with the intuition that appears to be guiding Nancy's statement. For what's remarkable about Kiarostami's films is how his relentless problematization of the real, his dogged insistence on the mediality of the image, does not leave us in some Baudrillardian hall of mirrors, or quasi-Derridean free play of significations: if the opening sequence of this film is an example of "intertextuality," it is not because Kiarostami is spruiking some pop postmodernism. Rather, in problematizating the category of representation in this way, Kiarostami has been able to raise the question of the real in a new and profoundly affecting manner. His repeated attempts at turning our attention to the medium itself, to the very fact of film, do not produce a Verfremdungseffekt. Or if they do, this distancing is bound up with the powers of the films themselves. Note that this is not really paradoxical: my argument is that what Kiarostami shows is how the real can be evokedâ or "evidenced," to use Nancy's termâ precisely by undermining our attachments to the philosophical picture and cinematic frame of representation.
  • Description: 2003011023

Knowledge outcomes and retention of a university-based falls prevention education program (UniFPEP)

- Pascoe, Deborah, Stumieks, Daina, Close, Jacqueline, Teidemann, Anne, Lord, S, Twomey, Dara, Finch, Caroline

  • Authors: Pascoe, Deborah , Stumieks, Daina , Close, Jacqueline , Teidemann, Anne , Lord, S , Twomey, Dara , Finch, Caroline
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Focus on Health Professional Education: A Multi-disciplinary Journal Vol. 15, no. 2 (2013), p. 55-66
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  • Description: Abstract: Aim: This paper reports the evaluation of a new evidence-based university curriculum aimed at addressing workforce capacity building in the allied health sector through addressing the educational needs of exercise science students in relation to falls prevention and exercise prescription for older people. Background: Exercise scientists have the capacity to play a key role in the falls injury prevention workforce. To fulfil this role and contribute to preventing injuries in older people, it is necessary that they have the appropriate knowledge and skills. Methods: Over a 13-week period in 2008, 44 third-year and 21 fourth year students from an Australian university participated in the delivery and evaluation of a falls and injury prevention curriculum. Students' knowledge of falls and falls prevention was formally assessed using a knowledge questionnaire administered before (pre), immediately after (post) and at 13 weeks following (follow-up) completion of the curriculum. Differences in knowledge between pre-, post- and follow-up assessments were determined by repeated measures analysis of variance (p<0.05). Results: Overall knowledge levels significantly increased from 46% correct (pre) to 74% correct (post, p<0.001) and were sustained at follow-up (78% correct, p<0.001). Students' self-reported ratings of confidence in delivering exercise programs for older people and falls prevention also increased significantly (p<0.001). Conclusions: Completion of a targeted falls prevention curriculum provides significant improvements in the knowledge, skills and confidence in the preparation of exercise science students as members of the allied health workforce providing exercise prescription for falls prevention.

Koalas Phascolarctos cinereus in Framlingham Forest, south-west Victoria : Introduction, translocation and the effects of a bushfire

- Wallis, Robert

  • Authors: Wallis, Robert
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Victorian Naturalist Vol. 130, no. 1 (2013), p. 37-40
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  • Description: Koalas were introduced into Framlingham Forest, south-west Victoria, in 1971 and the population grew rapidly. By the 1990s the forest was suffering severe defoliation and many trees preferred by Koalas had been over-browsed. In 1998/99 around 1100 Koalas were captured, the males sterilised and animals translocated to other suitable habitats in western Victoria. Some habitat restoration was subsequently undertaken. In 2007 a deliberately lit fire destroyed most eucalypt foliage and many Koalas were killed or burned and removed by wildlife carers and DSE staff. A survey in 2011 found only two Koalas in the area. A Koala management plan for Framlingham Forest has been prepared.
  • Description: 2003011109

Lamprothamnium in Australia (Characeae, Charophyceae)

- Casanova, Michelle

  • Authors: Casanova, Michelle
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Australian Systematic Botany Vol. 26, no. 4 (2013), p. 268-290
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  • Description: Charophytes in the genus Lamprothamnium exhibit a large amount of diversity, particularly in the examples from Australia, although little of that variation has been recognised at species level in the past. The Australian members of the genus are revised here on the basis of extensive new collections, examination of specimens in herbaria and comprehensive review of the literature and available type material. The existing species Lamprothamnium macropogon (A.Braun) Ophel, L. inflatum (Fil. & G.O.Allen ex Fil.) A.Garcia & Karol and L. heraldii A.Garcia & Casanova are retained, eight new species are described (L. australicum Casanova, L. beilbyae Casanova, L. capitatum Casanova, L. compactum Casanova, L. coorongense Casanova, L. diminutum Casanova, L. macroanthum Casanova and L. stipitatum Casanova) and two taxa variously treated at infraspecific rank in Lychnothamnus are transferred to Lamprothamnium at species rank (L. cockajemmyense Casanova, L. tasmanicum (A.Braun) Casanova). Neither L. papulosum (Wallr.) J.Groves nor L. succinctum (A.Braun) R.D.Wood are confirmed for Australia after examination of the type material of these species. Species are distinguished by the arrangement of the gametangia, morphology of the fertile whorls and characteristics of the oospores. Four of these species are dioecious and nine are monoecious, which supports published conjectures concerning the biogeography of charophyte species (Proctor (1980): J. Phycol. 16, 218-233, doi:10.1111/j.1529-8817.1980.tb03023.x).
  • Description: C1

Leading the change: Second International Society of Hypertension New Investigators' Symposium

- Veerabhadrappa, Praveen, Charchar, Fadi, Burger, Dylan, Tomaszewski, Maciej, Carlberg, Bo

Learning about the effects of context on teaching and learning in preservice teacher education

- Fenwick, Lisl, Cooper, Maxine

  • Authors: Fenwick, Lisl , Cooper, Maxine
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Australian Journal of Teacher Education Vol. 38, no. 3 (2013), p. 96-110
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  • Description: Preparing teachers to work effectively within increasingly diverse contexts is a key goal of teacher education programs. This study analyses the extent to which a semester unit within a teacher education course provided pre-service teachers with the understanding and practices required to teach in low socio-economic status (SES) contexts. The results suggest that a unit, which emphasises links between theory, historical perspectives and practice, can effectively provide pre-service teachers with the key understandings and skills associated with improving equity outcomes in education. However, when the ideas being presented conflict with pre-existing, strongly held ideas about the role of schooling, practices associated with equity will not be sustained.
  • Description: 2003011028

Learning sparse kernel classifiers for multi-instance classification

- Fu, Zhouyu, Lu, Guojun, Ting, Kaiming, Zhang, Dengsheng

  • Authors: Fu, Zhouyu , Lu, Guojun , Ting, Kaiming , Zhang, Dengsheng
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems Vol. 24, no. 9 (2013), p. 1377-1389
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  • Description: We propose a direct approach to learning sparse kernel classifiers for multi-instance (MI) classification to improve efficiency while maintaining predictive accuracy. The proposed method builds on a convex formulation for MI classification by considering the average score of individual instances for bag-level prediction. In contrast, existing formulations used the maximum score of individual instances in each bag, which leads to nonconvex optimization problems. Based on the convex MI framework, we formulate a sparse kernel learning algorithm by imposing additional constraints on the objective function to enforce the maximum number of expansions allowed in the prediction function. The formulated sparse learning problem for the MI classification is convex with respect to the classifier weights. Therefore, we can employ an effective optimization strategy to solve the optimization problem that involves the joint learning of both the classifier and the expansion vectors. In addition, the proposed formulation can explicitly control the complexity of the prediction model while still maintaining competitive predictive performance. Experimental results on benchmark data sets demonstrate that our proposed approach is effective in building very sparse kernel classifiers while achieving comparable performance to the state-of-the-art MI classifiers.

Learning the business of teacher education research: Editorial work as capacity building

- Reid, Joanne, McDonough, Sharon, Bown, Kathryn, Santoro, Ninetta, Mayer, Diane, Singh, Michael

Learning the naive bayes classifier with optimization models

- Taheri, Sona, Mammadov, Musa

  • Authors: Taheri, Sona , Mammadov, Musa
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: International Journal of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science Vol. 23, no. 4 (2013), p. 787-795
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  • Description: Naive Bayes is among the simplest probabilistic classifiers. It often performs surprisingly well in many real world applications, despite the strong assumption that all features are conditionally independent given the class. In the learning process of this classifier with the known structure, class probabilities and conditional probabilities are calculated using training data, and then values of these probabilities are used to classify new observations. In this paper, we introduce three novel optimization models for the naive Bayes classifier where both class probabilities and conditional probabilities are considered as variables. The values of these variables are found by solving the corresponding optimization problems. Numerical experiments are conducted on several real world binary classification data sets, where continuous features are discretized by applying three different methods. The performances of these models are compared with the naive Bayes classifier, tree augmented naive Bayes, the SVM, C4.5 and the nearest neighbor classifier. The obtained results demonstrate that the proposed models can significantly improve the performance of the naive Bayes classifier, yet at the same time maintain its simple structure.

Learning the past to participate in the future : Regional discourses of Australian colonial history

- Koerner, Catherine

  • Authors: Koerner, Catherine
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies Vol. 6, no. 2 (2013), p. 29-40
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  • Description: Indigenous curricula content, including particular narratives of Australian colonial history are highly contested in contemporary Australia. How do white Australians understand Australia’s colonial past and its relevance today? An empirical study was conducted with 29 rural Australians who self-identified as white. Critical race and whiteness studies provided the framework for analysis of the interviews. I argue that they revealed a delimited understanding of colonial history and a general inability to link this to the present, which limited their capacity to think crossculturally in their everyday living - activities considered crucial in the contemporary move to Reconciliation in Australia. The normative discourse of white settler Australians to be ‘Australian’ is invested in the denial of Indigenous sovereignty to protect white settler Australian claims to national sovereignty. The findings support arguments for a national curriculum that incorporates Indigenous history as well as an Indigenous presence throughout all subject areas.

Least square support vector and multi-linear regression for statistically downscaling general circulation model outputs to catchment streamflows

- Sachindra, D. A., Huang, Fuchun, Barton, Andrew, Perera, Bimalka

  • Authors: Sachindra, D. A. , Huang, Fuchun , Barton, Andrew , Perera, Bimalka
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: International Journal of Climatology Vol. 33, no. 5 (2013), p. 1087-1106
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  • Description: This study employed least square support vector machine regression (LS-SVM-R) and multi-linear regression (MLR) for statistically downscaling monthly general circulation model (GCM) outputs directly to monthly catchment streamflows. The scope of the study was limited to calibration and validation of the downscaling models. The methodology was demonstrated by its application to a streamflow site in the Grampian water supply system in northwestern Victoria, Australia. Probable predictors for the study were selected from the National Center for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) reanalysis data set based on the past literature and hydrology. Probable variables that displayed the best significant correlations, consistently with the streamflows over the entire period of the study (1950-2010) and under three 20-year time slices (1950-1969, 1970-1989 and 1990-2010) were selected as potential predictors. To better capture seasonal variations of streamflows, downscaling models were developed for each calendar month. The standardized potential predictors were introduced to the LS-SVM-R and MLR models, starting from the best correlated three and then, others one by one, based on their correlations with the streamflows, until the model performance in validation was maximized. This stepwise model development enabled the identification of the optimum number of potential variables for each month. The model calibration was performed over the period 1950-1989 and validation was done for 1990-2010. LS-SVM-R model parameter optimization was achieved using simplex algorithm and leave-one-out cross-validation. The MLR models were optimized by minimizing the sum of squared errors. In both modelling techniques, validation was performed as an independent simulation. In calibration, LS-SVM-R and MLR models displayed equally good performances with a trend of under-predicting high flows. During validation, LS-SVM-R outperformed MLR, though both techniques over-predicted most of the streamflows. It was concluded that LS-SVM-R is a better technique for statistically downscaling GCM outputs to streamflows than MLR, but still MLR is a potential technique for the same task. Copyright © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society.

Linking physical education with community sport and recreation : A program for adolescent girls

- Casey, Meghan, Mooney, Amanda, Eime, Rochelle, Harvey, Jack, Smyth, John, Telford, Amanda, Payne, Warren

  • Authors: Casey, Meghan , Mooney, Amanda , Eime, Rochelle , Harvey, Jack , Smyth, John , Telford, Amanda , Payne, Warren
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Health Promotion Practice Vol. 14, no. 5 (2013), p. 721-731
  • Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/LP0990206
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  • Description: The engagement of adolescent girls in physical activity (PA) is a persistent challenge. School-based PA programs have often met with little success because of the lack of linkages between school and community PA settings. The Triple G program aimed to improve PA levels of secondary school girls (12-15 years) in regional Victoria, Australia. The program included a school-based physical education (PE) component that uniquely incorporated student-centered teaching and behavioral skill development. The school component was conceptually and practically linked to a community component that emphasized appropriate structures for participation. The program was informed by ethnographic fieldwork to understand the contextual factors that affect girls' participation in PA. A collaborative intervention design was undertaken to align with PE curriculum and coaching and instructional approaches in community PA settings. The theoretical framework for the intervention was the socioecological model that was underpinned by both individual-level (social cognitive theory) and organizational-level (building organizational/community capacity) strategies. The program model provides an innovative conceptual framework for linking school PE with community sport and recreation and may benefit other PA programs seeking to engage adolescent girls. The objective of this article is to describe program development and the unique theoretical framework and curriculum approaches.
  • Description: The engagement of adolescent girls in physical activity (PA) is a persistent challenge. School-based PA programs have often met with little success because of the lack of linkages between school and community PA settings. The Triple G program aimed to improve PA levels of secondary school girls (12-15 years) in regional Victoria, Australia. The program included a school-based physical education (PE) component that uniquely incorporated student-centered teaching and behavioral skill development. The school component was conceptually and practically linked to a community component that emphasized appropriate structures for participation. The program was informed by ethnographic fieldwork to understand the contextual factors that affect girls' participation in PA. A collaborative intervention design was undertaken to align with PE curriculum and coaching and instructional approaches in community PA settings. The theoretical framework for the intervention was the socioecological model that was underpinned by both individual-level (social cognitive theory) and organizational-level (building organizational/community capacity) strategies. The program model provides an innovative conceptual framework for linking school PE with community sport and recreation and may benefit other PA programs seeking to engage adolescent girls. The objective of this article is to describe program development and the unique theoretical framework and curriculum approaches. © 2012 Society for Public Health Education.