Description:
Our paper critically analyses and theorises the role of women as coordinators and participants in community-based organizations where men comprise the majority of participants. Literature, interview and survey data lead us to suggest that it is "how men are worked with" that determines the effectiveness of women's involvement (author abstract)
Description:
Our paper critically analyses and theorises the role of women as coordinators and participants in community-based organizations where men comprise the majority of participants. Literature, interview and survey data lead us to suggest that it is "how men are worked with" that determines the effectiveness of women's involvement (author abstract)
Description:
This paper reports on the design and development of an innovative online learning program for clinical educators in Australia. The design was based on a story telling framework to engage learners. Each story had links to relevant multi-media resources to support and enhance skill development. The program featured some didactic resources; however there was a heavy emphasis on reflective activities. The program home page was developed as a series of attractive 'postcards from practice'. The program design which used a learner focused eclectic storytelling framework is potentially adaptable to other learner groups.
Description:
An Australian ‘Expert Panel on apprenticeships’ worked during 2010-11 to propose sweeping changes to the Australian apprenticeship and training system which would have removed the access of workers in large segments of the economy to publicly-funded training. One suggestion was the establishment of a ‘national custodian’ who would decide which occupations were to get funded training and which were not. The eventual policy outcomes of this attempt, by a combination of interest groups and academics, to ‘guard’ access to funded training, are not yet known. However a minor policy change has already removed employers’ incentive payments for Certificate II qualifications. A similar process has been taking place during 2011 in England, where similar alliances are opposing the expansion of the apprenticeship system to broader sections of the economy. This paper analyses policy documents, and statements by academics and people from other research institutions, to examine, and attempt to theorise, their attempts to deny funded training to workers. These arguments are tested against the broader apprenticeship literature and the implications of these seemingly elitist arguments on the policy objective of social inclusion through VET.
Description:
ABSTRACT High strength and ultra‐high strength materials are widely used in industrial applications significantly increasing the load bearing capacity and reducing the overall weight and cost. The present study continues a series of experimental investigations on innovative fabricated hybrid sections consisting of high strength steel tubes welded to mild steel plates. This type of innovative section is proposed with the aim of promoting the application of high and ultra‐high tensile steel in construction, taking advantage of the load‐bearing capacity of these materials along with the coupled effect of ductile mild steel plates. Large‐scale hybrid columns are tested under a combination of axial load and lateral cyclic load using a multi‐axis substructure testing (MAST) facility. Lateral cyclic loadings are applied along with constant axial loads of which the hysteretic curves are obtained for various grades of steel tubes, namely, mild steel tube (grade 300), high strength steel tube (grade 800) and ultra‐high strength steel tube (grade1200). Test results are analysed to examine the seismic performance of these proposed innovative sections and obtain the combined axial and lateral cyclic capacities, drifts, strains and plastic hinge distributions along the beam‐columns. The effect of tube material is considered and the axial shortening observations are compared to constant compression. The experimental outcomes of this paper can be incorporated in nonlinear modelling of structures consisting of ultra‐high strength steel tubes.
Description:
Reachability queries on large directed graphs have attracted much attention recently. The existing work either uses spanning structures, such as chains or trees, to compress the complete transitive closure, or utilizes the 2-hop strategy to describe the reachability. Almost all of these approaches work well for very sparse graphs. However, the challenging problem is that as the ratio of the number of edges to the number of vertices increases, the size of the compressed transitive closure grows very large. In this paper, we propose a new 3-hop indexing scheme for directed graphs with higher density. The basic idea of 3-hop indexing is to use chain structures in combination with hops to minimize the number of structures that must be indexed. Technically, our goal is to find a 3-hop scheme over dense DAGs (directed acyclic graphs) with minimum index size. We develop an efficient algorithm to discover a transitive closure contour, which yields near optimal index size. Empirical studies show that our 3-hop scheme has much smaller index size than state-of-the-art reachability query schemes such as 2-hop and path-tree when DAGs are not very sparse, while our query time is close to path-tree, which is considered to be one of the best reachability query schemes.
Description:
With the rapid development of computer hardware and software, the application of computer graphics has also got rapid development in all walks of life. Development of graphics has gone through a few decades, and now the computer has already entered a three-dimensional era. The three-dimensional graphics can be seen everywhere in real life. Scientific visualization, computer animation and virtual reality technology have become hot topics in recent years. Researches in the field of computer graphics hierarchy deepen gradually and grow fast. This article describes three common systems of graphics rendering engine, as well as discusses how to use the engine to create a three-dimensional graphics system, and introduces the binding and application of 3D graphics rendering and stage design.
Description:
Women who have a cognitive impairment (CI) (including mental illness, dementia, intellectual disability and acquired brain injury) are particularly vulnerable to sexual assault, yet very few assaults are reported to police. Once reported very few cases find their way through the justice system. The discourse of stereotyping and its impact on access to justice for victim/survivors is central to this research project which examines the uptake and exit stages of reports of sexual assault by persons with a cognitive impairment to police in Victoria, Australia. Data collection involves focus group interviews, analysis of police records of reports of sexual assault by persons with a cognitive impairment across a finite period of time (2002-2004) and one in-depth case study of a victim of rape with a cognitive impairment who successfully accessed the legal system to a completed trial. This paper discusses the results of preliminary analysis of data collected from focus group discussions held across Victoria including rural, regional and metropolitan locations with police, sexual assault counsellors and advocates for sexual assault victims with a CI. Data have been analysed using a modified Grounded Theory framework and ‘interpretative repertoire’ analysis. These methods of analysis have been used to identify commonly held perceptions of sexual assault victims who have cognitive impairments. Early findings indicate that police and advocates alike, draw on commonly held stereotypes about victims with cognitive impairments. These include whether their word can be believed and assumptions that ‘they cannot stand up to the rigors of the justice system’. Potentially these views have a significant effect on the depth and quality of service the victims receive from their advocate as well as the continued pathway of the report through the justice system.
Description:
Many previous efforts have utilized many different approaches for recognition in breast cancer detection using various ANN classifier-modelling techniques. Most of the previous work was concentred mostly on the classification of the damaged areas with the help of doctor’s suggestion. Doctors use to mark the suspicious areas area in the mammogram and the classifier only extract those marked areas and tries to classify it. An intelligent automatic diagnosis system can be very helpful for radiologist in diagnosing Breast cancer. In this research we are applying a local search gradient free clustering algorithm to find out the suspicious / damaged area. We compare our results with the doctor’s marking. Also it has been observed that, beyond a certain point, the inclusion of additional features leads to a worse rather than better performance. Moreover, the choice of features to represent the patterns affects several aspects of pattern recognition problems such as accuracy, required learning time and a necessary number of samples. A common problem with the multi-category feature classification is the conflict between the categories. None of the feasible solutions allow simultaneous optimal solution for all categories. In order to find an optimal solution the search space can be divided based on an individual category in each sub region and finally merging them through decision spport system. Combining the feature selection with the classifier has been a major challenge for the researchers. A similar technique employed in both the levels often worsens their performance. Some preliminary studies has revealed that while using traditional canonical GA has been a good choice for feature selection modules, however under perform for the classifier level module. An evolutionary based algorithm for the classifier level provides a much better solution for this purpose. In this paper we propose a hybrid canonical based feature extraction technique with a combination of evolutionary algorithm based classifier using a feed forward MLP model.
Description:
The research reported here utilised in depth interviews to investigate the contingent element of self-esteem and its underlying reasons in one Chinese individual living in a collectivist orientated culture. The results suggest this individual demonstrated some characteristics of contingent self-esteem. This may be attributed to such influences as: parents and significant others, educational experiences and the collectivist culture. It reveals a connection between a highly controlling parenting style and education in a collective culture and the development of the contingent part of self-esteem. Both positive and negative effects are identified in relation to the development of the contingent part of self-esteem. The interviewee is revealed as a person who has a strong sense of discipline, obligation and responsibility to his family and society, and who simultaneously experiences a substantial mental challenge and stress, due to constant external social comparisons and evaluations of self.
Description:
The research reported here utilised in depth interviews to investigate the contingent element of self-esteem and its underlying reasons in one Chinese individual living in a collectivist orientated culture. The results suggest this individual demonstrated some characteristics of contingent self-esteem. This may be attributed to such influences as: parents and significant others, educational experiences and the collectivist culture. It reveals a connection between a highly controlling parenting style and education in a collective culture and the development of the contingent part of self-esteem. Both positive and negative effects are identified in relation to the development of the contingent part of self-esteem. The interviewee is revealed as a person who has a strong sense of discipline, obligation and responsibility to his family and society, and who simultaneously experiences a substantial mental challenge and stress, due to constant external social comparisons and evaluations of self.
Description:
The paper starts with an evaluation of a group of ICT organizations in a regional Victorian town and using a range of qualitative and quantitative data evaluates whether there is a cluster emerging and if so what are the processes of clustering that underpin this. Using archival and interview data the paper then examines key events and turning points in the development of what might be identified as a nascent cluster (Rosenfeld, 1997). In the context of current public policy that directly or indirectly supports ‘clustering’, the paper then assesses the effectiveness of public policy versus private action in the development of regional agglomerations of organisations and institutions that may be called clusters.
Description:
The paper starts with an evaluation of a group of ICT organizations in a regional Victorian town and using a range of qualitative and quantitative data evaluates whether there is a cluster emerging and if so what are the processes of clustering that underpin this. Using archival and interview data the paper then examines key events and turning points in the development of what might be identified as a nascent cluster (Rosenfeld, 1997). In the context of current public policy that directly or indirectly supports ‘clustering’, the paper then assesses the effectiveness of public policy versus private action in the development of regional agglomerations of organisations and institutions that may be called clusters.