Description:
The problem posed in this project was the development of an instrument to give a balanced assessment of young people’s spiritual health. Spiritual health is a dynamic state of being, which can be reflected in how well people relate in up to four domains of human existence, namely with themselves; with others; with the environment; and/or with a Transcendent Other. A convenience sample of 850 secondary students in State, Catholic, Christian Community and other independent schools in Ballarat and western suburbs of Melbourne were surveyed during 1999 to determine how important they considered each of the four sets of relationships to be for an ideal state of spiritual health (called Life-Orientation). They also expressed how each area reflected their personal experience most of the time (called Spiritual Health). Extensive factor analysis enabled the original 60-item instrument to be reduced to a reliable, compact 25-item Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM for short). Analysis of variance and t-tests revealed significant variations between students’ views when compared by school type, gender, and year level. SHALOM has advantages over previous instruments in that it is balanced across the four domains of spiritual well-being, is more sensitive, and it compares people’s stated ideal position, with their lived experience, not others’, in determining the quality of relationships which constitute their spiritual well-being.
Description:
The problem posed in this project was the development of an instrument to give a balanced assessment of young people’s spiritual health. Spiritual health is a dynamic state of being, which can be reflected in how well people relate in up to four domains of human existence, namely with themselves; with others; with the environment; and/or with a Transcendent Other. A convenience sample of 850 secondary students in State, Catholic, Christian Community and other independent schools in Ballarat and western suburbs of Melbourne were surveyed during 1999 to determine how important they considered each of the four sets of relationships to be for an ideal state of spiritual health (called Life-Orientation). They also expressed how each area reflected their personal experience most of the time (called Spiritual Health). Extensive factor analysis enabled the original 60-item instrument to be reduced to a reliable, compact 25-item Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM for short). Analysis of variance and t-tests revealed significant variations between students’ views when compared by school type, gender, and year level. SHALOM has advantages over previous instruments in that it is balanced across the four domains of spiritual well-being, is more sensitive, and it compares people’s stated ideal position, with their lived experience, not others’, in determining the quality of relationships which constitute their spiritual well-being.
Description:
This paper reports on research which aimed to investigate relationships between meaning and purpose in life and workplace expectations. It provides an overview of the methodology and outcomes of a survey conducted at a regional university. Survey methods included the distribution of two valid and reliable instruments to all employees of that university with data analysed using SPSS procedures. Analysis of the Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM), developed by the principal researcher, and a purpose-designed questionnaire pertaining to meaning and purpose in the workplace, provided interesting findings. Overall, participants classified as administrators, professionals, service workers or labourers reported that they feel good about themselves and their relationships with others and the environment. The relationship with a god-type figure was of lesser importance for the spiritual well-being of the majority of participants. The participants do not expect the workplace to provide a major role in their spiritual well-being. They also reported significantly high levels of feelings of turbulence at work, and trends toward high anxiety and discomfort with autocratic managerial practices characterised by a focus on profits over people. The female staff described the workplace as more friendly, warm and caring than the males. The females also reported greater work satisfaction and were less depressed in doing their job than the males. Interpretation of these results indicates that a somewhat anxious and turbulent work place environment prevails. The personal impact of this unrest appears to be mediated by the support of families and friends of employees. The notion that workplace feelings which are negative (eg., anxiety) emanate from administrative practices, while those which are positive are a function of collegial behaviours, merits further exploration.
Description:
This paper reports on research which aimed to investigate relationships between meaning and purpose in life and workplace expectations. It provides an overview of the methodology and outcomes of a survey conducted at a regional university. Survey methods included the distribution of two valid and reliable instruments to all employees of that university with data analysed using SPSS procedures. Analysis of the Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM), developed by the principal researcher, and a purpose-designed questionnaire pertaining to meaning and purpose in the workplace, provided interesting findings. Overall, participants classified as administrators, professionals, service workers or labourers reported that they feel good about themselves and their relationships with others and the environment. The relationship with a god-type figure was of lesser importance for the spiritual well-being of the majority of participants. The participants do not expect the workplace to provide a major role in their spiritual well-being. They also reported significantly high levels of feelings of turbulence at work, and trends toward high anxiety and discomfort with autocratic managerial practices characterised by a focus on profits over people. The female staff described the workplace as more friendly, warm and caring than the males. The females also reported greater work satisfaction and were less depressed in doing their job than the males. Interpretation of these results indicates that a somewhat anxious and turbulent work place environment prevails. The personal impact of this unrest appears to be mediated by the support of families and friends of employees. The notion that workplace feelings which are negative (eg., anxiety) emanate from administrative practices, while those which are positive are a function of collegial behaviours, merits further exploration.
Description:
The complexity of rural practice in rural and remote communities means that higher order skills are required by rural social workers. In 1991, the University of Ballarat in Victoria (Australia) began teaching a course to prepare students for work in rural social welfare. The course was developed partly to meet industry needs, as local agencies were unable to attract qualified staff. While generic skills, such as counseling and group work, are taught, they are taught with emphasis on particular issues likely to occur in rural settings. Contextual issues include the role of the practitioner as a professional and a community member, confidentiality and privacy, and working within and between complex social networks. Existing courses of social work and welfare address rural practice in a peripheral fashion, whereas rural practice is thoroughly integrated into all elements of this course: course philosophy, curriculum design, teaching strategies, and assessment. The course's philosophical approach emphasizes community development principles of engagement and empowerment within communities. A brief framework of the course and evaluations completed by staff and students are provided. (Contains 15 references.) (TD)
Description:
The complexity of rural practice in rural and remote communities means that higher order skills are required by rural social workers. In 1991, the University of Ballarat in Victoria (Australia) began teaching a course to prepare students for work in rural social welfare. The course was developed partly to meet industry needs, as local agencies were unable to attract qualified staff. While generic skills, such as counseling and group work, are taught, they are taught with emphasis on particular issues likely to occur in rural settings. Contextual issues include the role of the practitioner as a professional and a community member, confidentiality and privacy, and working within and between complex social networks. Existing courses of social work and welfare address rural practice in a peripheral fashion, whereas rural practice is thoroughly integrated into all elements of this course: course philosophy, curriculum design, teaching strategies, and assessment. The course's philosophical approach emphasizes community development principles of engagement and empowerment within communities. A brief framework of the course and evaluations completed by staff and students are provided. (Contains 15 references.) (TD)
Description:
In this paper global optimisation-based techniques are studied in order to increase the accuracy of medical diagnosis and prognosis with FNA image data from the Wisconsin Diagnostic and Prognostic Breast Cancer databases. First we discuss the problem of determining the most informative features for the classification of cancerous cases in the databases under consideration. Then we apply a technique based on convex and global optimisation to breast cancer diagnosis. It allows the classification of benign cases and malignant ones and the subsequent diagnosis of patients with very high accuracy. The third application of this technique is a method that calculates centres of clusters to predict when breast cancer is likely to recur in patients for which cancer has been removed. The technique achieves higher accuracy with these databases than reported elsewhere in the literature.
Description:
In this paper global optimisation-based techniques are studied in order to increase the accuracy of medical diagnosis and prognosis with FNA image data from the Wisconsin Diagnostic and Prognostic Breast Cancer databases. First we discuss the problem of determining the most informative features for the classification of cancerous cases in the databases under consideration. Then we apply a technique based on convex and global optimisation to breast cancer diagnosis. It allows the classification of benign cases and malignant ones and the subsequent diagnosis of patients with very high accuracy. The third application of this technique is a method that calculates centres of clusters to predict when breast cancer is likely to recur in patients for which cancer has been removed. The technique achieves higher accuracy with these databases than reported elsewhere in the literature.
Description:
We reduce the supervised classification to solving a nonsmooth optimization problem. The proposed method allows one to solve classification problems for databases with arbitrary number of classes. Numerical experiments have been carried out with databases of small and medium size. We present their results and provide comparison of these results with ones obtained by other algorithms of classification based on the optimization techniques. Results of numerical experiments show effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.
Description:
We reduce the supervised classification to solving a nonsmooth optimization problem. The proposed method allows one to solve classification problems for databases with arbitrary number of classes. Numerical experiments have been carried out with databases of small and medium size. We present their results and provide comparison of these results with ones obtained by other algorithms of classification based on the optimization techniques. Results of numerical experiments show effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.
Description:
This paper describes the MODDE (Model of Decision support system Design and Evaluation) framework in some detail. The work is in progress and is being currently applied to the EMBRACE project being developed for the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) of Australia. Refugee law is the general legal area we are working in, while the specific domain under investigation is that of the decision makers at the RRT. EMBRACE is a decision support system being designed to assist the RRT in maintaining consistency of decisions, and preserve discretion of decision makers as well as making it easier to cope with high volumes of work in decreasing time frames. The use of the MODDE framework is intended to facilitate systematic attention to important features of decision making in our specific legal domain and to provide a sound basis upon which to evaluate a part of the system intrinsic to user acceptance. Copyright 2001 ACM.
Description:
This paper reports some preliminary results of a small pilot survey of University of Ballarat students' knowledge of Youth Allowance rates and eligibility criteria and of their attitudes towards the appropriateness of some of the obligations currently placed on young people in receipt of Youth Allowance. Thus it was asked, do students, who may themselves be experiencing poverty, agree with the current range of government imposed obligations on young job seekers?
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:
This paper gives an overview of different aspects of coal combustion modelling. Air flow simulation has been conducted for an industrial furnace used in a power generation facility at Yallourn, Victoria. The results can be used to improve combustion process and efficiency in a power generation facility.