Houses and sheds in Australia : an exploration of the genesis and growth of neighbourhood houses and men's sheds in community settings
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Kimberley, Helen , Foley, Annette , Brown, Michael
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Adult Learning Vol. 48, no. 2 (Jul 2008), p. 237-262
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- Description: This article reviews research into the genesis and spread of both neighbourhood houses and learning centres in Victoria and community-based men's sheds in Australia to identify some similarities and differences. Our article asks questions about the gendered communities of practice that underpin houses for women on the one hand, and sheds for men on the other. Our particular interest is with the gender issues associated with the development of the relatively mature neighbourhood house 'sector', and those associated with the very recent and developing community-based men's sheds 'sector'. Our underpinning research question has to do with the desirability (or otherwise) in each of these sectors of political and strategic decisions being either gender specific or gender neutral. We identify a number of tantalising parallels between the rationale behind the establishment of both sectors,for women and men, albeit in very different circumstances, along with some obvious differences.
- Description: C1
How comparable are road traffic crash cases in hospital admissions data and police records? An examination of data linkage rates
- Authors: Lujic, Sanja , Finch, Caroline , Boufous, Soufiane , Hayen, Andrew , Dunsmuir, William
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian And New Zealand Journal Of Public Health Vol. 32, no. 1 (2008), p. 28-33
- Relation: Open Access
- Full Text: false
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- Description: OBJECTIVES: An assessment of linked data was used to investigate the scope and the extent to which hospitalisations data and police crash records represent road crashes in New South Wales (NSW). METHODS: Hospital separation records for the period 1 July 2000 to 30 June 2001, inclusive, were linked to police crash casualty records for the same period using probabilistic record linkage techniques. Multivariable logistic regression techniques were used to identify factors independently associated with the probability of record linkage. RESULTS: Of 17,552 road transport-related hospital records, 45.1% matched to police crash casualty records. When the analysis was restricted to road traffic crashes, 69.2% of the 9,178 records had a matching police crash casualty record. Multivariable analysis found the most significant factors contributing to the likelihood of linkage to be road user type, payment status and principal diagnosis of injury variables. Motor vehicle controllers, cases entitled to financial compensation and cases with a principal diagnosis of injury were significantly more likely to be linked than all other cases. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that researchers and policy makers should be cautious when examining traffic crashes based on a separate analysis of the hospitalisations data and police crash records. This is particularly true for crashes involving pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, and those resulting in less severe injuries. IMPLICATIONS: The findings have implications for use of both police crash records and hospital records in informing the development of strategies designed to prevent road trauma in the community.
- Description: 2003006566
How do parents supervise their children at pools and playgrounds?
- Authors: Petrass, Lauren , Blitvich, Jennifer , Finch, Caroline
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 2008 Australian Water Safety Conference : Water safety - everyone's responsibility, Crowne Plaza Darling Harbour, Sydney, New South Wales : 15th-16th May 2008 p. 30-33
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- Description: Methods: A six-hour observation of behaviour potentially associated with injury risk was conducted at six public pools and four playgrounds. Supervision and behaviour were quantified using an observational tool based on the Saluja et al.1 model and Morrongiello’s 2 definition of supervision. Infants to 10 year-old children engaged in play and their carers were observed. Child behaviour, corresponding parent supervision, and parental intervention were recorded. Results/Evaluation: Chi-square tests showed higher levels of supervision were associated with specific behaviours in pools and playgrounds. Factors significantly linked to level of parental supervision included child age; parent age; number of children for whom parents were responsible; and in aquatic settings, swimming ability of the child. Discussion: Level of parental supervision differs with children’s play. Despite increased dangers in aquatic environments, parents supervised less at pools than playgrounds highlighting inappropriate parental dependence on lifeguards. Conclusion: Future research examining the relationship between supervision and young children’s risk of drowning at other aquatic environments is required. Attention, proximity and continuity of supervision should be assessed. Findings will enable key water safety stakeholders to further highlight this phenomenon in drowning prevention programs.
- Description: 2003007681
How do preservice teachers learn to become quality teachers? Factors to consider in addressing the issues facing 'new teachers'
- Authors: Dyson, Michael , Hutchinson, Steve
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Practical Experiences in Professional Education Vol. 11, no. 1 (2008 2008), p. 44-56
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How to be happy by calling for change : Constructs of happiness and meaningfulness among social movement activists
- Authors: Mills, Alice , Smith, Jeremy
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Qualitative Report Vol. 13, no. 3 (2008), p. 432-455
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- Description: This paper focuses on how social movement activists view happiness in relation to their political involvement. Interviewers asked activists questions about their personal histories and feelings. The phenomenological strategy involved focused on interviews with subjects who could speak richly about their commitments and emotions. The data from the 11 subjects revealed that there was no simple relationship between a commitment to social activism and subjects experiences of happiness. Several subjects oriented their responses to the relationship between meaningfulness, activism, and happiness. In discussion of the analyzed data, the authors suggest that a relationship is evident between the positions articulated by interviewees and their levels of engagement in and withdrawal from activism.
HSAGA and its application for the construction of near-Moore digraphs
- Authors: Tang, Jianmin , Miller, Mirka , Lin, Yuqing
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Discrete Algorithms Vol. 6, no. 1 (2008), p. 73-84
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- Description: The degree/diameter problem is to determine the largest graphs or digraphs of given maximum degree and given diameter. This paper deals with directed graphs. General upper bounds, called Moore bounds, exist for the largest possible order of such digraphs of maximum degree d and given diameter k. It is known that simulated annealing and genetic algorithm are effective techniques to identify global optimal solutions. This paper describes our attempt to build a Hybrid Simulated Annealing and Genetic Algorithm (HSAGA) that can be used to construct large digraphs. We present our new results obtained by HSAGA, as well as several related open problems. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
- Description: C1
Human resource management in Australian registered training organisations
- Authors: Smith, Andy , Hawke, Geof
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Book
- Full Text: false
- Description: This report forms part of a comprehensive research program that has examined issues related to building the organisational capability of vocational education and training providers. In particular, this report focuses on the current state of human resource management practice in both technical and further education and private registered training organisations. It also provides an assessment of the extent to which human resource management plays a truly strategic role and proposes approaches to improve both human resource management practice and its impact.
- Description: 2003007214
Hybrid training approaches to Hidden Markov Model-based acoustic models for automatic speech recognition
- Authors: Huda, Shamsul
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
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- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Hydraulic roughness of biofouled pipes, biofilm character, and measured improvements from cleaning
- Authors: Barton, Andrew , Wallis, Michael , Sargison, Jane , Buia, Alexandra , Walker, Gregory
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering Vol. 134, no. 6 (2008), p. 852-857
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- Description: The hydraulic performance of pipelines can be significantly affected by the presence of biological growth on internal surfaces. The change in wall roughness brought about by the biofilms has been studied by the use of headloss tests, precleaning and postcleaning of the pipelines in three Tasmanian hydroelectric schemes. Results of the headloss testing show that improvements to hydraulic efficiency can be achieved from the cleaning of biofouling material. The data, when plotted as a Moody diagram, shows that the friction law for conduits roughened by biological growths may not always follow a Colebrook-White type relationship, although the results are too narrow in Reynolds number to be conclusive. It was found that bacteria made up the majority of the biofilm biomass in the pipelines studied. Based on molecular analysis, members of the class Alphaproteobacteria were the most frequently detected followed by members of the phylum Chloroflexi. © 2008 ASCE.
I hope that I have got some art
- Authors: Calderone, Ursula
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
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- Description: In this thesis I have researched what I believe is the powerful, catalytic effect of poetry on the creative work of some artists. I have chosen three, Australian painters; Sidney Nolan, James Gleeson and Brett Whiteley. I have looked carefully at how the works of various poets have influenced and inspired these artists. I have put forward the idea that this engagement with the poetic realm has greatly enhanced the artist’s creative form-making. Indeed these artists have acknowledged their strong links with the world of poetry. I have touched very briefly on the ideas of some renowned philosophers who stress society’s need for fine works of art. In my opinion great works of art can come from this linking of painting with poetry and therefore, this nexus is to be encouraged. I have in my own painterly works looked to the poets for inspiration. In The Wimmera Series of landscape works, I read Brian Edwards’ and Homer Reith’s poetry, and found in their imagery a rich source of creative ideas. I continued to read the works of the poets and found that the poetry of Ezra Pound, Dante Alighieri, Judith Wright and the works of many others, were an inspirational and catalytic force. I have also discovered on this artistic journey that the very writing of poetry, my own attempts in this field, seemed to bring to my painting, a sharper, a more analytical and critical focus. Renowned art critics and art historians have criticised contemporary art for its lack of the poetic, and its boring shallowness. I would urge artists to engage with the poetic realm, and this interplay between painting and poetry, may produce fine works of lasting greatness.
- Description: Master of Visual Arts
Identifying and distinguishing various varieties of abelian topological groups
- Authors: McPhail, Carolyn , Morris, Sidney
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Dissertationes Mathematicae Vol. , no. 458 (2008), p.
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- Description: A variety of topological groups is a class of (not necessarily Hausdorff) topological groups closed under the operations of forming subgroups, quotient groups and arbitrary products. The variety of topological groups generated by a class of topological groups is the smallest variety containing the class. In this paper methods are presented to distinguish a number of significant varieties of abelian topological groups, including the varieties generated by (i) the class of all locally compact abelian groups; (ii) the class of all k(w)-groups; (iii) the class of all sigma-compact groups; and (iv) the free abelian topological group on [0, 1]. In all cases, hierarchical containments are determined.
If I Belong Here...How Did That Come To Be?
- Authors: Lambeth, Paul
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
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- Description: The purpose of this research is to contribute a non indigenous perspective to current discourse on sense of place in contemporary Australia. The research employs a number of strategies to investigate current responses to our geographic and historical time position. Within the exegesis there is a vers libre poem, written from the imagined viewpoint of members of the Burke and Wills’ expedition. The poem is supported by a superimposition of the Don Quixote story over that of the ill-fated inland Australian explorers. [...]
- Description: Master of Arts (Visual Arts)
Image retrieval based on semantics of intra-region color properties
- Authors: Sajjanhar, Atul , Lu, Guojun , Zhang, Dengsheng , Zhou, Wanlei , Chen, Yi-Ping Phoebe
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Proceedings of 2008 IEEE 8th International Conference on Computer and Information Technology p. 338-343
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- Description: Traditional image retrieval systems are content based image retrieval systems which rely on low-level features for indexing and retrieval of images. CBIR systems fail to meet user expectations because of the gap between the low level features used by such systems and the high level perception of images by humans. Semantics based methods have been used to describe images according to their high level features. In this paper, we performed experiments to identify the failure of existing semantics-based methods to retrieve images in a particular semantic category. We have proposed a new semantic category to describe the intra-region color feature. The proposed semantic category complements the existing high level descriptions. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method
Image-dependent spatial shape-error concealment
- Authors: Sohel, Ferdous , Karmakar, Gour , Dooley, Laurence
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Signal Processing, 2008. ICSP 2008. 9th International Conference
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- Description: Existing spatial shape-error concealment techniques are broadly based upon either parametric curves that exploit geometric information concerning a shapepsilas contour or object shape statistics using a combination of Markov random fields and maximum a posteriori estimation. Both categories are to some extent, able to mask errors caused by information loss, provided the shape is considered independently of the image/video. They palpably however, do not afford the best solution in applications where shape is used as metadata to describe image and video content. This paper presents a novel image-dependent spatial shape-error concealment (ISEC) algorithm that uses both image and shape information by employing the established rubber-band contour detecting function, with the novel enhancement of automatically determining the optimal width of the band to achieve superior error concealment. Experimental results qualitatively and numerically corroborate the enhanced performance of the new ISEC strategy compared with established shape-based concealment techniques.
Impacting teachers' and students' spiritual well-being
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Beliefs & Values Vol. 29, no. 3 (2008), p. 253-261
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- Description: Spiritual well-being (SWB) is reflected in the quality of relationships that people have with themselves, others, environment and/or God. This paper ties together several studies of SWB among teachers and students in primary and secondary, state, Catholic, other Christian, and independent schools in Victoria, Australia. Teachers' lived experiences have greatest impact on their perceptions of help provided by schools for students' SWB. Factors other than teachers contribute most to students' SWB. As well as presenting an overview of key supports for students' SWB this paper reports ways in which spiritual dissonance can be identified. These findings could be used to lay a foundation for further support in nurturing the total well-being of staff and students in schools.
- Description: 2003006386
Impacts of trade reform: sensitivity of model results to key assumptions
- Authors: Valenzuela, Ernesto , Anderson, Kym , Hertel, Thomas
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Economics and Economic Policy Vol. 4, no. 4 (2008), p. 395-420
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- Description: The WTO’s Doha Development Agenda has generated demand for estimates of the potential economic consequences of global trade reform. Recent improvements in the GTAP dataset have provided a much better representation of tariff restrictions as of 2001. However, despite its use by most global trade modelers, substantial differences in results emerge from different computable general equilibrium exercises. To help understand these differences, this paper examines the sensitivity of full global and regional trade liberalization results from the GTAP model, using the GTAP version 6.1 database, to different assumptions about factor mobility, fiscal neutrality, macro-economic closure, and trade (Armington) elasticities.
Implementation of design structure matrix to reduce design iterations in engineering development projects
- Authors: Gunawan, Indra
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
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Implementation of the design structure matrix method in engineering development projects
- Authors: Gunawan, Indra
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Management & Engineering Integration Vol. 1, no. 1 (2008), p. 39-47
- Full Text: false
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Improved Gaussian mixtures for robust object detection by adaptive multi-background generation
- Authors: Haque, Mohammad , Murshed, Manzur , Paul, Manoranjan
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 19th International Conference on Pattern Recognition p. 1-4
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- Description: Adaptive Gaussian mixtures are widely used to model the dynamic background for real-time object detection. Recently the convergence speed of this approach is improved and a relatively robust statistical framework is proposed by Lee (PAMI, 2005). However, object quality still remains unacceptable due to poor Gaussian mixture quality, susceptibility to background/foreground data proportion, and inability to handle intrinsic background motion. This paper proposes an effective technique to eliminate these drawbacks by modifying the new model induction logic and using intensity difference thresholding to detect objects from one or more believe-to-be backgrounds. Experimental results on two benchmark datasets confirm that the object quality of the proposed technique is superior to that of Leepsilas technique at any model learning rate.
Indigenous knowledge in the science curriculum: avoiding neo-colonialism
- Authors: Ryan, Ann
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Cultural Studies of Science Education Vol. 3, no. 3 (2008), p. 663-702
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- Description: Science education in Papua New Guinea has been influenced by neo- colonial practices that have significantly contributed to the silencing of the Papua New Guinea voice. This silencing has led to the production of science curriculum documents that are irrelevant to the students for whom they are written. To avoid being caught up in neocolonial practices, Western science educators ought to consider the notion of cultural mediators. This position, the author argues, infers an obligation to take responsibility for their actions and to consider postcolonial discourses as a way of understanding the relationships and dialogue between different ways of knowing. [Author abstract]