A process-oriented framework for regulating artificial intelligence systems
- Authors: Stranieri, Andrew , Sun, Zhaohao
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Handbook of Research on Foundations and Applications of Intelligent Business Analytics p. 96-112
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Intelligent business analytics is an emerging technology that has become a mainstream market adopted broadly across industries, organizations, and geographic regions. Intelligent business analytics is a current focus for research and development across academia and industries and must be examined and considered thoroughly so businesses can apply the technology appropriately. The Handbook of Research on Foundations and Applications of Intelligent Business Analytics examines the technologies and applications of intelligent business analytics and discusses the foundations of intelligent analytics such as intelligent mining, intelligent statistical modeling, and machine learning. Covering topics such as augmented analytics and artificial intelligence systems, this major reference work is ideal for scholars, engineers, professors, practitioners, researchers, industry professionals, academicians, and students. Intelligent business analytics is an emerging technology that has become a mainstream market adopted broadly across industries, organizations, and geographic regions. Intelligent business analytics is a current focus for research and development across academia and industries and must be examined and considered thoroughly so businesses can apply the technology appropriately. The Handbook of Research on Foundations and Applications of Intelligent Business Analytics examines the technologies and applications of intelligent business analytics and discusses the foundations of intelligent analytics such as intelligent mining, intelligent statistical modeling, and machine learning. Covering topics such as augmented analytics and artificial intelligence systems, this major reference work is ideal for scholars, engineers, professors, practitioners, researchers, industry professionals, academicians, and students.
Conflict Management
- Authors: martin, Jennifer
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Book
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
Credit scoring model based on a novel group feature selection method : the case of Chinese small-sized manufacturing enterprises
- Authors: Zhang, Zhipeng , Chi, Guotai , Colombage, Sisira , Zhou, Ying
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of the Operational Research Society Vol. 73, no. 1 (2022), p. 122-138
- Full Text: false
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- Description: In building a predictive credit scoring model, feature selection is an essential pre-processing step that can improve the predictive accuracy and comprehensibility of models. In this study, we select the optimal feature subset based on group feature selection in lieu of the individual feature selection method, to establish a credit scoring model for small manufacturing enterprises. In our methodology, we first select a group of features using the 0-1 programming method, with the objective function of maximising the Gini coefficient (GINI) of the credit score to identify the possibility of default. Then we introduce constraints to remove any redundant features in the same subset, provided they reflect the same information. Finally, we assign weights to different features according to the Gini coefficient, ensuring that the weight of the features reflects their discriminatory power. Our empirical results show that the selection of a set of features more effectively identifies default status than the individual feature selection approach. Moreover, a rating system with more features does not necessarily have better discriminatory power. As the number of features exceeds the optimum number of features selected, the system's discriminatory ability begins to decrease. © Operational Research Society 2022.
Exploring lived experiences of participants in the Intercultural Employment Pathways (IEP) program from 2019 to 2022
- Authors: Cooper, Kimberlea , Patil, Tejaswini , Ottmann, Goetz , Williams, Dominic , Mummery, Jane
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Technical report
- Full Text:
- Description: This report documents research conducted by Federation University in relation to the City of Ballarat Intercultural Employment Pathways (IEP) program from 2019 - 2022. The IEP program aims to enhance social inclusion, employment, and education pathways for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) migrants in the Ballarat region. The purpose of the research was to explore the lived experiences of migrants who participated in the IEP program to better understand the strengths of the program and propose recommendations for its future. The research was a qualitative study that used a survey, interviews, and a focus group to explore the perspectives of IEP participants and encourage them to share deep and rich accounts of their lived experiences. Overall, 39 migrants involved with the IEP program participated in the research. The findings are grouped into four themes: Connection: The communal nature of the IEP program enabled participants to establish social and professional connections which increased their networking capacity to find gainful employment. Participants valued the networking opportunities created by the IEP program as many felt as though they were ‘starting again’ after migrating to Australia. Culture: The IEP program assisted participants to adapt to Australian norms of job-hunting and workplace culture and to learn practical strategies to utilise in their job application and interview techniques. The IEP program created a broader platform for cultural exchange within the community and can contribute to wider changes in representation and appreciation of diversity. Confidence: The IEP program assisted participants to improve their levels of confidence and feelings of self-worth. The tailored support that is available to each participant enabled them to develop confidence in their abilities and focus upon their strengths. Context: Participants shared experiences of the many challenges and barriers they have faced when looking for meaningful and secure employment in Australia. Understanding these wider experiences provide the context in which the IEP program operates and emphasises its importance in providing valuable assistance to migrants settling in the City of Ballarat.
Integrated generalized zero-shot learning for fine-grained classification
- Authors: Shermin, Tasfia , Teng, Shyh , Sohel, Ferdous , Murshed, Manzur , Lu, Guojun
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Pattern Recognition Vol. 122, no. (2022), p.
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- Description: Embedding learning (EL) and feature synthesizing (FS) are two of the popular categories of fine-grained GZSL methods. EL or FS using global features cannot discriminate fine details in the absence of local features. On the other hand, EL or FS methods exploiting local features either neglect direct attribute guidance or global information. Consequently, neither method performs well. In this paper, we propose to explore global and direct attribute-supervised local visual features for both EL and FS categories in an integrated manner for fine-grained GZSL. The proposed integrated network has an EL sub-network and a FS sub-network. Consequently, the proposed integrated network can be tested in two ways. We propose a novel two-step dense attention mechanism to discover attribute-guided local visual features. We introduce new mutual learning between the sub-networks to exploit mutually beneficial information for optimization. Moreover, we propose to compute source-target class similarity based on mutual information and transfer-learn the target classes to reduce bias towards the source domain during testing. We demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms contemporary methods on benchmark datasets. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd
Limited Memory Bundle Method for Clusterwise Linear Regression
- Authors: Karmitsa, Napsu , Bagirov, Adil , Taheri, Sona , Joki, Kaisa
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Intelligent Systems, Control and Automation: Science and Engineering p. 109-122
- Full Text: false
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- Description: A clusterwise linear regression problem consists of finding a number of linear functions each approximating a subset of the given data. In this paper, the limited memory bundle method is modified and combined with the incremental approach to solve this problem using its nonsmooth optimization formulation. The main contribution of the proposed method is to obtain a fast solution time for large-scale clusterwise linear regression problems. The proposed algorithm is tested on small and large real-world data sets and compared with other algorithms for clusterwise linear regression. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is especially efficient in data sets with large numbers of data points and input variables. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Mechanical performance of tire-derived aggregate permeable pavements under live traffic loads
- Authors: Raeesi, Ramin , Soltani, Amin , King, Russell , Disfani, Mahdi
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 4th International Conference on Transportation Geotechnics, ICTG 2021 Vol. 164, p. 515-528
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Traditional pavements in urban areas are mainly rigid, impervious surfaces, resulting in augmented surface run off during rainfalls, thereby leading to flash-flooding and pollution of waterways. In comparison, permeable pavements permit percolation of water through surface layers, thus alleviating harmful environmental impacts. This study presents the authors’ recent experience in the development of an instrumented large-scale permeable pavement trial site—constructed using a combination of crushed rock (CR) and tire-derived aggregate (TDA), bonded by a polyurethane (PU) binder—located at a car park in South Australia. An area of approximately 400 m2 was paved using different TDA-based mix designs—different CR sizes, colors, and shapes, and different PU contents. Moreover, preliminary field performance monitoring results—including surface deflection measurements by the light weight deflectometer test, and strain measurements using optic fiber and strain gauge sensing techniques—are outlined and discussed in detail. The strength and stiffness of the TDA-based blend was found to be dependent on the TDA content, TDA-to-CR size ratio, CR shape, and PU content. The greater the angularity of the CR particles, the more effective the interlocking of the TDA and CR components, and thus the higher the developed strength and stiffness. The amount of strain generated in the permeable surface layer and at its interface with the lower screening layer were both found to decrease with a decrease in TDA content. Preliminary field observations indicate that the TDA-based system can indeed be a viable (and sustainable) solution to effectively mitigate flash-flooding while sustaining low–medium traffic loads. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Thermodynamic guiding principles for designing nonstoichiometric redox materials for solar thermochemical fuel production : ceria, perovskites, and beyond
- Authors: Li, Sha , Wheeler, Vincent , Kumar, Apurv , Venkataraman, Mahesh , Muhich, Chrisopher
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Energy Technology Vol. 10, no. 1 (2022), p.
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Two-step solar thermochemical water splitting is a promising pathway for renewable fuel production due to its potential for high thermal efficiency via full-spectrum sunlight utilization. Such a promise critically relies on simultaneous innovation in the redox materials and the reactor systems. Most prior efforts on material design are focused on improving the fuel yield at lower reduction temperatures. However, developing materials with both high fuel output and efficiency remains a key challenge, requiring a rigorous understanding of the effects of material thermodynamic properties. Herein, a generic thermodynamic framework is described to decipher the material effects by studying both the state-of-the-art and hypothetical materials within a counterflow reactor system. A global efficiency map is presented for redox materials, revealing inevitable tradeoffs among competing factors such as thermal losses, sweep gas and oxidizer demand, solid preheating, and reduction enthalpy. The choice of the most efficient material is closely linked to the system conditions. Ceria-based materials outperform perovskites under most scenarios, and the optimal hypothetical materials tend to favor higher reduction enthalpies and entropies than existing materials. This work offers a valuable material design roadmap to identify solutions toward efficient solar fuel production. © 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Apurv Kumar” is provided in this record**
Understanding and addressing digital disadvantage in Wimmera Southern Mallee :Research report
- Authors: Tischler, Catherine , McDonald, Kelsey , Reeves, Keir
- Date: 2022
- Type: Report , Technical report
- Full Text:
- Description: The Understanding and addressing digital disadvantage in Wimmera Southern Mallee Project (the project) explored the challenges Wimmera Southern Mallee residents, focusing on low-income individuals and families, small/micro businesses and migrant groups have in accessing and effectively engaging with digital technology to help guide future regional actions. The project team interviewed 31 people from across five Local Government areas in the Wimmera Southern Mallee (Hindmarsh, West Wimmera, Northern Grampians, Horsham Rural City and Yarriambiack) who have low engagement with digital technology and/or limited internet access, as well as a representative sample of those who work to support those with low digital literacy. Ethnographic research was undertaken to understand the factors that impact on digital engagement and accessibility across the three key demographic groups in the study area. The research investigated people’s access to hardware (e.g. computers, phones and tablets) as well as networks (internet plans and connections – broadband, satellite, mobile etc.). Understanding the challenges in engaging with and interpreting digital technology will help inform future advocacy and policy responses for this region. The research will also facilitate better targeting of information and support to Wimmera Mallee residents to actively improve uptake, access, and engagement. This is important, as the region has been identified as having the lowest digital literacy of any area in Victoria (Australian Digital Inclusion Index 2020).
1-Methyl-1 H-pyrazole-5-carboxamide derivatives exhibit unexpected acute mammalian toxicity
- Authors: Preston, Sarah , Garcia-Bustos, Jose , Hall, Liam , Martin, Sheree , Le, Thuy
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Medicinal Chemistry Vol. 64, no. 1 (2021), p. 840-844
- Full Text: false
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- Description: A series of 1-methyl-1H-pyrazole-5-carboxamides were synthesized as potent inhibitors of the parasitic nematode of sheep, Haemonchus contortus. These compounds did not show overt cytotoxicity to a range of mammalian cell lines under standard in vitro culture conditions, had high selectivity indices, and were progressed to an acute toxicity study in a rodent model. Strikingly, acute toxicity was observed in mice. Experiments measuring cellular respiration showed a dose-dependent inhibition of mitochondrial respiration. Under these conditions, potent cytotoxicity was observed for these compounds in rat hepatocytes suggesting that the potent acute mammalian toxicity of this chemotype is most likely associated with respiratory inhibition. In contrast, parasite toxicity was not correlated to acute toxicity or cytotoxicity in respiring cells. This paper highlights the importance of identifying an appropriate in vitro predictor of in vivo toxicity early on in the drug discovery pipeline, in particular assessment for in vitro mitochondrial toxicity. © 2020 American Chemical Society. *Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Sarah Preston” is provided in this record**
A case study of grinding coarse 5 mm particles into sand grade particles less than 2.36 mm
- Authors: Reed, Aaron , Koroznikova, Larissa , Khandelwal, Manoj
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Vietnam Journal of Earth Sciences Vol. 43, no. 1 (2021), p. 57-70
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- Description: This paper presents the viability study of utilising a rod or ball mill to grind a ‘5 mm grit’ to 100% passing 2.36 mm and fit in with a desired particle size analysis. The aim is to introduce this grit into the concrete grade sand produced at the Hanson owned Axedale Sand & Gravel quarry to reduce generated waste and improve the process efficiency. A ball mill and rod mill were used to grind the samples at an interval of 5 and 10 minutes. From the laboratory experimental analysis, it was found that a ball mill with 5 minutes grinding time in closed-circuit using a classifier to remove undersize and reintroduce oversize to the mill would be a viable option in an industrial setting. A Bond Ball Mill Grindability Test was undertaken to determine the grindability of the 5 mm grit, which served to determine the power (kWh/t) required to grind it to 100% passing 2.36 mm. The bond ball mill grindability test showed that the grit had a work index value of 17.66 kWh/t. This work index gives an actual work input of 13.54 kWh/t, meaning that for every ton of feed material introduced to the mill, 13.54 kWh of work input is required to grind it to 150 microns. © 2021 Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology.
A combination of expert-based system and advanced decision-tree algorithms to predict air-overpressure resulting from quarry blasting
- Authors: He, Ziguang , Armaghani, Danial , Masoumnezhad, Mojtaba , Khandelwal, Manoj , Zhou, Jian , Murlidhar, Bhatawdekar
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Natural Resources Research Vol. 30, no. 2 (2021), p. 1889-1903
- Full Text: false
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- Description: This study combined a fuzzy Delphi method (FDM) and two advanced decision-tree algorithms to predict air-overpressure (AOp) caused by mine blasting. The FDM was used for input selection. Thus, the panel of experts selected four inputs, including powder factor, max charge per delay, stemming length, and distance from the blast face. Once the input selection was completed, two decision-tree algorithms, namely extreme gradient boosting tree (XGBoost-tree) and random forest (RF), were applied using the inputs selected by the experts. The models are evaluated with the following criteria: correlation coefficient, mean absolute error, gains chart, and Taylor diagram. The applied models were compared with the XGBoost-tree and RF models using the full set of data without input selection results. The results of hybridization showed that the XGBoost-tree model outperformed the RF model. Concerning the gains, the XGBoost-tree again outperformed the RF model. In comparison with the single decision-tree models, the single models had slightly better correlation coefficients; however, the hybridized models were simpler and easier to understand, analyze and implement. In addition, the Taylor diagram showed that the models applied outperformed some other conventional machine learning models, including support vector machine, k-nearest neighbors, and artificial neural network. Overall, the findings of this study suggest that combining expert opinion and advanced decision-tree algorithms can result in accurate and easy to understand predictions of AOp resulting from blasting in quarry sites. © 2020, International Association for Mathematical Geosciences.
A comparative study on the role of polyvinylpyrrolidone molecular weight on the functionalization of various carbon nanotubes and their composites
- Authors: Namasivayam, Muthuraman , Andersson, Mats , Shapter, Joseph
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Polymers Vol. 13, no. 15 (2021), p.
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- Description: Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanocomposites filled with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) wrapped carbon nanotubes were prepared via a solution casting technique. The effect of the molecular weight (polymer chain length) of the PVP on the ability to wrap different nanotube structures and its impact towards nanotube dispersibility in the polymer matrix was explored. The study was conducted with PVP of four different molecular weights and nanotubes of three different structures. The composites that exhibit an effective nanotube dispersion lead to a nanotube network that facilitates improved thermal, electrical, and mechanical properties. It was observed that nanotubes of different structures exhibit stable dispersions in the polymer matrix though PVP functionalization of different molecular weights, but the key is achieving an effective nanotube dispersion at low PVP concentrations. This is observed in MWNT and AP-SWNT based composites with PVP of low molecular weight, leading to a thermal conductivity enhancement of 147% and 53%, respectively, while for P3-SWNT based composites, PVP of high molecular weight yields an enhancement of 25% in thermal conductivity compared to the non-functionalized CNT-PVDF composite. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
A comparison of the public's use of PPE and strategies to avoid contagion during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia and Germany
- Authors: Moore, Kathleen , Bouchoucha, Stephane , Buchwald, Petra
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Nursing and Health Sciences Vol. 23, no. 3 (2021), p. 708-714
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- Description: The SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 pandemic has raised public awareness around disease protection. The aims in this study were to recruit participants from Australia and Germany to determine their use of personal protective equipment and COVID-19 avoidance strategies using scales designed for this study. Principal components analysis with the Australian data revealed two factors in the Protection from Infection Scale, Self-Care and Protective Behaviors, and a single factor in the Infection Avoidance Scale, with each scale demonstrating strong internal reliability. Data from German participants were used to confirm the scales' structure using confirmatory factor analysis. A comparison of the two data sets data revealed that Australian participants scored higher overall on protection and avoidance strategies but at the item level there were several commonalities, including self-care behaviors people adopted to avoid contracting COVID-19. With no foreseeable end to this pandemic, it is important that follow-up studies ascertain whether the public continues to adopt high levels of PPE use and follows government advice or if pandemic fatigue sets in. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.
A critical review of intrusion detection systems in the internet of things : techniques, deployment strategy, validation strategy, attacks, public datasets and challenges
- Authors: Khraisat, Ansam , Alazab, Ammar
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Cybersecurity Vol. 4, no. 1 (2021), p.
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- Description: The Internet of Things (IoT) has been rapidly evolving towards making a greater impact on everyday life to large industrial systems. Unfortunately, this has attracted the attention of cybercriminals who made IoT a target of malicious activities, opening the door to a possible attack on the end nodes. To this end, Numerous IoT intrusion detection Systems (IDS) have been proposed in the literature to tackle attacks on the IoT ecosystem, which can be broadly classified based on detection technique, validation strategy, and deployment strategy. This survey paper presents a comprehensive review of contemporary IoT IDS and an overview of techniques, deployment Strategy, validation strategy and datasets that are commonly applied for building IDS. We also review how existing IoT IDS detect intrusive attacks and secure communications on the IoT. It also presents the classification of IoT attacks and discusses future research challenges to counter such IoT attacks to make IoT more secure. These purposes help IoT security researchers by uniting, contrasting, and compiling scattered research efforts. Consequently, we provide a unique IoT IDS taxonomy, which sheds light on IoT IDS techniques, their advantages and disadvantages, IoT attacks that exploit IoT communication systems, corresponding advanced IDS and detection capabilities to detect IoT attacks. © 2021, The Author(s).
A direct time-domain procedure for the seismic analysis of dam–foundation–reservoir systems using the scaled boundary finite element method
- Authors: Qu, Yanling , Chen, Denghong , Liu, Lei , Ooi, Ean Tat , Eisenträger, Sascha , Song, Chongmin
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Computers and Geotechnics Vol. 138, no. (2021), p.
- Full Text: false
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- Description: In this paper, a direct time-domain procedure for the seismic analysis of dam–reservoir–foundation interactions is presented based on the scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM). The SBFEM is a semi-analytical method and requires the discretization of boundary only. The geometric complexity in the bounded dam–reservoir–foundation system is easily handled in the SBFEM using quadtree meshes where each structural component can be discretized independently. The elastic wave fields in the unbounded foundation are rigorously captured through SBFE solutions in terms of displacement unit-impulse response functions, while the acoustic wave propagation in the semi-infinite reservoir is modelled by the SBFE-based doubly asymptotic open boundary. The input of seismic excitations is addressed by incorporating the Domain Reduction Method (DRM) into the SBFEM. Cracks are modelled efficiently and accurately by combining the SBFEM and quadtree meshes. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed methodology is investigated by studying several benchmarks, Pine Flat dam and Jin'anqiao dam. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd
A field investigation of the relationship between rotating shifts, sleep, mental health and physical activity of Australian paramedics
- Authors: Khan, Wahaj , Jackson, Melinda , Kennedy, Gerard , Conduit, Russell
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Scientific Reports Vol. 11, no. 1 (2021), p.
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- Description: Paramedics working on a rotating shift are at an increased risk of developing chronic health issues due to continuous circadian rhythm disruption. The acute effects of shift rotation and objectively measured sleep have rarely been reported in paramedics. This study investigated the relationships between a rotating shift schedule and sleep (using actigraphy), subjective reports of sleepiness, mood, stress and fatigue. Galvanic Skin Response, energy expenditure and physical activity (BodyMedia SenseWear Armband) were also recorded across the shift schedule. Paramedics were monitored for a period of eight consecutive days across pre-shift, day shift, night shift, and 2 days off. Fifteen paramedics (M age = 39.5 and SD = 10.7 years) who worked rotational shifts experienced sleep restriction during night shift compared to pre-shift, day shift and days off (p < 0.001). Night shift was also associated with higher levels of stress (p < 0.05), fatigue (p < 0.05), and sleepiness (p < 0.05). One day off was related to a return to pre-shift functioning. Such shift-related issues have a compounding negative impact on an already stressful occupation with high rates of physical and mental health issues. Therefore, there is an urgent need to investigate methods to reduce rotating shift burden on the health of paramedics. This could be through further research aimed at providing recommendations for shift work schedules with sufficient periods for sleep and recovery from stress. © 2021, The Author(s).
A fine romance? Developing a transformational school-university partnership
- Authors: Goriss-Hunter, Anitra , Sellings, Peter , Lenk, Karen , Scash, Melinda
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Educational Practice and Theory Vol. 43, no. 1 (2021), p. 57-76
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- Description: This paper investigates the complexities involved in a school-university partnership between a secondary school, Highview College and Federation University, both located in Australia. The authors argue that Federation University and Highview College have worked together to develop a transformational partnership in a Community of Practice (CoP) that has benefits for both parties. The authors report the findings through the analogy of a relationship unfolding. Using a qualitative methodology, it was found that through the development of a transformational partnership, a number of benefits had even-tuated. These benefits include authentic learning experiences and the raising of university aspirations for school students. © 2021 James Nicholas Publishers.
A framework for Australian Universities and public libraries supporting regional, rural and remote students
- Authors: Partridge, Helen , Power, Emma , Ostini, Jenny , Owen, Sue , Pizzani, Blanca
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association Vol. 70, no. 4 (2021), p. 391-404
- Full Text: false
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- Description: University students living in regional, rural and remote (RRR) communities of Australia face unique challenges including geographical isolation, lack of access to face-to-face support, and technological barriers. This paper outlines a project funded by the Australian Government’s Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program that was undertaken by five universities with significant enrolments of students from low socio-economic backgrounds living in RRR communities. The project established a Framework for Australian Universities and Public Libraries Supporting Regional, Rural and Remote Students that provides a set of strategic recommendations that will guide the development of accessible, relevant and sustainable study and learning support to meet the needs of low socio-economic students living in RRR communities. This national project provided a unique opportunity for Australia’s universities and public libraries to work together in order to ‘future proof’ the education of students from low socio-economic backgrounds living in regional and remote communities. © 2021 Helen Partridge, Emma Power, Jenny Ostini, Sue Owen and Blanca Pizzani.
A global-scale screening of non-native aquatic organisms to identify potentially invasive species under current and future climate conditions
- Authors: Vilizzi, Lorenzo , Copp, Gordon , Hill, Jeffrey , Adamovich, Boris , Lloyd, Lance
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Science of the Total Environment Vol. 788, no. (2021), p.
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- Description: The threat posed by invasive non-native species worldwide requires a global approach to identify which introduced species are likely to pose an elevated risk of impact to native species and ecosystems. To inform policy, stakeholders and management decisions on global threats to aquatic ecosystems, 195 assessors representing 120 risk assessment areas across all six inhabited continents screened 819 non-native species from 15 groups of aquatic organisms (freshwater, brackish, marine plants and animals) using the Aquatic Species Invasiveness Screening Kit. This multi-lingual decision-support tool for the risk screening of aquatic organisms provides assessors with risk scores for a species under current and future climate change conditions that, following a statistically based calibration, permits the accurate classification of species into high-, medium- and low-risk categories under current and predicted climate conditions. The 1730 screenings undertaken encompassed wide geographical areas (regions, political entities, parts thereof, water bodies, river basins, lake drainage basins, and marine regions), which permitted thresholds to be identified for almost all aquatic organismal groups screened as well as for tropical, temperate and continental climate classes, and for tropical and temperate marine ecoregions. In total, 33 species were identified as posing a ‘very high risk’ of being or becoming invasive, and the scores of several of these species under current climate increased under future climate conditions, primarily due to their wide thermal tolerances. The risk thresholds determined for taxonomic groups and climate zones provide a basis against which area-specific or climate-based calibrated thresholds may be interpreted. In turn, the risk rankings help decision-makers identify which species require an immediate ‘rapid’ management action (e.g. eradication, control) to avoid or mitigate adverse impacts, which require a full risk assessment, and which are to be restricted or banned with regard to importation and/or sale as ornamental or aquarium/fishery enhancement. © 2021 The Authors. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Lance Lloyd" is provided in this record**