Showing items 12361 - 12380 of 17083

Quantifying values : A sampling methodology for use in assessing the impacts on tourism, local community, and businesses of Victoria's marine protected areas

  • Authors: Hall, Nina , Sillitoe, Jim
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Tourism in Marine Environments Vol. 5, no. 2-3 (2008), p. 121-130
  • Full Text: false
  • Description: A sampling methodology has been devised to facilitate the selection of a purposeful sample of marine parks and sanctuaries for the investigation of their impacts on tourism, local community, and businesses. The methodology is based on multiattribute utility theory used for comparing complex alternatives in decision making and takes into account those key attributes of Victoria's 13 marine national parks and 11 marine sanctuaries that have been identified through both published and draft management plans, government policies, and relevant strategies. The attributes are: tourism services, activities, community engagement, visitation, values, interpretation, access, location, conservation significance, and regional context. Values of each marine protected area are quantified and establishment of a total attribute value score for a "typical area" enables the comparison between individual marine parks and sanctuaries. To strengthen the methodology, a panel of independent experts representing tourism, local government, and community organizations were invited to express their views with regard to these attributes, and their responses have been incorporated into the research.

Quasi-Bezier curves integrating localised information

  • Authors: Sohel, Ferdous , Karmakar, Gour , Dooley, Laurence , Arkinstall, John
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Pattern Recognition Vol. 41, no. 2 (2008), p. 531-542
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Bezier curves (BC) have become fundamental tools in many challenging and varied applications, ranging from computer-aided geometric design to generic object shape descriptors. A major limitation of the classical Bezier curve, however, is that only global information about its control points (CP) is considered, so there can often be a large gap between the curve and its control polygon, leading to large distortion in shape representation. While strategies such as degree elevation, composite BC, refinement and subdivision reduce this gap, they also increase the number of CP and hence bit-rate, and computational complexity. This paper presents novel contributions to BC theory, with the introduction of quasi-Bezier curves (QBC), which seamlessly integrate localised CP information into the inherent global Bezier framework, with no increase in either the number of CP or order of computational complexity. QBC crucially retains the core properties of the classical BC, such as geometric continuity and affine invariance, and can be embedded into the vertex-based shape coding and shape descriptor framework to enhance rate-distortion performance. The performance of QBC has been empirically tested upon a number of natural and synthetically shaped objects, with both qualitative and quantitative results confirming its consistently superior approximation performance in comparison with both the classical BC and other established BC-based shape descriptor methods.

Racist and political extremist graffiti in Australian Prisons, 1970s to 1990s

  • Authors: Wilson, Jacqueline
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Vol. 47, no. 1 (2006), p. 52-66
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Abstract: The article discusses graffiti found in Australian prison museums, in particular racist and extreme nationalist texts and images. The rise of prisoners' rights movements brought a concurrent reactive move to the political Right among prison officers. This enabled far-Right and racist elements among staff to become influential in a number of prisons. Similarities are noted between Australian prison graffiti and graffiti found in British prisons in the 1990s, as reported by the British Commission for Racial Equality (CRE). The CRE found that prisons in Britain fostered a culture of racism. Apparent motivations of Australian and British graffitists show much common ground including a sense of national dispossession, far-Right sentiment and social disaffection. It is concluded that the radically enclosed and violent nature of the prison exacerbates these issues, effectively promoting far-Right tendencies among prisoners and staff.
  • Description: C1
  • Description: 2003006368

Rage against the machine? Symbolic violence in E-learning supported tertiary education

  • Authors: Johnson, Nicola , MacDonald, David , Brabazon, Tara
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: E-Learning and Digital Media Vol. 5, no. 3 (2008 2008), p. 275-283
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: The move toward online course facilitation in tertiary education has the intent of providing education at any time in any place to any person. However, the advent of blended learning and e-learning innovations has ostracised, marginalised or ignored those who cannot afford or who are unable to access the latest hardware and software to take advantage of these opportunities. The Web 2.0 age is an era of assumptions: assumptions of participation, literacy and democracy. Yet such inferences are based on the need for high-speed Internet connections, and the latest computers are standard requirements. Those without the ability to access these necessities are being indirectly marginalised by the universities, which is particularly ironic in an era of ‘widening participation’. This article reveals a few tears in the fabric of wiki-enabled democratic education. The authors argue that there is a community of students that are subjected to what Bourdieu termed symbolic violence. Digitisation in tertiary education is reinforcing what it has always been through its history – a haven of the wealthy and the advantaged.

Re-consider : The integration of online dispute resolution and decision support systems

Reaching the heart : Assessing & nurturing spiritual well-being via education

  • Authors: Fisher, John
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Thesis , EdD
  • Full Text:
  • Description: Several quantitative measures of spiritual well-being were developed with primary and secondary school students and teachers, and university education students, namely the Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure, Feeling Good, Living Life, and the Quality Of Life Influences Survey. Spiritual dissonance was revealed by comparing respondents’ ‘ideals’ with ‘lived experiences’ in four domains of spiritual well-being. Teachers and university education students reported a decline in help being provided in schools to develop the relationships which foster school students’ spiritual well-being.
  • Description: Doctor of Education EdD

Real kids, real faith : Practices for nurturing children's spiritual lives

Reasons for training: why Australian companies train their workers

  • Authors: Smith, Andy , Oczkowski, Edward , Hill, Mark
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Conference paper
  • Full Text: false
  • Description: This paper addresses the issue of why Australian companies train their workers. Despite the exhortations given to employers in Australia in recent years to improve their training performance, our understanding of employer training is very limited.....

Recent and prospective adoption of genetically modified cotton: a global computable general equilibrium analysis of economic impacts

  • Authors: Anderson, Kym , Valenzuela, Ernesto , Jackson, Lee
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Economic Development And Cultural Change Vol. 56, no. 2 (2008), p. 265-296
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: The article discusses the study which examines the impact of the adoption of genetically modified (GM) cotton on the global economy and on the developing countries. The standard GTAP (Global Trade Analysis Project) model of the global economy is used in the study to provide insights into the effects of governments allowing GM technology adoption in some countries without, and then with cotton trade and subsidy policy reform globally. The researchers conclude that developing country welfare could be enhanced more by allowing GM cotton adoption than by the removal of all cotton subsidies and tariffs. Furthermore, they believe that the study's results support the notion that the gains to developing countries from the Doha Cotton Initiative will be even greater if GM cotton is adopted first.

Redundant paths and reliability bounds in gamma networks

  • Authors: Gunawan, Indra
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Applied Mathematical modelling Vol. 32, no. (2008 2008), p. 588-594
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Multistage Interconnection Networks (MINs) are network systems providing fast and efficient communications at a reasonable cost. A gamma network is a specific class of MINs, which provides redundant paths in the system. In a gamma network, information from source nodes is transmitted through a specific set of routes to destination nodes. Reliability of an MIN is used as a measure of system’s ability to transform information from input to output devices. Due to the complexity of network configuration and availability of redundant paths, reliability bounds to estimate the exact reliability of a gamma network is proposed. A numerical example of an 8 × 8 gamma network is presented to demonstrate the accuracy of the reliability bounds. When the lower bound reliability provides sufficient assurance that the system will be operational at some specified time and closely approximates the exact reliability, then no further effort for obtaining the exact reliability expression is necessary.

Reflective space : A personal journey towards a re-envisioning of the Australian landscape

  • Authors: Donald, Colin
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
  • Full Text:
  • Description: Whilst the notion of the ‘Reflective Space’ could arguably encompass many conceptual positions and propositions, for the purposes of this research investigation the ‘Reflective Space’ referred to in the title of this exegesis will focus upon what I consider as an emerging and growing consciousness of the natural world. As a theoretical and conceptual construct, the investigation considers how this growing consciousness can be seen to be expressed through the medium of representations of the Australian landscape. This work considers a number of contemporary theoretical positions and a number of relevant social and political questions; it also acknowledges that within such spheres of reflection, the issue of being sustainable in relation to our interactions and perceptions of this natural world looms as perhaps one of the most pressing of our time. While it will be acknowledged that the depiction of landscape enjoys a long-standing tradition within the Australian cultural mind, the suggestion will be made that certain aspects of these visualisations can be seen to be ‘reflective’ of a visual, cultural and physical degradation, and indeed even an apprehension of the physical ‘space’ that is represented as landscape. The investigation considers and reflects upon what can be observed as contentious and ambivalent attitudes expressed towards landscape perceived through works of art. Strategies for adopting a perceptual visual ethic grounded within the concepts and principles of sustainability will be presented for consideration. By applying such modes of interpretation to perceptions of land and landscape depiction, new appreciations for the cultural ‘space’ that is landscape will be developed. Such understandings will consider and reflect upon the temporal nature of our natural world. The thesis is this: that to be able to think and act in a sustainable fashion in relation to our environment, our perceptions and interpretations of visualisations of landscape must include a recognition that the land is a ‘temporal’ space, in which past and possible futures are immanent in the present.
  • Description: PhD (Visual Arts)

Region-based image retrieval with high-level semantics using decision tree learning

  • Authors: Liu, Ying , Zhang, Dengsheng , Lu, Guojun
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Pattern Recognition Vol. 41, no. 8 (2008), p. 2554-2570
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Semantic-based image retrieval has attracted great interest in recent years. This paper proposes a region-based image retrieval system with high-level semantic learning. The key features of the system are: (1) it supports both query by keyword and query by region of interest. The system segments an image into different regions and extracts low-level features of each region. From these features, high-level concepts are obtained using a proposed decision tree-based learning algorithm named DT-ST. During retrieval, a set of images whose semantic concept matches the query is returned. Experiments on a standard real-world image database confirm that the proposed system significantly improves the retrieval performance, compared with a conventional content-based image retrieval system. (2) The proposed decision tree induction method DT-ST for image semantic learning is different from other decision tree induction algorithms in that it makes use of the semantic templates to discretize continuous-valued region features and avoids the difficult image feature discretization problem. Furthermore, it introduces a hybrid tree simplification method to handle the noise and tree fragmentation problems, thereby improving the classification performance of the tree. Experimental results indicate that DT-ST outperforms two well-established decision tree induction algorithms ID3 and C4.5 in image semantic learning.

Regional sustainability: How useful are current tools of sustainability assessment at the regional scale?

  • Authors: Sipe, Neil , Rickson, Roy , Graymore, Michelle
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Ecological Economics Vol. 67, no. 3 (2008), p. 362-372
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Sustainability assessment methods are primarily aimed at global, national or state scales. However, modelling sustainability at finer spatial scales, such as the region, is essential for understanding and achieving sustainability. Regions are emerging as an essential focus for sustainability researchers, natural resource managers and strategic planners working to develop and implement sustainability goals. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of current sustainability assessment methods - ecological footprint, wellbeing assessment, ecosystem health assessment, quality of life and natural resource availability - at the regional scale. Each of these assessment methods are tested using South East Queensland (SEQ) as a case study. It was selected because of its ecological and demographic diversity, its combination of coastal and land management issues, and its urban metropolitan and rural farm and non-farm communities. The applicability of each of these methods to regional assessment was examined using an evaluation criteria matrix, which describes the attributes of an effective method and the characteristics that make these methods useful for regional management and building community capacity to progress sustainability. We found that the methods tested failed to effectively measure progress toward sustainability at the regional scale, demonstrating the need for a new method for assessing regional sustainability.

Reintroducing wood to streams in agricultural landscapes: changes in velocity profile, stage and erosion rates

  • Authors: Lester, Rebecca , Wright, Wendy
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: River Research And Applications Vol. 25, no. 4 (2008), p. 376-392
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Historically, perceived increases in erosion and flooding levels have been attributed to in-stream wood and used to justify its removal from streams and rivers around the world. More recently, recognition of the adverse morphological and biological impacts caused by this removal has led to rehabilitation projects that actively reintroduce wood to streams. However, a perception remains amongst some members of the general community that wood additions increase the likelihood of flooding and erosion in the target streams. To test whether there was a basis for this perception, we experimentally added wood to eight streams across southwest Victoria and Gippsland, Australia. The velocity, stage and bed and bank erosion rates were compared with those of unaltered reaches. We detected localized changes in the velocity and stage parameters but that these were unlikely to operate at the reach-scale. Bed erosion rates, where maximum erosion was assumed if pins were not recovered, showed increased erosion due to wood additions but this was not supported by channel shape analyses, which identified short-term increases in the variability of the channel shape, followed by longer-term stability at treatment sites. We found no clear evidence of increased longer-term rates of erosion or flooding associated with the introduction of wood to streams over the 18-month study period. It remains important to carefully design rehabilitation works, but the lack of adverse effects on stream morphology and increased variability of the in-stream environment suggests improved habitat diversity, supporting the use of wood addition as a stream rehabilitation technique. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Relationship between school physical activity and academic performance of children

  • Authors: Jiang, Xiaoli , Prosser, Laurie
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Journal article
  • Relation: International Journal of Learning Vol. 15, no. 3 (2008), p. 11-16
  • Full Text:
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: This paper investigated literature concerning the relationship between school physical activity and the academic performance of school children. Some of the past research has identified a positive relationship between physical activity and academic performances. However, several studies did not find that was the case. Further, the studies also had difficulties to ascertain if the association is causal and if so, the direction of the cause-effect. As a result several intervention programs have been conducted to answer the above problems. Some researchers allocated extra time for physical education, aerobic exercise or free play time and concluded that spending more time in physical education had some favorable effects on some of the academic achievement measures. However, some did not achieve positive outcomes. It would appear that most studies have a relatively short period of intervention program and there is an urgent need to conduct a longitudinal study. This paper alerts readers to and outlines the Commonwealth Institute Lifestyle of our Kids (LOOK) longitudinal study that commenced in 2005 in Canberra that seeks to address the shortcomings of the past research in this area.

Relative survival after hospitalisation for hip fracture in older people in New South Wales, Australia

  • Authors: Hindmarsh, Diane , Hayen, Andrew , Finch, Caroline , Close, Jacqueline
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Osteoporosis International Vol. , no. (2008), p. 1-9
  • Full Text:
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Summary: Survival after hospitalisation for hip fracture by age group and sex relative to survival in the general population was assessed in people aged 65+. Men had double the risk of death compared with women to 1 year, but age effects lasted only to 3 months. Clinical outcomes need to be improved. Introduction: We assessed the relative survival of hospitalised fall-related hip fracture patients aged 65+ years leaving hospital in New South Wales, Australia, between July 2000 and December 2003. Method: We carried out a population-based study of all hospital separations for NSW residents with a principal diagnosis of hip fracture (ICD-10-AM S72.0 to S72.2) and first external cause of fall (ICD-10-AM codes W00 to W19), linked to NSW death data. A total of 16,836 cases were included. Relative survival 3 to 36 months post-admission by 10-year age groups and sex was calculated, using NSW life tables for 2002-2004. Relative excess risk was modelled using a generalised linear model with Poisson error structure, using the life table data. Results: One-year cumulative relative survival in 65- to 74-year-olds was 82% (men), 90% (women); in 85+-year-olds 65% (men), 80% (women). Men have a relative excess risk of death of 2.2 (95% CI 2.03-2.38) times that of women. Only 21% of deaths mention the hip fracture as contributing to death. Conclusion: There is a need to reduce the number of hip fractures and improve clinical outcomes for older people hospitalised with hip fractures. © 2008 International Osteoporosis Foundation and National Osteoporosis Foundation.
  • Description: C1
  • Description: 2003008189

Rerouting in advance for preempted IR calls in QoS-enabled networks

  • Authors: Ahmad, Iftekhar , Kamruzzaman, Joarder , Habibi, Daryoush
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Computer Communications Vol. 31, no. 17 (2008), p. 3922-3928
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: When network resources are shared between Instantaneous Request (IR) and Book-Ahead (BA) connections, activation of future BA connections may cause preemption of on-going IR connections due to resource scarcity. Rerouting of preempted calls via alternative feasible paths is often considered as the final option to restore and maintain service continuity. Existing rerouting techniques, however, do not ensure acceptably low service disruption time and suffer from high failure rate and low network utilization. In this work, a new rerouting strategy is proposed that estimates the future resource scarcity, identifies the probable candidate connections for preemption and initiates the rerouting process in advance for those connections. Simulations on a widely used network topology suggest that the proposed rerouting scheme achieves a higher successful rerouting rate with lower service disruption time, while not compromising other network performance metrics like utilization and call blocking rate.

Research assessments and rankings: Accounting for accountability in "Higher Education Ltd"

  • Authors: Singh, Geeta
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: The International Education Journal: Comparative perspectives Vol. 9, no. 1 (2008), p. 15-30
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Over the past two decades, higher education in advanced capitalist societies has undergone a process of radical "reform". A key element of this reform has been the introduction of a number of accounting-based techniques in the pursuit of improved accountability and transparency. While the 'old' accounting was to do with stewardship, the 'new' accounting is to do with performance. In accordance with the performance principle , the publishing companies and the higher education funding bodies have engaged in ranking exercises. These exercises impact on all aspects of academic life as the entities that are ranked and rated include universities, disiplines, journals, and academics and their 'outputs' in teaching and research. This paper explores the genesis and the consequences of the performance discourse. It argues for a philosophical separation of the notions of accountability and accounting. Furthermore, it raises the issue of academic accountability as something that exceeds the logic of accounting.
  • Description: C1

Research challenges inherent in determining improvement in University teaching

  • Authors: Devlin, Marcia
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Issues in Educational Research Vol. 18, no. n1 (2008), p. 12-25
  • Full Text:
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Using a recent study that examined the effectiveness of a particular approach to improving individual university teaching as a case study, this paper examines some of the challenges inherent in educational research, particularly research examining the effects of interventions to improve teaching. Aspects of the research design and methodology and of the analysis of results are discussed and recommendations for improvements for future research are made. (Contains 1 table.)

Researching men's sheds in community contexts in Australia : What does it suggest about adult education for older men?

  • Authors: Golding, Barry
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Journal of Adult and Continuing Education Vol. 14, no. 1 (2008), p. 17-33
  • Full Text: false
  • Description: This paper reports on research into community-based men's sheds in Australia, focusing on how regular activity in these sheds impacts on the informal learning experiences of the mainly older men who use them. It leads to an exploration and reflection on how men's learning experiences in such sheds might inform adult and vocational education in community contexts for older men in other national and cultural contexts. Shed-based activity in community settings is found to provide a critically important, positive and therapeutic, male-positive context that satisfies a wide range of needs not currently available to older men in more formal education settings or in typical adult learning providers. Men's sheds in community contexts provide an important and voluntary social and community outlet for older retired men, particularly for workin- class men who are less likely than other men and particularly women to participate in adult and community education. The research identifies the likely fruitfulness of more closely examining the role of informal learning in enhancing wellbeing through voluntary participation in community settings in other cultural and national contexts.