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This paper qualitative examines a holistic framework for teaching in the digital era. The examination is based on teachers' perspectives of their career, that is, what core features can be said to characterise teacher's practice, across contexts, cultures and subjects. Semi-structured interviews of expert teachers, specifically from Australia, Europe and the Latin-America, are the main data source. The design process sought to examine teachers' approaches to their professional definition and their agency to enact this, against a theoretically validated framework. Results indicated the emergence of three defining categories based on the validation and synthesis of the relationships between six elements in the theoretical model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many long-enduring coastal cultures, there are stories – sometimes mythologized – about times when pieces of land became separated from mainlands by submergence, a process that created islands where none existed before. Using examples from northwest Europe and Australia, this paper argues that many such stories recall times, often millennia ago, when sea level in the aftermath of the Last Glaciation (last ice age) was rising and transforming coastal landscapes and their human uses in exactly the ways these stories describe. The possibility that these may have arisen from eyewitness accounts of these transformative processes, hitherto thought to be understandable only by scientific (palaeoenvironmental) reconstructions, should encourage more systematic investigations of such stories by scientists. It also suggests that science has traditionally underestimated the capacity of oral (pre-literate) cultures to acquire, encode and sustain their observations of memorable events with a high degree of replication fidelity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a core element in Richard Florida's popular theory on growth to be able to attract the creative class to a geographical area. But Florida is not very specific on which kind of amenities are important for attracting and keeping the creative class. The purpose of this paper is to analyse which kind of cultural activities the creative class is actually using. Which kind of cultural activities does the creative class use more intensively than other groups in society? This paper presents new empirical results on preferences for leisure and culture. Richard Florida's theory can be, and has been, criticised - especially on the issue of causality. The analyses presented in this paper show that being part of the creative class has an independent and significant role in explaining preferences for leisure and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this review article, a content area of athlete career in sport psychology is analyzed through the cultural lens: that is, through paradigmatic perspectives of cross-cultural psychology, cultural psychology, and cultural studies. Based on previous review papers, but mainly on the chapters of the anthologyAthletes' Careers across Cultures, we identified three dominant (North American, Australian, and European) and two emerging (Asian and South American) cultural discourses in the career topic. These discourses are characterized by research foci, theoretical frameworks, and career assistance programs in action. Our critical analysis of career research and assistance around the world further indicates a need for more contextualized and culturally competent career projects, which blend theory/research, applied work, and lived culture into cultural praxis. To satisfy this need, a new paradigm termedcultural praxis of athletes' careersis suggested. In conclusion, we emphasize the importance of review papers in negotiating emerging terminology, values, principles, and approaches underlying the career topic, and share some ideas for future reviews in career research and assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the definition of a European perspective on Digital Earth (DE), identify some actions that can contribute to raise the awareness of DE in the European context and thus strengthen the European contribution to the International Society for Digital Earth (ISDE). The paper identifies opportunities and synergies with the current policy priorities in Europe (Europe 2020, Innovation Union and Digital Agenda) and highlights a number of key areas to advance the development of DE from a European perspective: (1) integrating scientific research into DE; (2) exploiting the Observation Web with human-centred sensing; and (3) governance, including the establishment of stronger linkages across the European landscape of funding streams and initiatives. The paper is offered also as a contribution to the development of this new vision of DE to be presented at the next International DE Conference in Perth, Australia, in August 2011. The global recognition of this new vision will then reinforce the European component and build a positive feedback loop for the further implementation of DE across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the purchase and usefulness of the notion of digital literacy. Comparing and contrasting theoretical formulations of digital literacy from the “top-down” and “bottom-up”, it reviews how the concept has been used across three research fields in Europe and Australia. An introductory section situates the ways in which digital literacy offers itself as a mean of empowerment in the tradition of the “new literacy studies” but at the same time exposes contradictions in terms of access and power. The first domain explored is media discourse, and this section of the paper examines ideas which have been circulating in Australia since the early 1990s about the need for children to become digitally literate. The second section examines how the concept of digital literacy has developed over the last decade in the domain of school policy, curriculum documents and practices in Norway; and the third section reviews transnational research to explore how the term digital literacy is used in the domain of children's and youth's out-of-school cultural digital practices. We argue that the term “digital literacy” incorporates more notions of exclusion and division than is commonly supposed, and that it exposes the contradictory politics of literacy education in new and provocative ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on a comparative study of the growth of data and the changing governance of education in Europe. It looks at data and the 'making' of a European Education Policy Space, with a focus on 'policy brokers' in translating and mediating demands for data from the European Commission. It considers the ways in which such brokers use data production pressures from the Commission to justify policy directions in their national systems. The systems under consideration are Finland, Sweden, and England and Scotland. The paper focuses on the rise of Quality Assurance and Evaluation mechanisms and processes as providing the overarching rationale for data demands, both for accountability and performance improvement purposes. The theoretical resources that are drawn on to enable interpretation of the data are those that suggest a move from governing to governance and the use of comparison as a form of governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the results of a survey-based study of perceptions of ethical business practices in 13 countries of Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Responses from more than 23,000 managers and employees were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance and post-hoc comparisons, aimed at identifying homogenous sets of countries. Anglo countries (US, UK, Australia, and Canada) clustered together, and were joined by India in most cases. Japan and Italy formed a homogenous subset significantly different from all other countries. Countries of continental Europe, China, Mexico, and Brazil formed various mid-range groupings. The paper discusses some salient differences between groups of countries and presents implications for human resource management (HRD) practice and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper starts by emphasising that final year engineering projects are regarded important in the training and education of professional engineers in Australia and Europe. The sources of projects available to students were also mentioned. Some Australian universities insist on individual projects but some not, each with their own reasons. However, it can be argued that all European universities run individual projects. In most cases, whether it is in Australia or Europe, the total load for final year engineering projects is about 6.25% of the load of engineering programmes. Assessment methods were also described. They were all different whether in Australia or Europe but not very significant. It was discovered that literature reviews, oral presentations and written reports or dissertations were important elements in the assessment schemes. Many university staff, in both continents, encouraged students to publish their work in international conferences and journals if the originality of the projects was high. It can be argued that the individual project is most effective in learning outcome; however, the cost involved is also very high and its sustainability in smaller universities in Australia is in doubt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disparities in access to health care also extend to the end-of-life care. Despite the general principle that palliative care is equitably available for all in need, it remains underutilised by certain groups in the community. Ethnic minorities, older people and patients with non-cancer diseases are found to be at a greatest risk for underutilisation of palliative care. Barriers to access palliative care by these groups in the community are complex and often overlapping. To overcome these barriers, there is a need to take action on many fronts. This paper discusses these barriers and provides an overview of the strategies that have been implemented to address these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the representation of Tenberry, a Ngaiwong man from Moorundie on the Murray River in South Australia, and his significant place in the colonial discourse of European settlement and race relations over the first decades of settlement. From around 1845, when he made his first public appearance in the engraved frontispiece to Edward John Eyre's journals of exploration, his image was circulated through explorer's narratives, pioneer reminiscences, evangelical propaganda, the developing colonial art scene, scientific collections, and popular press accounts. Producing and circulating stereotypes such as 'King' Tenberry and his 'manly' and 'amiable' son Warrulan systematically defined Indigenous Australia for British colonists; with all the power, clarity and seeming truth of visual imagery, these allowed them to see Tenberry as guardian of tradition and the past, in counterpoint to visions of Warrulan's future, whose 'capacity for improvement,' once removed from his people, gave settlers cause for hope. As these images travelled from Moorundie to the centres of Empire, they mapped a global visual economy that told the colonisers' story of progress, displacing the Indigenous people in imagined but powerful ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article announces the launching of the "Education for Chemical Engineers" (ECE), an online journal from the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), with the aim of becoming the principal international journal for chemical, process and biomolecular engineering education. ECE has been declared the official journal of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering. Doctor David Shallcross of the University of Melbourne, Australia, is the editor of the journal supported by an international editorial board. The journal has already established a global subscriber base and published papers from Europe, Australasia, and North America.

In many parts of the world, higher education is viewed as a prime 'motor' for the development of a knowledge-based economy. Under the banner of this 'new economy', higher education policies, programmes and practices have been increasingly co-opted and shaped by wider geo-strategic political and economic interests. This paper explores three, interlinked, higher education policy spaces - in Europe, the United States, and Australia. It explores how the growing range of educational initiatives at the European level has affected - both directly and indirectly - American and Australian policymaking in higher education. The European higher education project, which is increasingly perceived as having some significance to the global economy, has set off a series of dynamic reactions in both Australia and the United States, which is leading to multiple new logics and new imaginaries about the global higher education landscape. Through this, a more integrated and relational global system of higher education is emerging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The universal goal of medical education is to train excellent physicians, able to maintain the health of individuals and communities. The route to achieving this goal has shifted over time. This paper describes the absolutes and ambiguities of philosophical vision, responsiveness to stakeholders, curriculum content and delivery, and assessment of trainees and training programs across much of the developed world. Description: Traditional medical education is content focused and organized by organ systems. Newer curricula, informed by current learning theories, emphasize a competencies based approach, with clinical scenarios at the centre of teaching and assessment of students. Associated with this is a shift from the in-depth knowledge of the specialist to a 'what must a generalist know' approach. These models are explored as are options for curriculum delivery, input from governments, students, the public and faculty, and methods and importance of accreditation. Conclusion: The goals and the process of training physicians to achieve these exhibit numerous commonalities across time and place throughout the developed world while still allowing for cultural or national adaptations. All models and content aim for minimum basic knowledge, while emphasizing communication skills, cultural awareness and professionalism amongst future physicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While identity has long been a prominent focus of education, and religious education, in Europe and Britain, little explicit attention has been given to it in Australia, even though its importance as an educational goal is implied. This paper reports on a project concerned with 'education in identity' which attempted to address this imbalance. A generic notion of education in identity is developed, underpinned by a conceptualisation of identity and of what constitutes identity health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During recent years there has been a growth in the use of assisted reproductive techniques (ARTs) across Europe, America and Australia. This has resulted in debates about whether health insurance should cover this procedure. This study used the closed-ended willingness to pay (WTP) technique to establish the value the infertile place on in vitro fertilization treatment in Scotland. One approach to help inform this debate is to employ economic tools to assess the costs and benefits of the treatment. Costs can then be compared with benefits, and the public provision of the service encouraged or discouraged on the basis of these results. To date, economic evaluations which have attempted to inform the debate about the provision of ARTs have assumed that the only factor that is important is whether users leave the service with a child. One approach that should allow for all such attributes in the economic evaluation is the economic instrument of WTP. This technique is based on the premise that the maximum amount of money an individual is willing to pay for a commodity is an indicator of the value to him/her of that commodity. This paper uses the WTP technique to assess the benefits from ARTs. These benefits are then compared with the costs of providing the treatment. The aim is to show how the application of this specific tool can be of use to policy makers considering the public provision of ARTs.

This study examined the utility of a biopsychosocial model to explain both higher body mass index (BMI) and disordered eating. The study was designed to examine the predictors of higher BMI and a number of measures of disordered eating (dietary restraint, drive for muscularity, drive for thinness, binge eating, and compensatory behaviour). Young adults (N = 838) recruited from seven countries, grouped into four regions (Europe, North American countries, Australia, Japan), completed an online survey, with each completion being 12 months apart. The survey included assessments of BMI and disordered eating, and a range of biological, psychological and sociocultural factors expected to predict both outcomes. Results revealed unique patterns of association between predictors and BMI as well as different measures of disordered eating in the four geographical regions. The findings identify the specific nature of biopsychosocial factors that predict both higher BMI and different aspects of disordered eating. They also demonstrate that caution needs to be exercised in generalising findings from one country to other countries. What is already known about this topic: The literature has already identified various aspects of the biopsychosocial model that predicts disordered eating and higher weight. These studies have primarily focused on disordered eating in cross-sectional studies among adolescents. Obesity and disordered eating have been shown to be related What this topic adds: The study identified the biopsychosocial factors that predict higher BMI and disordered eating among young adults over a 12-month period. The study examined all components of the biopsychosocial model in the one study. The study was conducted across seven countries and identified how these relationships vary from one country to another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When it comes to sustainability, improving existing buildings is arguably more important than developing better new facilities. But that can be more difficult because it requires cooperation between owners and tenants. Fortunately, owners are finding ways to cooperate thru green leasing, incentives, and educational programs. This paper presents eight examples from the United States, Europe, and Australia. They demonstrate that property firms can work with new and existing tenants toward greater cooperation around sustainable real estate concerns. Transformation to sustainable property investing will be a "sociotechnical" process. It will require technical skill to improve eco-efficiency, but also new social capabilities that facilitate cooperation among owners and their tenants. Fortunately, the cases presented illustrate ways this can be done. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practice of deliberately concealing garments within the structure of buildings is described. These finds provide a means of exploring how space was conceived and experienced in the past, and how these deliberately hidden garments mediated, and continue to mediate, the relationship between people and the spaces they occupied, and may continue to occupy. The Deliberately Concealed Garments Project was set up in 1998 to locate, document and analyze garments found hidden within buildings. Concealments have preserved many textiles in the UK, mainland Europe, Australia and North America. The significance of these caches rests not only in the finds themselves, as rare items of dress, but also because of what they reveal about perceptions of built space. The concealments are believed to serve a protective function, not against the weather or immodesty, but against incoming malevolent forces. As apotropaic (evil-averting) agents they protect from within rather than as outer coverings or internal divisions. The paper discusses how garments concealed within buildings transform space through the work of metaphor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the 'loss of chance doctrine' with a comparative perspective, across three different jurisdictions: China (where the loss of chance doctrine is in its infancy); continental Europe (in which many countries have adopted loss of chance to solve medical malpractice cases) and Australia (where loss of chance has been excluded by the High Court and is no longer a valid defense for negligence where causation is otherwise difficult to prove). The article compares these three different approaches to establish a line of development, from initial acceptance, through its widespread application, to finish with its judicial rejection, which might be a prediction about the future of this doctrine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents profile of the authors who contributed to the journal "Women's Studies." Fiona Giles is an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Media and Communications at Sydney University. She has published several books in the area of women's studies. Kellie Green has provided the cover art for this special edition. She is a photo-documentary photographer from Dublin. Annette Gough is Associate Professor of Science and Environmental Education and Director of the Consultancy and Development Unit in the Faculty of Education at Deakin University.

Background: The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health is the international standard for describing and monitoring functioning. While the categories, the units of the classification, were not designed with measurement in mind, the hierarchical structure of the classification lends itself to the possibility of summating categories into some higher order domain. Focusing on the chapters of d4 Mobility, d5 Self-Care and d6 Domestic Life, this study seeks to ascertain if qualifiers rating of categories (0-No problem to 4-Complete problem) within those chapters can be summated, and whether such derived measurement is consistent with estimates obtained from well-known instruments which purport to measure the same constructs. Methods: The current study applies secondary analysis to data previously collected in the context of validating Core Sets for stroke, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoarthritis. Data included qualifier-based ratings of the categories in the Core Sets, and the physical functioning sub-scale of the Short-Form 36, and the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0. To examine qualifier-comparator scale item agreement Kappa statistics were used. To identify whether appropriate gradients of the comparator scales were observed across qualifier levels, an Independent Sample Median Test of the ordinal scores was deployed. To investigate the internal validity of the summated ICF categories, the Rasch model was applied. Results: Data from 2,927 subjects from Europe, Australasia, Middle East and South America were available for analysis; 36.3% had experienced a stroke, 35.8% osteoarthritis, and 27.9% had rheumatoid arthritis. The items from the Short-Form 36 could not match directly the qualifier categories as the former had only 3 response options. The Kappa between World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 items and categories was low. For all qualifiers, a significant (<0.001) overall gradient was observed across the comparator scales. Only in few of the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 items could no discrete level be detected. The aggregation of the qualifiers at the Chapter and higher order levels mostly revealed fit to the Rasch model. Almost all ICF qualifiers showed ordered thresholds suggesting that the current structure and response options of the qualifiers worked as intended. Conclusions: The findings of this study provide supporting evidence for the use of the professionally rated categories and associated qualifiers to measure functioning. Implication for Rehabilitation: This study provides evidence that functioning data can be collected directly with the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) by using the ICF categories as items and the ICF qualifiers as rating scale. The findings of this study show the aggregated ratings of ICF categories from the chapters d4 Mobility, d5 Self-care, and d6 Domestic life capture a broader spectrum of the construct than the corresponding summated items from the SF36-Physical Function sub-scale and the corresponding items of the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0. This study illustrates the potential of building quantitative measurement by aggregating ICF categories and their qualifier ratings into meaningful domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stigma associated with a diagnosis of mental illness is well known yet has not reduced significantly in recent years. Health professionals, including nurses, have been found to share similar negative attitudes towards people with labelled with mental illness as the general public. The low uptake of mental health nursing as a career option reflects these stigmatised views and is generally regarded as one of the least popular areas of in which to establish a nursing career. The aim of the current project was to examine nursing students' attitudes towards the concept of mental illness and mental health nursing across four European countries (Ireland, Finland, Norway and the Netherlands), and Australia, using the Opening Minds Scale and the Mental Health Nurse Education survey. The surveys were distributed to students prior to the commencement of the mental health theory component. Attitudes towards mental health nursing were generally favourable. Differences in opinion were evident in attitudes towards mental illness as a construct; with students from Australia and Ireland tending to have more positive attitudes than students from Finland, Norway and the Netherlands. The future quality of mental health services is dependent on attracting sufficient nurses with the desire, knowledge and attitudes to work in mental health settings. Understanding attitudes towards mental illness and mental health nursing is essential to achieving this aim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is estimated that up to a third of injuries requiring emergency department (ED) admission are alcohol-related. While injuries that are alcohol-related are unsurprising to ED staff, less is understood about the precursors to the injury event. Methods: Using data from representative ED injury patients in 22 countries, we examined associations between context of injury (private or public), cause of injury (fall or trip, being stuck/cut/or burned and violence) and alcohol use. Alcohol-related policy data were also obtained from each study locale. Results: Injuries were similarly reported in private (54%) and public settings (46%), while cause of injury was most often due to falls (39%) or being struck/cut or burned (38%). Violence-related injuries were reported by approximately 1 in 5 patients (23%). Increased odds of drinking prior to the injury event was associated with injury due to violence in private settings but not public venues. Similarly, patients from regions with fewer restrictive alcohol policies were more likely to report drinking prior to an injury event and have elevated violence-related injuries in private settings. Conclusion: Understanding the cause and context of injury and alcohol use are important components to evaluation and development of alcohol policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narratives are a pervasive form of discourse and a rich source for exploring a range of language and cognitive skills. The limited research base to date suggests that narratives generated using aided communication may be structurally simple, and that features of cohesion and reference may be lacking. This study reports on the analysis of narratives generated in interactions involving aided communication in response to short, silent, video vignettes depicting events with unintended or unexpected consequences. Two measures were applied to the data: the Narrative Scoring Scheme and the Narrative Analysis Profile. A total of 15 participants who used aided communication interacted with three different communication partners (peers, parents, professionals) relaying narratives about three video events. Their narratives were evaluated with reference to narratives of 15 peers with typical development in response to the same short videos and to the narratives that were interpreted by their communication partners. Overall, the narratives generated using aided communication were shorter and less complete than those of the speaking peers, but they incorporated many similar elements. Topic maintenance and inclusion of scene-setting elements were consistent strengths. Communication partners offered rich interpretations of aided narratives. Relative to the aided narratives, these interpreted narratives were typically structurally more complete and cohesive and many incorporated more elaborated semantic content. The data reinforce the robust value of narratives in interaction and their potential for showcasing language and communication achievements in aided communication. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Vocabulary learning reflects the language experiences of the child, both in typical and atypical development, although the vocabulary development of children who use aided communication may differ from children who use natural speech. This study compared the performance of children using aided communication with that of peers using natural speech on two measures of vocabulary knowledge: comprehension of graphic symbols and labeling of common objects. There were 92 participants not considered intellectually disabled in the aided group. The reference group consisted of 60 participants without known disorders. The comprehension task consisted of 63 items presented individually in each participant’s graphic system, together with four colored line drawings. Participants were required to indicate which drawing corresponded to the symbol. In the expressive labelling task, 20 common objects presented in drawings had to be named. Both groups indicated the correct drawing for most of the items in the comprehension tasks, with a small advantage for the reference group. The reference group named most objects quickly and accurately, demonstrating that the objects were common and easily named. The aided language group named the majority correctly and in addition used a variety of naming strategies; they required more time than the reference group. The results give insights into lexical processing in aided communication and may have implications for aided language intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This qualitative project is focused on the challenges that newcomer athletes revealed when they considered their earliest encounters with a receiving culture during general daily life. Conversational interviews with 24 national and international amateur newcomer athletes were subjected to interpretive thematic analysis and developed into a composite vignette. This vignette unearths three themes revealing hope (theme: opportunities abound); uncertainty and fear (theme: weighing the risks for the journey ahead); and anger, humiliation, and hardening (theme: public stonings). Understanding the fluidities within the vignette will permit practitioners to explore the uncertainties of acculturation and find entry points to support athlete acculturation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduction: The suggestion that empathy “declines” or “erodes” as students progress through medical school has largely rested on observations reported from Jefferson Medical College in the United States using the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE) developed by Hojat and colleagues. Now that the student version of JSPE has been administered to medical students in more than a dozen countries, it is timely to consider whether or not the Jefferson “case study” and the conclusions drawn from it are generalisable. Methods: A literature research was conducted on MEDLINE in mid-2014 to identify studies reporting administrations of the Student version of JPSE (JSPE-S) to cohorts of medical students and the means for studies and their sub-parts conducted in Japan, South Korea, China, Kuwait, India, Iran, UK, USA, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Portugal. Results: The means of these studies from a dozen countries outside the USA consistently cluster round 75% out of the possible maximum of 140 unlike the early Jefferson studies (although the later Jefferson means are also <120). Conclusions: These observations may support Costa et al.’s contention that “a latent growth model suggests that empathy of medical students does not decline over time” (p. 509) – or at least not significantly. But in order to understand the maturation process of medical students and trainees we need to develop more sophisticated, integrated models that combine culturally-sensitive concepts of emotional intelligence and moral reasoning with far more refined understandings of the nature of empathy required for the safe practice of patient-centred medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the international immigration debate, the predominance of the temporary migration of low-skilled migrants in Europe has often been contrasted with generous entry avenues for high-skilled migrants in North America and Australia. Recently, however, “classic” admission countries overseas have weakened their admission channels for high-skilled workers, whereas this category of migrants has acquired a new prominence in Europe. The goal of this article is to analyse the impact of these policy changes on the Canadian and Spanish migration regimes, which represent two paradigmatic examples of different labour migration models on the spectrum of international migration policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has been gaining in popularity and is influencing ways in which various non-European countries approach bilingual education. For example, some Australian bilingual programmes are now being officially referred to as CLIL programmes. Although CLIL methodology shows potential outside Europe, this article argues that certain aspects of CLIL should be subject to scrutiny before programmes are adopted in an Australian context. In the article, these aspects relate primarily to organisational and affective factors, which are considered to have a substantial influence on successful programmes. The article specifically addresses Australian primary and secondary public education because public bilingual education programmes may offer a way to address the high attrition rates and the decline in languages taught. The article will focus on ways in which CLIL arose and is defined through the European context for which it was designed. Then it will identify some of the bilingual programmes on offer in Australia and explore issues related to applying/expanding the CLIL approach to Australian mainstream education – English language dominance, language choice and human resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the value of insects in the West, wherein they eat live insects. It states that the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and other organizations call for a movement against animal cruelty. It stresses that most scientist believe that eating more insects as substitute for meat is healthier. It notes that the developing countries such as U.S.. Europe and Australia disregard insects as food or as medical treatment. It also mentions that the insects has a higher efficiency conversion of ingested food (ECI) than meat wherein it measures the conversion of ingested food.

Discussing new or recently reformed citizenship tests in the USA, Australia, and Canada, this article asks whether they amount to a restrictive turn of new world citizenship, similar to recent developments in Europe. I argue that elements of a restrictive turn are noticeable in Australia and Canada, but only at the level of political rhetoric, not of law and policy, which remain liberal and inclusive. Much like in Europe, the restrictive turn is tantamount to Muslims and Islam moving to the center of the integration debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article evaluates the Gillard Labor government's efforts to revive Australian multiculturalism at a time when other liberal democracies have declared it a failure. It argues that despite a controversial history, Australian multiculturalism has many of the characteristics of institutional path dependency, representing a highly contested set of policies, programs and norms that evolved in specific historical contexts and developed their own self-reinforcing logic. The Australian experience offers salient reminders of the difficulties of overturning the social and political consequences of immigration decisions made long ago. The general success of multiculturalism as a migrant-integration strategy suggests that it may be the best available option for liberal-democratic governments to manage the politics of cultural diversity in the 21st century. There is a need, however, for governments to renew their commitment to migrant rights and equity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article draws upon research funded by the National Council for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) on trends in teaching and learning in vocational education and training (VET) in Australia and internationally in the United Kingdom and Europe and from a series of workshops on innovation in teaching and learning in VET which the authors conducted in March 2009 in Australia. We discuss attitudes and perceptions held by Australian VET practitioners about innovation in VET that emerged from the workshops and the research and draw attention to the central role that networking plays in the process of innovation. These findings then serve as a lens for examining innovation theories and models of innovation that are applicable to change and improvement in education. We argue the focus should be shifted from leading edge innovation and ‘natural’ innovators to environments in which mainstream VET professionals work. We conclude that innovation ecology is a more helpful model to understand innovation in VET teaching and learning practices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Remote access laboratories (RALs) were first developed in 1994 in Australia and Switzerland. The main purposes of developing them are to enable students to do their experiments at their own pace, time and locations and to enable students and teaching staff to get access to facilities beyond their institutions. Currently, most of the experiments carried out through RALs in Australia are heavily biased towards electrical, electronic and computer engineering disciplines. However, the experiments carried out through RALs in Europe had more variety, in addition to the traditional electrical, electronic and computer engineering disciplines, there were experiments in mechanical and mechatronic disciplines. It was found that RALs are now being developed aggressively in Australia and Europe and it can be argued that RALs will develop further and faster in the future with improving Internet technology. The rising costs of real experimental equipment will also speed up their development because by making the equipment remotely accessible, the cost can be shared by more universities or institutions and this will improve their cost-effectiveness. Their development would be particularly rapid in large countries with small populations such as Australia, Canada and Russia, because of the scale of economy. Reusability of software, interoperability in software implementation, computer supported collaborative learning and convergence with learning management systems are the required development of future RALs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was designed to conduct systematic reviews of existing evaporative cooling system maintenance guidelines and of published Legionnaires' disease outbreaks to determine what, if any, maintenance practices were in place at the time of the disease outbreaks and then to contrast the reported practices with the published guidelines for evaporative cooling systems. For the first review, similarities in the reported recommendations were assessed; in the second review, any reported information about the state of the evaporative cooling system during the outbreak investigation was summarized. The systematic reviews yielded 38 current guidelines for evaporative cooling systems and 38 published outbreak investigations. The guidelines varied regarding the recommended type and dose of biocides, frequency of general inspections and total system maintenance, the preferred disinfection and cleaning procedures when testing a system for microbiological contamination, the type and frequency of testing procedures, and interpretation of test results. Overall, the maintenance guidelines did not contain sufficiently detailed procedures to prevent the problems that were observed in the outbreak investigations. These maintenance procedures included lack or improper use of a biocide; infrequent testing for microbiological contamination; improper use or maintenance of drift eliminators; and lack of a total system cleaning within 6 months of the outbreak for cooling systems that were either under continuous use, recently started up, or frequently switched on and off. This study suggests that more specific and standardized maintenance guidelines for the control of Legionella bacteria are needed and that these guidelines must be properly implemented to help reduce further Legionnaires' disease outbreaks associated with evaporative cooling systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has now been over a decade since the concept of creative industries was first put into the public domain by the Blair Labour government's Creative Industries Mapping Documents in Britain. The concept has gained traction globally, but it has also been understood and developed in different ways in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and North America, as well as through international bodies such as UNCTAD and UNESCO. A review of the policy literature reveals that although questions and issues remain around definitional coherence, there is some degree of consensus emerging about the size, scope, and significance of the sectors in question in both advanced and developing economies. At the same time, debate about the concept remains highly animated in media, communication, and cultural studies, with its critics dismissing the concept outright as a harbinger of neoliberal ideology in the cultural sphere. This article couches such critiques in light of recent debates surrounding the intellectual coherence of the concept of neoliberalism, arguing that this term itself possesses problems when taken outside of the Anglo-American context in which it originated. It is argued that issues surrounding the nature of participatory media culture, the relationship between cultural production and economic innovation, and the future role of public cultural institutions can be developed from within a creative industries framework and that writing off such arguments as a priori ideological and flawed does little to advance debates about twentieth-century information and media culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We review the development and success of fish stock recovery plans in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. A range of multi-disciplinary factors that have been associated with successful stock recovery were evaluated for 33 case studies. Each factor was assessed and scored based on the best available information to indicate its relative importance in the overall process leading to stock recovery. The results showed that rapid and often large reductions in catches at the start of the recovery process, and biological characteristics such as the life history strategies of species and the demographic composition of the stock, played a key role in the ability of populations to recover. Although the latter cannot be controlled directly by human intervention, they should be used to inform the management process and set appropriate levels of exploitation through a set of harvest control rules. Recovery is more effective when the recovery plan is part of a legal mandate, which is automatically triggered on reaching pre-defined limit reference points. Of the four regions studied, the United States was the only country to have a legal framework within which clear guidelines are given to establish a recovery process within a pre-defined time period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brands build relationships between consumers and products, services, or lifestyles by providing beneficial exchanges and adding value to their objects. Brands can be measured through associations that consumers hold for products and services. Public health brands are the associations that individuals hold for health behaviors, or lifestyles that embody multiple health behaviors. We systematically reviewed the literature on public health brands; developed a methodology for describing branded health messages and campaigns; and examined specific branding strategies across a range of topic areas, campaigns, and global settings. We searched the literature for published studies on public health branding available through all relevant, major online publication databases. Public health branding was operationalized as any manuscripts in the health, social science, and business literature on branding or brands in health promotion marketing. We developed formalized decision rules and applied them in identifying articles for review. We initially identified 154 articles and reviewed a final set of 37, 10 from Africa, Australia, and Europe. Branded health campaigns spanned most of the major domains of public health and numerous communication strategies and evaluation methodologies. Most studies provided clear information on planning, development, and evaluation of the branding effort, while some provided minimal information. Branded health messages typically are theory based, and there is a body of evidence on their behavior change effectiveness, especially in nutrition, tobacco control, and HIV/AIDS. More rigorous research is needed, however, on how branded health messages impact specific populations and behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The initial emergence of e-governance appeared to be part of a more general government modernization process with the major focus concerning the potential for service delivery online and saving resources. Governments in Australia (and internationally) quickly raced towards grand e-government strategies. However, subsequent implementation has proved more problematic. e-Government has also raised wider questions about government policy making, structures of decision making and the perennial question of joined-up government. Drawing on empirical material from a seven-nation study (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, US, UK and The Netherlands), this article explores some of these themes in the Australian context and also seeks to place Australian initiatives in a comparative international context.| [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article casts the Spalding world baseball tour of 1888–1889 in a context of the campaign to construct a national identity during the late 19th century. In doing so, it intends to show how baseball magnate Albert Spalding and fellow sporting missionaries used cultural perspectives promoted on the tour to assert baseball's national purpose and, through the sport, stake America's claim in the Anglo-Saxon imperium of the times. Spalding initiated the mission with a remarkable tourist venture that spanned the globe, from Chicago across the Pacific and through Europe before returning from overseas. In New York, at a famous reception at Delmonico's restaurant, the tourists and commentators imbued the sport with the rhetoric of nationalism so critical to constructing empire ten years later. The banquet serves as the window in which to look on parts of the tour, particularly the contrasting results of the visits to Australia and Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article offers an account of the emergence of dance music culture and the traveling political-activist sound systems and events it gave rise to in Europe in the early 1990s. St. John traces the history and development of its oppositional aesthetics and politics which in Australia has seen the mobile techno-circus sound systems model become implicated in environmental and indigenous rights activism. In doing so, it tracks not just the rise of a significant global counter-cultural movement and its practices but how at a more local level in Australia such practices have been used to respond to a calling to country and deployed as a counter-colonial intervention and means to belonging in a post-colonial nation.

The article focuses on the criticisms of the Garnaut Report. The author notes that the article is more on the mythical arguments that are attributed to the Report. It offers criticisms on the topics of the Report which includes the economic change in the East Asia, and the cultural ties between Australia and Europe which the Report sees as an asset to the relationship of Australia with the Northeast Asia and the Pacific. Critics who reviewed the Garnaut Report include Bruce Grant, Fitzpatrick, and Mckay.

The article examines gender policies related to education in Australia and Europe from 1975 to 1985. Academic conferences have been held in Australia to discuss sex roles and science and technology in relation to gender. They resulted in the breakdown of male domination of society and increases in female recruitment. The federal government produced its "National Policy on the Education of Girls" in 1986. The Affirmative Action Act and an anti-discrimination legislation were also enacted. In Ireland, the Irish Equal Employment Agency commissioned a study on the practices of single-sex and mixed schools in order to examine sex differences and sex roles in education.

This symposium brings together multi-national assessments of the current state of and challenges facing postgraduate education in geography. Contributors from Europe, Australia, South Africa and the USA identify ways in which restructuring of educational systems and wider political contexts affect programmes within the field. While highlighting the implications of initiatives such as restructuring of degrees in European universities, merging of Geography into interdisciplinary units in Australia, efforts to strengthen professional development programmes in the USA and to widen racial participation in South Africa, they also demonstrate the many challenges that remain to innovation, particularly as these are affected by economic conditions and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]