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In 2008 as part of a national push to increase Australia's skill levels, the Council of Australian Governments agreed on targets that would see, by 2020, a doubling of diploma and advanced diploma completions and a halving of the proportion of 20 to 64-year-old Australians without at least a certificate III. Such targets assume there is a financial return as a result of undertaking vocational education and training (VET). Using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics' (ABS) Surveys of Education and Training (1993-2005), this study investigated this assumption by looking at the employment and earnings for individuals who had completed a VET course and how these may have changed over time. This work examines the effect of field of education on the returns from VET for individuals, as well as the returns from VET for mature-age students (defined here as persons between 30 and 64 years). It also compares these with higher educational qualifications. This paper suggests that: (1) Compared with those who have completed Year 12, employment and earnings benefits are only gained by completing a VET course at the diploma level. This result differs from some previous studies (for example, Long & Shah 2008). However, by comparison with individuals who do not complete Year 12, both employment and earnings benefits can be gained from completion of a VET qualification at any level, an outcome which accords with previous research; (2) Undertaking courses in the area of business, engineering, architecture, building and automotive provides the greatest benefits relative to those who did not complete Year 12; (3) For mature-age students, those who have not completed Year 12 and undertake a VET course at the certificate III level or higher gain the greatest employment and earnings benefits. However, there is a lag of several years before these benefits materialise; and (4) The study covers the period 1993 to 2005 to assess whether VET qualifications have continued to attract similar returns relative to Year 12 and non-school completers. The earning benefits from completing a diploma were shown to be relatively stable during this period. At the sub-diploma level there were more fluctuations but, relative to non-school completers, returns from these qualifications were positive. This was not the case when comparisons were made to Year 12 completers. This study makes it clear that people cannot assume VET has a financial return to the individual; it all depends on educational background and the level and field of the qualification being undertaken. Appendices include: (1) How propensity-score matching works; (2) The two-step matching/ regression approach; and (3) Sample sizes of treatment and comparison groups in the 1993, 1997, 2001 and 2005 SET data. (Contains 74 tables and 9 footnotes.) [For the support document, see ED508929.]

This document is an appendix that is meant to accompany the main report, "Analysis of Private Returns to Vocational Education and Training". Included here are the detailed regression results that correspond to Tables 4 to 59 of the main report. This document was produced by the authors based on their research for the main report, and is an added resource for further information. This document contains the following sections: (1) Using Year 12 Completers as the Comparison Group, Males; (2) Using Less than Year 12 as the Comparison Group, Males; (3) Using Year 12 Completers as the Comparison Group, Females; (4) Using Less than Year 12 as the Comparison Group, Females; (5) Using Year 12 Completers in the Treatment and Comparison Groups, Males; (6) Using Less than Year 12 in the Treatment and Comparison Groups, Males; (7) Using Year 12 Completers in the Treatment and Comparison Groups, Females; and (8) Using Less than Year 12 in the Treatment and Comparison Groups, Females. (Contains 324 tables.) [For the companion report, "Analysis of Private Returns to Vocational Education and Training," see ED508939.]

In order to promote exchanges and cooperation in technology education among all countries, country-specific information concerning technology education must be appropriately explored and reported. Through a literature review, guidelines for preparing country reports and case studies were developed. The guidelines suggest that the following elements should be included in country reports on technology education: (1) a technology education profile, including the structure of the education system, the curriculum, a description of the teaching and learning processes, and a profile of technology education teachers; (2) dynamics of the development process, including major problems; and (3) international cooperation, such as methods of cooperation and coordination, the means of information exchange, and trends in international participation. (KC)

The most interesting and challenging aspect of studying Chinese is writing Chinese characters. Unfortunately, the learning of Chinese characters receives only marginal attention in a typical classroom. Given that vocabularies in textbooks are based on spoken language rather than the principles of character formation, and also given the pressures of time to deal with spoken competencies, the teaching of Chinese characters is rarely presented in an orderly, intelligible way. Students are left making mistakes without ever really understanding why. This text is a self-paced tutorial designed to address common problems students face when learning Chinese orthography, or Hanzi. Students will learn the basic principles that govern Hanzi, basic strokes, the proper stroke order, and the most common radicals. The book is designed to be used with an accompanying videotape that is sold separately. It has 25 lessons, and by the end students will have learned 125 Hanzi characters and some of the common words and phrases in which they are used. (KFT)

This paper reports challenges of and suggestions for conducting online courses, focusing on the following areas: (1) instructional format, including transferring classroom activities to online activities without affecting students' concentration, motivation, thought, mastery, and comprehension; (2) methods of instruction, including developing an online learning environment that promotes student participation and applying teaching styles to electronic instruction in order to accommodate different student learning styles; (3) methods of interactions, including maintaining students' frequent and consistent involvement, encouraging student cooperation and collaboration, and applying a variety of interaction methods; (4) methods of communication, including incorporating visual, verbal, and non-verbal communication into online teaching materials; (5) instructional media, including the role of technology as the disseminator of primary course information; (6) participants, including instructors, students, and guest speakers; and (7) team work, including the importance of faculty, support staff, administrators, and policy makers. (DLS)

This report discusses the methods, techniques, and software applications used in processing the data gathered in a survey of the physical condition and health of students in Guangdong Province, China. The introduction provides background on the survey. Survey grouping, data items, and survey procedures are then described. A discussion of microcomputer data processing covers crude and derived indicators, statistics, hardware and software, data structure, the use of LOTUS 1-2-3 for survey data processing, programming of the data entry module, and programming of the data analysis module. Selected findings are summarized in order to illustrate the capabilities of LOTUS 1-2-3 for data presentation and to demonstrate analyses of the data for comparison of groups and establishment of standards. Some problems encountered with hardware and software and solutions to these problems are considered, and conclusions are drawn regarding applications of microcomputers for survey data processing. The report includes many tables and graphs. A sample of a Chinese student physical condition and health card (in Chinese characters) and the programs written to compare data files for inconsistencies and to calculate common statistics are appended. (MES)

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease characterized by low-grade inflammation and high levels of clinical heterogeneity. Aberrant chondrocyte metabolism is a response to changes in the inflammatory microenvironment and may play a key role in cartilage degeneration and OA progression. Under conditions of environmental stress, chondrocytes tend to adapt their metabolism to microenvironmental changes by shifting from one metabolic pathway to another, for example from oxidative phosphorylation to glycolysis. Similar changes occur in other joint cells, including synoviocytes. Switching between these pathways is implicated in metabolic alterations that involve mitochondrial dysfunction, enhanced anaerobic glycolysis, and altered lipid and amino acid metabolism. The shift between oxidative phosphorylation and glycolysis is mainly regulated by the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathways. Chondrocyte metabolic changes are likely to be a feature of different OA phenotypes. Determining the role of chondrocyte metabolism in OA has revealed key features of disease pathogenesis. Future research should place greater emphasis on immunometabolism and altered metabolic pathways as a means to understand the pathophysiology of age-related OA. This knowledge will advance the development of new drugs against therapeutic targets of metabolic significance.

All-wood biocomposites were prepared with an efficient method. The ionic liquid of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (BMIMCl) was used to impregnate manchurian ash (MA) before hot-pressing, and the all-wood biocomposites were prepared by controllable dissolving and regenerating the cellulose in MA. The Fourier transform infrared analysis suggested that all the components of MA remained unchanged during the preparation. X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric and scanning electron microscope analysis were carried out to study the process parameters of hot-pressing pressure and time on the crystallinity, thermal properties and microstructure of the all-wood biocomposites. The tensile strength of the prepared all-wood biocomposites reached its highest at 212.6 MPa and was increased by 239% compared with that of the original MA sample. The thermogravimetric analysis indicated that as the thermo-stability of the all-wood biocomposites increased, the mass of the residual carbon increased from 19.7% to 22.7% under a hot-pressing pressure of 10 MPa. This work provides a simple and promising pathway for the industrial application of high-performance and environmentally friendly all-wood biocomposites.

Noise sources intrinsic to volume phase holograms in iron-doped LiNbO3 have been investigated. Intermodulation distortion, statistical noise, and scatter noise have been found to be insignificant. Crosstalk noise can be reduced to a level compatible with high-quality (S/N ratio approx 40 dB) readout images at angular spacings (0.1 deg in air) such that large numbers of holograms can be stored in a given volume. (Author)