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Inspections of engineered structures below water level are essential to ensure the long-term serviceability of bridge infrastructure and to avoid major damage or failure. This research aimed to investigate integrated geophysical technologies for the underwater inspection of bridge foundation-related scour and erodible scour-based infill. Survey methods focused on Water-Penetrating Radar (WPR), supplemented by sonar. Whilst the survey benefits of the sonar imaging water–sediment interface and structures are well known, those of WPR are not. However, it is ideally suited to the survey of the water base and sub-sediment in shallow (>10 m) freshwater, especially where suspended sediment, weed infestation or methane impede sonar results. Our work produced good WPR imagery acquired from small, manoeuvrable boats that allowed bathymetric profiles to be plotted, as well as the likely locations of soft-sediment scour in future high-water flow events. This study provides clear benefits for integrated sonar and WPR surveys in the quantitative assessment of engineered structures within freshwater.

An 81-year-old man was referred to the cardiology clinic with breathlessness and angina. His history included triple-vessel coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) plus St Jude Epic 21 mm bioprosthetic aortic valve replacement (AVR) surgery 7 years prior. Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) demonstrated severely elevated Doppler AVR velocities (VMax 4.7 m/s) and severe AVR stenosis (valve area 0.7cm2). This was the suspected cause of symptoms, and transfemoral valve-in-valve AVR valve-in-valve transcatheter aortic valve implantation (VIV-TAVI) was being considered. However, TTE image quality was suboptimal due to echocardiographic windows and valve echogenicity, precluding accurate leaflet assessment (figure 1A–D). Transoesophageal echocardiography corroborated TTE findings (VMax 5.5 m/s) but failed to delineate the mechanism of AVR restriction (figure 1E–H). Degenerative leaflet calcification was evident on echocardiography, however echogenicity around the sewing ring prevented distinction between calcification and pannus, and ultrasound dropout precluded thrombus exclusion. Figure 1 Top row (transthoracic echocardiography): (A) Parasternal long-axis view with limited AVR visualisation (open-headed arrow) with increased echogenicity which can be due to pannus, calcification or metallic valve components; (B) turbulent antegrade colour-Doppler flow; (C) apical five-chamber view with limited AVR visualisation (open-headed arrow); (D) severely elevated antegrade AVR velocities on continuous-wave Doppler (VMax 4.6 m/s) suggestive of severe valve stenosis/obstruction. Bottom row (transoesophageal echocardiography): (E-G) …

This book provides the first detailed history of the Bilingual Education Program in the Northern Territory of Australia. This ambitious and innovative program began in 1973 and at different times it operated in English and 19 Aboriginal languages in 29 very remote schools. The book draws together the grassroots perspectives of Indigenous and non-Indigenous practitioners and researchers. Each chapter is based on rich practitioner experience, capturing bottom-up aspirations, achievements and reflections on this innovative, yet largely undocumented language and education program. The volume also makes use of a significant collection of ‘grey literature’ documents to trace the history of the program. An ethnographic approach has been used to integrate practitioner accounts into the contexts of broader social and political forces, education policy decisions and on-the-ground actions. Language in education policy is viewed at multiple, intersecting levels: from the interactions of individuals, communities of practice and bureaucracy, to national and global forces. The book offers valuable insights as it examines in detail the policy settings that helped and hindered bilingual education in the context of minority language rights in Australia and elsewhere.

This chapter introduces Part 2 of the book: The Consolidation Phase. It details three key themes in this period: consolidation of the centralised Bilingual Education Program; moves towards Aboriginalisation through power sharing and pedagogy; and the increasing importance of educational accountability. One aim was to strengthen school-based bilingual programs by developing the capacity of educators through Remote Area Teacher Education and professional learning in schools. There were calls to challenge existing pedagogy by ensure that local Aboriginal knowledge was respected. New knowledge practices emerged, along with a new professional cohort of bilingual educators and leaders, new local curricula and pedagogy. At the same time, nationally and internationally, new discourses of standardisation and accountability were emerging in public administration and education, effectively limiting the momentum of local and place-based curriculum planning in remote bilingual schools.

This chapter begins Part 3 of the book by considering the official decision in 1998 to phase out bilingual programs and the vigorous campaigns such as such as the ‘Don’t cut out our tongues’ movement mounted in opposition by program staff, community members and academics. The next move by the Northern Territory government was to commission an independent review of Indigenous education. The Collin’s Report, which emerged from that review, identified weaknesses in the program, but no justification for closing it. Despite this, a number of schools lost their programs in the wake of the official decision. One recommendation from the report, which was taken up, was to adopt the term ‘Two-way education’. Some of the developments and confusions that arose are detailed in the chapter. Many of the themes touched on in Part 3 are mirrored globally by contestations concerning bilingual education and mother tongue instruction programs.

Since the 1970s school attendance and student performance data have been used to determine the status and future of bilingual education programs in remote NT schools. They have primarily been evaluated for educational planning purposes, which is both acceptable and necessary. Regrettably, evidence has also been selectively compiled by Government officials at different times, as in 2008, to serve a particular political purpose. Bilingual education has always been contested since its inception in the NT. It is argued in this chapter that had this educational approach been better understood, there would have been greater official willingness to maintain support, and to continue refining it as a model of schooling appropriate for students in remote areas. Instead, in 2008 and 2009, some decision makers publicly debunked bilingual-biliteracy education, which they poorly understood, thereby diverting schools and communities, and distracting their attention away from the work that needed to be done.

By way of introducing Part 1, ‘Starting Out’, this chapter sketches the evolution of bilingual education policy in the Northern Territory from 1950 to 1975.

The task of this chapter to consider how academic achievement in bilingual programs has been measured in the Northern Territory (NT). Particular attention is paid to relevant research projects, critical reviews of the relevant literature, external test results and Department of Education accreditation reports. Although some evidence of program effectiveness is available, it is fairly sparse, and not all of it warrants a high strength rating. Even so, it is not justifiable to claim, as some in positions of authority have done in recent years, that such evidence does not exist. There are datasets available to justify the claim that bilingual education programs can achieve better results and attract higher attendance than English-only approaches in similarly remote NT community schools.

In dozens of Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, thousands of books in Indigenous Australian languages were produced for use in classrooms, with illustrations by local artists, usually published on site and with a small local distribution. The production of these resources involved a blending of Indigenous knowledges with Western technologies bringing previously oral-only stories into a written mode, enabling a different means of transmission and a different degree of permanence, as well as a radical redefinition of text and representation. The digitisation of this body of literature in the Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages extends these shifts even further, creating new audiences, contexts and opportunities for the transmission of Indigenous knowledges contained in these books. This chapter addresses some of the implications of the changes associated with the shift from oral to paper to digital modes.

This article analyses the status and future of bilingual education programs using Indigenous languages and English in remote Northern Territory schools. It explains why this educational approach is so contested at present, resulting in an unresolved situation which can best be regarded as an uneasy compromise on the ground and a stalemate at higher levels of political decision making. If the bilingual education approach was better understood by the current NT Government, there would a strong impetus now to refine and effectively implement a model of schooling that is appropriate for students in remote areas. Instead, current politicians debunk the bilingual approach, thereby robbing schools and literacy plans of any momentum and distracting attention away from the work that needs to be done. Meanwhile, student attendance rates have fallen away to worryingly low levels (Dickson, 2010). The current regime may well resolve the impasse, but in the absence of any meaningful, open negotiation the future looks uncertain. It is too soon to judge the cost of this uncertainty, but it may well result in further alienation and the emergence of non-government alternatives.

This chapter discusses a framework for and process of ethical decision making in the context of the discipline, theories, and principles of ethics. Daily decision making within the Hospital Ethics Committee is considered and some of the emerging ethical issues in anaesthesia are discussed.

A crucial question in cross-cultural education is how to bridge the cultural and linguis- tic differences between home and school so that a child’s identity can be supported without limiting his or her chances of academic success (Eades, 1991). Various models of bilingual education have been implemented in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory of Australia but the implementation of such programmes is often far from ideal. In the school where this ethnographic study was conducted, miscom- munication between Aboriginal students and their non-Aboriginal teachers was found to be commonplace. Even by late primary school, children often did not comprehend classroom instructions in English. In addition, many students attended school irregu- larly, and many had a history of mild hearing loss due to otitis media (middle ear infection) which is highly prevalent in Australian Aboriginal communities. Cultural differences in communication were not easily differentiated from hearing-related communication problems by non-Aboriginal educators. These difficulties were exac- erbated by the lack of specialist support and appropriate training for teachers in cross-cultural communication and ESL teaching. Although the Aboriginal teaching assistants were often effective in minimising communication breakdown, the extent of miscommunication severely inhibited the children’s education when English was the language of instruction and interaction. The problem identified is one that should be of major concern to all concerned with Aboriginal education.

Aboriginal bilingual education in Australia represents much more than a range of education programs. It has been a measure of non-Aboriginal commitment to either assimilation or cultural pluralism, and has fomented debate on ideological questions such as: What range of skills and knowledge qualify a person to be a teacher? Do Aboriginal languages and cultures have valuable contributions to make to the post-industrial world? Does writing undermine or strengthen the long-term viability of previously unwritten languages? When are people ‘ready’ to control a school? What constitutes legitimate measures of success or failure, or value for money in education? How important are English and Western mathematics to Aboriginal well-being, self-determination and even cultural survival in the modern world? What roles do bilingual schools play in maintaining Aboriginal languages and cultures? And finally, what are schools for?

This paper provides the first published account of how bilingual programs in Aboriginal Community schools have been evaluated in the Northern Territory of Australia from their inception in 1973 to the present day. It comprises five main sections: (1) an introductory review of the literature on the evaluation of bilingual education; (2) a brief account of the first phase of evaluation in the NT, 1973 to 1978, when advice from technical experts was actively sought; (3) a report on the second phase, the accreditation of programs by central-office staff, 1979 to 1987, when groups of students from selected schools were comparatively assessed; (4) an analysis of the third phase, community-based appraisal, which commenced in 1988, and (5) some reflections and a conclusion. It is noted that this three-phase shift over the last two decades — from centralized decisionmaking reliant on outside technical advice, to an ambitious assessment and accreditation model, to community-based school appraisal — is in line with trends reported elsewhere by Fitzpatrick (1988) and Sanders (1988).