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The purpose of this study was to examine the factors related to self-efficacy for Java programming among first year engineering students. An instrument assessing Java programming self-efficacy was developed from the computer programming self-efficacy scale of Ramalingam & Wiedenbeck. The instrument was administered at the beginning of the course via Internet with a questionnaire concerning gender, department, computer skills, computer experience, frequency of computer use and family background. Results indicated that self-efficacy of males were stronger than females, 11.8% of the variance in self-efficacy was explained by computer experience, the correlation coefficient calculated with the regression factor score of computer skills and self-efficacy scores was statistically significant. In addition siblings use of computers was significant and the mother's role was critical. The Java Programming Self-Efficacy Scale is appended. (Contains 2 figures and 3 tables.)

The aim of this study is to quantify the influence of the photon energy spectrum of brachytherapy sources on task group No. 43 (TG-43) dosimetric parameters.

Plant growth on sands is often constrained by water repellence, low fertility and low water-holding capacity (WHC). These soils also have low organic carbon (OC) concentration, particularly in a bleached A2 horizon. Addition of subsoil clay to sands (clay modification) can overcome these constraints and increase WHC; however, little is known about the effect on OC concentration. Clay addition is predicted to increase OC storage via increased OC input from improved plant growth and increased stabilisation of OC by binding to clays. The objectives of this study were (i) to validate the number of soil samples required within a 25-m grid for accurate OC and bulk density measurement in clay-modified soils and (ii) to determine OC concentration, bulk density and OC stocks in clay-modified compared with unmodified soil. The study was carried out on two agricultural properties in South Australia, where unmodified controls (sands with 1-3% clay) were compared with three methods of modification using clay (clay spread, delved and spaded). Soil cores to 50 cm depth were collected after harvest within a 25-m grid. The study showed that clay modification could increase OC stocks (0-30 cm) by up to 141 [ha.sup.-1] in the South East and 221 [ha.sup.-1] in the Eyre Peninsula. However, the magnitude of the OC stock increase was influenced by the modification method and depended on concentration and depth of incorporation of the added clay and organic matter. Additional keywords: clay delving, clay spading, clay spreading. Received 24 July 2015, accepted 23 July 2016, published online 13 September 2016, Introduction Sands are defined as profiles with sand to loamy sand topsoil texture (clay content Clay spreading has been extensively used since the early 1990s in the south-east of South [...]

As highly intelligent autonomous robots are gradually introduced into the home and workplace, ensuring public safety becomes extremely important. Given that such machines will learn from interactions with their environment, standard safety engineering methodologies may not be applicable. Instead, we need to ensure that the machines themselves know right from wrong; we need moral mechanisms. Morality, however, has traditionally been considered a defining characteristic, indeed the sole realm of human beings; that which separates us from animals. But if only humans can be moral, can we build safe robots? If computationalism--roughly the thesis that cognition, including human cognition, is fundamentally computational--is correct, then morality cannot be restricted to human beings (since equivalent cognitive systems can be implemented in any medium). On the other hand, perhaps there is something special about our biological makeup that gives rise to morality, and so computationalism is effectively falsified. This paper examines these issues by looking at the nature of morals and the influence of biology. It concludes that moral behaviour is concerned solely with social well-being, independent of the nature of the individual agents that comprise the group. While our biological makeup is the root of our concept of morals and clearly affects human moral reasoning, there is no basis for believing that it will restrict the development of artificial moral agents. The consequences of such sophisticated artificial mechanisms living alongside natural human ones are also explored. Keywords Moral agent * Moral patient * Computationalism * AI * Safety, 1 Introduction To some, the idea of a moral mechanism will seem blasphemous, to others, the stuff of science fiction; yet to an increasing number of philosophers, scientists and engineers, [...]