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Evolution of first year teaching of electrical engineering
No full textHighlighted in this paper are the developments of first-year teaching of electrical engineering at the University of South Australia (UniSA). The first motivation for change was a diminished enrolment of engineering students, which impacted the budget. The second motivation was to modernise the courses by aligning them with current industry practices. Increasing a programme or course attractiveness and industry relevance were seen as a means to address the budgetary position. This results in offering more variety and flexibility to students that lead to an inevitable fragmentation of the student population. An insight is presented in this paper into the evolution of the first year electrical engineering course at UniSA over two decades, from 1994 to 2013, which reflects the past, current and future developments. Changes to engineering curricula have occurred worldwide as a result of the modernisation of the engineering and science disciplines, technological developments and, also, due to economic factors. The UniSA case illustrates these overall trends.
Large-system analysis of the K-hop AF MIMO relay channel with arbitrary inputs
No full textThe present paper investigates the achievable data rates of multi-hop amplify-and-forward multi-antenna relay channels with arbitrary number of hops K. Each multi-antenna terminal in the system amplifies the received signal and retransmits it upstream. To analyze the ergodic end-to-end mutual information of the system, one has to perform averaging over the fading coefficients. To overcome this difficulty we apply large-system analysis, based on the assumption that the number of antennas grows without bound at every terminal. Using the replica method, we derive an explicit asymptotic expression for the ergodic mutual information between the input and output of the K-hop channel with no restrictions on the channel inputs. Numerical results support the validity of the replica analysis and show that the result is tight even for small antenna arrays.
Service Quality Perception and Satisfaction: Buying Behaviour Prediction in an Australian Festivalscape
No full textThe study was conducted on 358 attendees at a major wine festival in Australia. A positive relationship between quality perception and overall satisfaction constructs exists. New insight to festivalscape knowledge is provided through the first‐time and repeat visitor dynamic as predictor of actual buying behaviour. Higher percentage of repeat visitors correlates with higher likelihood of (wine) buying. Overall satisfaction is a stronger predictor of buying behaviour than any individual service quality dimension and of these quality dimensions overall. Repeat visitors, 35 years and older, are the highest yielding visitor group from a financial viewpoint. First‐time visitors are more short‐term oriented in their planning when making the final decision to attend the event.
The balancing act between regionality and American Viticultural Areas (AVAs)
No full textThis paper explored and provides a literature meta-analysis of the relationship between American Viticultural Areas (AVAs), and their concurrent geopolitical regions (counties). The ever-increasing number of AVAs results is a fragmented offering in terms of the place-of-origin marketing strategy to consumers and is not desirable, especially when the AVA is not represented along with a regional context. Most AVAs have very weak regional brand strength when compared with that of their corresponding counties. The industry bias toward marketing unknown appellations could therefore be enhanced by reference to strong, value-laden regional images. The nature and strength of these regional brand images should be determined through directed research efforts first.
Understanding Climate Change Adaptive Behaviour of Farmers: An Integrated Conceptual Framework
No full textClimate change is a pressing concern for the agricultural sector of both developed and developing countries due to the heavy reliance of this primary sector on climate conditions. However, little research effort has gone into understanding underlying cognitive factors that implicitly and explicitly guide the climate change adaptation process of farmers and the combined influence of socioeconomic and psychological factors on their adaptive behaviour. Since the importance of psychological factors and the reinforcement of psychology and economics to each other in explaining human behaviour have been well recognised, this paper employs behavioural economic viewpoints, protection motivation theory, and the theory of planned behaviour as the foundation. An integrated conceptual framework has been developed that takes into account psychological as well as socio-economic factors and examines the interaction among those variables in explaining farmers’ decision-making process regarding climate change adaptation. The framework aims to provide a better understanding of farmers’ adaptive behaviour in response to climate change.
Increased erythrocyte eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid are associated with improved attention and behavior in children with ADHD in a randomized controlled three-way crossover trial
No full textConclusion: Increasing erythrocyte DHA and EPA via dietary supplementation may improve behavior, attention, and literacy in children with ADHD. (J. of Att. Dis. XXXX; XX(X) XX-XX)
"Awake, smoky, and hot" : providing an evidence-base for managing the risks associated with occupational stressors encountered by wildland firefighters
No full textTo curtail the spread of wildfire, firefighters are often required to work long hours in hot, smoky conditions with little rest between consecutive shifts. In isolation, heat, smoke, and sleep disruption can have a detrimental impact on cognitive and physical abilities. Far less is known, however, about the combined impact that heat, smoke, and sleep disruption can have on firefighters' performance during wildfire suppression or on human performance in general. The available literature, though scant, suggests that audio and visual tracking may be degraded after sustained heat exposure following one night of sleep deprivation. Exposure to heat and carbon monoxide, in contrast, appears to have only limited impact on cognitive performance, even after physical exercise. Heat and carbon monoxide exposure does, however, increase physiological exertion to a given work or exercise bout. To the authors' knowledge, there are no published studies that have explored the impacts of heat exposure following sleep disruption on physical work performance, sleep disruption and smoke exposure on physical or cognitive work, or the combined impacts of sleep disruption, smoke and heat exposure on cognitive or physical work. While more integrative research is needed, the current review provides a summary of the available evidence and an indication of the degree of confidence agencies can have in the research. This will allow both the scientific community and agencies to make informed recommendations regarding the management of wildland firefighters' health and safety on the fireground.
Everyday risks and professional dilemmas : fieldwork with alcohol-based (sporting) subcultures
No full textThis article discusses some of the everyday risks and professional dilemmas encountered when conducting participant-observation based research into the use and meaning of alcohol among fans of Australian Rules football. The key risks and dilemmas were those that emerged from female researchers entering into a predominantly male football subculture in which alcohol is routinely (and often excessively) consumed, the negotiation of key gatekeepers, the potential dangers of conducting research with participants who are inebriated and the duty of care to research participants. The article draws on an eighteen-month period of ethnographic fieldwork to highlight the risks and dilemmas negotiated and re-negotiated throughout the research process. The article argues that a failure to attend to these and other risks and dilemmas can threaten the viability of research among drinking-based communities and subcultures.
Gas-sensing properties of p-type α-Fe2O3 polyhedral particles synthesized via a modified polyol method
No full textThe gas sensing properties of polyhedral α-Fe2O3 particles were investigated. The polyhedral α-Fe2O3 particles were synthesized via a modified polyol method with the addition of an extra amount of NaBH4 in ethylene glycol, and fabricated to a thick gas sensing film after calcination at 500 °C and 900 °C. The polyhedral α-Fe2O3 particles exhibited a p-type nature, which is a new result opposite to other results of recent reports of semiconductor gas sensors using α-Fe2O3. In particular, we suggest that the difference between structure and morphology of α-Fe2O3 particles can lead to p-type and n-type characterization. In addition, we suggested that Na ions from NaBH4 were incorporated into α-Fe2O3 oxide. They are the cause of the generation of holes in α-Fe2O3 oxide that led to the p-type nature of α-Fe2O3 oxide. The measurement of the sensor response to hydrogen, carbon monoxide, toluene, propane and ethanol revealed that the sensor device synthesized using polyhedral α-Fe2O3 particles is sensitive to hydrocarbons and ethanol. Importantly, the sensor device using polyhedral α-Fe2O3 particles calcined at 900 °C was strongly sensitive to ethanol due to the porous structure of the α-Fe2O3 particles.