Don't be abstract: Crafting an impactful abstract for educational technology research

The abstract is a key element of a research article that can enhance the utility, discoverability and impact of the work presented. However, the quality and consistency of abstracts can vary, and the state of abstracts in the educational technology field has received little attention to date. In this editorial, we examine the purpose, structure and future of the abstract in educational technology research to provide advice on how to write a good and impactful abstract. A list of 14 elements derived from the literature was used to analyse the abstracts of the first 10 articles published in 2024 from each of the top 10 educational technology journals ranked by Google Scholar (n = 100). Elements such as background, aim, methods, results and implications were found to be present in most abstracts, although there is room for improvement in clarity in some cases. Other elements, including research questions, hypotheses and future directions, are not often incorporated, indicating these elements may not be necessary in this context. These findings can be used by authors to structure an impactful abstract and also highlight elements (e.g., theoretical framework, sample size and context) that should be included to improve discoverability of published work

What do nurses practising in rural, remote and isolated locations consider important for attraction and retention? A scoping review

Introduction: Nurses play a vital role in the provision of healthcare in rural, remote, and isolated locations. Consequently, the current global nursing workforce shortage has significant and far-ranging implications for these communities where there are enduring issues with workforce maldistribution and shortage, instability, high staff turnover, and health disparities. This article provides an analysis of existing literature on what rural, remote, and isolated practising nurses view as important for the attraction and retention of this workforce in the Australian context.Methods: A structured scoping review informed by Arksey and O’Malley’s framework for conducting scoping studies was undertaken. Six electronic databases were searched in August 2022. Cosgrave’s person-centred retention improvement framework (which includes attraction) for addressing health workforce challenges in rural contexts was used to guide the synthesis and interpretation of information from the included studies. Key themes were identified inductively, conceptualised within Cosgrave’s framework, and mapped to the overarching lifecycle stages of attraction, retention, and resignation, also referred to as turnover or decision to leave.Results: Twelve articles met the inclusion criteria for this review. Six themes related to attraction, retention, and resignation were identified: 1. Demanding role and scope of practice; 2. Values divergence and professional opportunities; 3. Continuing professional development and mentoring; 4. Social, lifestyle, and personal or family; 5. Management and organisation; and 6. Pay and incentives. The issues articulated within each of these themes overlapped, highlighting the complexities involved.Conclusion: Limited empirical research that combines a person-centred and whole-of-lifecycle approach to understanding the rural and remote nursing workforce was found. However, our analysis of existing evidence suggests that such approaches are required to appropriately plan for and target solutions that centre nurses’ specific needs and experiences for the future nursing workforce. Relatedly, limited translational research on the nursing workforce that explicitly includes and engages with nurses was found. Such research is fundamentally needed to improve retention outcomes.Keywords: attraction, motivations, nursing workforce, recruitment, resignation, retention, rural nursing, remote nursing, isolated nursing, turnover

Understanding the challenges in bushfire map use and effective decision-making amongst the Australian public

Bushfire maps are an important tool in decision-making and risk awareness during bushfire events, however they are understudied in the literature. This study uses qualitative data from three locations in Australia in 2022 and 2023 to understand how maps are used during a bushfire event to better inform and aid bushfire map design. The results show that maps provide an array of information during bushfires including information on the bushfire itself, traffic conditions and weather updates. This information helped individuals form their own risk assessments. However, the trustworthiness and credibility of maps were questioned by participants due to a lack of perceived timely updates and inconsistency between information sources. Participants in the study also expressed a desire for maps to convey more detailed information on the bushfire and related events, however prior evidence suggests that people tend to misinterpret complex maps. This study therefore finds that it is important that official bushfire maps are: updated in a timely manner, clearly display their time and date of issue, and include relevant information (with an understanding that including too much or complex information may be problematic for comprehension). These findings will have implications for how bushfire maps should be designed and disseminated to the public to ensure comprehension

Reinhabiting, Reimagining, and Recreating Ableist Spaces: Embodied Criticality In Art

In this chapter we bring critical disability studies into dialogue with disability artworks that resituate critiques of inaccessibility and exclusion as complicated encounters with space, lived experience and embodiment. Drawing on Irit Rogoff’s (2003, 2006) notions of embodied criticality, and the pioneering work of performance studies scholar Petra Kuppers (2003, 2014), we argue for an embodied, embedded and creative form of critical disability studies – enacted through art. We examine two recent performance and installation works in hotels: Welcome Inn (2019) by British artist Christopher Samuel, and Intimate Space (2017) by Australian performance company Restless Dance Theatre. Concentrating hotels as part-public/part-private spaces where lived experiences of power and colonisation of human bodies, relationships, and potentials play out through time-based encounters between disabled and non-disabled people and their environments, these artworks draw spectator-participants into embodied critique. In so doing, these works highlight an important shift between social model driven activist artworks of the past – which foregrounded the visibility and agency of the disabled body – and critical disability studies driven activist artworks of the present – which explore the uncertain ground of actual embodied-ness and attempts to reclaim spaces colonised and recolonised by ableist worldviews. We argue that the key political manouvre in many earlier works concentrated on situating disabled bodies in the spaces from which they were traditionally excluded, focusing on an activist agenda around visibility and provocation. In works like Welcome Inn and Intimate Space, however, artists deepen engagement with criticality as a means of exploring new possibilities for embodiment, identity, and agency (Shildrick 2019). The works engage disabled and non-disabled audiences in lived, embodied, interactive, and durational critique of the inaccessibility of spaces constantly colonised by ableist worldviews. In the process, they start to reveal how embodied critical encounters with art can also lead to questions about how we might access different ways of inhabiting spaces – theoretical, lived, and imagined – and different ways of relating to ourselves and each other in space

Prioritising children's participation in research: including children's voices in updating a national early learning framework

Involving children as stakeholders and including their voices in updating the Australian Early Years Learning Framework (for children birth to age 5) was a focus of this project design. The design was grounded in participatory approaches with a children’s rights perspective, as the team prioritised seeking children’s views and encouraging their agency on matters that affect them. This three-stage research project across 15 months sought children’s input in each stage. Research methods consisted of everyday playful activities supported by educators in early childhood environments using dialogic drawing, talking circles and discussions using photo elicitation. Educators received information to support their use of these methods. While parents/carers gave ethical consent, children’s assent was obtained. Across the three stages, analysis of children’s drawings, comments and discussions showed the importance of their relationships with educators, their friends and the relationships between their educators and families. These findings demonstrate the importance of educators building reciprocal, respectful relationships with children and their families and between children. Further, these research methods fitted with the foundational pedagogical practices of the educators, with educators commenting on how useful they were and children on how they enjoyed using them

Learning Visual-Inertial Odometry With Robocentric Iterated Extended Kalman Filter

In recent years, deep learning methodologies have been increasingly applied to the intricate challenges of visual-inertial odometry (VIO), especially in scenarios with rapid movements and scenes lacking clear structure. This paper introduces a novel hybrid approach that leverages the inherent strengths of traditional VIO techniques, while harnessing the potential of advanced machine learning technologies. By seamlessly integrating an iterated extended Kalman filter with deep learning techniques, our approach systematically takes into account uncertainties, thereby enhancing the overall reliability and robustness of the system. The proposed algorithm has been rigorously evaluated on the KITTI and EuroC datasets, outperforming other deep learning VIO methods. It achieved a translation error of 2.28% and a rotation error of 0.226 degrees per 100 meters on the KITTI odometry dataset.</p

ACPNS Legal Case Notes Series: 2024-124 Allan et al. v. Thunder Bay Regional et al.

Ontario Superior Court of Justice, H M Pierce J, 6 June 2024Whether a hand written codicil to a will was valid.<br/

Analysis of magnetic fluid heat transfer in biological tissues subjected to a semi-infinite region by artificial boundary method

This paper introduces modifications to the classical Pennes’ equation through the Cattaneo correction and considers the influence of a magnetic field on the heat generation of the fluid in a semi-infinite region. The traditional method to treat the problem in unbounded regions is to use a large interval to approximate the infinite region, which leads to large deviations of the solution at the truncated boundaries for a long-time numerical simulation. Using the artificial boundary method, the problem in infinite domains can be converted into an equivalent problem in the bounded domains with the absorbing boundary condition, of which the solution would be more physically reasonable and accurate. The governing equation subject to the absorbing boundary condition is discretized using the finite difference method and leads to effective numerical solutions. We analyze the effects of various parameters including the relaxation parameter, heat transfer coefficient, blood perfusion rate, blood tissue density, magnetic fluid concentration, magnitude, magnetic field frequency, and oscillatory boundary condition on the temperature distribution. The study validates the effectiveness of the absorbing boundary condition when addressing problems in unbounded regions. Some important findings are that the relaxation parameter has a delay effect on magnetic fluid heat transfer and magnetic fluid concentration, and the magnetic field strength and magnetic field frequency are directly proportional to magnetic fluid heat production.</p

Early learning for sustainability through STEAM

In this chapter, the authors write about science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and its relationship with ECEfS. They argue that these fields are connected through their common, underpinning inquiry-based approaches to learning and teaching. They illustrate these connections through two stories from the field. They take these connections even further, however, and show how STEM and ECEfS can be enriched by adding an ‘A’ into STEM, to become STEAM. The ‘A’ stands for the ‘arts’, which can broadly include the humanities and social sciences. By expanding STEM into STEAM, richer, fuller learning experiences can be generated that offer stronger interdisciplinary connections to the ways in which the world really works, where empathy, creativity and curiosity are fostered and given multiple opportunities to be expressed. They show how a STEAM approach focusing on the creative arts can be used to reflect on artworks, for example, and how it can enrich a study of frogs and frog habitats. The authors also introduce a practical guide to assist early childhood educators to choose appropriate pedagogies when using inquiry-based learning. This is the IKOPE planning model – interest, knowledge, organisation, practice, empower – a series of iterative steps that build on children’s interests, supporting the creativity, problem-solving and communication of their STEAM learning

Queensland's response to the 2021-22 floods: Critical reflections on the Resilient Homes Fund

Floods are among the costliest disasters in Australia (Dufty et al., 2020), posing significant environmental, social, and legal challenges. This paper examines the strategies implemented to address the repercussions of the 2021–22 Queensland floods and mitigate future flooding impacts. It highlights the value of the Resilient Homes Fund program and practical issues faced by homeowners, as observed by a lawyer from HUB Community Legal, one of the community legal services providing independent and free legal advice to flood-affected communities. The paper also explores potential enhancements to better address the multifaceted impacts of floods and to mitigate escalating socioeconomic inequities driven by the climate crisis