Impact of extra-curricular activities on adolescents\u27 connectedness and cigarette smoking: annual report

Cigarette smoking is the primary cause of preventable death in Australia, killing approximately 19,000 people every year.8 Up to 90% of smokers begin smoking by 18 years of age.9,10 In spite of the obvious public health burden, current approaches have led to very modest decreases in adolescent smoking in the past 10 years. 11 The Smoking Cessation for Youth Project (SCYP)4 was a cluster randomised control trial that resulted in lower cigarette smoking among Year 10 students who received a harm minimisation intervention over two years. This project also led to the identification of connectedness as a key mediator of cigarette smoking. In a subsequent formative evaluation, we have explored the role of extra-curricular activities in mediating school connectedness (details later). This longitudinal cohort study seeks to quantify the potential benefits of participation in extra-curricular activities, via increases in school, family and community connectedness, in reducing cigarette smoking and a range of other health compromising behaviours

Evaluating Educational Practices for Positively Affecting Student Perceptions of a Sales Career

Despite demand for new graduates seeking a sales position, student reticence toward pursuing a sales career remains. While all students will not choose a sales career, diminishing the existence of sales-related misconceptions among the student population should establish sales as a viable career path for a larger number of students. We test six educational interventions in large Principle of Marketing classes from three different universities (n = 1,355) to help identify educational practices for reducing student reticence toward a career in sales. Our results show that while all six educational approaches raise students’ perceptions and interest in a selling career, the utilization of experienced salespeople to present classroom materials and to discuss their sales career was the most effective. Classroom lecture and role-plays by university sales students had the second highest intent to pursue intervention scores. We offer recommendations for how to best present sales material to these large, lecture-based courses

A Parsimonious Instrument for Predicting Students’ Intent to Pursue a Sales Career: Scale Development and Validation

Students’ desire and intention to pursue a career in sales continue to lag behind industry demand for sales professionals. This article develops and validates a reliable and parsimonious scale for measuring and predicting student intention to pursue a selling career. The instrument advances previous scales in three ways. The instrument is generalizable across academic settings and is shown to be sensitive to differences across varied course coverage and learning activities. The instrument is parsimonious and offers a high reliability coefficient. Finally, the instrument is validated both before and after exposure to a sales module, thus capturing perceptual and attitudinal changes as students become more familiar with this career option

More than skin deep

Regular readers of the Australian Journal of Physiotherapy will have noticed a number of cosmetic changes made to the journal since it received its last major facelift at the beginning of 1999. Most of these changes have been designed to make the journal a more attractive “read”. But the real changes go more than skin deep. The Editorial Board has been implementing structural changes to the way that the journal is produced and disseminated, with the aim of ensuring that scientifically credible and clinically important information is delivered to as wide an audience as possible

Computational analysis of the fluid-structure interaction occurring in a model of two vehicles overtaking each other

A computational study has been conducted to investigate the transient aerodynamic forces experienced by two vehicles overtaking each other. Ahmed body model has been used to represent the vehicles. The transient effects during the overtaking scenario have been determined by using a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model. This has been achieved by developing an open source computational code. The aerodynamic effects have been investigated by emulating this event in a virtual wind tunnel. One of the generic vehicles was set to be stationary, while the other was allowed to be moving at constant speed. The Delayed Detached Eddy simulation (DDES) turbulence approach has been applied in this study based on the finite volume analysis (FVA). The computational results such as fluid forces and moments acting on the vehicle structures have been compared against published experimental results. Encouraging correlations between those results are observed. In the present work, the fluid-structure interaction (FSI) phenomenon has also been studied by developing a flexible body dynamic model. The modal and dynamic responses are determined from FEM analysis by the application of fluid transient loads obtained from the CFD model. This investigation is important to address the issue of stability and performance of the vehicle system. This work provides a significant understanding into the complex aerodynamics of an overtaking process and gives the foundation for further analysis in the area of fluid-structure interactions for more complex geometries and scenarios

Observations on acoustic emissions from a line contact compressed into the plastic region

Some observations from acoustic emissions recorded during a yield test of a bearing raceway compressed into plasticity using a rolling element are presented. The general objective of the study is to establish whether there is enough evidence of the onset of sub-surface plasticity in the acoustic emissions signature. It is discussed here how acoustic emissions monitoring during compression could indicate the onset of subsurface plasticity as a precursor to damage propagation to the surface. Some comparisons are drawn between the acoustic emissions activity levels and time-frequency response during elastic deformation and at yield loads

O-Antigen Biosynthesis: Hitting the Sweet Spot for a Q Fever Vaccine

Poster presented at the 2017 Defence and Security Doctoral Symposium.Coxiella burnetii, the causative agent of Q fever, is a pathogen with a worldwide distribution. Biological material shed from ruminant infections contaminates dirt and dust, which can cause infection on inhalation. Humans generally present with flu-like symptoms, however, patients can develop life-changing maladies such as hepatitis, chronic fatigue, and endocarditis. Q fever was initially identified as a military problem when thousands were affected during WWI. More recently, Q fever has been recognised as a problem in UK troops returning from Afghanistan. C. burnetii is classified as a CDC category B bioterrorism agent, the second highest category, yet there is no Q fever vaccine licensed in the UK/EU/US. For C. burnetii, the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is the main determinant of virulence, and many of the most effective modern vaccines target such sugar structures. Furthermore, the sugars that comprise the C. burnetii LPS are highly unusual, making this the primary target for vaccine development. In order to facilitate production of a subunit vaccine, focus is on elucidating the pathways for biosynthesis of two very rare sugars, virenose and dihydrohydroxystreptose (DHHS). Therefore in addition to providing the basis for a novel Q fever vaccine, for livestock and humans, this project will highlight novel biochemistry