The Industry Advisory Board Event - A Decade of Best Practices

As the leading global advocate of quality construction education, the mission of the American Council for Construction Education1 (ACCE) is to promote, support, and accredit quality construction education programs. ACCE is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) as the accrediting agency for master’s degree programs, four-year baccalaureate degree programs and two-year associate degree programs in construction, construction science, construction management, and construction technology. ACCE accredits approximately 100 construction programs at the associate, baccalaureate, and master’s degree levels. The Industry Advisory Board (IAB) Event is one of the educational programs offered annually at the ACCE mid-year meeting in February. Launched in 2010, the IAB Event has gained steady support and momentum from both the construction industry and ACCE accredited academic programs. The daylong IAB Event format includes multiple sessions that focus specifically on the needs of IAB members and the academic programs they support. The IAB Event offers workshops, seminars, panel discussions, presentations, and networking opportunities that have demonstrated proven value to industry, academia, and administrative participants, year after year. This event is unique in demonstrating practical and real-world examples, such as: • The roles and responsibilities of IAB membership. • Meaningful industry participation at the local IAB level. • Communication strategies to engage a network of industry professionals for the exchange of ideas in an open forum. • The tools, training, and resources necessary to create and maintain a “high-impact” IAB. The content of this paper examines the origins and evolution of the IAB Event; documents the progress of the event in terms of attendance; revenues and expenditures; programs, panel sessions, and workshops that have been presented; and outlines the value received by attendees in the form of evaluation surveys

Social value, the cultural component in natural resource management

This article explores an issue of increasing relevance to protected area management, the identification of social value and the incorporation of such values into protected area management strategies. Fundamental to this is an understanding of the beleaguered concepts of "community" and "community value" or "social value". The cultural attachment of people to landscapes or places is discussed with a view to leading protected area managers to a recognition of cultural (social) value which may be summarised as: * Acceptance that it is a base level responsibility of protected area management agencies in Australia to recognise and conserve all heritage values (i.e. both cultural and natural) in a particular landscape (or seascape). * Recognition that cultural heritage values include the social attachment of people to landscapes, landscape elements and associated cultural practice. * Extension of the existing practice of documenting, researching and auditing the nature, range and conservation status of natural heritage to achieve a similar level of knowledge and status of cultural heritage. * Acceptance that sound and equitable conservation outcomes rely not only on educating the public but also in learning from them, particularly in relation to cultural heritage values and the nature of attachment to landscape

Hunting magic, maintenance ceremonies and increase sites exploring traditional management systems for marine resources in northern Cape York Peninsula

Emerging archaeological evidence from archaeological sites in northern Cape York has the potential to shed light on indigenous cultural practices relating to turtle hunting. This paper explores the nexus between cultural practice and indigenous ecological knowledge and 'lost' knowledge which has implications for how Traditional Owners may chose to manage resources today. Often when we hear of Indigenous environmental management techniques the focus is on management 'practices' e.g mosaic burning, rather than 'systems'. While not denying that some practices may be useful or cost effective alternatives to other 'western science' based land management practices the question needs to be asked: how effective can these be in ecosystem management if adopted in isolation of the other components of Indigenous management systems? Lines (2006) has challenged the efficacy of Indigenous management systems and questioned their sustainability but provides little evidence that he understands the complexity of such systems and the interrelationship of nature and culture, or indeed that he believes such systems exist. A more valid question is, what happens to these complex systems when key elements are discontinued, lost or destroyed? Perhaps if we, in partnership with Aboriginal communities, explore the changes to such systems over time we can begin to understand the consequences of these changes and the implications for long term species and ecosystem management. This paper provides preliminary outcomes of a current archaeological project which may further this discussion. At the time when European's were first recording observations along the Cape York Peninsula coastline, Aboriginal people and their Torres Strait Islander neighbours were hunting and consuming turtle and dugong in numbers great enough to be remarked on. Sites comprising heaped turtle and dugong bones were noted and in some cases sketched. Populations of both animals were however extremely healthy, the size of herds of dugong (Thorne 1876; Jackson et al 2001) and the proliferation of turtle were also remarked on. Was this just some kind of coincidence or was there an Indigenous system in place that actively contributed to the sustainability of this resource

Book review: Archaeology Matters: action archaeology in the modern world by Jeremy A. Sabloff, Left Coast Press

This book is written primarily for first year archaeology students and the general public. It attempts to address the perennial question of 'what use is a study of archaeology to society today?

Possibility in impossibility?: working with beginning teachers of English in times of change

Beginning teachers of English are entering a profession in which their subject is increasingly framed according to prescriptive models of literacy. This is happening at a time of shift away from university ITE provision towards schoolled training. We offer a spatialised theorisation of the ways in which beginning teachers of English have drawn from the balance of practical and theoretical approaches encountered in their qualifying year to engage with tensions between policy and practice. We suggest that university ITE provides important interstitial spaces in which they can explore some of these tensions and navigate pedagogies, principles and values. In doing so, they are negotiating alternatives, which, we argue, represent powerful potential for their future within the profession

Possibility in impossibility?: working with beginning teachers of English in times of change

Beginning teachers of English are entering a profession in which their subject is increasingly framed according to prescriptive models of literacy. This is happening at a time of shift away from university ITE provision towards schoolled training. We offer a spatialised theorisation of the ways in which beginning teachers of English have drawn from the balance of practical and theoretical approaches encountered in their qualifying year to engage with tensions between policy and practice. We suggest that university ITE provides important interstitial spaces in which they can explore some of these tensions and navigate pedagogies, principles and values. In doing so, they are negotiating alternatives, which, we argue, represent powerful potential for their future within the profession

14C contamination testing in natural abundance laboratories: a new preparation method using wet chemical oxidation and some experiences

Substances enriched with radiocarbon can easily contaminate samples and laboratories used for natural abundance measurements. We have developed a new method using wet chemical oxidation for swabbing laboratories and equipment to test for 14C contamination. Here, we report the findings of 18 months’ work and more than 800 tests covering studies at multiple locations. Evidence of past and current use of enriched 14C was found at all but one location and a program of testing and communication was used to mitigate its effects. Remediation was attempted with mixed success and depended on the complexity and level of the contamination. We describe four cases from different situations

The cost-effectiveness of Antiretroviral Treatment in Khayelitsha, South Africa – a primary data analysis

BACKGROUND: Given the size of the HIV epidemic in South Africa and other developing countries, scaling up antiretroviral treatment (ART) represents one of the key public health challenges of the next decade. Appropriate priority setting and budgeting can be assisted by economic data on the costs and cost-effectiveness of ART. The objectives of this research were therefore to estimate HIV healthcare utilisation, the unit costs of HIV services and the cost per life year (LY) and quality adjusted life year (QALY) gained of HIV treatment interventions from a provider's perspective. METHODS: Data on service utilisation, outcomes and costs were collected in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Utilisation of a full range of HIV healthcare services was estimated from 1,729 patients in the Khayelitsha cohort (1,146 No-ART patient-years, 2,229 ART patient-years) using a before and after study design. Full economic costs of HIV-related services were calculated and were complemented by appropriate secondary data. ART effects (deaths, therapy discontinuation and switching to second-line) were from the same 1,729 patients followed for a maximum of 4 years on ART. No-ART outcomes were estimated from a local natural history cohort. Health-related quality of life was assessed on a sub-sample of 95 patients. Markov modelling was used to calculate lifetime costs, LYs and QALYs and uncertainty was assessed through probabilistic sensitivity analysis on all utilisation and outcome variables. An alternative scenario was constructed to enhance generalizability. RESULTS: Discounted lifetime costs for No-ART and ART were US$2,743 and US$9,435 over 2 and 8 QALYs respectively. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio through the use of ART versus No-ART was US$1,102 (95$984 (95% CI 913-1,078) per life year gained. In an alternative scenario where adjustments were made across cost, outcome and utilisation parameters, costs and outcomes were lower, but the ICER was similar. CONCLUSION: Decisions to scale-up ART across sub-Saharan Africa have been made in the absence of incremental lifetime cost and cost-effectiveness data which seriously limits attempts to secure funds at the global level for HIV treatment or to set priorities at the country level. This article presents baseline cost-effectiveness data from one of the longest running public healthcare antiretroviral treatment programmes in Africa that could assist in enhancing efficient resource allocation and equitable access to HIV treatment

Roger Llewellyn Dunmore Cribb Obituary (1948 - 2007)

This publication does not have an abstract. The first two paragraphs of this article are displayed as the abstract. Many people knew Roger Cribb, or we thought we did. Since he died on Sunday 26 August 2007 in Cairns, north Queensland, a variety of people have written about the Roger they knew (for example, the obituaries by his ex-wife and friend Gulcin Cribb (2007) and the Wikipedia page put together by Bruce White (2007)). The questions many of us now ask ourselves are 'How many Rogers were there?' and 'Where did the Roger we know fit in?' I was asked to write this obituary and I was happy to do so as I admired Roger's tenacity and his genuine concern for Aboriginal peoples in Cape York. However, I felt inadequate for the task on my own and so sought input from two other north Queenslanders who knew him well, Bruce White and George Skeene. Bruce worked with Roger at Tharpuntoo Legal Service and George is a Yirrganydji Traditional Owner with whom Roger worked on a voluntary basis over many years, helping him to map and record the archaeological sites of his people

Allosteric modulation of beta1 integrin function induces lung repair in animal model of emphysema.

Emphysema is a progressive lung disease characterised by loss of lung parenchyma with associated functional changes including decreased tissue elastance. Here we report beta1 integrin is a novel target for tissue repair and regeneration in emphysema. We show a single dose of a monoclonal antibody against beta1 integrin induced both functional and structural reversal of elastase-induced lung injury in vivo, and we found that similar matrix remodelling changes occurred in human lung tissue. We also identified a potential mechanism of action as this allosteric modulation of beta1 integrin inhibited elastase-induced caspase activation, F-actin aggregate formation and changes in cellular ATP levels. This was accompanied by maintenance of beta1?integrin levels and inhibition of caveolin-1 phosphorylation. We propose that allosteric modulation of beta1 integrin-mediated mechanosensing prevents cell death associated with lung injury and progressive emphysema, thus allowing cells to survive and for repair and regeneration to ensue