Greater training is necessary to put open data at the heart of Research Data Management policy and practice.

As higher education institutions look to implement broader visions of openness, there is a need to re-assess the training and skills required for appropriate research data management (RDM). Geoff Curtis and Stéphane Goldstein present the findings of a report on how best to exploit developments in RDM practice to promote greater awareness and understanding of open data

Private education and disadvantage: the experiences of assisted place holders

It is now nearly thirty years since Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative administration introduced the Assisted Places Scheme (their first education policy) and over ten years since New Labour abolished it. The Scheme, which was designed to provide a ladder of opportunity for academically able students from poor backgrounds to attend private schools, is of more than historical interest. It can be used to illuminate enduring sociological concerns about the relationship between home and school. This paper draws on retrospective interview data to reveal how the Scheme was experienced by its more disadvantaged beneficiaries. Revisiting classic sociological analyses from the 1960s and 1970s, it unravels the complex interactions between home background, friendship networks and school cultures and shows how these contributed to contrasting experiences of commitment, detachment, estrangement and alienation. These differing modes of engagement with schooling appear to have had lasting effects on our respondents and influenced their subsequent careers and orientations

Foreign Journalist Panel Discussion: Views of the U.S. Presidential Election from Abroad

Curtis Wilkie, moderator. Associate Professor, University of Mississippi Department of JournalismAnirudh Bhattacharyya. Senior editor, Network18 (India)Geoff Elliott. Washington correspondent, The Australian (Australia)Derk Jan Eppink. Correspondent, Knack (Belgium),; Columnist, Elsevier (Netherlands) Yoichi Kato. Bureau Chief, American General Bureau of the Asahi Shimbum (Japan)https://egrove.olemiss.edu/croft_spe/1007/thumbnail.jp

An Australia-China free trade agreement: managing an elephant

This paper explores the advantages and disadvantages of a free trade agreement (FTA) between Australia and China. As with any international agreement, Australia must balance political and economic factors at home and abroad. While Australia receives economic benefit from China at present, the latter may become an even more gigantic competitor against whom it will be vain to struggle. There are already clear winners and losers in the relationship, and the long-term advantages of an FTA that might make competition even easier for China must be called into question. Notwithstanding, perhaps Australia should seek an agreement as a gesture that might help to keep China on side

Development and psychometric properties of the client's assessment of treatment scale for supported accommodation (CAT-SA)

This paper presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under its Programme Grants for Applied Research scheme (RP-PG-0610-10097)

Adaptation of the Quality Indicator for Rehabilitative Care (QuIRC) for use in mental health supported accommodation services (QuIRC-SA).

BACKGROUND: No standardised tools for assessing the quality of specialist mental health supported accommodation services exist. To address this, we adapted the Quality Indicator for Rehabilitative care-QuIRC-that was originally developed to assess the quality of longer term inpatient and community based mental health facilities. The QuIRC, which is completed by the service manager and gives ratings of seven domains of care, has good psychometric properties. METHODS: Focus groups with staff of the three main types of supported accommodation in the UK (residential care, supported housing and floating outreach services) were carried out to identify potential amendments to the QuIRC. Additional advice was gained from consultation with three expert panels, two of which comprised service users with lived experience of mental health and supported accommodation services. The amended QuIRC (QuIRC-SA) was piloted with a manager of each of the three service types. Item response variance, inter-rater reliability and internal consistency were assessed in a random sample of 52 services. Factorial structure and discriminant validity were assessed in a larger random sample of 87 services. RESULTS: The QuIRC-SA comprised 143 items of which only 18 items showed a narrow range of response and five items had poor inter-rater reliability. The tool showed good discriminant validity, with supported housing services generally scoring higher than the other two types of supported accommodation on most domains. Exploratory factor analysis showed that the QuIRC-SA items loaded onto the domains to which they had been allocated. CONCLUSIONS: The QuIRC-SA is the first standardised tool for quality assessment of specialist mental health supported accommodation services. Its psychometric properties mean that it has potential for use in research as well as audit and quality improvement programmes. A web based application is being developed to make it more accessible which will produce a printable report for the service manager about the performance of their service, comparison data for similar services and suggestions on how to improve service quality

Sheep Updates 2015 - Moora

This session covers thirteen papers from different authors: 1. The Sheep Industry Business Innovation project, Bruce Mullan, Sheep Industry Development Director, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia 2. Western Australian sheep stocktake, Kate Pritchett and Kimbal Curtis, Research Officers, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia 3. Tedera - a perenial forage legume to reduce your supplementary feeding in summer and autumn, Dr. Daniel Real, Senior Plant Breeder, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia 4. National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) for sheep and goats - what is the NLIS database? Jac Pearson, Biosecurity Officer, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia 5. Myths, Facts and the role of animal welfare in farming, Lynne Bradshaw, president, RSPCA WA 6. Latest research and development on breech strike prevention, Geoff Lindon, Manager Productivity and Animal Welfare, AWI 7. Lamb Survival Initiative and 100% Club, Katherine Davies, Development Officer, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia 8. Subsidised disease investigation pilot program, Kevin Hepworth, Program Coordinator, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia 9. Using genomic technology to increase genetic gain, Stephen Lee, School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, University of Adelaide and Sheep Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) 10. A case study of sheep breeding using the latest genetic and genomic technology, Dawson Bradford, Producer, Hillcroft Farms, Narrogin WA 11. Economics of feed lotting - to feed-lot or not?, Lucy Anderton, Economist, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia 12. Sheep industry traineeships - encouraging a new generation of farmers, Jackie Jarvis, Consultant, Agrifood Labour & Skills 13.Opportunities and challenges facing youth in the sheep and wool industry, Ben Patrick, Yarrawonga Stu

Sheep Updates 2015 - Merredin

This session covers fourteen papers from different authors: 1. The Sheep Industry Business Innovation project, Bruce Mullan, Sheep Industry Development Director, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia 2. Western Australian sheep stocktake, Kate Pritchett and Kimbal Curtis, Research Officers, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia 3. Wool demand and supply - short term volatility, long term opportunities, Chris Wilcox, Principal of Poimena Analysis 4. Myths, Facts and the role of animal welfare in farming, Lynne Bradshaw, president, RSPCA WA 5. Latest research and development on breech strike prevention, Geoff Lindon, Manager Productivity and Animal Welfare, AWI 6. Lamb Survival Initiative and 100% Club, Katherine Davies, Development Officer, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia 7. How to boost your lamb survival, Joe Young, Sheep Consultant, R.B. Young and Son 8. Using genomic technology to increase genetic gain, Stephen Lee, School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, University of Adelaide and Sheep Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) 9. A case study of sheep breeding using the latest genetic and genomic technology, Dawson Bradford Producer, Hillcroft Farms, Narrogin WA 10. The impact of lamb growth on meat quality, Khama Kelman Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia 11. Economics of feed lotting - to feed-lot or not?, Lucy Anderton, Economist, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia 12. National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) for sheep and goats - what is the NLIS database? Jaq Pearson Biosecurity Officer, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia 13. Sheep industry traineeships - encouraging a new generation of farmers, Jackie Jarvis, Consultant, Agrifood Labour & Skills 14. Opportunities and challenges facing youth in the sheep and wool industry, Ben Patrick, Yarrawonga Stu