Re-thinking households - using administrative data to count and classify households with some application

Households rather than individuals are being increasingly used for research and to target and evaluate public policy. As a result accurate and timely household level statistics have become an increasing necessity especially at local level. However, present sources of information on households are fragmented with significant gaps and inaccuracies that limit their usefulness. This paper reviews present statistical arrangements and then describes a new approach to data collection and household classification based on local administrative sources. The result is a more integrated and flexible system. The utility and advantages are demonstrated using recent examples from the six Olympic London Boroughs

Co-creating workforce capability solutions for Australian businesses and organisations: a sustainable university response

This context statement explores my professional practice as an educator, innovator and leader in the field of organisational learning and development. The principal public work that manifests this practice is Swinburne Industry Solutions (SIS), the commercial learning and development arm of Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia. Over a period of 3 years as General Manager from 2012 to 2015, I led the rapid growth and development of the business, its people and processes, its products (courses) and services and, importantly, its engagement with its principal clients within the corporate sector. SIS now provides learning and development services for some of Australia’s leading businesses and organisations. The principal public work discussed, SIS, is an organisation which is complex, dynamic and co-created. This statement explores my role as the key agent in the co-creation of this enterprise and of the individual public works that exemplify and embody it. In particular, the statement explores my role as a leader, a strategist and an innovator in creating SIS as a sustainable business. The discussion focusses on the two factors that, I argue, contribute most to the sustainability of SIS: quality of service delivery and product innovation. It is not possible to fully and deeply explore all of the programs and services that were developed during this period within the constraints of this statement. Consequently it will focus on one of the most successful and significant developments which I led: the coaching suite of programs and services. Through the lens of the coaching products, the statement illustrates and critically positions my own learning as a leader and professional in the field and demonstrates leading edge practice. This statement also critically explores the relevant developmental themes, experiences and learnings which inform and underpin my approach to working with organisations, as well as the ontological and epistemological foundations of it. In particular it focusses on relevant influences from my early professional careers in higher education, vocational education and corporate consulting. The final presents an evidence-based model of practice that can be used by other practitioners in this field to design effective organisation learning program interventions

Design, cost, and advanced technology applications for a military trainer aircraft

The potential impact is examined of advanced aerodynamic and propulsive technologies in terms of operating and acquisition costs on conceptual mission and performance requirements for a future undergraduate jet pilot trainer aircraft

The response of self-graviting protostellar discs to slow reduction in cooling timescale: the fragmentation boundary revisited

A number of previous studies of the fragmentation of self-gravitating protostellar discs have modeled radiative cooling with a cooling timescale (t_{cool}) parameterised as a simple multiple (beta_{cool}) of the local dynamical timescale. Such studies have delineated the `fragmentation boundary' in terms of a critical value of beta_{cool} (beta_{crit}), where the disc fragments if beta_{cool} < beta_{crit}. Such an approach however begs the question of how in reality a disc could ever be assembled with beta_{cool} < beta_{crit}. Here we adopt the more realistic approach of gradually reducing beta_{cool}, as might correspond to changes in thermal regime due to secular changes in the disc density profile. We find that when beta_{cool} is gradually reduced (on a timescale longer than t_{cool}), the disc is stabilised against fragmentation, compared with models in which beta_{cool} is reduced rapidly. We therefore conclude that a disc's ability to remain in a self-regulated, self-gravitating state (without fragmentation) is partly dependent on its thermal history, as well as its current cooling rate. Nevertheless, a slow reduction in t_{cool} appears only to lower the fragmentation boundary by about a factor two in t_{cool} and thus only permits maximum alpha values (parameterising the efficiency of angular momentum transfer in the disc) that are about a factor two higher than determined hitherto. Our results therefore do not undermine the notion of a fundamental upper limit to the heating rate that can be delivered by gravitational instabilities before the disc is subject to fragmentation. An important implication of this work, therefore, is that self-gravitating discs can enter into the regime of fragmentation via secular evolution and it is not necessary to invoke rapid (impulsive) events to trigger fragmentation.Comment: accepted for publication in MNRA

Three-meter balloon-borne telescope

The Three-Meter Balloon-Borne Telescope is planned as a general purpose facility for making far-infrared and submillimeter astronomical observations from the stratosphere. It will operate throughout the spectral range 30 microns to 1 millimeter which is largely obscurred from the ground. The design is an f/13.5 Cassegrain telescope with an f/1.33 3-meter primary mirror supported with a 3-axis gimbal and stabilization system. The overall structure is 8.0 m high by 5.5 m in width by 4.0 m in depth and weighs 2000 kg. This low weight is achieved through the use of an ultra lightweight primary mirror of composite construction. Pointing and stabilization are achieved with television monitoring of the star field, flex-pivot bearing supports, gyroscopes, and magnetically levitated reaction wheels. Two instruments will be carried on each flight; generally a photometric camera and a spectrometer. A 64-element bolometer array photometric camera operating from 30 to 300 microns is planned as part of the facility. Additional instruments will be derived from KAO and other development programs

Exact Random Walk Distributions using Noncommutative Geometry

Using the results obtained by the non commutative geometry techniques applied to the Harper equation, we derive the areas distribution of random walks of length $N$ on a two-dimensional square lattice for large $N$, taking into account finite size contributions.Comment: Latex, 3 pages, 1 figure, to be published in J. Phys. A : Math. Ge

‘n fonnie bisnis: Yankee Dutch

Jankeski holenderski jest odmianą holenderskiego używanąw stanach Michigan i Illinois, szczególnie w Grand Rapids i Chicago. Jest to właściwie język holenderski, z amerykańsko-angielskimi elementami leksykalnymi. Wymową zbliżony jest do holenderskiego i na jeden amerykański przypadają w nim dwa wyrazy holenderskie.Nazwa jankeski holenderski jest też odnoszona do “dialektalnego humoru”, którego używa się w poezji tworzonej z okazji świąt kościelnych, ślubów i innych uroczystości. Cieszy się on niegasnącym powodzeniem wśród potomków (w drugim i trzecim pokoleniu) holenderskich emigrantów, którzy nie zawsze zdają sobie sprawę, iż jest to właściwie amerykański angielski, okraszony tylko holenderskimi wyrażeniami i traktowany jako rodzaj scenicznego dialektu.Prawdziwy jankeski holenderski, a przynajmniej jego odmiana zapisana przez Dirka Nielanda w książce ’n fonnie bisnis (1929) jest strukturalnie i leksykalnie językiem holenderskim