Towards Active Citizens : Landscape, Nationalism and Politics in 20th Century British and Australian Children's Literature.

This paper compares and contrasts different approaches to the landscape as heritage as expressed by selected writers for children. This paper contrasts some English attitudes and values in writers in the 20th century, selected for their particular concern for landscape issues and certainly not homogenous. This is contrasted with the political sensitivities brought about by colonialism in Australia, in particular about portrayal of Aborigines and use of their stories in publications for children, stories which focus on their intimate relationship with their heritage landscape. Stories encourage children to be environmental activists and hold the promise of inclusion and social equity

Challenging Culture and Managing Change in Higher Education

To effect systematic change in higher education requires a sophisticated blend of management, collegiality and simple hard work over a prolonged period of time. This paper will present the process and outcomes of a period of change within the Institute of Education. The three phase model of change which has recently been published in the journal Management in Education (Vol 23 Issue 1) will be presented which suggests that change begins gradually and that it is important that strong leadership continues to support the change over a sustained period. The presentation will provide data from interviews with participants in the change process and also present the change model

Microsatellites and Improved Acquisition of Space Systems

Traditional Department of Defense (DoD) practices in the acquisition of space systems have focused on advanced versions of proven technology, meaning large satellites. This paradigm contributes to dependence on a handful of satellites, program schedules measured in decades, and the expensive oversight and program management functions which must be applied to systems which, since there are so few assets, cannot countenance failures. The escape from this paradigm is offered by Microsatellites (Microsats). Microsats are not only useful technology, but technology which enables a different approach to acquisition. What the authors call the Microsat Acquisition Paradigm (MAP) is partly modeled on NASA’s “Faster, Better, Cheaper” approach and takes lessons from NASA’s successes and failures. Now that some space functions can be undertaken by low-cost Microsats, the advantages of mass production, reduced government oversight, and acceptance of a reasonable failure rate can be applied to space system acquisition. This paper explores the three pillars of the MAP approach: requirements, technology, and acquisition, which together support the Holy Grail of space system affordability. Understanding the military’s space requirements is the first pillar of this approach. The second pillar is the ability to correlate the requirements to the current and projected state of Microsat technology and explain what space functions can be accomplished with Microsats. Finally, historical examples, as well as recent studies. demonstrate that streamlined, cost-effective acquisition is a reality for Microsats, enabling savings in time and money compared to the acquisition system used for traditional space systems

Multiple perceptions of reality: a new lens for examining on-farm milk quality in New Zealand

Although improvement of on-farm milk quality (OFMQ) is a goal of the New Zealand dairy industry, no New Zealand research has attempted to elicit the multiple perceptions of industry stakeholders about the pursuit of change. Accordingly, this thesis sets out to establish these perceptions. Events and ideas that contributed to OFMQ perceptions are investigated, and perceived barriers and constraints for further improvements as identified by stakeholder groups are presented. Information was drawn from both in-depth interviews and secondary sources. Checkland’s Soft Systems methodology (SSM) was used as an epistemology for eliciting the research questions that generated the data for this thesis, and Kurt Lewin’s Force Field model was used to present the results. The data were analysed and presented as a combination of rich pictures and dialogue. There have been changes over the 1992 -2012 period as to how milk quality is defined by the marketplace. Dimensions such as sustainability and ethics are now important as well as physical attributes encompassing chemical and biological qualities. Both regulatory and achieved standards for food safety and quality have increased. It was evident that there are major differences both between and within stakeholder groups as to needs, drivers and constraints for further improvement. These differences ranged from the perceptions within the marketplace regarding milk quality measures, the motivation to reduce on-farm somatic cells, and the perceptions surrounding relationships both within and beyond the farm-gate. The key conclusion is that the NZ dairy industry requires more engagement with the complex perceived realties of OFMQ amongst the various stakeholders. This requires a collaborative approach, and better recognition of target-audience diversity. Given the diversity of perceptions within the industry, SSM provides a suitable framework for system analysis and improvement of OFMQ

Developing hypnotic analogues of clinical delusions : Mirrored-self misidentification

Introduction. Despite current research interest in delusional beliefs, there are no viable models for studying delusions in the laboratory. However, hypnosis offers a technique for creating transient delusions that are resistant to challenge. The aim of this study was to develop an hypnotic analogue of one important delusion, mirrored-self misidentification. Methods. Twelve high hypnotisable participants received an hypnotic suggestion to see either a stranger in the mirror, a mirror as a window, or a mirror as a window with a view to a stranger. Participants' deluded beliefs were challenged, and following hypnosis, Sheehan and McConkey's (1982) Experiential Analysis Technique was used to explore participants' phenomenological experience of the delusion. Results. The majority of participants did not recognise their reflection in the mirror, described the person in the mirror as having different physical characteristics to themselves, and maintained their delusion when challenged. Conclusions. The hypnotic suggestion created a credible, compelling delusion with features strikingly similar to clinical cases of mirrored-self misidentification. Our findings suggest that Factor 2 within Langdon and Coltheart's (2000) two-factor framework may involve a lowering of the criteria used to accept or reject delusional hypotheses.PostprintPeer reviewe

Intelligibility of average talkers in typical listening environments,”

Intelligibility of conversationally produced speech for normal hearing listeners was studied for three male and three female talkers. Four typical listening environments were used. These simulated a quiet living room, a classroom, and social events in two settings with different reverberation characteristics. For each talker, overall intelligibility and intelligibility for vowels, consonant voicing, consonant continuance, and consonant place were quantified using the speech pattern contrast (SPAC) test. Results indicated that significant intelligibility differences are observed among normal talkers even in listening environments that permit essentially full intelligibility for everyday conversations. On the whole, talkers maintained their relative intelligibility across the four environments, although there was one exception which suggested that some voices may be particularly susceptible to degradation due to reverberation. Consonant place was the most poorly perceived feature, followed by continuance, voicing, and vowel intelligibility. However, there were numerous significant interactions between talkers and speech features, indicating that a talker of average overall intelligibility may produce certain speech features with intelligibility that is considerably higher or lower than average. Neither long-term rms speech spectrum nor articulation rate was found to be an adequate single criterion for selecting a talker of average intelligibility. Ultimately, an average talker was chosen on the basis of four speech contrasts: initial consonant place, and final consonant place, voicing, and continuance. and Taken together, these reports lead to the conclusion that when a speech intelligibility test is used to determine either (a) which of several hearing aids provides the most improvement in speech understanding, or (b) the absolute amount of improvement provided bY a particular instrument, the outcome will depend partly on the characteristics of the talker used to record the test materials and on the manner in which the materials are generated (conversational or clear). It is perhaps surprising that relatively little investigative attention has been paid to the issues involved in selection of talkers for speech intelligibility tests. When a new intelligibility test is reported, the talker is typically described as lacking a pronounced regional accent: There are no other criteria commonly applied in talker selection. However, if the test results are used to predict heating aid benefit for understanding everyday speech, it would appear, from the studies cited above, that care Should be taken to assure that the talker's speech is average in intelligibility and that the speech itself is delivered in a conversational/ normal manner when the test materials are recorded. A review of the literature failed to reveal any investigations that provided analytic data describing the intelligibility, for normal heating listeners, of normal talkers producing conversational speech in everyday listening settings. Hence, the present study was undertaken in an attempt to generate these data. The ultimate purpose in developing a description of the intelligibility of normal talkers was to provide a basis for selecting a talker of average intelligibility. In future work the chosen talker will produce speech materials for a speech intelligibility test to be used to quantify hearing aid benefit. Each talker's long-term rms 1/3-oct-band speech spectrum is shown in The SPAC test words were embedded in the sentences shown in Appendix A. These sentences were devised to present the items in a variety of contexts (as occurs in everday speech) with respect to preceding and following phonemes, position of test item in the utterance, and length of utterance. For each subtest, the 12 sentences were randomly assigned to the 12 test items. Each form (consisting of four subtests) was preceded by four practice items. Sentences for the practice items are also given in Appendix A. L Production of master recordings There For this talker combination, EH was rerecorded in environment A, FH was used in environment B, GF was used in environment C1, and EF was used in environment C2. Different combinations of two forms were used in the reduced intelligibility conditions, described below; all forms were used an equal number of times overall. The recordings of the six talkers were presented at an equal integrated rms level. To adjust the SPAC items appropriately for each environment, the recording for talker • 1 was adjusted to achieve the primary message level (in dB L• ) for that environment. The remaining talkers were presented at the same overall level as talker # 1. Hence, the spectra shown in The two SPAC forms recorded for each talker in each basic listening environment will be referred to as "typical intelligibility" conditions because they were adjusted to S/B ratio values that are maintained by normal talkers and listeners to yield essentially full intelligibility for conversations in these environments (according to the data of Pearsons etal., 1977). In addition, the remaining two SPAC forms for each talker were recorded in the same settings but with the background noise level increased sufficiently to reduce all contrast scores to less than 100%. The amount of increase in background noise necessary to achieve this differed across the four environments and was selected empirically in eac

Hearing Aid Patients in Private Practice and Public Health (Veterans Affairs) Clinics: Are They Different?

Objective: In hearing aid research, it is commonplace to combine data across subjects whose hearing aids were provided in different service delivery models. There is reason to question whether these types of patients are always similar enough to justify this practice. To explore this matter, this investigation evaluated similarities and differences in self-report data obtained from hearing aid patients derived from public health (Veterans Affairs, VA) and private practice (PP) settings. Design: The study was a multisite, cross-sectional survey in which 230 hearing aid patients from VA and PP audiology clinic settings provided self-report data on a collection of questionnaires both before and after the hearing aid fitting. Subjects were all older adults with mild to moderately severe hearing loss. About half of them had previous experience wearing hearing aids. All subjects were fitted with wide-dynamic-range-compression instruments and received similar treatment protocols. Results: Numerous statistically significant differences were observed between the VA and PP subject groups. Before the fitting, VA patients reported higher expectations from the hearing aids and more severe unaided problems compared with PP patients with similar audiograms. Three wks after the fitting, VA patients reported more satisfaction with their hearing aids. On some measures VA patients reported more benefit, but different measures of benefit did not give completely consistent results. Both groups reported using the hearing aids an average of approximately 8 hrs per day. VA patients reported age-normal physical and mental health, but PP patients tended to report better than typical health for their age group. Conclusions: These data indicate that hearing aid patients seen in the VA public health hearing services are systematically different in self-report domains from those seen in private practice services. It is therefore risky to casually combine data from these two types of subjects or to generalize research results from one group to the other. Further, compared with PP patients, VA patients consistently reported more favorable hearing aid fitting outcomes. Additional study is indicated to explore the determinants of this result and its generalizability to other public health service delivery systems such as those in other countries. Moreover, efforts should be made to assess the potential for transferring positive elements from the VA system to the PP service delivery system, if possible. (Ear & Hearing 2005;26;513-528) It is arguable that audiology in the United States had its origins in the programs designed to provide rehabilitation for veterans who had sustained hearing damage as a result of military service in World War II. One of the major components of those programs was provision of amplification and counseling about its use. Since that time, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been a major supporter of research oriented toward the acquisition of scientific and clinical knowledge about provision of hearing aids for adults. A large volume of literature has accumulated describing the results of experiments that have featured hearing-impaired veterans as subjects. These patients receive services in a public health system in which public funds are used to provide services to improve or protect the health of veterans. At least two other entities have supported and produced research exploring hearing aids and fitting methods: hearing aid manufacturers and academic institutions such as universities and the National Institutes of Health. Many of the subjects serving in these studies were recruited from sources that would not be classified as public health services, such as free-standing dispensing practices or university-based dispensing clinics. In this article, patients seen in free-standing dispensing practices are classified as receiving services in a private practice (PP) system. University-based clinics might differ from freestanding dispensaries along several dimensions. a Some university-based clinics operate in a way that is similar to a private practice, whereas others do not follow this model. The VA public health service delivery setting is different in several key respects from most PP service delivery settings. The VA clinic is usually lo

Development of APHAB norms of WDRC hearing aids and comparisons with original norms.

Objectives: This study was undertaken for two purposes: First, to provide a comparison of subjective performance and benefit measured with the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB) questionnaire for two groups. One group included hearing-impaired individuals using 1990s-era linear processing hearing aids. The other group included hearing-impaired individuals using more current wide-dynamic range compression (WDRC)-capable hearing aids fit using current practice protocols. The second purpose of this study was to determine whether APHAB norms derived from scores for current hearing aid users were different from the original 1995 norms. It was hypothesized that technology improvements would result in improved subjective performance for modern hearing aid wearers. Design: A systematic sampling method was used to identify and recruit subjects from seven private-practice audiology clinics located across the United States. Potential subjects were limited to older hearingimpaired individuals who were wearing hearing aids capable of WDRC processing. One hundred fifty-four subjects returned completed APHAB questionnaires. Participants reported mostly moderate to moderately severe subjective hearing difficulty. Results: No differences in perceived difficulty with speech communication were observed between the two groups. However, aversiveness of amplified sound was less frequently reported for users of WDRCcapable hearing aids. Norms were generated using data from all of the operationally defined successful hearing aid users in the sample and compared with the original 1995 norms. Differences between the 1995 and 2005 norms were minimal for the speech communication subscales. However, the 2005 group consistently reported less frequent difficulties with sound aversiveness (AV subscale) in the aided condition. In addition to these findings, an improvement was observed in the rate of successful adjustment to hearing aids between 1995 (43%) and 2005 (82%). Conclusions: Overall, problems understanding amplified speech did not decrease in frequency when hearing aids transitioned from linear to compression processing; however, the compression capabilities of current hearing aids (with a possible contribution from noise reduction algorithms) have resulted in less negative reactions to amplified environmental sounds. This suggests that modern technology has ameliorated (to some extent) the common complaint that hearing aids cause many everyday sounds to become objectionably loud. Although the results of this study suggest that the advantages of improved technology do not lie in the domains of improved subjective speech communication performance, substantial improvement in the rate of successful adjustment to hearing aids between the 1995 and 2005 subject groups provides evidence that modern hearing aid technology has produced progress in other outcome domains

Monitoring the health of the greater Mekong’s rivers

The methods used for biomonitoring can be sophisticated, producing highly accurate results, but can also be simplified for communities to use. In countries where budgets for biomonitoring are low, using community-based biomonitoring systems can effectively and cheaply tell us about a river’s health