Perspectives on Enabling Education for Indigenous Students at Three Comprehensive Universities in Regional Australia

Daniels, CR ORCiD: 0000-0002-0672-0450Indigenous students, particularly those from regional and remote areas, are under-represented in both higher education and vocational education in Australia. Enabling programs seek to address this under-representation. They offer pathways to higher education, are important in lifting participation rates and potentially encourage mobility between the sectors. However, strategic development of enabling programs is based on little evidence about student or staff experiences. This chapter presents a qualitative research project underpinned by the strengths-based approach of conscientisation, exploring how Indigenous learning journeys via enabling programs can respect and grow cultural identity, while simultaneously developing study skills. The research considered interpretations of ‘success’ from the perspectives of students and teachers participating in enabling courses. The research found that enabling programs were an ‘important’ and ‘exciting journey’ for students that brought about transformation of the inner self through the building of ‘resilience’, ‘strength’, ‘confidence’, ‘self-esteem’, ‘self-worth’, ‘cultural understanding’ and ‘identity’. Success was experienced across multiple dimensions of students’ lived experience including ‘cultural identity’, ‘voice’, self-realisation, self-acceptance and ‘pride’. Staff suggested that enabling programs imparted an ‘underlying layer’ of skills. Recognition of Indigenous people as ‘yarners’ and ‘story tellers’, along with ways of incorporating ‘both-ways’ methodologies, need to be considered when developing the curriculum. This chapter reports on research which will be used to inform the development of a best-practice framework for Indigenous education enabling programs in Australia, particularly in regional and comprehensive education settings

Demand-side characterisation of the smart city for energy modelling.

AbstractThis paper presents a new methodology for characterising the energy performance of buildings suitable for city-scale, top-down energy modelling. Building properties that have the greatest impact on simulated energy performance were identified via a review of sensitivity analysis studies. The methodology greatly simplifies the description of a building to decrease labour and simulation processing overheads. The methodology will be used in the EU FP7 INDICATE project which aims to create a master-planning tool that uses dynamic simulation to facilitate the design of sustainable, energy efficient smart cities

The QIAGEN 140-locus single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) panel for forensic identification using massively parallel sequencing (MPS): an evaluation and a direct-to-PCR trial

© 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature. Massively parallel sequencing (MPS) of identity informative single-nucleotide polymorphisms (IISNPs) enables hundreds of forensically relevant markers to be analysed simultaneously. Generating DNA sequence data enables more detailed analysis including identification of sequence variations between individuals. The GeneRead DNAseq 140 IISNP MPS panel (QIAGEN) has been evaluated on both the MiSeq (Illumina) and Ion PGM™ (Applied Biosystems) MPS platforms using the GeneRead DNAseq Targeted Panels V2 library preparation workflow (QIAGEN). The aims of this study were to (1) determine if the GeneRead DNAseq panel is effective for identity testing by assessing deviation from Hardy-Weinberg (HWE) and pairwise linkage equilibrium (LE); (2) sequence samples with the GeneRead DNAseq panel on the Ion PGM™ using the QIAGEN workflow and assess specificity, sensitivity and accuracy; (3) assess the efficacy of adding biological samples directly to the GeneRead DNAseq PCR, without prior DNA extraction; and (4) assess the effect of varying coverage and allele frequency thresholds on genotype concordance. Analyses of the 140 SNPs for HWE and LE using Fisher’s exact tests and the sequential Bonferroni correction revealed that one SNP was out of HWE in the Japanese population and five SNP combinations were commonly out of LE in 13 of 14 populations. The panel was sensitive down to 0.3125 ng of DNA input. A direct-to-PCR approach (without DNA extraction) produced highly concordant genotypes. The setting of appropriate allele frequency thresholds is more effective for reducing erroneous genotypes than coverage thresholds

The peak energies of the fits of individual measured V Kβ spectra

<p><strong>Figure 8.</strong> The peak energies of the fits of individual measured V Kβ spectra. Each of the seven lines represents an independently measured set of results from the full calibration series, derived by methodical stepping of the spectrometer arm length so that the profile stepped across the detector area. The variance is larger than the point precision, indicating sources of systematics. The characterization function drifts off towards the edges of the detector, where vignetting or other loss of efficiency may affect the calibration. Further, some of the linked series have offsets, whether from minor hysteresis or e.g. temperature variations. The overall consistency and hence robustness of the independent measurements yields a final pooled uncertainty of 0.0184 eV or 3.4 ppm.</p> <p><strong>Abstract</strong></p> <p>Transition metals have Kα and Kβ characteristic radiation possessing complex asymmetric spectral profiles. Instrumental broadening normally encountered in x-ray experiments shifts features of profiles used for calibration, such as peak energy, by many times the quoted accuracies. We measure and characterize the titanium Kβ spectral profile. The peak energy of the titanium Kβ spectral profile is found to be 4931.966 ± 0.022 eV prior to instrumental broadening. This 4.5 ppm result decreases the uncertainty over the past literature by a factor of 2.6 and is 2.4 standard deviations from the previous standard. The spectrum is analysed and the resolution-free lineshape is extracted and listed for use in other experiments. We also incorporate improvement in analysis applied to earlier results for V Kβ.</p

The peak energy of the fitted model function of the Ti Kβ spectra as a function of the instrumental broadening

<p><strong>Figure 7.</strong> The peak energy of the fitted model function of the Ti Kβ spectra as a function of the instrumental broadening. The measured broadening of the spectrum of 1.24(4) eV and the asymmetry of the peak leads to a shift of peak position of 0.25 eV or 50 ppm.</p> <p><strong>Abstract</strong></p> <p>Transition metals have Kα and Kβ characteristic radiation possessing complex asymmetric spectral profiles. Instrumental broadening normally encountered in x-ray experiments shifts features of profiles used for calibration, such as peak energy, by many times the quoted accuracies. We measure and characterize the titanium Kβ spectral profile. The peak energy of the titanium Kβ spectral profile is found to be 4931.966 ± 0.022 eV prior to instrumental broadening. This 4.5 ppm result decreases the uncertainty over the past literature by a factor of 2.6 and is 2.4 standard deviations from the previous standard. The spectrum is analysed and the resolution-free lineshape is extracted and listed for use in other experiments. We also incorporate improvement in analysis applied to earlier results for V Kβ.</p