On the pulse of change: the new beat of special education in higher education

The roles and responsibilities of special educators in both special and regular school settings are changing rapidly. More than two decades ago the move towards more inclusive practices disrupted the traditional, niche separatism of special educators to the extent that they are now an integral part of the regular school teaching staff. Today the broad agenda to facilitate access and participation for all students in education, not just students with disabilities, influences the roles and responsibilities of special educators. This article briefly identifies some of the generic pulses that are moving the special education profession from a focus on low incidence disabilities towards a more comprehensive approach to inclusion, school responsiveness and individualised learning pathways. From the foundation of inclusive practice, this paper will describe how a qualitative study was used to understand the changing roles and responsibilities of special educators. A case study analysis of 17 schools formed the basis of the investigation. Principals, lead teachers in special education and special education teachers were asked to identify trends and priorities in special education and also to identify rewards and challenges in their jobs. Further cross referencing with teacher and special educator standards, a focus group, a stakeholder group and research in the field increased the opportunity for academics and special educators to critically reflect on the emerging demands placed on special educators and the attributes that are needed to be professionally effective

From evidence-based research to practice-based evidence : disseminating a web-based computer-tailored workplace sitting intervention through a health promotion organisation

Prolonged sitting has been linked to adverse health outcomes; therefore, we developed and examined a web-based, computer-tailored workplace sitting intervention. As we had previously shown good effectiveness, the next stage was to conduct a dissemination study. This study reports on the dissemination efforts of a health promotion organisation, associated costs, reach achieved, and attributes of the website users. The organisation systematically registered all the time and resources invested to promote the intervention. Website usage statistics (reach) and descriptive statistics (website users' attributes) were also assessed. Online strategies (promotion on their homepage; sending e-mails, newsletters, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn posts to professional partners) were the main dissemination methods. The total time investment was 25.6 h, which cost approximately 845 EUR in salaries. After sixteen months, 1599 adults had visited the website and 1500 (93.8%) completed the survey to receive personalized sitting advice. This sample was 38.3 +/- 11.0 years, mainly female (76.9%), college/university educated (89.0%), highly sedentary (88.5% sat >8 h/day) and intending to change (93.0%) their sitting. Given the small time and money investment, these outcomes are positive and indicate the potential for wide-scale dissemination. However, more efforts are needed to reach men, non-college/university educated employees, and those not intending behavioural change

Health initiatives to target obesity in surface transport industries: review and implications for action

Lifestyle-related chronic diseases pose a considerable burden to the individual and the wider society, with correspondingly negative effects on industry. Obesity is a particular problem for the Australasian road and rail industries where it is associated with specific cardiac and fatigue-related safety risks, and levels are higher than those found in the general population. Despite this recognition, and the introduction of National Standards, very little consensus exists regarding approaches to preventative health for surface transport workers. A review of evidence regarding effective health promotion initiatives is urgently needed to inform best practice in this cohort. This review draws together research informing the scope and effectiveness of health promotion programs, initiatives and interventions targeting overweight and obesity in safety critical surface transport domains including the truck, bus and rail industries. A number of health interventions demonstrated measurable successes, including incentivising, peer mentoring, verbal counselling, development of personalised health profiles, and offer of healthier on-site food choices – some of which also resulted in sizeable return on investment over the long term. &nbsp

The effectiveness, safety and cost-effectiveness of cytisine versus varenicline for smoking cessation in an Australian population: a study protocol for a randomized controlled non-inferiority trial

Smoking cessation medications are effective but often underutilised because of costs and side effects. Cytisine is a plant-based smoking cessation medication with over 50 years of use in Central and Eastern Europe. While cytisine has been found to be well-tolerated and more effective than nicotine replacement therapy, direct comparison with varenicline have not been conducted. This study evaluates the effectiveness, safety and cost-effectiveness of cytisine compared with varenicline.Two arm, parallel group, randomised, non-inferiority trial, with allocation concealment and blinded outcome assessment.Australian population-based study.Adult daily smokers (N=1266) interested in quitting will be recruited through advertisements and Quitline telephone-based cessation support services.Eligible participants will be randomised (1:1 ratio) to receive either cytisine capsules (25-day supply) or varenicline tablets (12-week supply), prescribed in accordance with the manufacturer's recommended dosing regimen. The medication will be mailed to each participant's nominated residential address. All participants will also be offered standard Quitline behavioural support (up to six 10-12 minute sessions).Assessments will be undertaken by telephone at baseline, 4- and 7-months post-randomisation. Participants will also be contacted twice (two and four weeks post-randomisation) to ascertain adverse events, treatment adherence and smoking status. The primary outcome will be self-reported 6-month continuous abstinence from smoking, verified by carbon monoxide at 7-month follow-up. We will also evaluate the relative safety and cost-effectiveness of cytisine compared with varenicline. Secondary outcomes will include self-reported continuous and 7-day point prevalence abstinence and cigarette consumption at each follow-up interview.If cytisine is as effective as varenicline, its lower cost and natural plant-based composition may make it an acceptable and affordable smoking cessation medication that could save millions of lives worldwide

The influence of auditory feedback on speed choice, violations and comfort in a driving simulation game

Two experiments are reported which explore the relationships between auditory feedback (engine noise), speed choice, driving violations and driver comfort. Participants played a driving simulation game with different levels of auditory feedback in the form of engine noise. In Experiment 1, a between-subjects design revealed that no noise and low levels of engine noise (65 dB(A)) resulted in participants driving at faster speeds than in the medium (75 dB(A)) and high (85 dB(A)) levels of engine noise conditions. The low noise feedback conditions were also associated with decreases in driver comfort. Experiment 2 also demonstrated that low levels of engine noise feedback (no feedback and 70 dB(A)) were associated with increases in driving speed, and driving violations relative to higher levels of feedback (75 dB(A) and 80 dB(A)). Implications exist for current car manufacturing trends which emphasise a growing increase in noise insulation for the driver. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

On a New Type of Information Processing for Efficient Management of Complex Systems

It is a challenge to manage complex systems efficiently without confronting NP-hard problems. To address the situation we suggest to use self-organization processes of prime integer relations for information processing. Self-organization processes of prime integer relations define correlation structures of a complex system and can be equivalently represented by transformations of two-dimensional geometrical patterns determining the dynamics of the system and revealing its structural complexity. Computational experiments raise the possibility of an optimality condition of complex systems presenting the structural complexity of a system as a key to its optimization. From this perspective the optimization of a system could be all about the control of the structural complexity of the system to make it consistent with the structural complexity of the problem. The experiments also indicate that the performance of a complex system may behave as a concave function of the structural complexity. Therefore, once the structural complexity could be controlled as a single entity, the optimization of a complex system would be potentially reduced to a one-dimensional concave optimization irrespective of the number of variables involved its description. This might open a way to a new type of information processing for efficient management of complex systems.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, to be presented at the International Conference on Complex Systems, Boston, October 28 - November 2, 200

Global synchronization control of general delayed discrete-time networks with stochastic coupling and disturbances

Copyright [2008] IEEE. This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Such permission of the IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of Brunel University's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to [email protected]. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.In this paper, the synchronization control problem is considered for two coupled discrete-time complex networks with time delays. The network under investigation is quite general to reflect the reality, where the state delays are allowed to be time varying with given lower and upper bounds, and the stochastic disturbances are assumed to be Brownian motions that affect not only the network coupling but also the overall networks. By utilizing the Lyapunov functional method combined with linear matrix inequality (LMI) techniques, we obtain several sufficient delay-dependent conditions that ensure the coupled networks to be globally exponentially synchronized in the mean square. A control law is designed to synchronize the addressed coupled complex networks in terms of certain LMIs that can be readily solved using the Matlab LMI toolbox. Two numerical examples are presented to show the validity of our theoretical analysis results.This work was supported by the Royal Society Sino-British Fellowship Trust Award of the U.K

Gait speed characteristics and Its spatiotemporal determinants in nursing home residents: A cross-sectional study

Fien, S ORCiD: 0000-0003-0181-5458BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Low and slowing gait speeds among nursing home residents are linked to a higher risk of disability, cognitive impairment, falls, and mortality. A better understanding of the spatiotemporal parameters of gait that influence declining mobility could lead to effective rehabilitation and preventative intervention. The aims of this study were to objectively quantify the spatiotemporal characteristics of gait in the nursing home setting and define the relationship between these parameters and gait speed. METHODS: One hundred nursing home residents were enrolled into the study and completed 3 habitual gait speed trials over a distance of 3.66 m. Trials were performed using an instrumented gait analysis. The manner in which the spatiotemporal parameters predicted gait speed was examined by univariate and multivariable regression modeling. RESULTS: The nursing home residents had a habitual mean (SD) gait speed of 0.63 (0.19) m/s, a stride length of 0.83 (0.15) m, a support base of 0.15 (0.06) m, and step time of 0.66 (0.12) seconds. Multivariable linear regression revealed stride length, support base, and step time predicted gait speed (R = 0.89, P < .05). Step time had the greatest influence on gait speed, with each 0.1-second decrease in step time resulting in a 0.09 m/s (95% confidence interval, 0.08-0.10) increase in habitual gait speed. CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed step time, stride length, and support base are the strongest predictors of gait speed among nursing home residents. Future research should concentrate on developing and evaluating intervention programs that were specifically designed to focus on the strong predictors of gait speed in nursing home residents. We would also suggest that routine assessments of gait speed, and if possible their spatiotemporal characteristics, be done on all nursing home residents in an attempt to identify residents with low or slowing gait speed

Case studies to enhance online student evaluation: University of Western Australia – A journey towards greater engagement through closing-the-loop

Feedback from students has shown time and again to be useful indicators of what is happening in the teaching and learning environments. Such feedback from students, pivot around the actions that are taken. This implementation of actions expresses to students that their voice is being heard in higher education institutions. To achive such utility of feedback provided by student, it is essential to ‘close the loop’ and constitutes; the collection of qualitative and quantitative feedback from all cohorts of students; triangulating the data from various sources to identify areas of good practice and areasneeding improvement; communicating the results and actions of the feedback with students and staff; implementing improvements in consultation with stakeholders; and monitoring the impact of actions in future student survey results. Such a framework would constitute effective quality assurances of the student feedback systems in higher education institutions

Exponential stabilization of a class of stochastic system with Markovian jump parameters and mode-dependent mixed time-delays

Copyright [2010] IEEE. This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Such permission of the IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of Brunel University's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to [email protected]. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.In this technical note, the globally exponential stabilization problem is investigated for a general class of stochastic systems with both Markovian jumping parameters and mixed time-delays. The mixed mode-dependent time-delays consist of both discrete and distributed delays. We aim to design a memoryless state feedback controller such that the closed-loop system is stochastically exponentially stable in the mean square sense. First, by introducing a new Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional that accounts for the mode-dependent mixed delays, stochastic analysis is conducted in order to derive a criterion for the exponential stabilizability problem. Then, a variation of such a criterion is developed to facilitate the controller design by using the linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach. Finally, it is shown that the desired state feedback controller can be characterized explicitly in terms of the solution to a set of LMIs. Numerical simulation is carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.This work was supported in part by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of the U.K. under Grant GR/S27658/01, the Royal Society of the U.K., the National 973 Program of China under Grant 2009CB320600, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany. Recommended by Associate Editor G. Chesi