Social capital and sustainability of urban environmental groups in Perth

Community based environmental groups have become an integral component of urban environmental stewardship initiatives in Perth metropolitan area. While the utility of Urban Environmental Groups (UEGs) has been recognized by several environmental policies and programs, the challenges of sustaining UEGs remain under-explored, especially, in Western Australia. This paper responds to this gap and explores the prospect of UEGs’ sustainability through the lens of social capital. The findings of a quantitative survey of 81 groups as well as qualitative observations suggest UEGs that are better at building and maintaining social capital are more likely to overcome resource-scarcities and sustain over time. Based on the findings, the paper views social capital as a necessary ingredient of sustainable community groups and discusses the strategic needs to support UEGs

Initiating Community Engagement for Enhancing Preservice Teacher Education

Facilitating community engagement in education is promoted and emphasised in university policies and strategic plans. How can a university facilitate innovations to develop collaborative partnerships with its community? This paper presents leadership processes for initiating community engagement with an Australian university and highlights examples of innovations in Science Education for Sustainable Living (SESL) with preservice teachers’ reflections on their teaching practices. Data collection included observations of practice, interviews, minutes of meetings, and written correspondence with a wide range of participants (i.e., senior QUT staff, lecturers, preservice teachers, principals, school executives and teachers, and other community members). A four-step process for implementing SESL innovations provided an example of university-community engagement, and was used as a catalyst for preservice teachers (n=14) to reflect on SESL, which provided opportunities for enhancing their science teaching practices. Results indicated that connecting the community with preservice teacher education aided in promoting understandings of sustainable living and kept environmental issues on the agenda. The four-step process implemented by the preservice teachers for SESL assisted to conceptually advance understandings of scientific causes and effects in order to propose appropriate solutions. Initiating university-community engagement required articulating visionary directions, understanding change processes, motivating potential key stakeholders, and promoting collaboration and team effort. In addition, distributing leadership aided in facilitating university-community collaboration and allowed for the implementation of a wider range of innovations. It was concluded that distributing leadership will be essential in order to sustain university-community engagement, particularly as key stakeholders in leadership roles can deploy energy and resources at levels required for successful collaborations

Uncovering the impact of organisational culture types on the willingness to share knowledge between projects

Current literature has established that organisational culture influences knowledge management efforts; however, it is only recently that research on project management has focused its interest on organisational culture in the context of knowledge sharing and some preliminary studies have been conducted. In response, this paper adds a significant contribution by providing rich empirical evidence of the relationships between culture and the willingness to share knowledge, demonstrating which cultural values are more and which are less likely to improve inter-project knowledge sharing behaviours. The use of interviews and the Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) (Cameron & Quinn, 2005) in the cross-case examination of culture in four participating cases has resulted in rich empirical contributions. Furthermore, this paper adds to the project management literature by introducing the Competing Values Framework (CVF) of Cameron and Quinn (2005) to evaluate knowledge sharing in the inter-project context

Infrastructure transitions toward sustainability: a complex adaptive systems perspective

To ensure infrastructure assets are procured and maintained by government on behalf of citizens, appropriate policy and institutional architecture is needed, particularly if a fundamental shift to more sustainable infrastructure is the goal. The shift in recent years from competitive and resource-intensive procurement to more collaborative and sustainable approaches to infrastructure governance is considered a major transition in infrastructure procurement systems. In order to better understand this transition in infrastructure procurement arrangements, the concept of emergence from Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theory is offered as a key construct. Emergence holds that micro interactions can result in emergent macro order. Applying the concept of emergence to infrastructure procurement, this research examines how interaction of agents in individual projects can result in different industry structural characteristics. The paper concludes that CAS theory, and particularly the concept of ‘emergence’, provides a useful construct to understand infrastructure procurement dynamics and progress towards sustainability

Assessment of shoulder active range of motion in prone versus supine:A reliability and concurrent validity study

Background: As swimming and surfing are prone dominant sports, it would be more sport specific to assess shoulder active range of motion in this position. Objectives: To determine the reliability of the inclinometer and HALO© for assessing shoulder active range of motion in supine and prone and the concurrent validity of the HALO©. Concurrent validity is based on the comparison of the HALO© and inclinometer. To determine if active range of motion (AROM) differences exists between prone and supine when assessing shoulder internal (IR) and external rotation (ER). Design: The design included clinical measurement, reliability and validity. Methods: Thirty shoulders (mean age = 26.8 years) without pathology were evaluated. Measurements were taken in supine and prone with both an inclinometer and HALO© device. Results: Active ER ROM in prone was significantly higher than in supine when using both devices. Intra-rater reliability (within and between session) intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) values ranged between 0.82–0.99 for both devices in supine and prone. An ICC test revealed a significant (p \u3c 0.01) correlation for both devices in IR and ER movements (ICC3,1 = 0.87 and ICC3,1 = 0.72), respectively. Conclusion: This study has shown prone assessment of active ER and IR ROM to be a reliable and appropriate method for prone dominant athletes (swimmers and surfers). In this study greater ER ROM was achieved in prone compared to supine. This finding highlights the importance of standardizing the test position for initial and follow up assessments. Furthermore the HALO© and inclinometer have been shown to be reliable tools that show good concurrent validity

Towards an integrated perspective on fleet asset management: engineering and governance considerations

The traditional engineering perspective on asset management concentrates on the operational performance the assets. This perspective aims at managing assets through their life-cycle, from technical specification, to acquisition, operation including maintenance, and disposal. However, the engineering perspective often takes for granted organizational-level factors. For example, a focus on performance at the asset level may lead to ignore performance measures at the business unit level. The governance perspective on asset management usually concentrates on organizational factors, and measures performance in financial terms. In doing so, the governance perspective tends to ignore the engineering considerations required for optimal asset performance. These two perspectives often take each other for granted. However experience demonstrates that an exclusive focus on one or the other may lead to sub-optimal performance. For example, the two perspectives have different time frames: engineering considers the long term asset life-cycle whereas the organizational time frame is based on a yearly financial calendar. Asset fleets provide a relevant and important context to investigate the interaction between engineering and governance views on asset management as fleets have distributed system characteristics. In this project we investigate how engineering and governance perspectives can be reconciled and integrated to enable optimal asset and organizational performance in the context of asset fleets

Effects of water-based exercise on bone health of middle-aged and older adults:A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Age-related bone loss is a major health concern. Only exercises associated with high-impact and mechanical loading have been linked to a positive effect on bone turnover; however, these types of exercises may not always be appropriate for middle-aged and older adults due to physical decline or chronic disorders such as osteoarthritis. Water-based exercise (WBE) has been shown to affect different components of physical fitness, has lower risks of traumatic fracture, and applies less stress to joints. However, the effects of WBE on bone health are unclear. Objective: This study aimed to explore whether WBE is effective in preventing age-related bone deterioration in middle-aged and older adults. Methods: A search of relevant databases and the references of identified studies was performed. Critical narrative synthesis and meta-analyses were conducted. Results: Eleven studies, involving 629 participants, met all inclusion criteria. All participants were postmenopausal women. Eight studies compared WBE to a sedentary control group, and four studies had land-based exercise (LBE) participants as a comparison group. Meta-analyses revealed significant differences between WBE and control group in favor of WBE for changes in bone mineral density (BMD) at the lumbar spine (mean difference [MD] 0.03 g/cm2 ; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.01 to 0.05) and femoral neck (MD 0.04 g/cm2 ; 95% CI: 0.02 to 0.07). Significant differences were also revealed between WBE and LBE in favor of LBE for changes in lumbar spine BMD (MD -0.04 g/cm2 ; 95% CI: -0.06 to -0.02). However, there was no significant difference between WBE and LBE for changes in femoral neck BMD (MD -0.03 g/cm2 ; 95% CI: -0.08 to 0.01). Conclusion: WBE may have benefits with respect to maintaining or improving bone health in postmenopausal women but less benefit when compared to LBE. Further research is required on this topic

Preservice teachers’ observations of their mentors’ teaching strategies for differentiated learning

Tensions exist between teacher-centred and learner-centred approaches with constructivism as being favoured for learning in the 21st Century. There is little evidence of teaching strategies being used in the field for differentiating student learning. In addition, preservice teachers need to learn about teaching strategies for which observations of their mentor teachers can provide practical applications. This study explores 16 preservice teachers’ observations of their mentors’ teaching strategies over a four-week professional experience. They provided a minimum of five written observations during this period. Findings indicated that these preservice teachers observed their mentors’ practices and recorded four key teaching strategies used to differentiate learning, namely: (1) designating facilitators for students’ learning, including teacher, peers, parents, and support staff such as teachers aides, (2) managing student groups, (3) contexts for learning, and (4) using a range of teaching aids (visual, auditory, games) and resources. Preservice teachers’ observations of their mentor teachers indicated that they can commence at early stages for identifying teaching strategies and how they work for differentiating student learning

Physiological Profile of Male Competitive and Recreational Surfers

Surfing consists of both high- and low-intensity paddling of varying durations, using both the aerobic and anaerobic systems. Surf-specific physiological studies lack adequate group sample sizes, and V[Combining Dot Above]O2peak values are yet to determine the differences between competitive and recreational surfers. The purpose of this study was therefore to provide a comprehensive physiological profile of both recreational and competitive surfers. This multisite study involved 62 male surfers, recreational (n = 47) and competitive (n = 15). Anthropometric measurements were conducted followed by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, anaerobic testing and finally aerobic testing. V[Combining Dot Above]O2peak was significantly greater in competitive surfers than in recreational surfers (M = 40.71 ± 3.28 vs. 31.25 ± 6.31 ml·kg·min, p \u3c 0.001). This was also paralleled for anaerobic power (M = 303.93 vs. 264.58 W) for competitive surfers. Arm span and lean total muscle mass was significantly (p ≤ 0.01) correlated with key performance variables (V[Combining Dot Above]O2peak and anaerobic power). No significant (p ≥ 0.05) correlations were revealed between season rank and each of the variables of interest (V[Combining Dot Above]O2peak and anaerobic power). Key performance variables (V[Combining Dot Above]O2peak and anaerobic power) are significantly higher in competitive surfers, indicating that this is both an adaptation and requirement in this cohort. This battery of physiological tests could be used as a screening tool to identify an athlete\u27s weaknesses or strengths. Coaches and clinicians could then select appropriate training regimes to address weaknesses