Anna L. Carew

Elastic Practice in academic developers

The academic developer’s role is the focus of a growing body of literature. This paper builds on that literature by arguing the importance to current practice of making our theoretical underpinnings explicit. We excise and describe fragments of practice from the work of individual academic developers in order to discuss and consider the relationship between particular theories of Academic Development and particular approaches that these theories support. The three fragments of Academic Development practice we detail are related to reflective practice, collegiality and the scholarship of teaching. We also provide a fourth, more fulsome description of an approach to illustrate a highly responsive model of academic development: ‘Elastic Practice’. Elastic Practice describes the process of tailoring a specific approach or instance of Academic Development from the full professional ‘toolkit’ (techniques, experiences, ideas, values, theories) that academic developers collect during their evolution as practitioners. The idea of Elastic Practice is that multiple theoretical bases are melded or successively employed to support an adaptive, responsive approach to practice. We suggest Elastic Practice is particularly appropriate for the complex, at times contested, environment within which academic developers work. Le rôle du conseiller pédagogique est le sujet d’un corpus croissant de littérature. Cet article contribue à cette littérature en soutenant l’importance, pour notre pratique, de rendre nos bases théoriques explicites. Nous extrayons et décrivons des fragments de pratique du travail de conseillers pédagogiques de façon à discuter et à considérer la relation entre des théories spécifiques du développement pédagogique et les approches spécifiques que soutiennent ces théories. Les trois fragments de pratique du conseil pédagogique que nous décrivons sont reliés à la pratique réflexive, à la collégialité et au ‘scholarship of teaching’. Nous fournissons aussi une quatrième description, plus exagérée, d’une approche pour illustrer un modèle de développement pédagogique hautement sensible: la ‘pratique élastique’. Cette dernière décrit le processus d’ajustement d’une approche spécifique ou exemple de développement pédagogique provenant de la ‘boîte à outils’ professionnelle (techniques, expériences, idées, valeurs, théories) que les conseillers pédagogiques recueillent au cours de leur évolution en tant que praticiens. L’idée derrière la ‘pratique élastique’ est que plusieurs bases théoriques sont combinées ou employées successivement de façon à soutenir une approche adaptée et sensible à la pratique. Pour nous, le vocable de ‘pratique élastique’ est particulièrement adapté à l’environnement complexe, et parfois remis en question, au sein duquel les conseillers pédagogiques oeuvrent.

Quality criteria and indicators for responsible research and innovation: learning from transdisciplinarity

The concept of ‘responsible innovation’ (RI) or ‘responsible research and innovation’ (RRI) is rapidly gaining currency. However, a persistent critique is that without more concrete elaboration, the interpretive flexibility of the concept is so broad as to effectively render it meaningless. The articulation of quality criteria and indicators therefore seems crucial for RRI to be understood and operationalized by researchers, research funders, innovators and other relevant stakeholders. In this paper, we specifically draw on our knowledge and experience from the transdisciplinary research community, combined with recent multi-stakeholder deliberative work on the concrete case of nanoremediation, to make an offering on the challenge of articulating quality criteria and approaches to evaluate RRI. In doing so, we present an iteratively arrived at set of quality criteria, designate significant elements of each of these, and then develop an evaluative rubric of performance indicators across them. While the cri...

Metaphors used by some engineering academics in Australia for understanding and explaining sustainability

Metaphors can be powerful teaching and learning tools which may help us to understand novel, complex or abstract concepts using familiar language and thought structures. Academics routinely use metaphors in their university teaching to explain new or difficult ideas to students. In this article the authors argue that tertiary teachers’ metaphors for sustainability warrant formal investigation, as they will likely influence the construction and delivery of sustainability curricula. Based on this contention, we conducted in‐depth interviews with eight Australian engineering academics which centred around the question ‘What do you mean by sustainability?’. From the interview transcripts, we explicated and described four distinctly different metaphors. These were: sustainability as weaving, sustainability as guarding, sustainability as trading, and sustainability as observing limits. We describe each of the metaphors in detail and speculate on some of the underlying assumptions which underpin them. In conclusion, we advance the idea that sustainability might be taught using an explicit multiplicity of metaphors and that each metaphor would express important aspects of the phenomenon of sustainability. This approach would capitalise on the diversity of existing metaphors in the academe, and could result in curricula which reflect the richness and depth that a variety of perspectives can bring to understanding a complex, abstract, flexible concept like sustainability.

Characterization of macromolecular complexes in red wine: Composition, molecular mass distribution and particle size.

Precipitates were prepared from two compositionally different Pinot noir wines with addition of excess ethanol, and contained primarily polysaccharide, tannin and protein. The ethanol-soluble material was further fractionated into polymeric (tannin) and monomeric phenolics. Tannin associated with precipitates was of a higher molecular mass than that remaining in ethanolic solution. Wine fractions were reconstituted at the ratios of the original wine and analyzed using nanoparticle tracking analysis. The average particle size of the tannin fraction was 75-89 nm, and increased when combined with the precipitate (≅ 200 nm). Addition of the monomeric fraction to the tannin-precipitate complex increased both the incidence and concentration of smaller particles, reducing the average particle size. The formation of aggregates occurred in all fractions and only minor differences in particle size distribution were found between wines. Differences in particle concentration between wines appear to be due to differences in the total concentration of macromolecules rather than compositional differences.

Yeast strain affects phenolic concentration in Pinot noir wines made by microwave maceration with early pressing

This study examined the effects of yeast strains in a novel winemaking process that had been designed to optimize phenolic extraction and improve production efficiency for Pinot noir winemaking.

Microwave maceration with early pressing improves phenolics and fermentation kinetics in Pinot noir

Microwave maceration with early pressing was applied to Pinot noir must and produced wine with faster fermentation kinetics and significantly higher yeast assimilable nitrogen than control must and 10% greater juice yield than heat macerated must. UV-visible spectrophotometry showed microwave maceration wine as equivalent to or greater than control wine for total pigment, anthocyanin, tannin, and nonbleachable pigment concentration. Microwave maceration was compared with heat maceration, and phenolic differences apparent in juice were not sustained in bottle-aged wines. Histological examination of grape skins showed more substantial intracellular damage in microwave macerated skins than heat macerated and control skins. The results suggest microwave maceration with early pressing warrants serious consideration as an efficient production process for phenolic-rich Pinot noir wine.

A comparison of deterministic and stochastic models for predicting the impacts of different sheep body lice ( Bovicola ovis ) management practices

A deterministic model for predicting the prevalence of lice in sheep flocks was compared with a stochastic model. The stochastic model was based on data from 100 000 simulated farms and encompassed: a range of lice detection levels at shearing, whether or not treatment was applied where no lice were detected, the efficacy of treatments used, and the adequacy of quarantine measures against entering sheep. The deterministic model generated more extreme estimates of the effects of lice management changes, and was judged unsatisfactory for long-term decision making. Predictions based on the stochastic model were consistent with reported survey values, suggesting the stochastic model could be used to predict benefits and costs associated with changes in louse-control methods. According to the stochastic model, the two factors that could provide the greatest reduction in dollar costs were improvement of quarantine by limiting the incidence of lice entering the flock, and improvement of eradication methods. The deterministic model suggested that there would be large benefits from improvement in detection, but the stochastic model only found small dollar benefits with improved detection in the absence of changes such as more effective treatments. Changing the proportion of flocks that were treated when no lice were detected had little effect on the predicted incidence of lousy flocks.

A regional model of sheep lice management practices for predicting the impact of treatment for lice when no lice are detected

A model of sheep lice management incorporating different assumed levels of lice prevalence in different regions of Australia was used to determine the conditions under which it would be cost-effective to treat sheep for lice at shearing when no lice had been detected. The probability that a flock might be infested was calculated from the probability that the previous treatment had failed to eradicate lice, purchased sheep may have introduced lice, or lice may have entered on straying sheep. The model showed that a flock should be treated if the probability of infestation is greater than 10%. It was projected that acceptance of a risk level greater than 10% would reduce treatment of flocks where no lice were present, thus reducing treatment costs. This higher risk level, however, would increase the proportion of louse-infested flocks that remained untreated, resulting in increased direct lice costs and an increase in the regional prevalence of lice, but little overall change in costs to the sheep industry. The model indicated that treatment of sheep at lower levels of risk (less than 10%) would incur unnecessary costs due to treatment of flocks where no lice were present and would not reduce the regional prevalence of lice more effectively than a 10% intervention level. The model suggested that more accurate methods of detecting lice at shearing would allow higher levels of risk, reduce the use of treatment and hence reduce overall costs associated with managing lice, without increasing the prevalence of lice.

A regional model of sheep lice management practices to examine the impact of managing straying sheep combined with other management choices

A model of lice management systems was used to investigate the potential benefits of improved fencing against straying sheep, used in conjunction with other management options for lice control. The impact of combined strategies was simulated over a 20-year period. Management options included in the model were: lice eradication rate, lice detection, intervention level, improved fencing to reduce straying sheep, and biosecurity of purchased sheep. The modelling found it was cost-effective to improve fences for an initial average cost of

A regional model of sheep lice to study the effect on lice prevalence and costs for Australian farms using a range of treatment efficacy in combination with other lice control strategies

20000/property if the number of properties from which strays could enter was reduced by ≥40%, but for average Australian properties this represents less than 20% of the boundary replaced. In order for fencing to be a cost-effective part of lice management, the fencing must target sections of boundary fence that will provide the greatest protection from contact with neighbouring flocks. The model showed that improved biosecurity against straying sheep combined well with improved eradication rates. However, biosecurity for purchased sheep may be the most cost-effective option.