Recasting the academic workforce: why the attractiveness of the academic profession needs to be increased and eight possible strategies for how to go about this from an Australian perspective

This article analyses academic work and the academic workforce in the context of current dynamics and likely futures. It discusses the significance of academic work, reviews workforce characteristics, and analyses tensions and pressures. Prevailing conceptualisations, it is argued, do not reflect the current situation in which the profession finds itself, and would provide a very shaky foundation on which to build the future workforce. There is an overarching need for a fresh conceptualisation of academic work that is authentic and feasible and suggestions are offered of what this might look like. A number of strategies are proposed how such a recasting might be implemented. The paper works from Australian research, and make suggestions for other systems.     

Heuristic structures of Dispositio in oral and written rhetorical composition: An addendum to Ochs’ analysis of the Verrine Orations

Building on Ochs’ analysis of “rhetorical detailing” in Cicero's Verrine orations, this essay reveals that the disposition of arguments in the In Verrem shifted markedly from compositions which were structured for oral argument to those which were intended for public reading.     

Integrating Theoretical Traditions in Media Effects: Using Third-Person Effects to Link Agenda-Setting and Cultivation

In an earlier period of mass communication research, scholars were more adventuresome in advancing “new” theories and less hesitant to “create” theory. The 1970s, in particular, bore witness to the emergence of several such theories—from the knowledge gap and agenda-setting to cultivation. Scholars have generated substantial literatures elaborating work in these and other traditions. Those contributions are now sufficiently robust that it is time to direct some of our energies toward synthesizing theories. This article nominates third-person perception as a candidate for such integration. Several prominent theories of media effects in the mass communication literature are selected to illustrate how the theories can or have been integrated. Results from three surveys provided evidence that the theories of third-person perception, agenda-setting and cultivation can be interrelated. The proposition examined here can serve as a model for further integration of other media theories. This integration attempt harkened back to the times when theory building in media effects was more common and perhaps more optimistic about explaining processes of influence.     

Retrospective Conversion of Periodicals

Changes in journal publishing are often driven by the needs of the science community. Leo Walford, who is the Associate Director for Rights & Business Development for Sage Publications, highlighted differences between social science publishing and science publishing and discussed “why one size doesn't fit all.”     

Children's perspectives on building science models

This study describes the experiences of 10- and 11-year-old students with building science models during a unit on weather. With the teacher, we prepared and gathered materials for the students to use in the building of dynamic physical models demonstrating the key features of the weather concepts they were learning. An important aspect of the approach used in the construction of the models was that students were given a significant amount of time to build and explore their models. Students were interviewed following the completion of the unit and their comments suggest that they began to understand the value of the building activities. The enthusiasm for the activities demonstrated by the students also helped increased the meaning the construction held for them. This enthusiasm combined with an increased confidence helped create an environment where students were excited about science and were better able to display their understanding of concepts.     

Infinite sequences and their h-type indices

Starting from the notion of h-type indices for infinite sequences we investigate if these indices satisfy natural inequalities related to the arithmetic, the geometric and the harmonic mean. If f denotes an h-type index, such as the h- or the g-index, then we investigate inequalities such as min(f(X),f(Y)) ≤ f((X?+?Y)/2) ≤ max(f(X), f(Y)). We further investigate if: f(min(X,Y)) = min(f(X),f(Y)) and if f(max(X,Y)) = max(f(X),f(Y)). It is shown that the h-index satisfies all the equalities and inequalities we investigate but the g-index does not always, while it is always possible to find a counterexample involving the R-index. This shows that the h-index enjoys a number of interesting mathematical properties as an operator in the partially ordered positive cone (R⁺)^∞ of all infinite sequences with non-negative real values.In a second part we consider decreasing vectors X and Y with components at most at distance d. Denoting by D the constant sequence (d,d,d, …) and by Y-D the vector (max(y_r-d), 0)_r, we prove that under certain natural conditions, the double inequality h(Y-D) ≤ h(X) ≤ h(Y?+?D) holds.     

Hong Kong Library Association Mentoring Program: Experience,Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

The Hong Kong Library Association (HKLA) has been the core organization serving the library and information science (LIS) community in Hong Kong since its establishment 62?years ago. It organizes activities and events continually to enrich professional knowledge of LIS professionals in Hong Kong. It has been observed that the number of student members has risen constantly in recent few years. In view of the pressing demand for better support to student members, the HKLA launched the Mentoring Program in 2013 to enhance informal communication between student members and other members of the Association. The Mentoring Program received an overall positive feedback from the local LIS community and made a positive impact to participants, especially mentees. Apart from the successful experience of this program, there are issues that can be improved in sustaining this program in long term. This paper summarizes the experience of implementing the Mentoring Program in the first two years and identifies the challenges and opportunities ahead. The finding indicates that the Mentoring Program was a well-received professional development program for the student members of the Association. However, this program can be further enhanced in terms of mentor solicitation, mentor-mentee eligibility, mentor-mentee relationship, knowledge-based interaction, and program sustainability. The Program Committee may consider collaborating with other LIS agencies to solicit more potential mentors. In view of the population of the potential mentors, it makes very good sense for the past mentees to serve as peer-to-peer partners for non-degree student members. More incentive should be devised to encourage the mentoring pairs in joining library events in addition to the activities related to the Mentoring Program. To facilitate communication and experience sharing among program participants and HKLA members, it is desirable to set up an online discussion platform to address the increasing demand for more opportunities on this. Lastly, it is vital to improve communication among the Program Committee, HKLA Council members and HKLA members. Besides reviewing the operation and management of the Mentoring Program, the Program Committee should also study the feasibility of sustaining this program in the long run. This paper can be served as an empirical study on the implementation of library and information science mentoring programs in one of the major cities in Asian region. The results of the study can be referenced by the LIS community not only locally but also internationally.     

Introduction

Energy conversion takes place either in generalized capacitor or generalized resistor networks, that is, C- and R-fields in the sense of Paynterian bondgraphs. Entropy is interpreted as a kind of thermal charge. An electrical example is the difference of conduction and convection associated with mass flow. The generation of entropy in irreversible processes is represented by RS-fields as extension of the simple generalized resistors or R-elements. Thermoelectric power conversion is described by combined RS-fields, and Onsager's symmetry conditions for such fields are derived from the second law of thermodynamics.