Overcoming cross-cultural group work tensions: mixed student perspectives on the role of social relationships

As universities worldwide rapidly internationalise, higher education classrooms have become unique spaces for collaboration between students from different countries. One common way to encourage collaboration between diverse peers is through group work. However, previous research has highlighted that cross-cultural group work can be challenging and has hinted at potential social tensions. To understand this notion better, we have used robust quantitative tools in this study to select 20 participants from a larger classroom of 860 students to take part in an in-depth qualitative interview about cross-cultural group work experiences. Participant views on social tensions in cross-cultural group work were elicited using a unique mediating artefact method to encourage reflection and in-depth discussion. In our analysis of emergent interview themes, we compared student perspectives on the role of social relationships in group work by their academic performance level. Our findings indicated that all students interviewed desired the opportunity to form social relationships with their group work members, but their motivations for doing so varied widely by academic performance level

Refugee Resettlement in Australia: What we know and need to know

The year 2011 marked the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Refugee Convention. It is thus an appropriate time to review the situation of refugees in one of the few signatory countries that accepts United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees-approved refugees, Australia. Australia takes around 14,000 refugees annually, from countries in the African, Middle Eastern, and Asian regions. The Australian Government funds a range of services to assist the settlement process, and these are recognized as among the best in the world. While these services provide assistance in the areas of employment, education and training, housing, language, health, social support, and cultural orientation, there is room for improvement to ensure social inclusion. This article provides an overview of research undertaken with this population over the last 15 years investigating some of the key barriers to social inclusion. It outlines a number of matters in need of policy improvement, and areas for further research

Structural reinforcement of cell-laden hydrogels with microfabricated three dimensional scaffolds

Hydrogels commonly used in tissue engineering are mechanically soft and thus often display structural weakness. Herein, we introduce a strategy for enhancing the structural integrity and fracture toughness of cell-laden hydrogels by incorporating a three-dimensional (3D) microfabricated scaffold as a structural element. Digital micromirror device projection printing (DMD-PP) system, a rapid prototyping technology which employs a layer-by-layer stereolithographic approach, was utilized to efficiently fabricate 3D scaffolds made from photocrosslinkable poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA). The scaffold was incorporated into a photocrosslinkable gelatin hydrogel by placing it in a pre-gel solution, and inducing in situ hydrogel formation. The resulting scaffold-reinforced hydrogels demonstrated a significant increase in ultimate stress and provided structural support for mechanically weak hydrogels. In addition, the scaffold did not affect the rigidity of hydrogels, as it was not involved in the crosslinking reaction to form the hydrogel. Therefore, the presented approach could avoid inadvertent and undesired changes in the hydrogel rigidity which is a known regulator of cellular activities. Furthermore, the biocompatibility of scaffold-reinforced hydrogels was confirmed by evaluating the viability and proliferation of encapsulated fibroblasts. Overall, the strategy of incorporating 3D scaffolds into hydrogels as structural reinforcements presented in this study will be highly useful for enhancing the mechanical toughness of hydrogels for various tissue engineering applications.open3

Detection and Operation of Unintentional Islands in the Presence of Distributed Generation Units

The complexities and challenges for reliable operation of power system have increased due to various types of Distributed Generators (DG) in the Distribution Network (DN) to supply the increasing load demand. It necessitates a comprehensive approach in planning the system towards effective and reliable operation of the system. During the operation of the system, detection of unintentional islanding is critical as non-detection of islanding event could lead to cascaded failure of the system due to active or reactive power imbalance leading to frequency, angle or voltage instability. If undetected, the instability in the islanded part can cascade into the stable part of the system resulting in complete failure of the system. A robust Modified Islanding Detection Technique (MIDT) has been proposed for identifying the islanding event early and accurately in the distribution networks with DGs installed for multiple objectives and is compared with existing passive Islanding Detection Techniques (IDT). A rank-based load shedding scheme is proposed for stable and reliable operation of the identified island, which sheds only the most vulnerable loads in the island for regaining the frequency and voltage stabilities. The proposed MIDT and rank based load shedding schemes were tested on 11kV IEEE 118 Bus Test system

Managing the permanent temporariness of prolonged migration: The role of local and transnational care circulation among Argentine temporary migrants in Australia

In the past two decades, Australia has shifted from being a settler nation that promoted state-supported permanent migration to one where the scale and relative importance of temporary migration schemes have grown significantly. In 2017, Australia was the second largest issuing country of temporary visa permits after the United States, with temporary migrants applying, on average, for 3.3 temporary visas and spending 6.4 years in this multi-step visa journey to achieve permanent residency. As part of a broader research project on the social implications of temporary migration programs, we examine how Argentine temporary migrants exchange care to navigate temporary visa restrictions and the permanent temporariness in which they live. Our central argument is that transnational and local expressions, practices, and processes of care are co-constituted in particularistic temporary migrant care configurations that facilitate prolonged migration projects and continuity of care over time, despite the precarity that permanent temporariness brings. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork among Argentine temporary migrants, we illustrate the dynamics in which economic, accommodation, personal, practical, emotional and moral care is exchanged. The findings reveal the central role that transnational economic and practical as well as local, including local virtual, proximity care has in the everyday lives of Argentine temporary migrants. Ironically, their fragile temporariness may be an incentive to develop local support networks or maintain strong transnational ties to survive living in limbo

Enacting migrant community: Struggles and unbelonging in the field of Russian-speaking cultural production

In this article, based on ethnographic research conducted in Perth, Western Australia and Madrid, Spain, we consider how community is understood and enacted for Russian-speaking migrants and its role in cultural (re)production. Studies often overlook the important role of struggle, contestation and power relations in everyday practices of community making. Drawing on Bourdieu’s field theory, we describe the Russian-speaking migrant community as a structured social space in which community leaders and migrant institutions compete for the right to represent the community. As a result of power differentials, contested ideas about what Russian-speaking culture is and how it should be transmitted, maintained and produced are established, (re)produced and revised. The community is perceived by its own members as disunited and/or consisting of members with whom migrants do not want to identify, forming a ‘community of unbelonging’

Microstructure measurements along a quasi-meridional transect in the northeast Atlantic.

This study presents vertical profiles of turbulence parameters obtained in the upper 100 m of the northeastern Atlantic Ocean along a transect from tropical permanently stratified waters to subpolar seasonally stratified waters in July-August 2009. The focus is to fully characterize the vertical mixing along this transect for further studies related to phytoplankton and nutrient distributions. Derived values of temperature eddy diffusivity

Creating a climate in which students can flourish: A whole school intercultural approach

This article reports part of an ongoing process that is taking place at one high school. With the vision of an inclusive school in which all students could flourish, the school deliberately set out to develop a culture in which the students would feel welcome, connected and have a sense of belonging. This article focuses on, first, how the school, with a culturally-diverse student population, implemented a whole school intercultural approach aimed at improving students’ views of the school climate and, second, the impact that this had on students’ perceptions of the school climate and their self-reports of wellbeing, resilience and identity. These results indicated that, at the end of the 18 month period, students’ perceptions of the school climate were statistically significantly higher for four of the six school climate scales. Further, students’ scored statistically higher in terms of their wellbeing, resilience, self-anchoring and moral identity

Group social capital and the employment prospects of refugee women who experience domestic violence

This paper offers research insights on how refugee women who experience domestic violence develop employment prospects. Guided by social capital theory and the concept of group social capital, the paper uses a qualitative approach to identify intrapersonal and interpersonal processes in a group intervention that assist women members to adjust their cognitive reasoning about their domestic violence experience and engage in behaviours that potentially enhance their employment prospects. The paper contributes to understanding how group processes can foster small wins that may enhance the employment prospects of this vulnerable group