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The purpose of this paper is to describe a project which seeks to develop a new generation of powered prostheses based on lightweight, uniquely tuned, energy‐storing elastic elements in series with optimal actuator systems that will significantly reduce the peak power requirement of the motor and the total system energy requirement while providing the amputee 100 percent of required “push‐off” power and ankle sagittal plane range‐of‐motion comparable to able‐bodied gait.

This paper presents the design, power, and energy‐efficiency analyses, and the results of a five‐month trial with one trans‐tibial amputee subject as part of the first phase of the Spring Ankle with Regenerative Kinetics project.

The data show that by leveraging uniquely tuned springs and transmission mechanisms, motor power is easily amplified more than four fold and the electric energy requirement is cut in half compared with traditional approaches.

This paper describes an energy efficient, powered transtibial prosthesis currently unavailable commercially. Motor power and energy requirements are reduced with use of a unique design that employs regenerative kinetics.

Much of the current literature on streetscape design emphasizes a need for well-articulated edge conditions to enhance pedestrian-orientation and the reason appears to lie in evolutionary biology: humans have a psychological preference for wall-hugging due to a well-established trait in other species: thigmotaxis.

This study seeks to explore the relationship between urban facades and affective feelings through an empirical study, which asks: how do people perceive edge conditions in urban environments? Through a study of affect relative to edge conditions, greater insight can be generated as to the human experience in the built environment. We conducted a laboratory experiment with 76 subjects who each viewed 40 images of urban facades and rated each based on their emotional reaction.

Each subject also completed two validated individual trait difference measures. We found that those images depicting thigmotaxic facades were more highly rated than other facades.

High quality edge environment resulted in people feeling more pleasant than low quality edges.

This study is a considered interpretation of the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for the health professions, which commenced operations in Australia in 2010. The development of the Scheme and its operational elements (namely the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and 14 profession-specific national Boards) are positioned within the context of regulatory capitalism. Regulatory capitalism merges the experience of neoliberalism with an attentiveness to risk, particularly by the State. Nationally consistent legislation put in place a new set of arrangements that enabled the continuity of governments’ role in health workforce governance. The new arrangements resulted in an entity which is neither exclusively subservient to nor independent of the State, but rather “quasi-independent.” In exploring this arrangement, specific consideration is given to how the regulatory response matched the existing reality of a global (and national) health workforce market. This study considers this activity by the State as one of consolidation, as opposed to fracturing, against a backdrop of purposeful regulatory reform.

This paper develops theory about the relationship between innovation and productivity improvements when technological knowledge is mature. By combining theory about organizational learning and the development of technological knowledge hypotheses concerning innovation and productivity improvements are developed that are counter‐intuitive to conventional thinking. Qualitative and quantitative data are used, collected over a six‐year period from the cotton‐ginning division of a large agribusiness firm to test the hypotheses. Support is found for the hypotheses that the connection between innovation and productivity improvements will be weak, when technological knowledge is mature.

Using the Leader‐Member Exchange (LMX) model as a guide, this study examined the relationship between the quality of information exchange between an employee and his or her immediate supervisor and the intention to file grievances. One hundred twenty‐five unionized automotive employees completed a measure of quality of information exchange and responded to eight vignettes representing hypothetical work situations. Employees rated each vignette in terms of their intention to file a grievance if faced with that situation. It was hypothesized that employees who perceived a high quality information exchange relationship with their supervisors would be less likely to file grievances than employees who perceived a low quality information exchange relationship. When the intent to file measure was aggregated across all vignettes, the hypothesis was supported When the vignettes were categorized into three different types of grievance situations through a principal components analysis, quality of information exchange was related only to grievance filing over issues pertaining to time at work. Implications of these findings for both employee grievance research and grievance prevention are discussed.

Information on the impact of flooding is fundamental to mitigating flood risk in residential property. This paper aims to provide insight into the seller disclosure of flood risk and buyer behaviour in the absence of mandated seller disclosure.

This paper adopts a case study approach to critically evaluate the matrix of flood information available for buyers purchasing residential property in Brisbane, Queensland. This paper uses big data analytic techniques to extract and analyse internet data from online seller agents and buyer platforms to gain an understanding of buyer awareness and consideration of flood risk in the residential property market.

Analysis of property marketing data demonstrates that seller agents voluntarily disclose flood impact only in periods where a flooding event is anticipated and is limited to asserting a property is free of flood risk. Analysis of buyer commentary demonstrates that buyers are either unaware of flood information or are discounting the risk of flood in favour of other property and locational attributes when selecting residential property.

This research suggests that improved and accessible government-provided flood mapping tools are not enhancing buyers’ understanding and awareness of flood risk. Accordingly, it is recommended that mandatory disclosure be introduced in Queensland so that buyers are more able to manage risk and investment decisions before the purchase of residential property.

This paper contributes to existing literature on raising community awareness and understanding of natural disaster risks and makes a further contribution in identifying mandatory disclosure as a mechanism to highlight the risk of flooding and inform residential property purchasers.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has arguably exposed the failures of neoliberalism and its political agenda over the past generation. The response has seen governments resurrect neo-Keynesian policies in order to address the weaknesses in the current market system and to mitigate the worst economic downturn since the Second World War (1939–1945). This chapter contextualizes the Australian perspective and the policy responses to the economic challenges posed by COVID-19. The authors contrast that with the experience of the USA and UK with whom the country shares common institutions and culture, including a generation of neoliberal economic reforms.

By closing large sections of the economy, the Australian COVID-19 response provided extensive social welfare support and bailed out several sectors and industries. Previously unacceptable and unthinkable levels of budget deficit and country debt were incurred. This systemic state intervention into the economy raises the question of whether the pandemic signals the end of the neoliberal era and its ramifications – or whether this neo-Keynesian pause was a kneejerk response to ensure and protect its legacy.