Investigating the Ipswich to Brisbane commuting pattern: a quantitative approach (journal article)
by Jonathan Corcoran et al.
from Australian Planner, Vol 46 No 2 2009
"Through a quantitative analysis of JTW data available in the Census of Population and Households we add to the current planning debate on traffic congestion in the Ipswich·Brisbane corridor. The analysis of JTW data enables investigation of the notion that there are high levels of leakage of Ipswich's residents commuting from Ipswich to the neighbouring Brisbane Local Government Area (LGA). In doing so we use quantitative methods to firstly calculate the degree of self containment (i.e. the proportion of people living and working within an area) within the Ipswich sub-region and secondly to map the mean direction of commuting. More specifically, the policy problem addressed in this paper is to determine the extent to which commuters living in Ipswich have a tendency for an easterly direction of JTW travel (i.e. towards Brisbane City and Brisbane's CBD using the main east-west corridor). We suggest
that the visual exploration of the JTW data can enhance the analytical capability through the integration of statistical and cartographic measures to assist in transport planning."

It's how you use it that counts. (journal article)
by Michael Bond
from New Scientist Vol 204 No 2732, pp.36-39
"The article suggests that having a high intelligence quotient (IQ) does not guaranty all-round intelligence. According to professor Keith Stanovich of the University of Toronto, IQ tests fail in measuring abilities that are crucial to making good judgments in real-life situations. The palaentologist Stephen Jay Gould also claimed that general intelligence was a mathematic artefact."

A Green Grid Rolls off the Blueprint - special report
from China Today, November 2009
"The Renewable Energy Law of 2006 has put the development of China's new energy industry onto the fast track. Government investment in this sector has grown at an annual rate of 20 percent over the past few years. In 2008 support for new energy enterprises reached RMB 3.8 billion. This is just the beginning for this industry....
China plans to increase the share of renewable energy in the total amount of energy consumption from the current 9 percent to around 40 percent by 2050. According to Wang Jun, director of the New and Renewable Energy Department of the National Energy Bureau, this is not merely expediency in the face of unpredictable oil prices on the international market. More important than that, the application of green energy will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and have a significant impact on global climate change."

Innovation and growth : chasing a moving frontier [online]

Authors: OECD / World Bank

"Innovation is crucial to long-term economic growth, even more so in the aftermath of the financial and economic crisis. Making innovation-driven growth happen requires action in a wide range of policy areas, from education and science and technology to product and labour markets and trade." - abstract.

Business process mapping : improving customer satisfaction [book]

Authors: J. Mike Jacka, Paulette J. Keller

"Business Process Mapping is a powerful tool that offers a solid understanding of any given process, as well as the methods for that process to be more effective, and ensures that true value is being provided to customers. From management to internal auditor to external consultant, the new edition includes more detailed work and examples related to ERM [Enterprise Risk Management] practices, particularly focusing on how objectives, risks, and key performance indicators are fundamental to understanding and analyzing processes. As well, new tools are included toward enhancing and enriching the basic work done with process mapping." - from publisher.

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Worlds Apart? A Comparison of the New Product Development Strategies of Biopharmaceutical Firms in Europe and the USA (journal article)
By Tianjiao Xia and Stephen Roper
from Industry & Innovation Vol 16 Iss 6 Dec 2009, pp. 593 - 612
"Globally the biopharmaceutical industry is characterized by strong competition, research-intensive and protracted new product development (NPD) processes, intensive regulation and extensive alliance activity. Policy regimes and operating environments differ markedly, however. Here we examine how these differences impact on the NPD strategies of biopharmaceutical firms in the USA and three major EU economies (the UK, France and Germany). Our analysis suggests four key differences between firms' NPD strategies in the two areas. First, while levels of R&D intensity and continuity are broadly similar in the two areas, US firms have notably stronger patent profiles, and are significantly more active in technology licensing than their European counterparts. Second, product development cycles are significantly longer in the USA than among our European respondents. Third, the nature of the product development pipeline is very different in the USA and the major European economies covered by our study: US firms conduct early stage development of more compounds than European firms but take only a similar number to market. Fourth, we see broadly similar levels of alliance activity in our US and European respondents at both the early and late stages of the NPD process. These results suggest a greater substitution of “market” for “hierarchy” in US firms' NPD strategies, reflecting differences in the availability and structure of government support in the USA and Europe."

Discovery guide to outback Queensland [book]

Editor: Michelle Ryan

"This full colour guide to one of the world's last great 'frontiers' leads travellers on a journey of discovery through more than 55 towns and settlements in Far Western Queensland. The land, colourful personalities, curious animals and plants, faraway places and significant events are featured in short, easy to read entries, enhanced by more than 650 stunning photographs." - cover.

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Work and strife in paradise : the history of labour relations in Queensland 1859-2009 [book]

Edited by: Bradley Bowden, Simon Blackwood, Cath Rafferty and Cameron Allan

[Looks] "at the diverse range of experiences that, together, made up a unique system of labour relations - including those of employers, women workers, indigenous workers, unions, the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission, labour law, industrial disputation, the workings of health and safety system and life in regional areas. It is argued that, overall, Queensland's system of industrial regulation was central to its economic and social development. Despite past emphasis on the large-scale strikes that periodically raked the state this book finds that consensus normally prevailed." - publisher's website.

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Land & Water Australia, 1990-2009 : research reports and publications [CD ROM]

Author: Land and Water Australia

Contains an archive of all Land and Water Australia's research papers, publications and tools on topics including: climate, native vegetation, water & rivers and innovation, biodiversity, landscape management, and more.

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Sustainable development for public administration [book]

Authors: Deniz Zeynep Leuenberger and John R. Bartle

"Focuses on the application of sustainability and sustainable development theories to public administration practice. It's designed to guide planning, resource management, and outcomes measurement for future and current non-profit and public managers. ... Introduces sustainable development and related theories; ties these theories to public administration practice; and elaborates on applications to specific PA specializations including energy management, transportation, water, waste management, urban development, wildlife conservation, and higher education. It also includes a chapter specifically geared to outcome measurement of sustainability goals in public and non-profit agencies." - from publisher.

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The design manual [book]

Author: David Whitbread

"Provides essential information on conceptual approaches, and planning and project development techniques for print, web and multimedia production. Design tasks are divided into sections on publication, corporate identity, on-screen, and advertising design. There is discussion of specific skills such as branding and logo design; stationery, catalogue, annual report and newsletter production; websites; storyboarding and animation techniques, and more. The production section discusses layout and typography for print and screen, colour and colour systems, printing and finishing processes."--Publisher description.

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Welcome to the City Planning Blog
Brisbane is a growing city which, according to the State’s SEQ Regional Plan, must accommodate 138,000 additional dwellings through in-fill development, by 2031.
Brisbane City Council’s City Planning branch is working hard to plan for our City’s heart, inner city and outer suburbs so they remain places in which people love to live, work and play.
The City Planning Blog was established to enable us to provide Brisbane residents and the development community with regular updates as to the latest planning news and information. Not only will it provide urban planning news, but will showcase landscape architecture and interesting developments from around the world.

Innovation practices within small to medium-sized mechanically-based manufacturers (journal article)
by Glenn Brophy and Steve Brown
from Innovation: management, policy and practice, Vol 11 No. 3, 2009
"Manufacturing SMEs remain an underdeveloped area of interest in the literature on innovation. SMEs whose principal skill sets are mechanical in nature (MechSMEs) and that serve multiple customer groups offer a particularly rich context for the study of innovation practices that are mostly under the control of the firm's managers. This empirically-based paper uses case studies based on multiple units of analysis within each firm so that the overall innovation practices of four mature firms (average firm age 45 years, minimum 20 years) and the practices used within thirteen specific innovations (both product and process innovations) were studied. This combination of studying firm-specific and innovation-specific practices was used to construct a picture of the most important innovation practices within each firm." (Ask us if you'd like the full text of this article).

Creating the engineering nation 2030 (journal article)
by Chris Fitzhardinge
from ATSE Focus, December 2009
"Engineering needs to be regarded as a pivotal career in promoting world amenity and productivity and has to communicate its role. ... Overseas-trained engineers will be an important component of engineering capability comprising half of our engineers in 2030. Much of our future engineering capability will have multiple qualifications, including Masters in Engineering. The relationship with India and China will dominate our economy. The maturing of the urbanisation of China and the one-child policy may see India assume a predominant role in influencing our economic future. Australians will continue to see the world as their source of education, entertainment and employment"

Two overarching priorities for STEM education (journal article)
by Lesley Parker and Adrian Egan
from ATSE Focus, December 2009
"A number of directions for the future emerged at the recent academy seminar, Science and Engineering Education: Towards 2030.These ranged from early childhood to adult learning, from quality of education to meeting a high and increasing workforce demand for engineers and scientists and from motivating individual students to shifting public perceptions of mathematics, science, technology and engineering – the enjoyment they provide and the roles they play in meeting community aspirations. Many of these directions are inter-related but, overall, they can be considered in four categories – wider society, students, teachers/lecturers/academics and industry. "

The importance of the 'international collaboration dividend': the case of China (journal article)
By David Tyfield, Yongguan Zhu and Jinghua Cao
from Science and Public Policy Volume 36, No. 9 Nov 2009, pp. 723-735
"The international standing of Chinese science has improved at an extraordinary rate in the last two decades, prompting fears among some commentators in the global North. Against such positions, this paper argues: first, that the continuing limitations of Chinese science show it is most unlikely to dominate global science imminently; and second, that the rise of Chinese science is, in any case, a trend that is greatly to be welcomed, with the potential to benefit everybody. In particular, regarding the simple advance of science and the tackling of unprecedented global problems, both Chinese science per se and international collaboration with Chinese researchers are crucial. Furthermore, such collaboration has demonstrable mutual benefits, yielding an 'international collaboration dividend' of increased impact and quality of research for all parties."

Energizing our future : rational choices for the 21st century [book]

Authors: John Wilson & Griffin Burgh

"Presents a comprehensive review of practical alternative energy choices for the twenty-first century. It addresses three critical energy-related topics that are causing great confusion in public debate: global warming, the hydrogen economy, and nuclear power - and gives readers an opportunity to form a grounded, factually correct foundation for understanding the energy challenge and develop their own informed and actionable opinion." - cover.

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The Future of Nanomedicine (journal article)
By Robert A Freitas Jr
from Futurist Vol. 44 Issue 1 Jan/Feb 2010, p21-22
"The article focuses on the use of nanotechnology in the medical treatment of various diseases in the U.S. It states that the technology utilizes nanomachines and one-billionth of a meter robot which would repair the damaged tissues of the human body at a molecular level. It mentions that nanomedicine will replace the expensive surgical treatment of certain diseases. In addition, nanotechnology also reduces the rate of premature deaths due to postoperative complications. It also emphasizes the establishment of the Nanofactory Collaboration founded by Ralph Merkle."

Information Technology and the Economics of Storing, Spreading and Generating Knowledge (journal article)
By Peter E. Earl
from Prometheus Vol 27 Iss 4 Dec 2009, pp. 389 - 401
"This paper examines the future for the growth and transmission of knowledge with a particular focus on the collision between the zero-marginal-cost economics of online publishing and the finite attention spans of those who download content. The paper tries to show that while it is likely that the information revolution will produce much greater equality of access to knowledge, its impacts on the efficiency with which people pick up capabilities or generate new knowledge remain debatable."

Innovation nation : how America is losing its innovation edge, why it matters, and what we can do to get it back [book]

Author: John Kao

Examines the world's innovation hotspots: Singapore, Denmark and Finland, and then presents a plan for a national innovation strategy which would harness the United States talent and resources, and change the way innovation occurs.

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