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Special education is a natural yardstick to measure a country's educational level and the whole civilization. China has a massive special education undertaking that develops rapidly and forms a unique system. This study used bibliometric methods to conduct a macroscopic comparative analysis of Chinese and global literature, discuss the existing problems of China's special education, and put forward relevant recommendations accordingly. The CiteSpace V visual analysis software was used to draw the scientific knowledge map of the Chinese local database CSSCI and the global database SSCI, and the results of the map were discussed. Research conclusions: Firstly, China's research institutions lack a macro-level cooperation network. Second, there are differences in the focus of special education objects between China and the world. This difference is mainly caused by the definition of special education objects, which may be influenced by the formulation of educational concepts and policies. Thirdly, in the reference co-citation analysis, the focus of Chinese research is narrow and generally focuses on special education teachers. This article provides implications for solving special education problems in China, and its research method provides a reference for future related research for other countries.

Research Findings: Grounded on personification storytelling, this intervention study introduced a science program including extensive astronomy concepts to 24 children (4-5 years). The storytelling attributes personal characteristics to cosmic bodies with metaphors relating to children's lives in explaining the scientific concepts, for example, the star explosion is presented as "a big vomit." Drawing on such storytelling combined with follow up hands-on activities and free drawing, the children showed significant improvement in their understanding of the astronomy concepts. The children's understanding was assessed with means of triangulation, including the analysis on pre- and post-intervention interviews, educators' documentations, and children's work samples. The analysis was based on Vygotsky's sociocultural notion of children's development of understanding from everyday concepts to scientific concepts. This study demonstrates preschool children's potential in understanding abstract astronomy concepts that were considered unsuitable to them. Practice or Policy: The pedagogical function of storytelling in science education is widely recognized, yet its application is impaired by the fact that writing stories is difficult. The personification storytelling would inspire the story writing employing the similar strategies for the promotion of science education. This study confirms the claim that preschool children are capable of developing conceptual understanding in "real astronomy." Practice or Policy

We investigated typical errors made by Mandarin-speaking children when measured by the Preschool Language Scales-fifth edition, Screening Test (PLS-5 Screening Test). The intention was to provide preliminary data for the development of a guideline for early childhood educators and psychologists who use the test with Mandarin-speaking children. Seventy-one Mandarin-speaking children aged 36-69 months from 15 childcare centres in northwest Sydney participated in the study. The children all had typically developing Mandarin competence as screened by a standardised Mandarin test. The results were consistent with our hypotheses. That is, due to linguistic differences between Mandarin and English, and Chinese children's general low level of autonomy, the most challenging areas on the PLS-5 Screening Test were production of word final consonants which do not occur in Mandarin, the use of plurals, personal pronouns, and language items embedded with autonomy. Children's overall performance on the test improved when their time attending English speaking childcare increased. The results are discussed with reference to implications for psychologists and childcare educators working with Mandarin-speaking children.

Through innovative use of technology, we propose a pedagogical framework to improve the achievement of the threshold learning outcomes defined for Australian curriculum in environmental science. The proposed framework is grounded in the theory of disciplinary intuitions. It aims to improve understanding of the local environment through assessment of microclimates, thereby developing increased understanding of complex environmental issues, and promote systemic change in environmental science education by engaging students in novel and authentic tasks. The proposed framework seeks to make environmental factors immediately relevant to students through study of their local environment. Students can develop an understanding of complex environmental issues through learning activities which interrogate the local environment datasets.

Previous research mainly with monolingual children shows a positive relationship between English skills and emotion regulation. No study to date has examined if or how learning of grammatical morphemes might be associated with emotion regulation among bilingual preschoolers. This study examined how Mandarin-English bilingual preschoolers performed on three grammatical morphemes of plurals, past tense, present tense and whether the performance on the three morphemes was associated with emotion regulation. An elicitation task was used to assess proficiency in the three morphemes, and the Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC) and the Disappointing Gift task were used to assess emotion regulation. The results indicate that Mandarin-English bilingual preschoolers had difficulties with all the three morphemes but they had a higher proficiency level on plurals than on past and present tense. Their proficiency in past and present tense was positively correlated with emotion regulation as measured by the ERC.

Research Findings: The main aim of this study was to examine whether language skills and emotion regulation are associated with social competence and whether the relationship between English skills and social competence is moderated by emotion regulation in Mandarin-English bilingual preschoolers. The language skills of 96 children ages 36-69 months from Australian child care centers were assessed using standardized English and Mandarin tests. Social competence was assessed using teacher reports on the Behavior Assessment System for Children-2 (BASC-2) with 4 composite scales: Externalizing, Internalizing, Behavioral Symptoms, and Adaptive Skills. Positive emotion regulation and emotion dysregulation were assessed using the disappointing gift task and teacher report on the Emotion Regulation Checklist. The results show that positive emotion regulation, emotion dysregulation, English skills, and Mandarin skills were associated with different composites of the BASC-2; the relationships between English skills and Behavioral Symptoms were moderated by positive emotion regulation; and English skills and Adaptive Skills were moderated by emotion dysregulation. Practice or Policy: Discussion of the results includes new considerations for a focus on emotion regulation as well as language to promote social competence in bilingual children.

This study investigated whether host and heritage cultural orientations were associated with Chinese preschoolers' social competence and whether such associations varied across gender in Western contexts. Ninety-six Chinese-Australian children aged 36-69 months from 15 childcare centres in Sydney participated in the study. The General Ethnicity Questionnaires were modified to obtain a parent report of children's orientation to the host and heritage cultures. Social competence was assessed using teacher reports on the Behaviour Assessment System for Children-2 (BASC-2) with four composite scales: Externalising, Internalising, Behavioural Symptoms and Adaptive Skills. Host culture orientation was negatively associated with Internalising, Behavioural Symptoms and positively with Adaptive Skills in the overall sample. When analysed by gender, host cultural orientation was found to be positively associated with Adaptive Skills for boys and girls and negatively associated with Externalising and Behavioural Symptoms only in girls. Heritage cultural orientation was not associated with the BASC-2 composites either in the overall sample or by gender. The results indicate that host culture has a stronger relationship with social competence than heritage culture, particularly for girls.

This study aims to examine social competence of Chinese immigrant children and its associations with age, length of attendance in childcare, gender, generational status and proficiencies in English and Mandarin Chinese. One hundred Mandarin-speaking children aged three to five years from 15 childcare centres in Sydney were assessed by normed English and Mandarin tests. Childcare educators rated the children's social competence questionnaires. The results indicated that Chinese children performed well in social competence although the children aged three years had a higher anxiety level than the normative sample. Age, length of attendance in childcare, gender and generational status were associated with some subscales of the social competence measure. English level was associated negatively with hyperactivity, atypicality, withdrawal, somatisation and attention problems but positively with adaptability, social skills and functional communication. Mandarin level was associated positively with somatisation but negatively with withdrawal. Possible explanations of these associations are discussed with the literature.

Chinese is not only a tonal but also a visual language represented by tens of thousands of characters which are pictographic in nature. This presents a great challenge to learners whose mother tongue is alphabetical-based such as English. To assist English-speaking background learners to learn Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) well, a good understanding of which learning style is most effective in learning CSL is essential. This study attempts to investigate this issue which also has implications for the teaching of Languages Other Than English (LOTE). The specific research questions asked are: (1) which sensory learning style (visual versus auditory versus kinaesthetic) is dominant among secondary school girls in learning CSL; (2) which sensory learning style is most effective among this group of learners; (3) which type of learners achieve better test results, girls with single-sensory domination versus combined-sensory domination. The subjects were 67 secondary school girls aged between 14-18 years old from an independent K-12 girls' school in Melbourne, Australia. A 14-item self-designed questionnaire based on Rose (1985) was administered to all the subjects at the beginning of the academic year in 2011 for learning background and styles profiling. Then, the subjects' individual learning styles were compared with their CSL oral and written examinations scores collected in mid-2011. It has been found that visual learning dominates secondary school girls, and girls with auditory learning style have performed better in oral examinations and those with kinaesthetic learning style have performed better in written examinations. Implications for effective teaching of CSL and other LOTEs are discussed. The contribution this study has made to the existing literature is that girls can learn better by showing their natural learning style strengths without making their learning styles congruent with the teaching style as suggested in previous research. (Contains 3 charts.)

Cloze testing is a widely-used procedure to test learners' reading comprehension in learning a language, but little is known if it can really improve learners' reading comprehension skills. This paper attempts to seek answers to this question by comparing the cloze test scores of two groups of students (Experimental versus Control) undertaking Chinese Second Language (CSL) and measuring their Z-score differences. The paper intends to find out if the Experimental Group which received one cloze test per week for a whole school term of 10-week duration could achieve better reading comprehension test results than the Control Group which received no extra cloze tests in between the first and last week of the term. The subjects were 26, Year 10 students aged between 14-15 years old from an independent K-12 boys' school in Melbourne, Australia. They were randomly divided into two separate groups with identical proficiency level in CSL. The cloze tests selected for this study were from the textbook series entitled Boya Chinese-Elementary Start Vol.2 (Li, et al., 2005), which were appropriate to the proficiency level of the subjects. Data were collected in class after each cloze test. Analysis of the data was conducted at the inter-group level examining the standard deviation and Z-scores of each group. The study found that there was not much difference between the two groups. Implications for teaching reading in CSL were discussed, which could also apply to the teaching of reading in other Languages Other Than English (LOTE). (Contains 3 tables.)

This article reports on a case study conducted in 2006-2007 which explores boys' motivation for choosing Chinese Second Language (CSL) as an elective in secondary school. The purpose of the study was to find out what factors encouraged or discouraged junior secondary school boys in their choice to continue CSL. 133 boys aged thirteen-fourteen years old from an independent K-12 boys' school in Melbourne participated in the study. We collected data through a questionnaire and our findings reveal that extrinsic motivation played an important role when boys chose to continue CSL as an elective, but intrinsic motivation was the major contributing factor to their quitting CSL. We found that family members and CSL teachers greatly influenced the boys' choice to continue CSL. It is also possible that ethnicity had a strong effect on the choice to continue CSL. We explore the educational implications of these findings and offer suggestions on how to encourage more secondary school boys in this age group to choose to continue CSL. (Contains 6 tables.)

Essay marking is a subjective intellectual exercise in which the score reliability can be influenced by many factors such as the test design, the marker's interpretation of the marking criteria, the procedure, and the method used in the marking process. After conducting a literature review this study investigated the reliability of essay marking in high-stakes Chinese Second Language (CSL) examinations in Victoria, where the school-based assessments and the final external examinations are combined to produce one holistic score for each candidate. The subjects were twelve volunteer CSL markers from twelve different secondary schools in greater Melbourne. The data consisted of 24 marking sheets completed by the markers on two separate occasions. Comparison was made between the first and the second marking. The study found that over 83% of the scores awarded in the first marking were subjective. To improve the reliability of the essay marking in CSL, an alternative marking method called the "three-marker method" was introduced. It was evident that this method of marking improved the standard variation, variance, and reliability coefficient of CSL scoring. The outcome of this research could also be applicable to essay marking in other second languages. (Contains 4 tables.)

One of the difficulties secondary non-Chinese-speaking background (NCSB) learners are facing is to remember the characters learned in order to recall them when necessary. The traditional way of teaching secondary NCSB learners to remember Chinese characters is through mere repetition, e.g. writing out each single character by following its stroke orders out of context, as in the textbooks by Liu, Deng, and Liu (1995) and Yang, Jun, and Zhou (1999), to name just a couple. This approach is mirrored in the practice Chinese native speakers have when they are in their lower primary school years in China. This approach is tedious, ineffective, and not very learner-friendly for most secondary NCSB learners, because their learning environment and the values they hold for learning are different from those of the native speakers of Chinese in China. This paper attempts to seek an alternative and to improve the rate of learning Chinese characters for secondary NCSB learners. Here, the author introduces the "OVAL-Writing" approach to Chinese character retention that requires secondary NCSB learners in learning characters to observe, visualise, articulate, listen, and write. Given the tasks of a multisensory nature involving the whole brain learning, the OVAL-Writing approach to Chinese character retention is expected to improve character retention. To test this theory, an experiment was conducted in Term 4, 2002 at Camberwell Grammar School in Melbourne. A detailed discussion about this experiment is provided. (Contains 2 figures and 2 tables.)

Energy efficiency of domestic refrigerators has markedly improved over recent years. Despite these improvements, low-income households in Australia still tend to own older and less energy-efficient refrigerators. Replacement of old refrigerators with energy-efficient appliances presents an important opportunity to reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and the electricity bills of households for sustainable development. This paper presents the measurement and verification of energy savings from a sample of 16 household refrigerator replacements under the Appliance Replacement Offer of the New South Wales Government, Australia. In-home monitoring and laboratory testing were conducted for both old and new refrigerators. A key challenge for this study was to estimate the energy savings of the replacement in each household based on limited in-home monitoring data. The annual energy savings from the refrigerator replacement in the households were estimated using the artificial neural networks (ANN) models for indoor air temperature prediction and the empirical models for the refrigerator energy consumption estimation. The experimental and estimation results both showed that most of the households achieved substantial energy savings from the replacement. The average annual energy cost savings and the average payback period of the refrigerator replacements were 53% and 4.3 years, respectively. It was also found that the energy savings could be compromised if the size of the new refrigerator was much larger than the old unit or if the efficiency of the old refrigerator was reasonably good. • Energy savings from 16 household refrigerator replacements were presented. • Both in-home monitoring and laboratory test were conducted to determine energy savings. • Artificial neural network models were used to predict indoor air temperature. • The average annual energy cost saving of the refrigerator replacements was 53%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept ‘governing through the community’ has been used frequently to interpret the neoliberal policy embraced by Australian governments since the 1990s. Yet explanation is still inadequate of how ‘governing through the community’ is conducted in practice, particularly the specific mechanisms that regulate interaction among government agencies, groups seeking to represent the community and individuals in the community. In this study, we find that ‘governing through the community’ is actually ‘governing through representatives of the community’ because it is the representatives that make the community visible and governable. This observation is based on a case study of three kinds of farmer organizations, in two states of Australia, who see their role as serving the community and are regarded by outsiders as representatives of the community at least on certain issues. An understanding of the interaction among different stakeholders within and outside of the community is developed through three themes of ‘paperwork’, ‘data’ and ‘price’ that were used by locals from Landcare groups, grower groups and farmer cooperatives, respectively, to articulate how they experience the mechanisms through which their interactions are regulated. This paper concludes that these groups can claim to represent some residents within a defined geographical area, rather than any exact definition of ‘the community’ and that this is a sufficient claim to enable these groups to participate in the process of ‘governing through the community’. The tensions between government agencies, community representatives and community members threaten the legitimacy of the community representatives as intermediaries. Government agencies do try to contribute to reduce these tensions by strengthening the legitimacy of community representatives through various policy and project mechanisms. However, while the stated aim of ‘governing through the community’ is often focused on producing a ‘flourishing rural community’ through improving democratic modes of representation, this study demonstrates that it is only part of the community, namely the ‘targeted customers’ of the farmer organizations, that is potentially reachable to ‘the state’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In coalbed-methane (CBM) projects, conventional logs, such as density were used heavily for coal identification, coal-property derivation, and also potentially for coal ranking. This paper presents a novel work flow of density-log normalization for CBM wells. It addresses two major challenges to current normalization methods: absence of a pervasive reference layer and removal of geological effects after normalization. To overcome these disadvantages, the proposed work flow undertakes six steps, which are data quality control (QC), geological- area segmentation, subarea type-well selection, density-control points, variable linear transformation and normalized-log result QC with box plots, matrix crossplots, and several histograms. This work flow removes the systematic errors caused by acquiring logs at different times with different logging instruments provided by different vendors. Furthermore, it possesses the advantages of the automated QC work flow, type-well control, and reference-layer methods without incurring their respective disadvantages. It was applied successfully to approximately 600 wells covering a large area in the Surat basin of Australia. Proper log normalization will reduce the uncertainties involved in 3D geological modeling and will increase the accuracy of reservoir evaluation. This paper should therefore be of interest to petrophysicists and geologists involved in CBM-field characterization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of a coalbed-methane (CBM) field in its early stage is often plagued by the lack of well control and the scarcity of geological data across a large geographical area. Therefore, constructing a representative static model to estimate the in-place volume presents a formidable challenge. In this paper, we propose a work flow to overcome this challenge and apply it to a CBM field in the northern Bowen basin of Australia. One may consider this work flow as a best practice for the following reasons. First, it makes use of data from various sources including cores, well logs, seismic interpretation, and topography. Second, it performs rigorous quality control on these data, such as depth shift and log normalization. Third, coal-ply division and correlation and subsequent structural modeling are based on three types of correlation: well-to-well, well-to-seismic, and well-seismic- geographic information system. Fourth, it establishes the low, base, and high trends for the most-important reservoir properties. Fifth, it constructs a base-case static model by combining the aforementioned structural and reservoir-property models. Sixth, it uses sensitivity analysis, which varies one reservoir parameter at a time, to rank the impact of reservoir parameters on in-place volume. Seventh, it uses uncertainty analysis that varies all reservoir parameters simultaneously to arrive at the P10, P50, and P90 in-place volumes and their corresponding static models that one can use for reservoir simulations to estimate the recoverable volumes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving building energy efficiency is a cost-effective response to global warming. It can result in the reduction in energy consumption and related carbon emissions of buildings. At the same time, it is normally effective in reducing heat/cold risk in non-air-conditioned buildings. This study investigated the potential heat stress risks in non-air-conditioned dwellings during the heatwaves, such as those occurred in Brisbane in 2004 and Melbourne in 2009. Using building simulations, it was demonstrated that maladaptation by over-emphasizing building energy efficiency alone could expose occupants to greater health risks during heatwaves. In general, measures that can further reduce both the space cooling load and the total space heating and cooling (H/C) load, instead of the total H/C load only, are effective both in improving the energy performance and in reducing occupant exposure to heat stress risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Climate change can significantly impact on the total energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of residential buildings. Therefore, climate adaptation should be properly considered in both building design and operation stages to reduce the impact. This paper identified the potential adaptation pathways for existing and new residential buildings, by enhancing their adaptive capacity to accommodate the impact and maintain total energy consumption and GHG emissions no more than the current level in the period of their service life. The feasibility of adaptations was demonstrated by building energy simulations using both representative existing and new housing in eight climate zones varying from cold, temperate to hot humid in Australia. It was found that, in heating dominated climates, a proper level of adaptive capacity of residential buildings could be achieved simply by improving the energy efficiency of building envelop. However, in cooling dominated regions, it could only be achieved by introducing additional measures, such as the use of high energy efficient (EE) appliances and the adoption of renewable energy. The initial costs to implement the adaptations were assessed, suggesting that it is more cost-effective to accommodate future climate change impacts for existing and new houses by improving building envelop energy efficiency in cooling dominated regions, but installing on-site solar PVs instead in heating and cooling balanced regions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This study investigated the potential impact of climate change on the heating and cooling (H/C) energy requirements of residential houses in five regional climates varying from cold to hot humid in Australia. Nine General Circulation Models (GCMs) under three carbon emission scenarios were applied to project the local climate. It was found that significant climate change impact on H/C energy requirements may occur within the lifespan of existing housing stock. The total H/C energy requirement of newly constructed 5 star houses is projected to vary significantly in the range of −26% to 101% by 2050 and −48% to 350% by 2100 given the A1B, A1FI and 550ppm stabilisation emission scenarios, dependent on the existing regional climate. In terms of percentage change, houses in an H/C balanced temperate climate such as Sydney is found to be the most sensitive to climate change, potentially posing more pressures on the capacity of local energy supply. It was also found that energy efficient or high star rating houses may experience less absolute changes in energy requirement. However, they appear to experience higher percentage changes in the total H/C energy requirement. Especially in the regions with an H/C balanced temperate climate such as Sydney, the increase in the total H/C energy requirement is projected up to 120% and 530% for a 7 star house when the global temperature increases 2°C and 5°C respectively. The high sensitivity to global warming may need to be considered in the planning of future energy requirement for energy efficient buildings. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this study, an improved multi-zone air flow model has been developed and implemented to replace the existing large opening air flow model MIX2 used in AccuRate''s simulation engine. Good agreements have been obtained between the results predicted by the new air flow model and those predicted by analytical solutions for single opening and two-opening cases. A cross-check between MIX2 and the new model has also been carried out. It is shown that the new AccuRate engine converges much better compared to the existing engine with MIX2. In addition to the improved modelling results due to better convergence, the implementation of mass balance with variable density further enhances the performance of the new AccuRate engine which improves the calculation accuracy in modelling natural ventilation and its cooling potential. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Essay marking is a subjective intellectual exercise in which the score reliability can be influenced by many factors such as the test design, the marker's interpretation of the marking criteria, the procedure, and the method used in the marking process. After conducting a literature review this study investigated the reliability of essay marking in high-stakes Chinese Second Language (CSL) examinations in Victoria, where the school-based assessments and the final external examinations are combined to produce one holistic score for each candidate. The subjects were twelve volunteer CSL markers from twelve different secondary schools in greater Melbourne. The data consisted of 24 marking sheets completed by the markers on two separate occasions. Comparison was made between the first and the second marking. The study found that over 83% of the scores awarded in the first marking were subjective. To improve the reliability of the essay marking in CSL, an alternative marking method called the 'three-marker method' was introduced. It was evident that this method of marking improved the standard variation, variance, and reliability coefficient of CSL scoring. The outcome of this research could also be applicable to essay marking in other second languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acupuncture has been used to treat various disease for more than 3,000 years in China and other Asian countries. As a complementary and alternative therapy, it has gained increasing popularity and acceptance among public and healthcare professionals in the West. Over the past few decades, basic and clinical research on acupuncture has made considerable progress. Internationally recognized evidence from clinical studies has been published, a preliminary system to clinically evaluate acupuncture has been created, and some clinical guidelines have been formulated. Moreover, scientists have strived to explore the physiological and biological mechanisms of acupuncture. Some basic studies have indicated that acupuncture has various actions, such as analgesic, muscle relaxing, anti-inflammatory, mild anxiolytic, and antidepressant actions, with possible biological mechanisms such as central sensitization, neurotransmitters, the intestinal flora, immune regulation, oxidative stress, and neuroinflammation. The current review describes the common indications for acupuncture recommended by the WHO and the use of acupuncture in China, the United States, Australia, and several other countries. This review then summarized the mechanisms by which acupuncture treats common conditions including lower back pain (LBP), ischemic stroke, depression, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and it also cited specific acupuncture points for treating these conditions. The hope is that this review will provide useful information for both acupuncturists and researchers to better understand the mechanisms of acupuncture and reasons for its usage.