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This paper uses the origins of and subsequent changes to correspondence education in Queensland and New Zealand to highlight how open and flexible learning practices are influencing the normal paradigm of educational teaching, learning and service delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing urbanisation causes pressures on many environmental assets such as groundwater systems, waterways, atmosphere, ecosystems and others. To manage and mitigate the negative effects of these pressures, environmental programs are typically launched, which comprise of eligible projects in different affected locations. The implementation of individual projects has a cost. However, due to budget constraints, most frequently not all suggested projects can be implemented which makes necessary to choose a subset. In this paper, we use a cost utility approach and a subsequent combinatorial optimisation based on metaheuristics to determine a project portfolio which returns a maximum aggregated utility while keeping the budget constraint. To ensure that the mutual exclusiveness of projects at one particular site is guaranteed, we further developed the employed metaheuristics. We apply this approach within a waterway health program in a river catchment in Brisbane, Australia, and compare its results to a commonly used selection process that does not involve combinatorial optimisation. We find that the use of combinatorial optimisation leads to a considerable improvement of the selection process and can help to more effectively allocate environmental expenditure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an environmental conservation planning model used in Queensland, Australia to purchase agreements on 66 sites covering 81,046ha at a cost of A$1.9 million. The model was used as part of a competitive tendering program called “NatureAssist”. The model maximises conservation benefit subject to a cost constraint using binary combinatorial optimisation. Multiple criteria analysis (MCA) is used to capture investor preferences and measure benefit over multiple outcomes. Conservation costs are drawn from real market data; i.e. the prices being offered by sellers (landholders) to supply conservation services to a buyer (the government). This study shows the potential strengths, and weaknesses, of taking an MCA approach to select conservation sites in a real market context. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A chart audit of patients who had undergone a transurethral resection of the prostate established that 15.4% of 156 patients had postoperative acute urinary retention (AUR). Pre-operative prostate size, clot retention, and pre-operative urinary tract infection distinguished men at risk for post-operative AUR.