Speed, international security, and "New War" coverage in cyberspace

Mass media representations foster a view that the "War on Terror" is taking place both everywhere and nowhere, presenting Western governments with an opportunity to mobilize public support in new and ubiquitous ways. Starting with Virilio's critique of technology, speed, and de-territorialization, this article discusses the ways in which mass support is mobilized by the state in conventional pursuit of geopolitical objectives. Drawing on  contemporary international relations theory, the authors introduce the concept of "securitization" and discuss how war coverage in cyberspace has been used to securitize international threats, such as "global terrorism," to justify state intervention, including war. It is concluded that one of the paradoxes of war coverage in cyberspace is that whereas cyber-technologies should democratize the politics of war by liberating access to information about war, the state has coopted information and communication technologies to facilitate new forms of mass mobilization for war itself.

Checks and cheques : implementing a population health and recall system to improve coverage of patients with diabetes in a rural general practice

Identification of all diabetic patients in the population is essential if diabetic care is to be effective in achieving the targets of the St Vincent Declaration.¹ The challenge therefore is to establish population based monitoring and control systems by means of state of the art technology in order to achieve quality assurance in the provision of care for patients with diabetes. ^2,3 Disease management receives extensive international support as the most appropriate approach to organising and delivering healthcare for chronic conditions like diabetes.⁴ This approach is achieved through a combination of guidelines for practice, patient education, consultations and follow up using a planned team approach and a strong focus on continuous quality improvement using information technology. ^5,6 The current software (Medical Director) could not easily meet these requirements which led us to adopt a trial of Ferret. In designing this project we used change management⁷ and the plan, do, study, act cycle⁸ illustrated in Diagram 1.

Exploring the relationship between media coverage and participation in entrepreneurship : initial global evidence and research implications

Using a set of variables measured in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) study, our empirical investigation explored the influence of mass media through national culture on national entrepreneurial participation rates in 37 countries over 4 years (2000 to 2003). We found that stories about successful entrepreneurs, conveyed in mass media, were not significantly associated with the rate of nascent (opportunity searching) or the rate of actual (business activities commenced up to 3 months old) start-up activity, but that there was a significant positive association between the volume of entrepreneurship media stories and a nation’s volume of people running a young business (that is in GEM terminology, a business aged greater than 3 but less than 42 months old). More particularly, such stories had strong positive association with opportunity oriented operators of young businesses. Together, these findings are compatible with what in the mass communications theory literature may be called the ‘reinforcement model’. This argues that mass media are only capable of reinforcing their audience’s existing values and choice propensities but are not capable of shaping or changing those values and choices. In the area covered by this paper, policy-makers are committing public resources to media campaigns of doubtful utility in the absence of an evidence base. A main implication drawn from this study is the need for further and more sophisticated investigation into the relationship between media coverage of entrepreneurship, national culture and the rates and nature of people’s participation in the various stages of the entrepreneurial process.

The Carey 'king hit' : journalists and the coverage of domestic violence

In recent years Australia’s football codes have been rocked by allegations that star players, both past and present, have acted inappropriately off-field. In some instances these allegations have involved violence towards partners. This paper explores one such case, involving former AFL great Wayne Carey. In so doing, it explores the so-called ‘cult of celebrity’ and the impact this has both on the players and the media who cover such stories. People caught up in traumatic situations labelled as domestic violence have been vulnerable to media misunderstanding and misinterpretation. Coverage of these events and issues surrounding such violence has undergone change in line with social change. Work by community groups has produced calls for further shifts in thinking and suggestions for a name change to family violence. The so‑called ‘Wayne Carey Affair’ has demonstrated that journalists have their own vulnerabilities to the cult of celebrity, with extended interviews and coverage often centred on possible explanations/ “excuses” for the behaviour patterns of this one individual avoiding the wider social policy implications. By examining coverage surrounding Wayne Carey, this paper will explore the issues surrounding this major social problem and will question the role of journalists vis a vis the particularly vulnerable individuals caught up in family violence.

Finding coverage using incremental attribute combinations

Coverage is the range that covers only positive samples in attribute (or feature) space. Finding coverage is the kernel problem in induction algorithms because of the fact that coverage can be used as rules to describe positive samples. To reflect the characteristic of training samples, it is desirable that the large coverage that cover more positive samples. However, it is difficult to find large coverage, because the attribute space is usually very high dimensionality. Many heuristic methods such as ID3, AQ and CN2 have been proposed to find large coverage. A robust algorithm also has been proposed to find the largest coverage, but the complexities of time and space are costly when the dimensionality becomes high. To overcome this drawback, this paper proposes an algorithm that adopts incremental feature combinations to effectively find the largest coverage. In this algorithm, the irrelevant coverage can be pruned away at early stages because potentially large coverage can be found earlier. Experiments show that the space and time needed to find the largest coverage has been significantly reduced.

Long lived multi-isotype anti-HIV antibody responses following a prime-double boost immunization strategy

Despite decades of work, an effective HIV vaccine remains elusive. In an effort to elicit protective immunity, investigators have sought to define vaccines able to elicit durable HIV-specific B-cell and T-cell activities. Additionally, vaccines are sought which can induce antibodies of a variety of isotypes, as each isotype possesses unique attributes in terms of opsonization, Fc receptor binding capacity, complement fixation and location. One prominent new vaccine strategy, applied to numerous distinct antigenic systems is the prime boost-regimen, with DNA, vaccinia virus (VV), and/or purified recombinant protein. To examine the durability, location and isotype distribution of responses induced by prime-boost regimens, we tested successive immunizations with DNA, VV and protein (D-V-P), comparing three forms of protein inoculations: (i) purified protein administered intramuscularly with complete Freunds adjuvant, (ii) purified protein administered intranasally, and (iii) purified protein conjugated to oxidized mannan, administered intranasally. We found that all three protocols elicited serum antibodies of multiple isotypes, with serum IgA being most prominent among mice immunized with mannan-conjugated protein. All D-V-P protocols, regardless of protein form or route, also elicited antibody responses at mucosal surfaces. In bronchoalveolar lavage, a tendency toward IgA production was again most prominent in mice boosted with the protein–mannan conjugate. Both B-cell and T-cell responses were sustained for more than 1 year post-immunization following each form of vaccination. Contemporaneous with long-lasting serum and mucosal antibodies were antibody forming cells in the bone marrow of primed animals. Results highlight the D-V-P vaccination strategy as a promising approach for attaining durable, multi-isotype B-cell and T-cell activities toward HIV.

Unusual suspects : a newspaper's coverage of a scuba diving rescue and journalism's role in narrating Australia

Brisbane’s Courier-Mail newspaper ran a fantastic story a couple of years ago about a couple left at sea behind by their tour boat, after going scuba diving. The story suggested American diver Allyson Dalton and her British partner Richard Neely ignored advice when they ventured away from a lagoon where the tour boat was anchored. But the focus was on how Neely and Dalton survived by treading water for 19 hours at Paradise Reef, part of Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef, not so much (yet) on how fortunate they were not to be attacked by sharks. It would not be long, however, before that old journalistic maxim that implores practitioners to ‘question every assertion, doubt every claim’ shaped the reportage into an extended narrative about chequebook journalism, credibility, and culpability.

The scuba dive rescue story analysis presented here reflects contemporary journalism’s role in the formation of ideas about cultural value and character, and in more complex determinations of who gets a participatory stake in the formation of national narratives. As such, the article concludes with some signposts toward a critical approach to journalism-centred studies of culture in Australia.

Flock inspired area coverage using wireless boid-like sensor agents

Simulated flocking is achievable using three boid rules [13]. We propose an area coverage model inspired by Reynolds’ flocking algorithm, investigating strategies for achieving quality coverage using flocking rules. Our agents are identical and autonomous, using only local sensory information for indirect communication. Upon deployment, agents are in the default separation mode. The cohesion rule would then guarantee that agents remain within the swarm, covering spaces with explored neighbour spaces. Four experiments are conducted to evaluate our model in terms of coverage quality achieved. We firstly investigate agents’ separation speed before the speed with which isolated agents re-organizes is investigated. The third experiment compares coverage quality achieved using our model with coverage quality achieved using random guessing. Finally, we investigate fault tolerance in the event of agents’ failures. Our model exhibits good separation and cohesion speed, achieving high quality coverage. Additionally, the model is fault tolerant and adaptive to agents’ failures.

Influence of particle concentration on initial collection efficiency and surface coverage in porous media filtration

Four sizes (0.095, 0.53, 1.0 and 2.01 μm) of polystyrene latex particles were used to prepare monodispersed suspensions at three different ionic strengths (10−3, 10−2.5 and 10−2M KCl). Filtration experiments were conducted using those suspensions in a filter column with glass beads as porous medium. The filter bed depth and the filtration velocity were kept at 5 cm and 1 m/h, respectively. When suspensions with equal mass concentrations (0.2 mg/L) or equal surface area concentrations (0.12 cm2/mL) were filtered through the system, the largest particles exhibited higher initial single collector efficiency, η. The difference between the η of largest particles and the smaller particles was prominent for suspensions with equal surface area concentrations at higher ionic strengths. The collision efficiency, α of those particles exhibits higher values at higher ionic strengths. Both at equal mass concentration and equal surface area concentration, α is only slightly dependent on particle sizes when compared to its dependence on ionic strength. Further, it was found that the specific surface coverage was similar for 0.095 μm, 0.53 μm and 1.0 μm particles during the transient stage of filtration at any ionic strength when the surface area concentrations of those suspension were equal.

Surface coverage of filter medium in deep bed filtration : mathematical modelling and experiments

This paper highlights the importance of surface coverage in modeling the removal of particles in deep bed filtration. A model that considers the saturation of sites on which particle deposition occurs is used. Experimental results obtained with monodispersed suspensions of 0.46 and 0.816 μm latex particles at different influent concentrations and ionic strengths were used to calculate the fraction of filter grain surface (β1) on which actual particle deposition occurs. This will be useful in evaluating the filter performance in terms of the utilization of available surface area of the filter medium. Further, the level of dendrite formation of particles on filter grains during filtration is expressed in terms of β1 and the specific surface coverage, θT (the fraction of a filter grain surface that is covered by particles at time T, assuming that the filter grain is covered by a monolayer of particles). This can be used to compare the contribution of deposited particles in the removal efficiency of deep bed filtration for suspensions with different physical and chemical characteristics.

Passing the banner : the Australian media’s coverage of high profile court cases about women

An examination of the historical narrative patterns of gendered justice in Australian media representations of high profile court cases. Includes discussion of the Chamberlain Case, the Dianne Brimble cruise ship death case, and the Jill Meagher rape and murder

Scaling-up from an implementation trial to state-wide coverage : results from the preliminary Melbourne Diabetes Prevention Study

Background
The successful Greater Green Triangle Diabetes Prevention Program (GGT DPP), a small implementation trial, has been scaled-up to the Victorian state-wide ‘Life!’ programme with over 10,000 individuals enrolled. The Melbourne Diabetes Prevention Study (MDPS) is an evaluation of the translation from the GGT DPP to the Life! programme. We report results from the preliminary phase (pMDPS) of this evaluation.
Methods
The pMDPS is a randomised controlled trial with 92 individuals aged 50 to 75 at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes randomised to Life! or usual care. Intervention consisted of six structured 90-minute group sessions: five fortnightly sessions and the final session at 8 months. Participants underwent anthropometric and laboratory tests at baseline and 12 months, and provided self-reported psychosocial, dietary, and physical activity measures. Intervention group participants additionally underwent these tests at 3 months. Paired t tests were used to analyse within-group changes over time. Chi-square tests were used to analyse differences between groups in goals met at 12 months. Differences between groups for changes over time were tested with generalised estimating equations and analysis of covariance.
Results
Intervention participants significantly improved at 12 months in mean body mass index (−0.98 kg/m2, standard error (SE) = 0.26), weight (−2.65 kg, SE = 0.72), waist circumference (−7.45 cm, SE = 1.15), and systolic blood pressure (−3.18 mmHg, SE = 1.26), increased high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (0.07 mmol/l, SE = 0.03), reduced energy from total (−2.00%, SE = 0.78) and saturated fat (−1.54%, SE = 0.41), and increased fibre intake (1.98 g/1,000 kcal energy, SE = 0.47). In controls, oral glucose at 2 hours deteriorated (0.59 mmol/l, SE = 0.27). Only waist circumference reduced significantly (−4.02 cm, SE = 0.95).

Intervention participants significantly outperformed controls over 12 months for body mass index and fibre intake. After baseline adjustment, they also showed greater weight loss and reduced saturated fat versus total energy intake.

At least 5% weight loss was achieved by 32% of intervention participants versus 0% controls.
Conclusions
pMDPS results indicate that scaling-up from implementation trial to state-wide programme is possible. The system design for Life! was fit for purpose of scaling-up from efficacy to effectiveness.