Effect of age on components of peripheral ocular aberrations

Purpose: To investigate the effect of age on the contributions of the anterior cornea and internal components to ocular aberrations in the peripheral visual field. Methods: Ocular aberrations were measured in 10 young emmetropes and 7 older emmetropes using a modified commercial Hartmann-Shack aberrometer across 42° x 32° of central visual field. Anterior corneal aberrations were estimated from anterior corneal topography using theoretical ray-tracing. Internal aberrations were calculated by subtracting anterior corneal aberrations from ocular aberrations. Results: Anterior corneal aberrations of young subjects were reasonably compensated by the internal aberrations, except for astigmatism for which the internal contribution was small out to the 21° field limit. The internal coma and spherical aberration of the older subjects were considerably smaller in magnitude than those of the young subjects such that the compensation for anterior corneal aberrations was poorer. This can be explained by age-related changes in the lens shape and refractive index distribution. Conclusion: oss of balance between anterior cornea and internal components of higher order aberrations with increasing age, found previously for on-axis vision, applies also to the peripheral visual field.

Incentive-based interventions for increasing physical activity and fitness

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: The main aim of the review is to determine the effectiveness of using incentive-based approaches (IBAs) (financial and non-financial) to increase physical activity in community-dwelling children and adults. A secondary objective will be to address the use of incentives to improve cardiovascular and metabolic fitness. A final objective will be to explore: - whether there are any adverse effects associated with the use of IBAs for increasing physical activity; - whether there are any differential effects of IBAs within and between study populations by age, gender, education, inequalities and health status; and - whether the use of disincentive/aversive approaches leads to a reduction in sedentary behaviour.

Pilot evaluation of an adolescent risk and injury prevention programme incorporating curriculum and school connectedness components

School connectedness is an important protective factor for adolescent risk-taking behaviour. This study examined a pilot version of the Skills for Preventing Injury in Youth (SPIY) programme, combining teacher professional development for increasing school connectedness (connectedness component) with a risk and injury prevention curriculum for early adolescents (curriculum component). A process evaluation was conducted on the connectedness component, involving assessments of programme reach, participant receptiveness and initial use, and a preliminary impact evaluation was conducted on the combined connectedness and curriculum programme. The connectedness component was well received by teacher participants, who saw benefits for both themselves and their students. Classroom observation also showed that teachers who received professional development made use of the programme strategies. Grade 8 students who participated in the SPIY programme were less likely to report violent behaviour at six-month follow-up than were control students, and trends also suggested reduced transport injuries. The results of this research support the use of the combined SPIY connectedness and curriculum components in a large-scale effectiveness trial to assess the impact of the programme on students’ connectedness, risk-taking and associated injuries.

Engineering the fitness of older patients for chemotherapy : an exploration of Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment in practice

Clinicians often report that currently available methods to assess older patients, including standard clinical consultations, do not elicit the information necessary to make an appropriate cancer treatment recommendation for older cancer patients. An increasingly popular way of assessing the potential of older patients to cope with chemotherapy is a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment. What constitutes Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment, however, is open to interpretation and varies from one setting to another. Furthermore, Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment’s usefulness as a predictor of fitness for chemotherapy and as a determinant of actual treatment is not well understood. In this article, we analyse how Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment was developed for use in a large cancer service in an Australian capital city. Drawing upon Actor–Network Theory, our findings reveal how, during its development, Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment was made both a tool and a science. Furthermore, we briefly explore the tensions that we experienced as scholars who analyse medico-scientific practices and as practitioner–designers charged with improving the very tools we critique. Our study contributes towards geriatric oncology by scrutinising the medicalisation of ageing, unravelling the practices of standardisation and illuminating the multiplicity of ‘fitness for chemotherapy’.

Predicting fitness for chemotherapy in older cancer patients

Background: The Vulnerable Elders Survey-13 (VES-13) is increasingly used to screen for older patients who can proceed to intensive chemotherapy without further comprehensive assessment. This study compared the VES-13 determination of fitness for treatment with the oncologist's assessments of fitness. Method: Sample: Consecutive series of solid tumour patients ≥65 years (n=175; M=72; range=65-86) from an Australian cancer centre. Patients were screened with the VES-13 before proceeding to usual treatment. Blinded to screening, oncologists concurrently predicted patient fitness for chemotherapy. A sample of 175 can detect, with 90% power, kappa coefficients of agreement between VES-13 and oncologists’ assessments >0.90 ("almost perfect agreement"). Separate backward stepwise logistic regression analyses assessed potential predictors of VES-13 and oncologists’ ratings of fitness. Results: Kappa coefficient for agreement between VES-13 and oncologists’ ratings of fitness was 0.41 (p<0.001). VES-13 and oncologists’ assessments agreed in 71% of ratings. VES-13 sensitivity = 83.3%; specificity = 57%; positive predictive value = 69%; negative predictive value = 75%. Logistic regression modelling indicated that the odds of being vulnerable to chemotherapy (VES-13) increased with increasing depression (OR=1.42; 95% CI: 1.18, 1.71) and decreased with increased functional independence assessed on the Bartel Index (OR=0.82; CI: 0.74, 0.92) and Lawton instrumental activities of daily living (OR=0.44; CI: 0.30, 0.65); RSquare=.65. Similarly, the odds of a patient being vulnerable to chemotherapy, when assessed by physicians, increased with increasing age (OR=1.15; CI: 1.07, 1.23) and depression (OR=1.23; CI: 1.06, 1.43), and decreased with increasing functional independence (OR=0.91; CI: 0.85, 0.98); RSquare=.32. Conclusions: Our data indicate moderate agreement between VES-13 and clinician assessments of patients’ fitness for chemotherapy. Current ‘one-step’ screening processes to determine fitness have limits. Nonetheless, screening tools do have the potential for modification and enhanced predictive properties in cancer care by adding relevant items, thus enabling fit patients to be immediately referred for chemotherapy.

Comprehensive assessment of the fitness of older people for chemotherapy

Purpose: To present the results of a mixed-method study comparing the level of agreement of a two-phased, nurse-administered Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) with current methods that assess the fitness for chemotherapy of older cancer patients. A nurse-led model of multidisciplinary cancer care based on the results is also described. Methods: The two phases comprised initial screening by a nurse with the Vulnerable Elders Survey-13 [VES-13], followed by nurse administration of a detailed CGA. Both phases were linked to a computerised algorithm categorising the patient as ‘fit’, ‘vulnerable’ or ‘frail’. The study determined the level of agreement between VES-13- and CGA-determined categories; and between the CGA and the physicians’ assessments. It also compared the CGA’s predictive abilities in terms of subsequent treatment toxicity; while interviews determined the acceptability of the nurse-led procedure from key stakeholders' perspectives. Results: Data collection was completed in December 2011. The results will be presented at the conference. A consecutive-series n=170 will be enrolled, 33% of whom are ‘fit’; 33% ‘vulnerable’; and 33% ‘too frail’ for treatment. This sample can detect, with 90% power, kappa coefficients of agreement of ≥ 0.70 or higher (“substantial agreement”). Fitness sub-group comparisons of agreement between the medical oncologist and the nurse assessments can detect kappa estimates of Κ ≥ 0.80 with the same power. Conclusion: The results have informed a nurse-led model of cancer care. It meets a clear need to develop, implement and test a nurse-led, robust, evidence-based, clinically-justifiable and economically-feasible CGA process that has relevance in national and international contexts.

Program-level support for protecting an application from untrustworthy components

Many software applications extend their functionality by dynamically loading executable components into their allocated address space. Such components, exemplified by browser plugins and other software add-ons, not only enable reusability, but also promote programming simplicity, as they reside in the same address space as their host application, supporting easy sharing of complex data structures and pointers. However, such components are also often of unknown provenance and quality and may be riddled with accidental bugs or, in some cases, deliberately malicious code. Statistics show that such component failures account for a high percentage of software crashes and vulnerabilities. Enabling isolation of such fine-grained components is therefore necessary to increase the stability, security and resilience of computer programs. This thesis addresses this issue by showing how host applications can create isolation domains for individual components, while preserving the benefits of a single address space, via a new architecture for software isolation called LibVM. Towards this end, we define a specification which outlines the functional requirements for LibVM, identify the conditions under which these functional requirements can be met, define an abstract Application Programming Interface (API) that encompasses the general problem of isolating shared libraries, thus separating policy from mechanism, and prove its practicality with two concrete implementations based on hardware virtualization and system call interpositioning, respectively. The results demonstrate that hardware isolation minimises the difficulties encountered with software based approaches, while also reducing the size of the trusted computing base, thus increasing confidence in the solution’s correctness. This thesis concludes that, not only is it feasible to create such isolation domains for individual components, but that it should also be a fundamental operating system supported abstraction, which would lead to more stable and secure applications.

Insect odour perception: recognition of odour components by flower foraging moths

Odours emitted by flowers are complex blends of volatile compounds. These odours are learnt by flower-visiting insect species, improving their recognition of rewarding flowers and thus foraging efficiency. We investigated the flexibility of floral odour learning by testing whether adult moths recognize single compounds common to flowers on which they forage. Dual choice preference tests on Helicoverpa armigera moths allowed free flying moths to forage on one of three flower species; Argyranthemum frutescens (federation daisy), Cajanus cajan (pigeonpea) or Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco). Results showed that, (i) a benzenoid (phenylacetaldehyde) and a monoterpene (linalool) were subsequently recognized after visits to flowers that emitted these volatile constituents, (ii) in a preference test, other monoterpenes in the flowers' odour did not affect the moths' ability to recognize the monoterpene linalool and (iii) relative preferences for two volatiles changed after foraging experience on a single flower species that emitted both volatiles. The importance of using free flying insects and real flowers to understand the mechanisms involved in floral odour learning in nature are discussed in the context of our findings.

Susceptibility of the critical structural components of railway bridges to the changes in train speed

Modern trains with different axle configurations, speeds and loads are used in railway networks. As a result, one of the most important questions of the mangers involved in bridge managements systems (BMS) is how these changes affect the structural behavior of the critical components of the railway bridges. Although researchers have conducted, many investigations on the dynamic effects of the moving loads on bridges, the influence of the changes in the speed of the train on the demand by capacity ratios of the different critical components of the bridge have not yet been properly studied. This study is important, because different components with different capacities and roles for carrying loads in the structure may be affected differently. To investigate the above phenomenon in this research, a structural model of a simply supported bridge is developed. It will be verified that the dynamic behavior of this bridge is similar to a group of railway bridges in Australia. Demand by capacity ratios of the critical components of the bridge, when it is subjected to a train load with different speeds will be calculated. The results show that the effect of increase or decrease of speed should not be underestimated. The outcome is very significant as it is contrary to what is currently expected, i.e. by reducing the speed of the train, the demand by capacity ratio of components may increase and make the bridge unsafe for carrying live load.

Importance of sustainability-related cost components in highway infrastructure : perspective of stakeholders in Australia

Highway infrastructure development typically requires major capital input. Unless planned properly, such requirements can cause serious financial constraints for investors. The push for sustainability adds a new dimension to the complexity of evaluating highway projects. Finding environmentally and socially responsible solutions for highway construction will improve its potential for acceptance by the society and in many instances the infrastructure's life span. Even so, the prediction and determination of a project's long-term financial viability can be a precarious exercise. Existing studies in this area have not indicated details of how to identify and deal with costs incurred in pursuing sustainability measures in highway infrastructure. This paper provides insights into the major challenges of implementing sustainability in highway project development in terms of financial concerns and obligations. It discusses the results from recent research through a literature study and a questionnaire survey of key industry stakeholders involved in highway infrastructure development. The research identified critical cost components relating to sustainability measures based on perspectives of industry stakeholders. All stakeholders believe sustainability related costs are an integral part of the decision making. However, the importance rating of these costs is relative to each stakeholder's core business objectives. This will influence the way these cost components are dealt with during the evaluation of highway investment alternatives and financial implications. This research encourages positive thinking among the highway infrastructure practitioners about sustainability. It calls for the construction industry to maximise sustainability deliverables while ensuring financial viability over the life cycle of highway infrastructure projects.

Composite SaaS resource management in cloud computing using evolutionary computation

Cloud computing is an emerging computing paradigm in which IT resources are provided over the Internet as a service to users. One such service offered through the Cloud is Software as a Service or SaaS. SaaS can be delivered in a composite form, consisting of a set of application and data components that work together to deliver higher-level functional software. SaaS is receiving substantial attention today from both software providers and users. It is also predicted to has positive future markets by analyst firms. This raises new challenges for SaaS providers managing SaaS, especially in large-scale data centres like Cloud. One of the challenges is providing management of Cloud resources for SaaS which guarantees maintaining SaaS performance while optimising resources use. Extensive research on the resource optimisation of Cloud service has not yet addressed the challenges of managing resources for composite SaaS. This research addresses this gap by focusing on three new problems of composite SaaS: placement, clustering and scalability. The overall aim is to develop efficient and scalable mechanisms that facilitate the delivery of high performance composite SaaS for users while optimising the resources used. All three problems are characterised as highly constrained, large-scaled and complex combinatorial optimisation problems. Therefore, evolutionary algorithms are adopted as the main technique in solving these problems. The first research problem refers to how a composite SaaS is placed onto Cloud servers to optimise its performance while satisfying the SaaS resource and response time constraints. Existing research on this problem often ignores the dependencies between components and considers placement of a homogenous type of component only. A precise problem formulation of composite SaaS placement problem is presented. A classical genetic algorithm and two versions of cooperative co-evolutionary algorithms are designed to now manage the placement of heterogeneous types of SaaS components together with their dependencies, requirements and constraints. Experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and scalability of these new algorithms. In the second problem, SaaS components are assumed to be already running on Cloud virtual machines (VMs). However, due to the environment of a Cloud, the current placement may need to be modified. Existing techniques focused mostly at the infrastructure level instead of the application level. This research addressed the problem at the application level by clustering suitable components to VMs to optimise the resource used and to maintain the SaaS performance. Two versions of grouping genetic algorithms (GGAs) are designed to cater for the structural group of a composite SaaS. The first GGA used a repair-based method while the second used a penalty-based method to handle the problem constraints. The experimental results confirmed that the GGAs always produced a better reconfiguration placement plan compared with a common heuristic for clustering problems. The third research problem deals with the replication or deletion of SaaS instances in coping with the SaaS workload. To determine a scaling plan that can minimise the resource used and maintain the SaaS performance is a critical task. Additionally, the problem consists of constraints and interdependency between components, making solutions even more difficult to find. A hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA) was developed to solve this problem by exploring the problem search space through its genetic operators and fitness function to determine the SaaS scaling plan. The HGA also uses the problem's domain knowledge to ensure that the solutions meet the problem's constraints and achieve its objectives. The experimental results demonstrated that the HGA constantly outperform a heuristic algorithm by achieving a low-cost scaling and placement plan. This research has identified three significant new problems for composite SaaS in Cloud. Various types of evolutionary algorithms have also been developed in addressing the problems where these contribute to the evolutionary computation field. The algorithms provide solutions for efficient resource management of composite SaaS in Cloud that resulted to a low total cost of ownership for users while guaranteeing the SaaS performance.

Star performers : task and contextual performance are components, but are they enough?

Identifying outstanding performers or ‘stars’ is a critical component of managing talent. However, organizational effectiveness in this area is limited by the current lack of guidance about the behaviour and characteristics of stars. We address this gap by combining a conceptual analysis with an empirical study involving 174 managers. Conceptually we examine the alignment of managers’ perceptions of outstanding performance with the well established task and contextual performance model and find this framework accounts for a core element in managers’ judgments about outstanding performers. However, a second, more qualitative approach finds that other dimensions including being self-directed, and a willingness to lead are also important. Our findings are consistent with a long-term trend toward identifying work effectiveness with highly discretionary, psychological and behavioural elements, and we consider the implications of this for the study and management of high level, individual effectiveness.

Probing second harmonic components of pH-sensitive Redox processes in a mesoporous TiO2-Nafion film electrode with Fourier-transformed large-amplitude sinusoidally modulated voltammetry

Electrochemical processes in mesoporous TiO2-Nafion thin films deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes are inherently complex and affected by capacitance, Ohmic iR-drop, RC-time constant phenomena, and by potential and pH-dependent conductivity. In this study, large-amplitude sinusoidally modulated voltammetry (LASMV) is employed to provide access to almost purely Faradaic-based current data from second harmonic components, as well as capacitance and potential domain information from the fundamental harmonic for mesoporous TiO2-Nafion film electrodes. The LASMV response has been investigated with and without an immobilized one-electron redox system, ferrocenylmethyltrimethylammonium+. Results clearly demonstrate that the electron transfer associated with the immobilized ferrocene derivative follows two independent pathways i) electron hopping within the Nafion network and ii) conduction through the TiO2 backbone. The pH effect on the voltammetric response for the TiO2 reduction pathway (ii) can be clearly identified in the 2nd harmonic LASMV response with the diffusion controlled ferrocene response (i) acting as a pH independent reference. Application of second harmonic data derived from LASMV measurement, because of the minimal contribution from capacitance currents, may lead to reference-free pH sensing with systems like that found for ferrocene derivatives.

Principle components analysis with covariance matrix on regional differences for mortality and percentages of cancers in Shandong province [山东省恶性肿瘤死亡率和构成比地区差异协方差矩阵主成分分析]

Objective To explore the characteristics of regional distribution of cancer deaths in Shandong Province with the principle components analysis. Methods The principle components analysis with co-variance matrix for age-adjusted mortality rates and percentages of 20 types of cancer in 22 counties （cities） were carried out using SAS Software. Results Over 90% of the total information could be reflected by the top 3 principle components and the first principle component alone represented more than half of the overall regional variances. The first component mainly reflected the area differences of esophageal cancer. The second component mainly reflected the area differences of lung cancer， stomach cancer and liver cancer. The value of the first principal component scores showed a clear trend that the west areas possessed higher values and the east the lower values. Based on the top two components，the 22 counties （cities） could be divided into several geographical clusters. Conclusion The overall difference of regional distribution of cancers in Shandong is dominated by several major cancers including esophageal cancer， lung cancer， stomach cancer and liver cancer. Among them，esophageal cancer makes the largest contribution. If the range of counties （cities） analyzed could be further widened， the characteristics of regional distribution of cancer mortality would be better examined. Abstract in Chinese 目的 利用主成分分析探讨山东省恶性肿瘤死亡的地区分布特征. 方法 利用SAS软件对山东省22个县市区2004～2006午的20种恶性肿瘤标化死亡率和构成比分别进行协方差矩阵主成分分析. 结果 前3个主成分就反映了总体差异90%以上的信息,其中仅第1主成分就提供了总体差异一半以上的信息.第1主成分主要反映了食管癌的地区差异,第2主成分主要反映肺癌的地区差异,兼顾胃癌和肝癌.各地区第1主成分得分呈现西高东低的趋势,根据第1和第2主成分可以将调查地区分为若干类别,表现为明显的地理聚集性. 结论 山东省各地区恶性肿瘤死亡的总体差异主要取决于少数高发肿瘤,包括食管癌、肺癌、胃癌、肝癌等,其中以食管癌地位最为突出.如能进一步扩大分析范围,可更好地查明恶性肿瘤死亡的地区特征.