‘Capitalism’ as False Consciousness

The assertion on which this paper is based is that Capitalism has been superseded by Corporatism. I put forward an argument as to why Marxist scholars can and should abandon the idea that Capitalism still exists based on Marx’s approach to understanding political economy. Further, I argue that Marx’s method can be deployed to better understand and change the corporatist system in which we are currently living first by understanding what it means to be “labour” in a system governed by complex structures of debt.

Detection versus false alarm characterisation of a vision-based airborne dim-target collision detection system

This paper presents a preliminary flight test based detection range versus false alarm performance characterisation of a morphological-hidden Markov model filtering approach to vision-based airborne dim-target collision detection. On the basis of compelling in-flight collision scenario data, we calculate system operating characteristic (SOC) curves that concisely illustrate the detection range versus false alarm rate performance design trade-offs. These preliminary SOC curves provide a more complete dim-target detection performance description than previous studies (due to the experimental difficulties involved, previous studies have been limited to very short flight data sample sets and hence have not been able to quantify false alarm behaviour). The preliminary investigation here is based on data collected from 4 controlled collision encounters and supporting non-target flight data. This study suggests head-on detection ranges of approximately 2.22 km under blue sky background conditions (1.26 km in cluttered background conditions), whilst experiencing false alarms at a rate less than 1.7 false alarms/hour (ie. less than once every 36 minutes). Further data collection is currently in progress.

Field-of-view, detection range, and false alarm trade-offs in vision-based aircraft detection

This paper presents a survey of previously presented vision based aircraft detection flight test, and then presents new flight test results examining the impact of camera field-of view choice on the detection range and false alarm rate characteristics of a vision-based aircraft detection technique. Using data collected from approaching aircraft, we examine the impact of camera fieldof-view choice and confirm that, when aiming for similar levels of detection confidence, an improvement in detection range can be obtained by choosing a smaller effective field-of-view (in terms of degrees per pixel).

The maturity model concept as framework for assessing the capability of higher education institutions to address student engagement, success and retention : new horizon or false dawn?

While the engagement, success and retention of first year students are ongoing issues in higher education, they are currently of considerable and increasing importance as the pressures on teaching and learning from the new standards framework and performance funding intensifies. This Nuts & Bolts presentation introduces the concept of a maturity model and its application to the assessment of the capability of higher education institutions to address student engagement, success and retention. Participants will be provided with (a) a concise description of the concept and features of a maturity model; and (b) the opportunity to explore the potential application of maturity models (i) to the management of student engagement and retention programs and strategies within an institution and (ii) to the improvement of these features by benchmarking across the sector.

Host location behaviour in the desert caterpillar, Heliothis punctifera

The host location behaviour of foraging caterpillars has received little attention, despite the wealth of theoretical and empirical studies that have been directed at this behavioural trait in adult Lepidoptera. Here, we study caterpillars of the moth Heliothis punctifera Walker (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), which inhabits the arid inland desert areas of Australia. Caterpillars of this species consume many flowerheads before completing development and can be observed moving across the sand in search of new hosts. Consequently, if host location behaviour favours attraction to certain plant species, it might be expected to influence the distribution and abundance of caterpillars in the field. We present field data showing that H. punctifera caterpillars are unevenly distributed throughout mixed patches of two of its host species, with a higher abundance on Senecio gregorii F. Muell., the annual yellow top, compared to Myriocephalus stuartii (F. Muell. & Sond.) Benth., the poached egg daisy (both Asteraceae). Using laboratory studies, we test whether this distribution may, in part, be due to host location behaviour of caterpillars. Our results show that caterpillars exhibit a preference for locating S. gregorii in their pre- and post-contact foraging behaviour. In addition, our results provide evidence that feeding history plays a role in host location behaviour in this insect. We propose that key features of the desert environment and the ecology of H. punctifera would favour adaptations to host location behaviour by immatures.

False-colour spectrograms of long duration acoustic recordings

Acoustic recordings of the environment are an important aid to ecologists monitoring biodiversity and environmental health. However, rapid advances in recording technology, storage and computing make it possible to accumulate thousands of hours of recordings, of which, ecologists can only listen to a small fraction. The big-data challenge is to visualize the content of long-duration audio recordings on multiple scales, from hours, days, months to years. The visualization should facilitate navigation and yield ecologically meaningful information. Our approach is to extract (at one minute resolution) acoustic indices which reflect content of ecological interest. An acoustic index is a statistic that summarizes some aspect of the distribution of acoustic energy in a recording. We combine indices to produce false-colour images that reveal acoustic content and facilitate navigation through recordings that are months or even years in duration.

Effects of different surfaces on the perception of prey-generated noise by the Indian false vampire bat Megaderma lyra.

The low- and high-frequency components of a rustling sound, created when prey (freshly killed frog) was jerkily pulled on dry and wet sandy floors and asbestos, were recorded and played back to individual Indian false vampire bats (Megaderma lyra). Megaderma lyra responded with flight toward the speakers and captured dead frogs, that were kept as reward. The spectral peaks were at 8.6, 7.1 and 6.8 kHz for the low-frequency components of the sounds created at the dry, asbestos and wet floors, respectively. The spectral peaks for the high-frequency sounds created on the respective floors were at 36.8,27.2 and 23.3 kHz. The sound from the dry floor was more intense than that of from the other two substrata. Prey movements that generated sonic or ultrasonic sounds were both sufficient and necessary for the bats to detect and capture prey. The number of successful prey captures was significantly greater for the dry floor sound, especially to its high-frequency components. Bat-responses were low to the wet floor and moderate to the asbestos floor sounds. The bats did not respond to the sound of unrecorded parts of the tape. Even though the bats flew toward the speakers when the prey generated sounds were played back and captured the dead frogs we cannot rule out the possibility of M. lyra using echolocation to localize prey. However, the study indicates that prey that move on dry sandy floor are more vulnerable to predation by M. lyra.

Mobile medical applications for melanoma risk assessment: False assurance or valuable tool?

With the smartphone revolution, consumer-focused mobile medical applications (apps) have flooded the market without restriction. We searched the market for commercially available apps on all mobile platforms that could provide automated risk analysis of the most serious skin cancer, melanoma. We tested 5 relevant apps against 15 images of previously excised skin lesions and compared the apps' risk grades to the known histopathologic diagnosis of the lesions. Two of the apps did not identify any of the melanomas. The remaining 3 apps obtained 80% sensitivity for melanoma risk identification; specificities for the 5 apps ranged from 20%-100%. Each app provided its own grading and recommendation scale and included a disclaimer recommending regular dermatologist evaluation regardless of the analysis outcome. The results indicate that autonomous lesion analysis is not yet ready for use as a triage tool. More concerning is the lack of restrictions and regulations for these applications.

Assessing police classifications of sexual assault reports: A meta-analysis of false reporting rates

The objective of the study was to determine, through meta-analysis, the rate of confirmed false reports of sexual assault to police. The meta-analysis initially involved a search for relevant articles. The search revealed seven studies where researchers or their trained helpers evaluated reported sexual assault cases to determine the rate of confirmed false reports. The meta-analysis calculated an overall rate and tested for possible moderators of effect size. The meta-analytic rate of false reports of sexual assault was .052 (95% CIs .030, .089). The rates for the individual studies were heterogeneous, suggesting the possibility of moderators of rate. However, the four possible moderators examined, year of publication, whether the data set used had information in addition to police reports, whether the study was completed in the U.S. or elsewhere, and whether inter-rater reliabilities were reported, were all not significant. The meta-analysis of seven relevant studies shows that confirmed false allegations of sexual assault made to police occur at a significant rate. The total false reporting rate, including both confirmed and equivocal cases, would be greater than the 5 percent rate found here.

A simple and fast two-locus quality control test to detect false positives due to batch effects in genome-wide association studies

The impact of erroneous genotypes having passed standard quality control (QC) can be severe in genome-wide association studies, genotype imputation, and estimation of heritability and prediction of genetic risk based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP). To detect such genotyping errors, a simple two-locus QC method, based on the difference in test statistic of association between single SNPs and pairs of SNPs, was developed and applied. The proposed approach could detect many problematic SNPs with statistical significance even when standard single SNP QC analyses fail to detect them in real data. Depending on the data set used, the number of erroneous SNPs that were not filtered out by standard single SNP QC but detected by the proposed approach varied from a few hundred to thousands. Using simulated data, it was shown that the proposed method was powerful and performed better than other tested existing methods. The power of the proposed approach to detect erroneous genotypes was approximately 80% for a 3% error rate per SNP. This novel QC approach is easy to implement and computationally efficient, and can lead to a better quality of genotypes for subsequent genotype-phenotype investigations.

Systematic review of the psychological consequences of false-positive screening mammograms

- Background In the UK, women aged 50–73 years are invited for screening by mammography every 3 years. In 2009–10, more than 2.24 million women in this age group in England were invited to take part in the programme, of whom 73% attended a screening clinic. Of these, 64,104 women were recalled for assessment. Of those recalled, 81% did not have breast cancer; these women are described as having a false-positive mammogram. - Objective The aim of this systematic review was to identify the psychological impact on women of false-positive screening mammograms and any evidence for the effectiveness of interventions designed to reduce this impact. We were also looking for evidence of effects in subgroups of women. - Data sources MEDLINE, MEDLINE In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations, EMBASE, Health Management Information Consortium, Cochrane Central Register for Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, CRD Health Technology Assessment (HTA), Cochrane Methodology, Web of Science, Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Science, Conference Proceeding Citation Index-Social Science and Humanities, PsycINFO, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Sociological Abstracts, the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, the British Library's Electronic Table of Contents and others. Initial searches were carried out between 8 October 2010 and 25 January 2011. Update searches were carried out on 26 October 2011 and 23 March 2012. - Review methods Based on the inclusion criteria, titles and abstracts were screened independently by two reviewers. Retrieved papers were reviewed and selected using the same independent process. Data were extracted by one reviewer and checked by another. Each included study was assessed for risk of bias. - Results Eleven studies were found from 4423 titles and abstracts. Studies that used disease-specific measures found a negative psychological impact lasting up to 3 years. Distress increased with the level of invasiveness of the assessment procedure. Studies using instruments designed to detect clinical levels of morbidity did not find this effect. Women with false-positive mammograms were less likely to return for the next round of screening [relative risk (RR) 0.97; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.96 to 0.98] than those with normal mammograms, were more likely to have interval cancer [odds ratio (OR) 3.19 (95% CI 2.34 to 4.35)] and were more likely to have cancer detected at the next screening round [OR 2.15 (95% CI 1.55 to 2.98)]. - Limitations This study was limited to UK research and by the robustness of the included studies, which frequently failed to report quality indicators, for example failure to consider the risk of bias or confounding, or failure to report participants' demographic characteristics. - Conclusions We conclude that the experience of having a false-positive screening mammogram can cause breast cancer-specific psychological distress that may endure for up to 3 years, and reduce the likelihood that women will return for their next round of mammography screening. These results should be treated cautiously owing to inherent weakness of observational designs and weaknesses in reporting. Future research should include a qualitative interview study and observational studies that compare generic and disease-specific measures, collect demographic data and include women from different social and ethnic groups.

Psychological consequences of false-positive screening mammograms in the UK

- Objectives To identify the psychological effects of false-positive screening mammograms in the UK. - Methods Systematic review of all controlled studies and qualitative studies of women with a false-positive screening mammogram. The control group participants had normal mammograms. All psychological outcomes including returning for routine screening were permitted. All studies had a narrative synthesis. - Results The searches returned seven includable studies (7/4423). Heterogeneity was such that meta-analysis was not possible. Studies using disease-specific measures found that, compared to normal results, there could be enduring psychological distress that lasted up to 3 years; the level of distress was related to the degree of invasiveness of the assessment. At 3 years the relative risks were, further mammography, 1.28 (95% CI 0.82 to 2.00), fine needle aspiration 1.80 (95% CI 1.17 to 2.77), biopsy 2.07 (95% CI 1.22 to 3.52) and early recall 1.82 (95% CI 1.22 to 2.72). Studies that used generic measures of anxiety and depression found no such impact up to 3 months after screening. Evidence suggests that women with false-positive mammograms have an increased likelihood of failing to reattend for routine screening, relative risk 0.97 (95% CI 0.96 to 0.98) compared with women with normal mammograms. - Conclusions Having a false-positive screening mammogram can cause breast cancer-specific distress for up to 3 years. The degree of distress is related to the invasiveness of the assessment. Women with false-positive mammograms are less likely to return for routine assessment than those with normal ones.

Constituting religion after Williams: The false dichotomy of theocracy and secularism

The Williams case is a relevant segue to consider the broader issue of constitutional relations between church and state in Australia. This paper argues that the dichotomous approach of theocracy as opposed to secularism is false and actually undermines the proper operation of s 116. A theocracy would contravene s 116 as an establishment of religion, but secularism also amounts to a conflict with s 116 as prohibiting the free exercise of religion. The necessary alternative is to find a middle ground compatible with s 116, one which will not establish any single state religion but will allow the contribution of different religious perspectives in the process of policy-making. This paper briefly considers how such an approach may be implemented.

Experiences in Passively Detecting Session Hijacking Attacks in IEEE 802.11 Networks

Current IEEE 802.11 wireless networks are vulnerable to session hijacking attacks as the existing standards fail to address the lack of authentication of management frames and network card addresses, and rely on loosely coupled state machines. Even the new WLAN security standard - IEEE 802.11i does not address these issues. In our previous work, we proposed two new techniques for improving detection of session hijacking attacks that are passive, computationally inexpensive, reliable, and have minimal impact on network performance. These techniques utilise unspoofable characteristics from the MAC protocol and the physical layer to enhance confidence in the intrusion detection process. This paper extends our earlier work and explores usability, robustness and accuracy of these intrusion detection techniques by applying them to eight distinct test scenarios. A correlation engine has also been introduced to maintain the false positives and false negatives at a manageable level. We also explore the process of selecting optimum thresholds for both detection techniques. For the purposes of our experiments, Snort-Wireless open source wireless intrusion detection system was extended to implement these new techniques and the correlation engine. Absence of any false negatives and low number of false positives in all eight test scenarios successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of the correlation engine and the accuracy of the detection techniques.