Characterising an ECG signal using statistical modelling : a feasibility study

For clinical use, in electrocardiogram (ECG) signal analysis it is important to detect not only the centre of the P wave, the QRS complex and the T wave, but also the time intervals, such as the ST segment. Much research focused entirely on qrs complex detection, via methods such as wavelet transforms, spline fitting and neural networks. However, drawbacks include the false classification of a severe noise spike as a QRS complex, possibly requiring manual editing, or the omission of information contained in other regions of the ECG signal. While some attempts were made to develop algorithms to detect additional signal characteristics, such as P and T waves, the reported success rates are subject to change from person-to-person and beat-to-beat. To address this variability we propose the use of Markov-chain Monte Carlo statistical modelling to extract the key features of an ECG signal and we report on a feasibility study to investigate the utility of the approach. The modelling approach is examined with reference to a realistic computer generated ECG signal, where details such as wave morphology and noise levels are variable.

The Cultural Atlas of Australia

An online interactive map and associated database including textual extracts and audiovisual material of film/novel/play locations in Australia.

Teaching colour theory online : challenges, opportunities and experiences [Abstract]

Over the past decade, various paradigm shifts and challenges have rapidly changed learning and teaching in higher education including meeting student expectation for more engaging, more interactive learning experiences, the increased focus in the tertiary sector to deliver content online, and dealing with the complexities of fast-changing technologies. Rising to these challenges and responding to them is a complex and multi-faceted task. This paper discusses a case study undertaken applying a framework drawn from engineering education teaching and learning methods using the concept of academagogy, which is learner-centric, actively empowering students in building effective learning and engages facilitators in meaningful teaching and delivery methods.

Quantitative fit analysis of orthopedic bone plates : methods, criteria and approach

Studies on quantitative fit analysis of precontoured fracture fixation plates emerged within the last few years and therefore, there is a wide research gap in this area. Quantitative fit assessment facilitates the measure of the gap between a fracture fixation plate and the underlying bone, and specifies the required plate fit criteria. For clinically meaningful fit assessment outcome, it is necessary to establish the appropriate criteria and parameter. The present paper studies this subject and recommends using multiple fit criteria and the maximum distance between the plate and underlying bone as fit parameter for clinically relevant outcome. We also propose the development of a software tool for automatic plate positioning and fit assessment for the purpose of implant design validation and optimization in an effort to provide better fitting implant that can assist proper fracture healing. The fundamental specifications of the software are discussed.

Setting water quality objectives for the health of freshwater fish

An important responsibility of the Environment Protection Authority, Victoria, is to set objectives for levels of environmental contaminants. To support the development of environmental objectives for water quality, a need has been identified to understand the dual impacts of concentration and duration of a contaminant on biota in freshwater streams. For suspended solids contamination, information reported by Newcombe and Jensen [ North American Journal of Fisheries Management , 16(4):693--727, 1996] study of freshwater fish and the daily suspended solids data from the United States Geological Survey stream monitoring network is utilised. The study group was requested to examine both the utility of the Newcombe and Jensen and the USA data, as well as the formulation of a procedure for use by the Environment Protection Authority Victoria that takes concentration and duration of harmful episodes into account when assessing water quality. The extent to which the impact of a toxic event on fish health could be modelled deterministically was also considered. It was found that concentration and exposure duration were the main compounding factors on the severity of effects of suspended solids on freshwater fish. A protocol for assessing the cumulative effect on fish health and a simple deterministic model, based on the biology of gill harm and recovery, was proposed. References D. W. T. Au, C. A. Pollino, R. S. S Wu, P. K. S. Shin, S. T. F. Lau, and J. Y. M. Tang. Chronic effects of suspended solids on gill structure, osmoregulation, growth, and triiodothyronine in juvenile green grouper epinephelus coioides . Marine Ecology Press Series , 266:255--264, 2004. J.C. Bezdek, S.K. Chuah, and D. Leep. Generalized k-nearest neighbor rules. Fuzzy Sets and Systems , 18:237--26, 1986. E. T. Champagne, K. L. Bett-Garber, A. M. McClung, and C. Bergman. {Sensory characteristics of diverse rice cultivars as influenced by genetic and environmental factors}. Cereal Chem. , {81}:{237--243}, {2004}. S. G. Cheung and P. K. S. Shin. Size effects of suspended particles on gill damage in green-lipped mussel perna viridis. Marine Pollution Bulletin , 51(8--12):801--810, 2005. D. H. Evans. The fish gill: site of action and model for toxic effects of environmental pollutants. Environmental Health Perspectives , 71:44--58, 1987. G. C. Grigg. The failure of oxygen transport in a fish at low levels of ambient oxygen. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. , 29:1253--1257, 1969. G. Holmes, A. Donkin, and I.H. Witten. {Weka: A machine learning workbench}. In Proceedings of the Second Australia and New Zealand Conference on Intelligent Information Systems , volume {24}, pages {357--361}, {Brisbane, Australia}, {1994}. {IEEE Computer Society}. D. D. Macdonald and C. P. Newcombe. Utility of the stress index for predicting suspended sediment effects: response to comments. North American Journal of Fisheries Management , 13:873--876, 1993. C. P. Newcombe. Suspended sediment in aquatic ecosystems: ill effects as a function of concentration and duration of exposure. Technical report, British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks, Habitat Protection branch, Victoria, 1994. C. P. Newcombe and J. O. T. Jensen. Channel suspended sediment and fisheries: A synthesis for quantitative assessment of risk and impact. North American Journal of Fisheries Management , 16(4):693--727, 1996. C. P. Newcombe and D. D. Macdonald. Effects of suspended sediments on aquatic ecosystems. North American Journal of Fisheries Management , 11(1):72--82, 1991. K. Schmidt-Nielsen. Scaling. Why is animal size so important? Cambridge University Press, NY, 1984. J. S. Schwartz, A. Simon, and L. Klimetz. Use of fish functional traits to associate in-stream suspended sediment transport metrics with biological impairment. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment , 179(1--4):347--369, 2011. E. Al Shaw and J. S. Richardson. Direct and indirect effects of sediment pulse duration on stream invertebrate assemb ages and rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ) growth and survival. Canadian Journal of Fish and Aquatic Science , 58:2213--2221, 2001. P. Tiwari and H. Hasegawa. {Demand for housing in Tokyo: A discrete choice analysis}. Regional Studies , {38}:{27--42}, {2004}. Y. Tramblay, A. Saint-Hilaire, T. B. M. J. Ouarda, F. Moatar, and B Hecht. Estimation of local extreme suspended sediment concentrations in california rivers. Science of the Total Environment , 408:4221--

Considering the economic value of natural design elements at city scale

With increasing signs of climate change and the influence of national and international carbon-related laws and agreements, governments all over the world are grappling with how to rapidly transition to low-carbon living. This includes adapting to the impacts of climate change that are very likely to be experienced due to current emission levels (including extreme weather and sea level changes), and mitigating against further growth in greenhouse gas emissions that are likely to result in further impacts. Internationally, the concept of ‘Biophilic Urbanism’, a term coined by Professors Tim Beatley and Peter Newman to refer to the use of natural elements as design features in urban landscapes, is emerging as a key component in addressing such climate change challenges in rapidly growing urban contexts. However, the economics of incorporating such options is not well understood and requires further attention to underpin a mainstreaming of biophilic urbanism. Indeed, there appears to be an ad hoc, reactionary approach to creating economic arguments for or against the design, installation or maintenance of natural elements such as green walls, green roofs, streetscapes, and parklands. With this issue in mind, this paper will overview research as part of an industry collaborative research project that considers the potential for using a number of environmental economic valuation techniques that have evolved over the last several decades in agricultural and resource economics, to systematically value the economic value of biophilic elements in the urban context. Considering existing literature on environmental economic valuation techniques, the paper highlights opportunities for creating a standardised language for valuing biophilic elements. The conclusions have implications for expanding the field of environmental economic value to support the economic evaluations and planning of the greater use of natural elements in cities. Insights are also noted for the more mature fields of agricultural and resource economics.

UbiOpticon : participatory sousveillance with urban screens and mobile phone cameras

In many cities around the world, surveillance by a pervasive net of CCTV cameras is a common phenomenon in an attempt to uphold safety and security across the urban environment. Video footage is being recorded and stored, sometimes live feeds are being watched in control rooms hidden from public access and view. In this study, we were inspired by Steve Mann’s original work on sousveillance (surveillance from below) to examine how a network of camera equipped urban screens could allow the residents of Oulu in Finland to collaborate on the safekeeping of their city. An agile, rapid prototyping process led to the design, implementation and ‘in the wild’ deployment of the UbiOpticon screen application. Live video streams captured by web cams integrated at the top of 12 distributed urban screens were broadcast and displayed in a matrix arrangement on all screens. The matrix also included live video streams of two roaming mobile phone cameras. In our field study we explored the reactions of passers-by and users of this screen application that seeks to inverse Bentham’s original panopticon by allowing the watched to be watchers at the same time. In addition to the original goal of participatory sousveillance, the system’s live video feature sparked fun and novel user-led apprlopriations.

Vote with your feet : local community polling on urban screens

Falling prices have led to an ongoing spread of public displays in urban areas. Still, they mostly show passive content such as commercials and digital signage. At the same time, technological advances have enabled the creation of interactive displays potentially increasing their attractiveness for the audience, e.g. through providing a platform for civic discourse. This poses considerable challenges, since displays need to communicate the opportunity to engage, motivate the audience to do so, and be easy to use. In this paper we present Vote With Your Feet, a hyperlocal public polling tool for urban screens allowing users to express their opinions. Similar to vox populi interviews on TV or polls on news websites, the tool is meant to reflect the mindset of the community on topics such as current affairs, cultural identity and local matters. It is novel in that it focuses on a situated civic discourse and provides a tangible user interface, tackling the mentioned challenges. It shows one Yes/No question at a time and enables users to vote by stepping on one of two tangible buttons on the ground. This user interface was introduced to attract people’s attention and to lower participation barriers. Our field study showed that Vote With Your Feet is perceived as inviting and that it can spark discussions among co-located people.

A model of workplace safety incorporating worker interactions and simple interventions

Although there was substantial research into the occupational health and safety sector over the past forty years, this generally focused on statistical analyses of data related to costs and/or fatalities and injuries. There is a lack of mathematical modelling of the interactions between workers and the resulting safety dynamics of the workplace. There is also little work investigating the potential impact of different safety intervention programs prior to their implementation. In this article, we present a fundamental, differential equation-based model of workplace safety that treats worker safety habits similarly to an infectious disease in an epidemic model. Analytical results for the model, derived via phase plane and stability analysis, are discussed. The model is coupled with a model of a generic safety strategy aimed at minimising unsafe work habits, to produce an optimal control problem. The optimal control model is solved using the forward-backward sweep numerical scheme implemented in Matlab.

Simultaneous expression of the bacterial Dictyoglomus thermophilum xynB gene under three different Trichoderma reesei promoters

Multiple copies of expression cassettes driven by the Trichoderma reesei xylanase 2 (xyn2) and cellobiohydrolase 2 (cbh2) promoters were introduced into the recombinant T. reesei EC-21 generated to express a thermostable Dictyoglomus thermophilum xylanase (XynB) under the egl2 promoter for further improvement of the enzyme yield. The transformants were screened based on increased XynB activity only. Multiple promoter transformant MPP-4 expressing the xynB gene under all the three promoters was found to be the highest producer of XynB, giving a 65% increase in yield compared to the parental single-promoter recombinant EC-21. The multiple-promoter transformant strains harboured six to nine copies of the xynB gene. Amongst the three promoters, egl2 seemed to have the strongest effect on XynB expression. The shotgun approach we used proved to be effective for rapid enhancement of protein expression using three promoters active at the near-neutral pH of the cultivation medium.

Expression of a bacterial xylanase in Trichoderma reesei under the egl2 and cbh2 glycosyl hydrolase gene promoters

Expression vectors were constructed for Trichoderma reesei using the promoters, secretion signals and the modular structure of the efficiently expressed and secreted cellulase enzymes EGL2 (Cel5A) and CBH2 (Cel6A) as a prelude to establishing a platform where a gene of interest can be expressed under several promoters simultaneously. The designs featured (i) EGL2sigpro (egl2 promoter and secretion signal), (ii) EGL2cbmlin (egl2 promoter, secretion signal, EGL2 cellulose binding module and linker), (iii) CBH2sigpro (cbh2 promoter and secretion signal) and (iv) CBH2cbmlin (cbh2 promoter, secretion signal, CBH2 cellulose binding module and linker). Recombinant vectors were introduced individually into the high protein-secreting T. reesei RUT-C30 strain to generate single-promoter transformants expressing the Dictyoglomus thermophilum xynB gene that encodes a thermophilic xylanase enzyme (XynB). Ten transformants producing XynB representing each of the four different types of vectors were selected for further testing and the highest XynB production was achieved from a transformant containing 1–2 copies of the EGL2cbmlin vector. Best xylanase producers did not show any particular pattern in terms of the number of gene copies and their mode of integration into the chromosomal DNA. Transformants generated with the cbmlin-type vectors produced multiple forms of XynB which were decorated with various N- and O-glycans. One of the O-glycans was identified as hexuronic acid, whose presence had not been observed previously in the glycosylation patterns of T. reesei.

Invisible connections : investigating older people's emotions and social relations around objects

The advent of the Internet of Things creates an interest in how people might interrelate through and with networks of internet enabled objects. With an emphasis on fostering social connection and physical activity among older people, this preliminary study investigated objects that people over the age of 65 years viewed as significant to them. We conducted contextual interviews in people's homes about their significant objects in order to understand the role of the objects in their lives, the extent to which they fostered emotional and social connections and physical activity, and how they might be augmented through internet connection. Discussion of significant objects generated considerable emotion in the participants. We identified objects of comfort and routine, objects that exhibited status, those that fostered independence and connection, and those that symbolized relationships with loved ones. These findings lead us to consider implications for the design of interconnected objects.

Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 - obligation to disclose

In Turpin v Allianz Australia Insurance Ltd (unreported, Supreme Court of Queensland, S5216 of 2001), Mullins J, 17.10.2001) the plaintiff applied for a declaration that the respondent disclose pursuant to s47 of the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 copies of three statements referred to in a loss assessor's investigation report as "attached". The issue involved determination of whether the statements must be disclosed under s48(2) even though protected by legal professional privilege. The Court applied the decision of the Queensland Court of Appeal in James v Workcover Queensland.

Evaluating the use of ambient and tangible interaction approaches for personal indoor climate preferences [Extended Abstract]

In this paper we describe the preliminary results of a field study which evaluated the use of MiniOrb, a system that employs ambient and tangible interaction mechanisms to allow inhabitants of office environments to report on subjectively perceived office comfort levels. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of ubiquitous computing in the individual control of indoor climate and specifically answer the question to what extent ambient and tangible interaction mechanisms are suited for the task of capturing individual comfort preferences in a non-obtrusive manner. We outline the preliminary results of an in-situ trial of the system.

Copyright Protection of object-oriented software

language (such as C++ and Java). The model used allows to insert watermarks on three “orthogonal” levels. For the first level, watermarks are injected into objects. The second level watermarking is used to select proper variants of the source code. The third level uses transition function that can be used to generate copies with different functionalities. Generic watermarking schemes were presented and their security discussed.