QUT Library advances the use of open public tools to navigate genetic inventions and builds research networks

Many emerging economies are dangling the patent system to stimulate bio-technological innovations with the ultimate premise that these will improve their economic and social growth. The patent system mandates full disclosure of the patented invention in exchange of a temporary exclusive patent right. Recently, however, patent offices have fallen short of complying with such a mandate, especially for genetic inventions. Most patent offices provide only static information about disclosed patent sequences and even some do not keep track of the sequence listing data in their own database. The successful partnership of QUT Library and Cambia exemplifies advocacy in Open Access, Open Innovation and User Participation. The library extends its services to various departments within the university, builds and encourages research networks to complement skills needed to make a contribution in the real world.

Transitioning from vocational education and training to university : strengthening information literacy through collaboration

"Students transitioning from vocational education and training (VET) to university can experience a number of challenges. This small research project explored the information literacy needs of VET and university students and how they differ. Students studying early childhood related VET and university courses reported differences in how and where they searched for information in their studies. These differences reflect the more practical focus of VET compared with the more academic and theoretical approach of university. The author proposes a framework of support that could be provided to transitioning students to enable them to develop the necessary information literacy skills for university study."--publisher website

Clinician-driven automated classification of limb fractures from free-text radiology reports

The aim of this research is to report initial experimental results and evaluation of a clinician-driven automated method that can address the issue of misdiagnosis from unstructured radiology reports. Timely diagnosis and reporting of patient symptoms in hospital emergency departments (ED) is a critical component of health services delivery. However, due to disperse information resources and vast amounts of manual processing of unstructured information, a point-of-care accurate diagnosis is often difficult. A rule-based method that considers the occurrence of clinician specified keywords related to radiological findings was developed to identify limb abnormalities, such as fractures. A dataset containing 99 narrative reports of radiological findings was sourced from a tertiary hospital. The rule-based method achieved an F-measure of 0.80 and an accuracy of 0.80. While our method achieves promising performance, a number of avenues for improvement were identified using advanced natural language processing (NLP) techniques.

Artful surfaces : an ethnographic study exploring the use of space in design studios

A largely overlooked aspect of creative design practices is how physical space in design studios plays a role in supporting designers' everyday work. In particular, studio surfaces such as designers' desks, office walls, notice boards, clipboards and drawing boards are full of informative, inspirational and creative artefacts such as, sketches, drawings, posters, story-boards and Post-it notes. Studio surfaces are not just the carriers of information but importantly they are sites of methodic design practices, i.e. they indicate, to an extent, how design is being carried out. This article describes the results of an ethnographic study on the use of workplace surfaces in design studios, from two academic design departments. Using the field study results, the article introduces an idea of ‘artful surfaces’. Artful surfaces emphasise how artfully designers integrate these surfaces into their everyday work and how the organisation of these surfaces comes about helping designers in accomplishing their creative and innovative design practices. Using examples from the field study, the article shows that artful surfaces have both functional and inspirational characteristics. From the field study, three types of artful surfaces are identified: personal; shared; and project-specific. The article suggests that a greater insight into how these artful surfaces are created and used could lead to better design of novel display technologies to support designers' everyday work.

Collaborative practices that support creativity in design

Design is a ubiquitous, collaborative and highly material activity. Because of the embodied nature of the design profession, designers apply certain collaborative practices to enhance creativity in their everyday work. Within the domain of industrial design, we studied two educational design departments over a period of eight months. Using examples from our fieldwork, we develop our results around three broad themes related to collaborative practices that support the creativity of design professionals: 1) externalization, 2) use of physical space, and; 3) use of bodies. We believe that these themes of collaborative practices could provide new insights into designing technologies for supporting a varied set of design activities. We describe two conceptual collaborative systems derived from the results of our study.

Space as a resource in creative design practices

Based on longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork in two industrial design departments and two design companies, we explore the role of spatial arrangements for supporting creative design practices within different design studios. From our results, we show that designers explicitly make use of the physical space for: 1) communicating and inspiring design ideas; 2) exploring design solutions, and; 3) managing design projects. We believe that these design practices could bring insightful implications for developing ubiquitous technologies to support the design profession.

Air navigation services in Australia and the United States : a comparative case study

The central document governing the global organization of Air Navigation Services (ANS) is the Convention on International Civil Aviation, commonly referred to as the “Chicago Convention,” whose original version was signed in that city in 1944. In the Convention, Contracting States agreed to ensure the minimum standards of ANS established by ICAO, a specialized United Nations agency created by the Convention. Emanating from obligations under the Chicago Convention, ANS has traditionally provided by departments of national governments. However, there is a widespread trend toward transferring delivery of ANS services outside of line departments of national governments to independent agencies or corporations. The Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), which is the trade association for independent ANS providers, currently counts approximately 60 members, and is steadily growing. However, whatever delivery mechanisms are chosen, national governments remain ultimately responsible for ensuring that adequate ANS services are available. The provision by governments of ANS reflects the responsibility of the state for safety, international relations, and indirectly, the macroeconomic benefits of ensuring a sound infrastructure for aviation. ANS is a “public good” and an “essential good” provided to all aircraft using a country’s airfields and airspace. However, ANS also represents a service that directly benefits only a limited number of users, notably aircraft owners and operators. The idea that the users of the system, rather than the taxpaying public, should incur the costs associated with ANS provision is inherent in the commercialization process. However, ICAO sets out broad principles for the establishment of user charges, which member states are expected to comply with. ICAO states that only distance flown and aircraft weights are acceptable parameters for use in a charging system. These two factors are considered to be easy to measure, bear a reasonable relationship to the value of service received, and do not discriminate due to factors such as where the flight originated or the nation of aircraft registration.

An investigation of the impacts of Excellence in Research for Australia : a case study on accounting for research

This is the first study to explore the way Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA), a research assessment exercise introduced in the Australian higher education sector in 2010, fostered the development of strategically oriented Management Accounting technologies in the form of Performance Management Systems (PMS) to achieve research excellence within an Australian university. It identifies ERA's intended and unintended consequences. While ERA enabled the creation of tighter controls in the PMS of faculties, departments and individual academics within the university, enhancing its reported research performance, the impact on academics was low job satisfaction, increased workload and a higher focus on research than teaching.

The impact of heatwaves on emergency department visits in Brisbane, Australia : a time series study

Introduction The acute health effects of heatwaves in a subtropical climate and their impact on emergency departments (ED) are not well known. The purpose of this study is to examine overt heat-related presentations to EDs associated with heatwaves in Brisbane. Methods Data were obtained for the summer seasons (December to February) from 2000-2012. Heatwave events were defined as two or more successive days with daily maximum temperature >=34[degree sign]C (HWD1) or >=37[degree sign]C (HWD2). Poisson generalised additive model was used to assess the effect of heatwaves on heat-related visits (International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 10 codes T67 and X30; ICD 9 codes 992 and E900.0). Results Overall, 628 cases presented for heat-related illnesses. The presentations significantly increased on heatwave days based on HWD1 (relative risk (RR) = 4.9, 95% confidence interval (CI): 3.8, 6.3) and HWD2 (RR = 18.5, 95% CI: 12.0, 28.4). The RRs in different age groups ranged between 3-9.2 (HWD1) and 7.5-37.5 (HWD2). High acuity visits significantly increased based on HWD1 (RR = 4.7, 95% CI: 2.3, 9.6) and HWD2 (RR = 81.7, 95% CI: 21.5, 310.0). Average length of stay in ED significantly increased by >1 hour (HWD1) and >2 hours (HWD2). Conclusions Heatwaves significantly increase ED visits and workload even in a subtropical climate. The degree of impact is directly related to the extent of temperature increases and varies by socio-demographic characteristics of the patients. Heatwave action plans should be tailored according to the population needs and level of vulnerability. EDs should have plans to increase their surge capacity during heatwaves.

Automated classification of limb fractures from free-text radiology reports using a clinician-informed gazetteer methodology

Background Timely diagnosis and reporting of patient symptoms in hospital emergency departments (ED) is a critical component of health services delivery. However, due to dispersed information resources and a vast amount of manual processing of unstructured information, accurate point-of-care diagnosis is often difficult. Aims The aim of this research is to report initial experimental evaluation of a clinician-informed automated method for the issue of initial misdiagnoses associated with delayed receipt of unstructured radiology reports. Method A method was developed that resembles clinical reasoning for identifying limb abnormalities. The method consists of a gazetteer of keywords related to radiological findings; the method classifies an X-ray report as abnormal if it contains evidence contained in the gazetteer. A set of 99 narrative reports of radiological findings was sourced from a tertiary hospital. Reports were manually assessed by two clinicians and discrepancies were validated by a third expert ED clinician; the final manual classification generated by the expert ED clinician was used as ground truth to empirically evaluate the approach. Results The automated method that attempts to individuate limb abnormalities by searching for keywords expressed by clinicians achieved an F-measure of 0.80 and an accuracy of 0.80. Conclusion While the automated clinician-driven method achieved promising performances, a number of avenues for improvement were identified using advanced natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning techniques.

An investigation into increasing the extent of energy efficiency knowledge and skills in engineering education

Today, many sectors across society are recognising the need to swiftly reduce their growing energy demand, as well as meeting remaining demand with low emissions options. A key ingredient to addressing such issues is equipping professionals – in particular engineers – with emerging energy efficiency knowledge and skills. This paper responds to an identified engineering education gap in Australia, by investigating options to increase energy efficiency content for both undergraduate and postgraduate engineers. The authors summarise the findings of the multi-stage methodology funded by the National Framework for Energy Efficiency (2008-2009), highlighting identified key barriers and benefits to such curriculum renewal. The findings are intended for use by engineering departments, accreditation agencies, professional bodies and government, to identify opportunities for moving forward based on rigorous research, and then to strategically plan the transition. This process, focused on energy efficiency, may also provide valuable parallels for a range of sustainable engineering related topics.

Increasing incidence of Clostridium difficile infection, Australia, 2011–2012

Objectives: To report the quarterly incidence of hospital-identified Clostridium difficile infection (HI-CDI) in Australia, and to estimate the burden ascribed to hospital-associated (HA) and community-associated (CA) infections. Design, setting and patients: Prospective surveillance of all cases of CDI diagnosed in hospital patients from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2012 in 450 public hospitals in all Australian states and the Australian Capital Territory. All patients admitted to inpatient wards or units in acute public hospitals, including psychiatry, rehabilitation and aged care, were included, as well as those attending emergency departments and outpatient clinics. Main outcome measures: Incidence of HI-CDI (primary outcome); proportion and incidence of HA-CDI and CA-CDI (secondary outcomes). Results: The annual incidence of HI-CDI increased from 3.25/10 000 patient-days (PD) in 2011 to 4.03/10 000 PD in 2012. Poisson regression modelling demonstrated a 29% increase (95% CI, 25% to 34%) per quarter between April and December 2011, with a peak of 4.49/10 000 PD in the October–December quarter. The incidence plateaued in January–March 2012 and then declined by 8% (95% CI, − 11% to − 5%) per quarter to 3.76/10 000 PD in July–September 2012, after which the rate rose again by 11% (95% CI, 4% to 19%) per quarter to 4.09/10 000 PD in October–December 2012. Trends were similar for HA-CDI and CA-CDI. A subgroup analysis determined that 26% of cases were CA-CDI. Conclusions: A significant increase in both HA-CDI and CA-CDI identified through hospital surveillance occurred in Australia during 2011–2012. Studies are required to further characterise the epidemiology of CDI in Australia.

Expanding Emergency Department capacity : a multisite study

Objectives: To i) identify predictors of admission, and ii) describe outcomes for patients who arrived via ambulance to three Australian public Emergency Departments (EDs), before and after the opening of 41 additional ED beds within the area. Methods: A retrospective, comparative, cohort study using deterministically linked health data collected between 3 September 2006 and 2 September 2008. Data included ambulance offload delay, time to see doctor, ED length of stay (ED LOS), admission requirement, access block, hospital length of stay and in-hospital mortality. Logistic regression analysis was undertaken to identify predictors of hospital admission. Results: One third of all 286,037 ED presentations were via ambulance (n= 79,196) and 40.3% required admission. After increasing emergency capacity, the only outcome measure to improve was in-hospital mortality. Ambulance offload delay, time to see doctor, ED length of stay (ED LOS), admission requirement, access block, hospital length of stay did not improve. Strong predictors of admission before and after increased capacity included: age over 65 years, Australian Triage Scale (ATS) category 1-3, diagnoses of circulatory or respiratory conditions and ED LOS > 4 hours. With additional capacity the odds ratios for these predictors increased for age >65 and ED LOS > 4 hours and decreased for triage category and ED diagnoses. Conclusions: Expanding ED capacity from 81 to 122 beds within a health service area impacted favourably on mortality outcomes but not on time-related service outcomes such as ambulance offload time, time to see doctor and ED LOS. To improve all service outcomes, when altering (increasing/decreasing) ED bed numbers, the whole healthcare system needs to be considered.

Swine flu, doctors and pandemics : Is there a duty to treat during a pandemic?

The swine influenza (H1N1) outbreak in 2009 highlighted the ethical and legal pressures facing general practitioners and health workers in emergency departments in determining the nature and limits of their obligations to their patients and the public. Health workers require guidance on the multiple, overlapping, and at times conflicting legal and ethical duties owed to patients and prospective patients, employers and fellow health workers, and their families. Existing sources of advice on these issues in Australia, by way of statements of medical ethics and other sources of advice, are shown to be in need of further amplification if health workers are to be provided with the certainty and guidance required. Given the complexity of the issues, Australia would therefore benefit from more extensive consultation with the variety of stakeholders involved in these questions if pandemic plans are to smoothly deal with future crises in an ethically and legally sound manner.

A 5- versus 3-day course of oral corticosteroids for children with asthma exacerbations who are not hospitalised : a randomised controlled trial

Objective To determine whether a 5-day course of oral prednisolone is superior to a 3-day course in reducing the 2-week morbidity of children with asthma exacerbations who are not hospitalised. Design, setting and participants Double-blind randomised controlled trial of asthma outcomes following a 5-day course of oral prednisolone (1 mg/kg) compared with a 3-day course of prednisolone plus placebo for 2 days. Participants were children aged 2–15 years who presented to the emergency departments of three Queensland hospitals between March 2004 and February 2007 with an acute exacerbation of asthma, but were not hospitalised. Sample size was defined a priori for a study power of 90%. Main outcome measures Difference in proportion of children who were symptom-free at Day 7, as measured by intention-to-treat (ITT) and per-protocol analysis; quality of life (QOL) on Days 7 and 14. Results 201 children were enrolled, and there was an 82% completion rate. There was no difference between groups in the proportion of children who were symptom-free (observed difference, 0.04 [95% CI, − 0.09 to 0.18] by ITT analysis; 0.04 [95% CI, − 0.17 to 0.09] by per-protocol analysis). There was also no difference between groups in QOL (P = 0.42). The difference between groups for the primary outcome was within the equivalence range calculated post priori. Conclusion A 5-day course of oral prednisolone confers no advantage over a 3-day course for children with asthma exacerbations who are not hospitalised.