What's cooking for dietetics? A review of the literature

Aim: There has been no systematic research on the role of cooking skills for improving dietary intakes in Australia. Cooking skills are proposed to be declining and/or being devalued. If cooking skills have been devalued and declining, then what evidence is there for this decline and what impact might this have on dietary intakes? The aim of the present paper is to explore these assumptions with particular reference to Australia. The objectives of the present paper are to define the terms cooking and cooking skills, discuss evidence on levels of cooking skills in Australia and describe the evidence linking cooking skills to dietary intakes.---------- Methods: A review of the peer-reviewed literature using multiple databases from 1990 to September 2009.---------- Results: Cooking skills are complex and require a range of processes for people to develop efficiency or confidence in food preparation. There is little evidence on the level of cooking skills in the Australian population and how this relates to dietary intakes. The Australian Bureau of Statistic’s latest Time Use Survey and Household Expenditure Survey suggest that cooking is still a gendered activity and that the time devoted to cooking has changed little in the past 15 years, but there is an increasing use of foods prepared outside the home.---------- Conclusion: Further research is required to examine the prevalence of different types and levels of cooking skills in Australia as well as their potential effects on dietary intakes. Dietitians need evidence about the level of cooking skills people require for healthy dietary intakes.

Research and application of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry : a review and direction for future research

With an increasing level of collaboration amongst researchers, software developers and industry practitioners in the past three decades, building information modelling (BIM) is now recognized as an emerging technological and procedural shift within the architect, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. BIM is not only considered as a way to make a profound impact on the professions of AEC, but is also regarded as an approach to assist the industry to develop new ways of thinking and practice. Despite the widespread development and recognition of BIM, a succinct and systematic review of the existing BIM research and achievement is scarce. It is also necessary to take stock on existing applications and have a fresh look at where BIM should be heading and how it can benefit from the advances being made. This paper first presents a review of BIM research and achievement in AEC industry. A number of suggestions are then made for future research in BIM. This paper maintains that the value of BIM during design and construction phases is well documented over the last decade, and new research needs to expand the level of development and analysis from design/build stage to postconstruction and facility asset management. New research in BIM could also move beyond the traditional building type to managing the broader range of facilities and built assets and providing preventative maintenance schedules for sustainable and intelligent buildings

Sustainability performance of construction : conceptual models of satisfaction levels in construction projects

In general, the performance of construction projects, including their sustainability performance, does not meet optimal expectations. One aspect of this is the performance of the participants who are independent and make a significance impact on overall project outcomes. Of these participants, the client is traditionally the owner of the project, the architect or engineer is engaged as the lead designer and a contractor is selected to construct the facilities. Generally, the performance of the participants is gauged by considering three main factors, namely, time, cost and quality. As the level of satisfaction is a subjective issue, it is rarely used in the performance evaluation of construction work. Recently, various approaches to the measurement of satisfaction have been made in an attempt to determine the performance of construction project outcomes - for instance, client satisfaction, customer satisfaction, contractor satisfaction, occupant satisfaction and home buyer satisfaction. These not only identify the performance of the construction project but are also used to improve and maintain relationships. In addition, these assessments are necessary for the continuous improvement and enhanced cooperation of participants. The measurement of satisfaction levels primarily involves expectations and perceptions. An expectation can be regarded as a comparative standard of different needs, motives and beliefs, while a perception is a subjective interpretation that is influenced by moods, experiences and values. This suggests that the disparity between perceptions and expectations may possibly be used to represent different levels of satisfaction. However, this concept is rather new and in need of further investigation. This chapter examines the methods commonly practised in measuring satisfaction levels today and the advantages of promoting these methods. The results provide a preliminary review of the advantages of satisfaction measurement in the construction industry and recommendations are made concerning the most appropriate methods to use in identifying the performance of project outcomes.

Estimation of the depth focus from wavefront measurements

It is possible to estimate the depth of focus (DOF) of the eye directly from wavefront measurements using various retinal image quality metrics (IQMs). In such methods, DOF is defined as the range of defocus error that degrades the retinal image quality calculated from IQMs to a certain level of the maximum value. Although different retinal image quality metrics are used, currently there have been two arbitrary threshold levels adopted, 50% and 80%. There has been limited study of the relationship between these threshold levels and the actual measured DOF. We measured the subjective DOF in a group of 17 normal subjects, and used through-focus augmented visual Strehl ratio based on optical transfer function (VSOTF) derived from their wavefront aberrations as the IQM. For each subject, a VSOTF threshold level was derived that would match the subjectively measured DOF. Significant correlation was found between the subject’s estimated threshold level and the HOA RMS (Pearson’s r=0.88, p<0.001). The linear correlation can be used to estimate the threshold level for each individual subject, subsequently leading to a method for estimating individual’s DOF from a single measurement of their wavefront aberrations.

Attractiveness of venture idea amongst expert entrepreneurs : a conjoint analysis

Principal Topic Venture ideas are at the heart of entrepreneurship (Davidsson, 2004). However, we are yet to learn what factors drive entrepreneurs’ perceptions of the attractiveness of venture ideas, and what the relative importance of these factors are for their decision to pursue an idea. The expected financial gain is one factor that will obviously influence the perceived attractiveness of a venture idea (Shepherd & DeTienne, 2005). In addition, the degree of novelty of venture ideas along one or more dimensions such as new products/services, new method of production, enter into new markets/customer and new method of promotion may affect their attractiveness (Schumpeter, 1934). Further, according to the notion of an individual-opportunity nexus venture ideas are closely associated with certain individual characteristics (relatedness). Shane (2000) empirically identified that individual’s prior knowledge is closely associated with the recognition of venture ideas. Sarasvathy’s (2001; 2008) Effectuation theory proposes a high degree of relatedness between venture ideas and the resource position of the individual. This study examines how entrepreneurs weigh considerations of different forms of novelty and relatedness as well as potential financial gain in assessing the attractiveness of venture ideas. Method I use conjoint analysis to determine how expert entrepreneurs develop preferences for venture ideas which involved with different degrees of novelty, relatedness and potential gain. The conjoint analysis estimates respondents’ preferences in terms of utilities (or part-worth) for each level of novelty, relatedness and potential gain of venture ideas. A sample of 32 expert entrepreneurs who were awarded young entrepreneurship awards were selected for the study. Each respondent was interviewed providing with 32 scenarios which explicate different combinations of possible profiles open them into consideration. Results and Implications Results indicate that while the respondents do not prefer mere imitation they receive higher utility for low to medium degree of newness suggesting that high degrees of newness are fraught with greater risk and/or greater resource needs. Respondents pay considerable weight on alignment with the knowledge and skills they already posses in choosing particular venture idea. The initial resource position of entrepreneurs is not equally important. Even though expected potential financial gain gives substantial utility, result indicate that it is not a dominant factor for the attractiveness of venture idea.

Assessing the impact of refactoring on security-critical object-oriented designs

Refactoring focuses on improving the reusability, maintainability and performance of programs. However, the impact of refactoring on the security of a given program has received little attention. In this work, we focus on the design of object-oriented applications and use metrics to assess the impact of a number of standard refactoring rules on their security by evaluating the metrics before and after refactoring. This assessment tells us which refactoring steps can increase the security level of a given program from the point of view of potential information flow, allowing application designers to improve their system’s security at an early stage.

Panel studies of new venture creation : a review and suggestions for future research

We review all journal articles based on “PSED-type” research, i.e., longitudinal, empirical studies of large probability samples of on-going, business start-up efforts. We conclude that the research stream has yielded interesting findings; sometimes by confirming prior research with a less bias-prone methodology and at other times by challenging whether prior conclusions are valid for the early stages of venture development. Most importantly, the research has addressed new, process-related research questions that prior research has shunned or been unable to study in a rigorous manner. The research has revealed an enormous and fascinating variability in new venture creation that also makes it challenging to arrive at broadly valid generalizations. An analysis of the findings across studies as well as an examination of those studies that have been relatively more successful at explaining outcomes give good guidance regarding what is required in order to achieve strong and credible results. We compile and present such advice to users of existing data sets and designers of new projects in the following areas: Statistically representative and/or theoretically relevant sampling; Level of analysis issues; Dealing with process heterogeneity; Dealing with other heterogeneity issues, and Choice and interpretation of dependent variables.

Knowledge about health benefits of Vitamin D in Queensland Australia

In Queensland, Australia, the ultraviolet (UV) radiation levels are high (greater than UV Index 3) almost all year round. Although ambient UV is about three times higher in summer compared to winter, Queensland residents receive approximately equal personal doses of UV radiation within these seasons (Neale et al., 2010). Sun protection messages throughout the year are thus essential (Montague et al., 2001), need to reach all segments of the population, and should incorporate guidelines for maintenance of adequate vitamin D levels. Knowledge is an essential requirement to allow people to make health conscious decisions. Unprompted knowledge commonly requires a higher level of awareness or recency of acquisition compared to prompted recall (Waller et al., 2004). This paper thus reports further on the data from a 2008 population-based, cross-sectional telephone survey conducted in Queensland, Australia (2,001 participants; response rate=45%) (Youl et al., 2009). It was the aim of this research to establish the level of, and factors predicting, unprompted and prompted knowledge about health and vitamin D.

Civic engagement and associationalism : the impact of group membership scope versus intensity of participation

The relationship between participation in civic and political activities and membership of voluntary associations is now well established. What is less clear is the relative impacts of how much time people spend on group activities (associational intensity), and the number and type of groups that individuals are involved with (associational scope). Does it matter in terms of civic engagement, for example, whether one is a member of a quilting-circle or trade union? Does it matter whether association ‘membership’ is simply an annual payment or a major commitment of time and energy? In this article, we use a large survey to explore these questions empirically by focusing on the membership patterns and civic engagement practices of 4,001 citizens drawn from eight suburbs across Greater Melbourne, Australia. Our findings indicate that, while associational intensity is positively related to civic engagement, associational scope (the number of group memberships per person), is a more influential determinant of the level of civic and political participation. The results also suggest that while all forms of associationalism are important in terms of fostering greater levels of civic activity, not all forms have the same impact.

Assessment of pile driving refusal using the standard test (SPT)

The design of driven pile foundations involves an iterative process requiring an initial estimate of the refusal level to determine the depth of boreholes for subsequent analyses. Current procedures for determining borehole depths incorporate parameters typically unknown at the investigation stage. Thus, a quantifiable procedure more applicable at this preliminary stage would provide greater confidence in estimating the founding level of driven piles. This paper examines the effectiveness of the Standard Penetration Test (SPT) in directly estimating driven pile refusal levels. A number of significant correlations were obtained between SPT information and pile penetration records demonstrating the potential application of the SPT. Results indicated pile penetration was generally best described as a function of both the pile toe and cumulative shaft SPT values. The influence of the toe SPT increased when piles penetrated rock. A refusal criteria was established from the results to guide both the estimation of borehole depths and likely pile lengths during the design stage.

Mentor educators’ understandings of mentoring preservice primary teachers

Mentors are significant in shaping a preservice teacher’s practices. Developing common understandings about effective mentoring practices can assist the mentoring process. What are mentor educators’ practical ideas towards implementing a mentoring program? This mixed-method study involves surveys, questionnaires, and audio-taped focus group meetings on 14 mentor educators’ views on mentoring preservice primary teachers. This research aims to understand mentor educators’ motivations for mentoring, their views about what makes a good mentor, benefits for mentors, and issues or concerns for mentors and the mentoring process. It also focuses on determining professional development for mentors and troubleshooting potential problems. Findings revealed that these mentor educators were motivated into developing mentoring programs as a way to: (1) influence the quality of preservice teacher education (2) provide personal and professional development in mentoring, and (3) support mentors and the mentoring process within school settings. Outlining what makes a good mentor and benefits for mentors were consistent with the literature. However, these expert mentors also provided potential solutions (e.g., university support and professional development ideas) on issues such as knowing the mentee’s level of development and expectations, building a professional relationship prior to placement and the mentor’s dual role as confidant and assessor.

Social clubs and social capital : the effect of electronic gaming machines in disadvantaged regions on the creation or destruction of community resilience

The role of particular third sector organisations, Social Clubs, in supporting gambling through the use of EGMs in venues presents as a difficult social issue. Social Clubs gain revenue from gambling activities; but also contribute to social well-being through the provision of services to communities. The revenues derived from gambling in specific geographic locales has been seen by government as a way to increase economic development particularly in deprived areas. However there are also concerns about accessibility of low-income citizens to Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMS) and the high level of gambling overall in these deprived areas. We argue that social capital can be viewed as a guard against deleterious effects of unconstrained use of EGM gambling in communities. However, it is contended that social capital may also be destroyed by gambling activity if commercial business actors are able to use EGMs without community obligations to service provision. This paper examines access to gambling through EGMs and its relationship to social capital and the consequent effect on community resilience, via an Australian case study. The results highlight the potential two-way relationship between gambling and volunteering, such that volunteering (and social capital more generally) may help protect against problems of gambling, but also that volunteering as an activity may be damaged by increased gambling activity. This suggests that, regardless of the direction of causation, it is necessary to build up social capital via volunteering and other social capital activities in areas where EGMS are concentrated. The study concludes that Social Clubs using EGMs to derive funds are uniquely positioned within the community to develop programs that foster social capital creation and build community resilience in deprived areas.

Facilitating needs based cancer care for people with a chronic disease : evaluation of an intervention using a multi-centre interrupted time series design

Background: Palliative care should be provided according to the individual needs of the patient, caregiver and family, so that the type and level of care provided, as well as the setting in which it is delivered, are dependent on the complexity and severity of individual needs, rather than prognosis or diagnosis. This paper presents a study designed to assess the feasibility and efficacy of an intervention to assist in the allocation of palliative care resources according to need, within the context of a population of people with advanced cancer. ---------- Methods/design: People with advanced cancer and their caregivers completed bi-monthly telephone interviews over a period of up to 18 months to assess unmet needs, anxiety and depression, quality of life, satisfaction with care and service utilisation. The intervention, introduced after at least two baseline phone interviews, involved a) training medical, nursing and allied health professionals at each recruitment site on the use of the Palliative Care Needs Assessment Guidelines and the Needs Assessment Tool: Progressive Disease - Cancer (NAT: PD-C); b) health professionals completing the NAT: PD-C with participating patients approximately monthly for the rest of the study period. Changes in outcomes will be compared pre-and post-intervention.---------- Discussion: The study will determine whether the routine, systematic and regular use of the Guidelines and NAT: PD-C in a range of clinical settings is a feasible and effective strategy for facilitating the timely provision of needs based care.

Remediation strategies of shaft and common mode voltages in adjustable speed drive systems

AC motors are largely used in a wide range of modern systems, from household appliances to automated industry applications such as: ventilations systems, fans, pumps, conveyors and machine tool drives. Inverters are widely used in industrial and commercial applications due to the growing need for speed control in ASD systems. Fast switching transients and the common mode voltage, in interaction with parasitic capacitive couplings, may cause many unwanted problems in the ASD applications. These include shaft voltage and leakage currents. One of the inherent characteristics of Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) techniques is the generation of the common mode voltage, which is defined as the voltage between the electrical neutral of the inverter output and the ground. Shaft voltage can cause bearing currents when it exceeds the amount of breakdown voltage level of the thin lubricant film between the inner and outer rings of the bearing. This phenomenon is the main reason for early bearing failures. A rapid development in power switches technology has lead to a drastic decrement of switching rise and fall times. Because there is considerable capacitance between the stator windings and the frame, there can be a significant capacitive current (ground current escaping to earth through stray capacitors inside a motor) if the common mode voltage has high frequency components. This current leads to noises and Electromagnetic Interferences (EMI) issues in motor drive systems. These problems have been dealt with using a variety of methods which have been reported in the literature. However, cost and maintenance issues have prevented these methods from being widely accepted. Extra cost or rating of the inverter switches is usually the price to pay for such approaches. Thus, the determination of cost-effective techniques for shaft and common mode voltage reduction in ASD systems, with the focus on the first step of the design process, is the targeted scope of this thesis. An introduction to this research – including a description of the research problem, the literature review and an account of the research progress linking the research papers – is presented in Chapter 1. Electrical power generation from renewable energy sources, such as wind energy systems, has become a crucial issue because of environmental problems and a predicted future shortage of traditional energy sources. Thus, Chapter 2 focuses on the shaft voltage analysis of stator-fed induction generators (IG) and Doubly Fed Induction Generators DFIGs in wind turbine applications. This shaft voltage analysis includes: topologies, high frequency modelling, calculation and mitigation techniques. A back-to-back AC-DC-AC converter is investigated in terms of shaft voltage generation in a DFIG. Different topologies of LC filter placement are analysed in an effort to eliminate the shaft voltage. Different capacitive couplings exist in the motor/generator structure and any change in design parameters affects the capacitive couplings. Thus, an appropriate design for AC motors should lead to the smallest possible shaft voltage. Calculation of the shaft voltage based on different capacitive couplings, and an investigation of the effects of different design parameters are discussed in Chapter 3. This is achieved through 2-D and 3-D finite element simulation and experimental analysis. End-winding parameters of the motor are also effective factors in the calculation of the shaft voltage and have not been taken into account in previous reported studies. Calculation of the end-winding capacitances is rather complex because of the diversity of end winding shapes and the complexity of their geometry. A comprehensive analysis of these capacitances has been carried out with 3-D finite element simulations and experimental studies to determine their effective design parameters. These are documented in Chapter 4. Results of this analysis show that, by choosing appropriate design parameters, it is possible to decrease the shaft voltage and resultant bearing current in the primary stage of generator/motor design without using any additional active and passive filter-based techniques. The common mode voltage is defined by a switching pattern and, by using the appropriate pattern; the common mode voltage level can be controlled. Therefore, any PWM pattern which eliminates or minimizes the common mode voltage will be an effective shaft voltage reduction technique. Thus, common mode voltage reduction of a three-phase AC motor supplied with a single-phase diode rectifier is the focus of Chapter 5. The proposed strategy is mainly based on proper utilization of the zero vectors. Multilevel inverters are also used in ASD systems which have more voltage levels and switching states, and can provide more possibilities to reduce common mode voltage. A description of common mode voltage of multilevel inverters is investigated in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 investigates the elimination techniques of the shaft voltage in a DFIG based on the methods presented in the literature by the use of simulation results. However, it could be shown that every solution to reduce the shaft voltage in DFIG systems has its own characteristics, and these have to be taken into account in determining the most effective strategy. Calculation of the capacitive coupling and electric fields between the outer and inner races and the balls at different motor speeds in symmetrical and asymmetrical shaft and balls positions is discussed in Chapter 8. The analysis is carried out using finite element simulations to determine the conditions which will increase the probability of high rates of bearing failure due to current discharges through the balls and races.

Effectiveness of nurse-led preoperative assessment services for elective surgery : a systematic review

Background--The admission and assessment of patients for elective procedures is a task faced by all healthcare organisations that provide elective surgical services. Several different strategies have been used to facilitate the management of these tasks. Nurse-led preadmission clinics or services have been implemented in many health services as one of these management strategies; however their effectiveness has not been established. Objectives--The objective of this review was to examine the available research on the effectiveness of nurse-led elective surgery preoperative assessment clinics or services on patient outcomes.--Results--Of the 19 included articles, there were 10 audits of patient and hospital data, 3 surveys or questionnaires, 3 descriptive studies, 1 action research design, 1 prospective observational study and 1 RCT. Five of ten studies reporting data on cancellations rates found that nurse-led preadmission services reduced the number of day-of-surgery cancellations. Non-attendance for surgery was also reduced, with nine studies reporting decreases in the number of patients failing to attend. Eight studies reporting data on patient or parent satisfaction found high levels of satisfaction with nurse-led preadmission services. Three of four studies investigating the effect of the nurse-led preadmission service on patient anxiety found a reduction in reported anxiety levels. Three studies found that preoperative preparation was enhanced by the use of a nurse-led preadmission service.--Conclusions--While all included studies reported evidence of effectiveness for nurse-led preadmission services on a wide range of outcomes for elective surgery patients, the lack of experimental trials means that the level of evidence is low, and further research is needed.--Implications for practice--Nurse-led preadmission services may be an effective strategy for reducing procedural cancellations, failure to attend for procedures, and patient anxiety, however currently the evidence level is low.