Community-based asylum seekers’ use of primary health care services in Melbourne

Objective: To investigate primary health care service utilisation and health presentations among asylum seekers living in Melbourne. Design and setting: Retrospective audit of files of people who attended three Melbourne asylum-seeker health clinics between 1 July 2005 and 30 June 2006. Main outcome measures: Rates of reasons for the encounter, diagnostic tests or investigations required, treatments prescribed and referrals. Results: Data were collected from 998 consultations corresponding to 341 people. Eighty-eight per cent of visits involved people with no Medicare access, owing to their visa status. The most common reasons for the encounter were general and unspecified symptoms or problems (rate, 59.9 per 100 encounters; 95% CI, 55–65), followed by musculoskeletal conditions (27.1; 95% CI, 24–30), and psychological problems (26.5; 95% CI, 23–30). The rate of referrals was 18.3 per 100 encounters (95% CI, 16–21). Conclusions: The three clinics providing services to asylum seekers in Melbourne are delivering care to a considerable number of people with complex health needs. A substantial number of asylum seekers present to clinics with psychological and social problems. Most cannot access government-subsidised health care. This must be addressed urgently by policy change at the federal and state and territory levels.

Reliable and valid survey design for structural equation modelling

My quantitative study asks how Chinese Australians’ “Chineseness” and their various resources influence their Chinese language proficiency, using online survey and snowball sampling. ‘Operationalization’ is a challenging process which ensures that the survey design talks back to the informing theory and forwards to the analysis model. It requires the attention to two core methodological concerns, namely ‘validity’ and ‘reliability’. Construction of a high-quality questionnaire is critical to the achievement of valid and reliable operationalization. A series of strategies were chosen to ensure the quality of the questions, and thus the eventual data. These strategies enable the use of structural equation modelling to examine how well the data fits the theoretical framework, which was constructed in light of Bourdieu’s theory of habitus, capital and field.

Efficient real-time face detection for high resolution surveillance applications

This paper presents an efficient face detection method suitable for real-time surveillance applications. Improved efficiency is achieved by constraining the search window of an AdaBoost face detector to pre-selected regions. Firstly, the proposed method takes a sparse grid of sample pixels from the image to reduce whole image scan time. A fusion of foreground segmentation and skin colour segmentation is then used to select candidate face regions. Finally, a classifier-based face detector is applied only to selected regions to verify the presence of a face (the Viola-Jones detector is used in this paper). The proposed system is evaluated using 640 x 480 pixels test images and compared with other relevant methods. Experimental results show that the proposed method reduces the detection time to 42 ms, where the Viola-Jones detector alone requires 565 ms (on a desktop processor). This improvement makes the face detector suitable for real-time applications. Furthermore, the proposed method requires 50% of the computation time of the best competing method, while reducing the false positive rate by 3.2% and maintaining the same hit rate.

Slide attacks on the Sfinks stream cipher

Sfinks is a shift register based stream cipher designed for hardware implementation and submitted to the eSTREAM project. In this paper, we analyse the initialisation process of Sfinks. We demonstrate a slid property of the loaded state of the Sfinks cipher, where multiple key-IV pairs may produce phase shifted keystream sequences. The state update functions of both the initialisation process and keystream generation and also the pattern of the padding affect generation of the slid pairs.

Characterisation of micrinite in the late triassic Callide Coal Measures

Samples from the Callide Coal Measures, Queensland, Australia, containing the minor maceral, micrinite, have been studied using optical and electron-optical techniques to determine the precise compositional and structural nature of micrinite when in association with vitrinite macerals. Emphasis has been placed on direct spatial correlation of optical and electron-optical data due to the fine grain size (<1μm) of micrinite and its relatively low abundance compared with other macerals in the Callide Basin coals. Precise elemental, morphological and structural data, including electron diffraction, provides unambiguous evidence for the presence of kaolinite in the component known as micrinite. Indeed, micrinite consists predominantly of fine-grained kaolinite (>90 per cent of the component) and, as such, should not be considered a maceral.

On the probability density function of the product of Rayleigh distributed random variables

In this paper we investigate the distribution of the product of Rayleigh distributed random variables. Considering the Mellin-Barnes inversion formula and using the saddle point approach we obtain an upper bound for the product distribution. The accuracy of this tail-approximation increases as the number of random variables in the product increase.

On APT 6 : Rohan Wealleans performing identity at the disjuncture between customary and contemporary culture

A review of the 6th APT focusing on the work and performance of Rohan Wealleans

The strategic importance of tacit knowledge management activities in construction

Purpose: Tacit knowledge is perceived as the most strategically important resource of the construction organisation, and the only renewable and sustainable base for its activities and competitiveness. Knowledge management (KM) activities that deal with tacit knowledge are essential in helping an organisation to achieve its long-term organisational objectives. The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence for the stronger strategic role of tacit KM in comparison to explicit KM. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire survey was administered in 2005 to a sample of construction contractors operating in Hong Kong to elicit opinions on the internal business environment, intensity of KM activities as executed by targeted organisations, and contribution of these activities to business performance (BP). A total of 149 usable responses were received from 99 organisations representing about 38 per cent of the sampling frame. The statistical analyses helped to map the reported KM activities into two groups that, respectively, deal with tacit and explicit knowledge. The sensitivity to variations of organisational policies and strength of association with BP in relation to the two groups of KM activities were also compared empirically. A total of 15 interviews with the managerial and professional staff of leading contractors was undertaken to provide insightful narratives of KM implementations. Findings: The effective implementation of organisational policies, such as encouraging innovations and strengthening strategic guidance for KM, would facilitate human interactions of tacit KM. Higher intensity of activities in managing tacit knowledge would ultimately help the organisations to achieve economic gain in the long run. Originality/value: The stronger strategic role of tacit KM is empirically investigated and established within the context of construction organisations.

The effectiveness of energy feedback for conservation and peak demand : a literature review

This paper reviews electricity consumption feedback literature to explore the potential of electricity feedback to affect residential consumers’ electricity usage patterns. The review highlights a substantial amount of literature covering the debate over the effectiveness of different feedback criteria to residential customer acceptance and overall conservation and peak demand reduction. Researchers studying the effects of feedback on everyday energy use have observed substantial variation in effect size, both within and between studies. Although researchers still continue to question the types of feedback that are most effective in encouraging conservation and peak load reduction, some trends have emerged. These include that feedback be received as quickly as possible to the time of consumption; be related to a standard; be clear and meaningful and where possible both direct and indirect feedback be customised to the customer. In general, the literature finds that feedback can reduce electricity consumption in homes by 5 to 20 per cent, but that significant gaps remain in our knowledge of the effectiveness and cost benefit of feedback.

In pursuit of tourism destination brand loyalty : visitor relationship management orientation of destination marketing organisations

The proposition underpinning this study is engaging in meaningful dialogue with previous visitors represents an efficient and effective use of resources for a destination marketing organization (DMO), compared to above the line advertising in broadcast media. However there has been a lack of attention in the tourism literature relating to destination switching, loyalty and customer relationship management (CRM) to test such a proposition. This paper reports an investigation of visitor relationship marketing (VRM) orientation among DMOs. A model of CRM orientation, which was developed from the wider marketing literature and a prior qualitative study, was used to develop a scale to operationalise DMO visitor relationship orientation. Due to a small sample, the Partial Least Squares (PLS) method of structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data. Although the sample limits the ability to generalise, the results indicated the DMOs’ visitor orientation is generally responsive and reactive rather than proactive.

A model for enhancing assessment and teaching practice at the coalface : Insights from a Fellow-In-Residence engagement program

Australian universities are currently engaging with new governmental policies and regulations that require them to demonstrate enhanced quality and accountability in teaching and research. The development of national academic standards for learning outcomes in higher education is one such instance of this drive for excellence. These discipline-specific standards articulate the minimum, or Threshold Learning Outcomes, to be addressed by higher education institutions so that graduating students can demonstrate their achievement to their institutions, accreditation agencies, and industry recruiters. This impacts not only on the design of Engineering courses (with particular emphasis on pedagogy and assessment), but also on the preparation of academics to engage with these standards and implement them in their day-to-day teaching practice on a micro level. This imperative for enhanced quality and accountability in teaching is also significant at a meso level, for according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, about 25 per cent of teachers in Australian universities are aged 55 and above and more than 54 per cent are aged 45 and above (ABS, 2006). A number of institutions have undertaken recruitment drives to regenerate and enrich their academic workforce by appointing capacity-building research professors and increasing the numbers of early- and mid-career academics. This nationally driven agenda for quality and accountability in teaching permeates also the micro level of engineering education, since the demand for enhanced academic standards and learning outcomes requires both a strong advocacy for a shift to an authentic, collaborative, outcomes-focused education and the mechanisms to support academics in transforming their professional thinking and practice. Outcomes-focused education means giving greater attention to the ways in which the curriculum design, pedagogy, assessment approaches and teaching activities can most effectively make a positive, verifiable difference to students’ learning. Such education is authentic when it is couched firmly in the realities of learning environments, student and academic staff characteristics, and trustworthy educational research. That education will be richer and more efficient when staff works collaboratively, contributing their knowledge, experience and skills to achieve learning outcomes based on agreed objectives. We know that the school or departmental levels of universities are the most effective loci of changes in approaches to teaching and learning practices in higher education (Knight & Trowler, 2000). Heads of Schools are being increasingly entrusted with more responsibilities - in addition to setting strategic directions and managing the operational and sometimes financial aspects of their school, they are also expected to lead the development and delivery of the teaching, research and other academic activities. Guiding and mentoring individuals and groups of academics is one critical aspect of the Head of School’s role. Yet they do not always have the resources or support to help them mentor staff, especially the more junior academics. In summary, the international trend in undergraduate engineering course accreditation towards the demonstration of attainment of graduate attributes poses new challenges in addressing academic staff development needs and the assessment of learning. This paper will give some insights into the conceptual design, implementation and empirical effectiveness to date, of a Fellow-In-Residence Engagement (FIRE) program. The program is proposed as a model for achieving better engagement of academics with contemporary issues and effectively enhancing their teaching and assessment practices. It will also report on the program’s collaborative approach to working with Heads of Schools to better support academics, especially early-career ones, by utilizing formal and informal mentoring. Further, the paper will discuss possible factors that may assist the achievement of the intended outcomes of such a model, and will examine its contributions to engendering an outcomes-focussed thinking in engineering education.

Using static analysis for automatic assessment and mitigation of unwanted and malicious activities within Android applications

In the last decade, smartphones have gained widespread usage. Since the advent of online application stores, hundreds of thousands of applications have become instantly available to millions of smart-phone users. Within the Android ecosystem, application security is governed by digital signatures and a list of coarse-grained permissions. However, this mechanism is not fine-grained enough to provide the user with a sufficient means of control of the applications' activities. Abuse of highly sensible private information such as phone numbers without users' notice is the result. We show that there is a high frequency of privacy leaks even among widely popular applications. Together with the fact that the majority of the users are not proficient in computer security, this presents a challenge to the engineers developing security solutions for the platform. Our contribution is twofold: first, we propose a service which is able to assess Android Market applications via static analysis and provide detailed, but readable reports to the user. Second, we describe a means to mitigate security and privacy threats by automated reverse-engineering and refactoring binary application packages according to the users' security preferences.

Join the party : networking for wallflowers

The LIS profession in Australia is a small world where connections are vital for career success and developing resilience. So what about those of us who feel like wallflowers at the party, always on the margins? It can be difficult for quieter souls to step up, get involved and build relationships. A major hurdle for many people, both introverts and extroverts, is figuring out how to proclaim their awesomeness to the world but in a way that is unique to them. The aim of this session is to inspire and challenge students, new grads and anyone who has a fear of networking to take risks and explore a different more social side of themselves without changing their personalities. This is a deeply personal topic with plenty of fear and self-image issues at stake. As well, most of us have had very few opportunities to find role models or a chance to practice in a comfortable environment. Therefore the authors will present strategies for success based on their personal experiences. We will demonstrate the actual benefits we have attained through our networking and volunteer activities. We hope that attendees will come away with some realistic strategies and goals to create lasting relationships with present and future colleagues such as we have enjoyed. Our networking tips may not transform you into the belle of the ball but you will have more confidence to get out on the dance floor and dance to your own beat.

Graphene nanocomposites

Graphene, one of the allotropes (diamond, carbon nanotube, and fullerene) of carbon, is a monolayer of honeycomb lattice of carbon atoms discovered in 2004. The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 was awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov for their ground breaking experiments on the twodimensional graphene [1]. Since its discovery, the research communities have shown a lot of interest in this novel material owing to its unique properties. As shown in Figure 1, the number of publications on graphene has dramatically increased in recent years. It has been confirmed that graphene possesses very peculiar electrical properties such as anomalous quantum hall effect, and high electron mobility at room temperature (250000 cm2/Vs). Graphene is also one of the stiffest (modulus ~1 TPa) and strongest (strength ~100 GPa) materials. In addition, it has exceptional thermal conductivity (5000 Wm-1K-1). Based on these exceptional properties, graphene has found its applications in various fields such as field effect devices, sensors, electrodes, solar cells, energy storage devices and nanocomposites. Only adding 1 volume per cent graphene into polymer (e.g. polystyrene), the nanocomposite has a conductivity of ~0.1 Sm-1 [2], sufficient for many electrical applications. Significant improvement in strength, fracture toughness and fatigue strength has also been achieved in these nanocomposites [3-5]. Therefore, graphene-polymer nanocomposites have demonstrated a great potential to serve as next generation functional or structural materials.