Excursion guidance criteria to guide control of peak emission and exposure to airborne engineered particles

The overall aim of our research was to characterize airborne particles from selected nanotechnology processes and to utilize the data to develop and test quantitative particle concentration-based criteria that can be used to trigger an assessment of particle emission controls. We investigated particle number concentration (PNC), particle mass (PM) concentration, count median diameter (CMD), alveolar deposited surface area, elemental composition, and morphology from sampling of aerosols arising from six nanotechnology processes. These included fibrous and non-fibrous particles, including carbon nanotubes (CNTs). We adopted standard occupational hygiene principles in relation to controlling peak emission and exposures, as outlined by both Safe Work Australia, (1) and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH®). (2) The results from the study were used to analyses peak and 30-minute averaged particle number and mass concentration values measured during the operation of the nanotechnology processes. Analysis of peak (highest value recorded) and 30-minute averaged particle number and mass concentration values revealed: Peak PNC20–1000 nm emitted from the nanotechnology processes were up to three orders of magnitude greater than the local background particle concentration (LBPC). Peak PNC300–3000 nm was up to an order of magnitude greater, and PM2.5 concentrations up to four orders of magnitude greater. For three of these nanotechnology processes, the 30-minute average particle number and mass concentrations were also significantly different from the LBPC (p-value < 0.001). We propose emission or exposure controls may need to be implemented or modified, or further assessment of the controls be undertaken, if concentrations exceed three times the LBPC, which is also used as the local particle reference value, for more than a total of 30 minutes during a workday, and/or if a single short-term measurement exceeds five times the local particle reference value. The use of these quantitative criteria, which we are terming the universal excursion guidance criteria, will account for the typical variation in LBPC and inaccuracy of instruments, while precautionary enough to highlight peaks in particle concentration likely to be associated with particle emission from the nanotechnology process. Recommendations on when to utilize local excursion guidance criteria are also provided.

Patellar tendon ultrasonography in asymptomatic active athletes reveals hypoechoic regions : a study of 320 tendons

OBJECTIVE: To compare patellar tendon sonographic findings in active, currently asymptomatic, elite athletes with those in nonathletic controls. DESIGN: Cross-sectional cohort study with convenience control sample. SETTING: The Victorian Institute of Sport Tendon Study Group, an institutional elite athlete study group in Australia. PATIENTS AND PARTICIPANTS: Two hundred elite male and female athletes from the sports of basketball, cricket, netball, and Australian rules football. Forty athletes who had current symptoms of jumper's knee were excluded from analysis, leaving 320 subject tendons in athletes who were currently asymptomatic. Twenty-seven nonathletic individuals served as controls. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Sonographic patellar tendon appearance. We measured the dimensions of subject tendons and noted the presence or absence of hypoechoic regions and tendon calcification. Dimensions of hypoechoic regions were measured, and approximate cross-sectional areas were calculated. Chi-squared analysis was used to test the prevalence of hypoechoic regions in subjects and controls and men and women. RESULTS: In currently asymptomatic subjects, hypoechoic regions were more prevalent in athlete tendons (22%) than in controls (4%), in male subject tendons (30%) than in female subjects (14%), and in basketball players (32%) than in other athletes (9%) (all p < 0.01). Bilateral tendon abnormalities were equally prevalent in men and women but more prevalent in basketball players (15%) than in other athletes (3%) (p < 0.05). Sonographic hypoechoic regions were present in 35 of 250 (14%) patellar tendons in athletes who had never had anterior knee pain. CONCLUSIONS: Patellar tendon sonographic hypoechoic areas were present in asymptomatic patellar tendons of a proportion of elite athletes but rarely present in controls. This has implications for clinicians managing athletes with anterior knee pain.

Recognising team activities from noisy data

Recently, vision-based systems have been deployed in professional sports to track the ball and players to enhance analysis of matches. Due to their unobtrusive nature, vision-based approaches are preferred to wearable sensors (e.g. GPS or RFID sensors) as it does not require players or balls to be instrumented prior to matches. Unfortunately, in continuous team sports where players need to be tracked continuously over long-periods of time (e.g. 35 minutes in field-hockey or 45 minutes in soccer), current vision-based tracking approaches are not reliable enough to provide fully automatic solutions. As such, human intervention is required to fix-up missed or false detections. However, in instances where a human can not intervene due to the sheer amount of data being generated - this data can not be used due to the missing/noisy data. In this paper, we investigate two representations based on raw player detections (and not tracking) which are immune to missed and false detections. Specifically, we show that both team occupancy maps and centroids can be used to detect team activities, while the occupancy maps can be used to retrieve specific team activities. An evaluation on over 8 hours of field hockey data captured at a recent international tournament demonstrates the validity of the proposed approach.

Representing and discovering adversarial team behaviors using player roles

In this paper, we describe a method to represent and discover adversarial group behavior in a continuous domain. In comparison to other types of behavior, adversarial behavior is heavily structured as the location of a player (or agent) is dependent both on their teammates and adversaries, in addition to the tactics or strategies of the team. We present a method which can exploit this relationship through the use of a spatiotemporal basis model. As players constantly change roles during a match, we show that employing a "role-based" representation instead of one based on player "identity" can best exploit the playing structure. As vision-based systems currently do not provide perfect detection/tracking (e.g. missed or false detections), we show that our compact representation can effectively "denoise" erroneous detections as well as enabe temporal analysis, which was previously prohibitive due to the dimensionality of the signal. To evaluate our approach, we used a fully instrumented field-hockey pitch with 8 fixed high-definition (HD) cameras and evaluated our approach on approximately 200,000 frames of data from a state-of-the-art real-time player detector and compare it to manually labelled data.

Text messaging to support off-campus clinical facilitators of undergraduate student nurses

Managing large cohorts of undergraduate student nurses during off-campus clinical placement is complex and challenging. Clinical facilitators are required to support and assess nursing students during clinical placement. Therefore clear communication between university academic coordinators and clinical facilitators is essential for consistency and prompt management of emerging issues. Increasing work demands require both coordinators and facilitators to have an efficient and effective mode of communication. The aim of this study was to explore the use of Short Message Service (SMS) texts, sent between mobile phones, for communication between university Unit Coordinators and off-campus Clinical Facilitators. This study used an after-only design. During a two week clinical placement 46 clinical facilitators working with first and second year Bachelor of Nursing students from a large metropolitan Australian university were regularly sent SMS texts of relevant updates and reminders from the university coordinator. A 15 item questionnaire comprising x of 5 point likert scale and 3 open-ended questions was then used to survey the clinical facilitators. The response rate was 47.8% (n=22). Correlations were found between the approachability of the coordinator and facilitator perception of a) that the coordinator understood issues on clinical placement (r=0.785, p<0.001,), and b) being part of the teaching team (r=0.768, p<0.001). Analysis of responses to qualitative questions revealed three themes: connection, approachability and collaboration. Results indicate that SMS communication is convenient and appropriate in this setting. This quasi-experimental after-test study found regular SMS communication improves a sense of connection, approachability and collaboration.

More naturalness, less control: The effect of natural mapping on the co-located player experience

In the past years, there has been a surge in game controllers that allow players to play in a more physical, more natural way. In this paper we present an experimental study of the effect of gaming using these naturally mapped controllers on the player experience in a social setting. Results support the hypothesis that more naturally mapped controllers augment spatial presence. Furthermore, the results suggest that gaming with more naturally mapped controllers augment social presence for female players, but not for male players. However, gaming via naturally mapped controllers decreases perceived control and actual performance. Hence, users with high performance expectations might not benefit from gaming via naturally mapped controllers.

Motivation during videogame play : analysing player experience in terms of cognitive action

This paper describes a method for analysing videogames based on game activities. It examines the impact of these activities on the player experience. The research approach applies heuristic checklists that deconstruct games in terms of cognitive processes that players engage in during gameplay (e.g., addressing goals, interpreting feedback). For this study we examined three puzzle games, Portal 2, I-Fluid and Braid. The Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS) survey is used to measure player experience following gameplay. Cognitive action provided within games is examined in light of reported player experiences to determine the extent to which these activities influence players’ feelings of competence, autonomy, intuitive control and presence. Findings indicate that the positive experiences are directly influenced by game activity design. Our study also demonstrates the value of expert review in deconstructing gameplay activity as a means of providing direction for game design that enhances the player experience.

Stories into games (Workshops and digital work)

In the summer of 2012 - 2013, the State Library of Queensland invited us to run a number of workshops for younger participants as part of the Garage Gamer program. The brief was very much about the local games industry and the SLQ community, the core concept was about participant contribution. The 'Stories into Games' series of workshops ran across three Saturdays (January 5 - March 2). The workshops were aimed at younger audiences (ages 6-12) and the concept was to engage this group with games as game makers and designers, rather than players. Each session saw a group of participants create a shared story, illustrate the story and then make game assets and objects out of their illustrative work. These were then put into a raw framework created in the Unity Game Engine so that the stories could be played.

The multi-platform user engagement and data visualisation tool

The ability to identify and assess user engagement with transmedia productions is vital to the success of individual projects and the sustainability of this mode of media production as a whole. It is essential that industry players have access to tools and methodologies that offer the most complete and accurate picture of how audiences/users engage with their productions and which assets generate the most valuable returns of investment. Drawing upon research conducted with Hoodlum Entertainment, a Brisbane-based transmedia producer, this project involved an initial assessment of the way engagement tends to be understood, why standard web analytics tools are ill-suited to measuring it, how a customised tool could offer solutions, and why this question of measuring engagement is so vital to the future of transmedia as a sustainable industry. Working with data provided by Hoodlum Entertainment and Foxtel Marketing, the outcome of the study was a prototype for a custom data visualisation tool that allowed access, manipulation and presentation of user engagement data, both historic and predictive. The prototyped interfaces demonstrate how the visualization tool would collect and organise data specific to multiplatform projects by aggregating data across a number of platform reporting tools. Such a tool is designed to encompass not only platforms developed by the transmedia producer but also sites developed by fans. This visualisation tool accounted for multiplatform experience projects whose top level is comprised of people, platforms and content. People include characters, actors, audience, distributors and creators. Platforms include television, Facebook and other relevant social networks, literature, cinema and other media that might be included in the multiplatform experience. Content refers to discreet media texts employed within the platform, such as tweet, a You Tube video, a Facebook post, an email, a television episode, etc. Core content is produced by the creators’ multiplatform experiences to advance the narrative, while complimentary content generated by audience members offers further contributions to the experience. Equally important is the timing with which the components of the experience are introduced and how they interact with and impact upon each other. Being able to combine, filter and sort these elements in multiple ways we can better understand the value of certain components of a project. It also offers insights into the relationship between the timing of the release of components and user activity associated with them, which further highlights the efficacy (or, indeed, failure) of assets as catalysts for engagement. In collaboration with Hoodlum we have developed a number of design scenarios experimenting with the ways in which data can be visualised and manipulated to tell a more refined story about the value of user engagement with certain project components and activities. This experimentation will serve as the basis for future research.

Exploring the role of activity in genre

This paper provides an outline of genre as we currently know it, and examines the changes occurring as games become more complex. Recent research we've undertaken suggests that our perception of which games fall into which genre category is subjective and that genre hybridization continues to blur our understanding of these categories. Consequently, it is becoming increasingly difficult to categorise game play experience based on traditional genre classifications. We examine the use of videogame activities as a useful mechanism for supplementing our understanding of videogame genre. Through considering activity as a means of classifying game experiences we may obtain a much more nuanced understanding of how players engage with games within a particular genre and across genres.

Claiming places : game mods and graffiti

Many games now on the market come with a Software Development Kit, or SDK, which allow players to construct their own worlds and mod(ify) the original. One or two of these mods have achieved notoriety in the press, cited as evidence of malicious intent on the part of the modders who often exploit their own known lived experience as a basis for new virtual playgrounds. But most player constructed games are a source of delight and pleasure for the builder and for the community of players. Creating a game is the act of creating a world, of making a place.

Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging as a biomarker for the pharmacological response of PTK787/ZK 222584, an inhibitor of the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor tyrosine kinases, in patients with advanced colorectal cancer and liver metastases: Results from two phase I studies

Purpose: PTK787/ZK 222584 (PTK/ZK), an orally active inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor tyrosine kinases, inhibits VEGF-mediated angiogenesis. The pharmacodynamic effects of PTK/ZK were evaluated by assessing changes in contrast-enhancement parameters of metastatic liver lesions using dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) in patients with advanced colorectal cancer treated in two ongoing, dose-escalating phase I studies. Patients and Methods: Twenty-six patients had DCE-MRI performed at baseline, day 2, and at the end of each 28-day cycle. Doses of oral PTK/ZK ranged from 50 to 2000 mg once daily. Tumor permeability and vascularity were assessed by calculating the bidirectional transfer constant (Ki). The percentage of baseline Ki (% of baseline Ki) at each time point was compared with pharmacokinetic and clinical end points. Results: A significant negative correlation exists between the % of baseline Ki and increase in PTK/ZK oral dose and plasma levels (P = .01 for oral dose; P = .0001 for area under the plasma concentration curve at day 2). Patients with a best response of stable disease had a significantly greater reduction in Ki at both day 2 and at the end of cycle 1 compared with progressors (mean difference in % of baseline Ki, 47%, P = .004%; and 51%, P = .006; respectively). The difference in % of baseline Ki remained statistically significant after adjusting for baseline WHO performance status. Conclusion: These findings should help to define a biologically active dose of PTK/ZK. These results suggest that DCE-MRI may be a useful biomarker for defining the pharmacological response and dose of angiogenesis inhibitiors, such as PTK/ZK, for further clinical development. © 2003 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Developmental lessons from the Capricornia Arts Mob (CAM)

The Capricornia Arts Mob (CAM) is a collective of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visual artists, sculptors, photographers, carvers and writers based in the Rockhampton region of Central Queensland. This paper explores the early development of CAM, identifies some of the lessons its members have learned about working together, and considers its role as a regional artists’ collective. The authors identify that traditional Indigenous practices, such as yarning and the sharing of food, have helped to facilitate the emergence of CAM as a vibrant, challenging, eclectic artistic family. They recognise the cultural challenges faced by the collective – including finding a culturally appropriate place to meet and work, and the cross-cultural issues that can emerge within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups. In just 18 months, CAM has held successful exhibitions and developed public artworks. It is a strong part of regional Queensland’s arts scene, which supports emerging artists and provides a space to celebrate and support Indigenous art.

Geologic map of the Valley Mountain 15’ quadrangle, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, California: U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Quadrangle Map GQ–1767, scale 1:62,500

The Valley Mountain 15’ quadrangle straddles the Pinto Mountain Fault, which bounds the eastern Transverse Ranges in the south against the Mojave Desert province in the north. The Pinto Mountains, part of the eastern Transverse Ranges in the south part of the quadrangle expose a series of Paleoproterozoic gneisses and granite and the Proterozoic quartzite of Pinto Mountain. Early Triassic quartz monzonite intruded the gneisses and was ductiley deformed prior to voluminous Jurassic intrusion of diorite, granodiorite, quartz monzonite, and granite plutons. The Jurassic rocks include part of the Bullion Mountains Intrusive Suite, which crops out prominently at Valley Mountain and in the Bullion Mountains, as well as in the Pinto Mountains. Jurassic plutons in the southwest part of the quadrangle are deeply denuded from midcrustal emplacement levels in contrast to supracrustal Jurassic limestone and volcanic rocks exposed in the northeast. Dikes inferred to be part of the Jurassic Independence Dike Swarm intrude the Jurassic plutons and Proterozoic rocks. Late Cretaceous intrusion of the Cadiz Valley Batholith in the northeast caused contact metamorphism of adjacent Jurassic plutonic rocks...

Developing examplars for sustained integration of palliative care principles into allied health curricula

The PCC4U (Palliative Care Curriculum for Undergraduates) project aims to support the inclusion of the principles and practice of palliative care in all health professional training. While uptake rates of the project resources and curriculum initiatives is strong in medicine and nursing (86% of courses actively engaged with the project in 2012) integration of palliative care content in allied health disciplines has been less consistent. This report explores the process adopted to address this issue. In 2012 six allied health courses – representing social work, pharmacy, psychology, occupational therapy, dietetics and physiotherapy – commenced a range of tailored curriculum initiatives with the aim of informing the development of exemplars of integration of palliative care in specific disciplines. The PCC4U project provided palliative care learning materials, curriculum resources and expertise, and financial support as part of this curriculum development process. Review of the outcomes of each initiative indicates that tailored support has provided an opportunity for courses to develop palliative care curriculum content that reflects both discipline and local contexts. It has contributed six discipline specific exemplars of the integration of palliative care in allied health professional curricula and provided insights into allied health educational approaches in palliative care, particularly the use of evidence based resources. As a result project curriculum materials and activities have been expanded. These will be implemented with allied health courses through workshops, site visits and curriculum mapping initiatives in 2013 to better sustain the integration of palliative care in health professional curricula.