Online environmental information systems

In today’s information society, electronic tools, such as computer networks for the rapid transfer of data and composite databases for information storage and management, are critical in ensuring effective environmental management. In particular environmental policies and programs for federal, state, and local governments need a large volume of up-to-date information on the quality of water, air, and soil in order to conserve and protect natural resources and to carry out meteorology. In line with this, the utilization of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is crucial to preserve and improve the quality of life. In handling tasks in the field of environmental protection a range of environmental and technical information is often required for a complex and mutual decision making in a multidisciplinary team environment. In this regard e-government provides a foundation of the transformative ICT initiative which can lead to better environmental governance, better services, and increased public participation in environmental decision- making process.

Online urban information systems

Countless factors affect the inner workings of a city, so in an attempt to gain an understanding of place and making sound decisions, planners need to utilize decision support systems (DSS) or planning support systems (PSS). PSS were originally developed as DSS in academia for experimental purposes, but like many other technologies, they became one of the most innovative technologies in parallel to rapid developments in software engineering as well as developments and advances in networks and hardware. Particularly, in the last decade, the awareness of PSS have been dramatically heightened with the increasing demand for a better, more reliable and furthermore a transparent decision-making process (Klosterman, Siebert, Hoque, Kim, & Parveen, 2003). Urban planning as an act has quite different perspective from the PSS point of view. The unique nature of planning requires that spatial dimension must be considered within the context of PSS. Additionally, the rapid changes in socio-economic structure cannot be easily monitored or controlled without an effective PSS.

Innovation, interaction, and inclusion : heritage luxury brands in collusion with the consumer

Many luxury heritage brands operate on the misconception that heritage is interchangeable with history rather than representative of the emotional response they originally developed in their customer. This idea of heritage as static history inhibits innovation, prevents dynamic renewal and impedes their ability to redefine, strengthen and position their brand in current and emerging marketplaces. This paper examines a number of heritage luxury brands that have successfully identified the original emotional responses they developed in their customers and, through innovative approaches in design, marketing, branding and distribution evoke these responses in contemporary consumers. Using heritage and innovation hand-in-hand, these brands have continued to grow and develop a vision of heritage that incorporates both historical and contemporary ideas to meet emerging customer needs. While what constitutes a ‘luxury’ item is constantly challenged in this era of accessible luxury products, up-scaling and aspirational spending, this paper sees consumers’ emotional needs as the key element in defining the concept of luxury. These emotional qualities consistently remain relevant due to their ability to enhance a positive sense of identity for the brand user. Luxury is about the ‘experience’ not just the product providing the consumer with a sense of enhanced status or identity through invoked feelings of exclusivity, authenticity, quality, uniqueness and culture. This paper will analyse luxury heritage brands that have successfully combined these emotional values with those of their ‘heritage’ to create an aura of authenticity and nostalgia that appeals to contemporary consumers. Like luxury, the line where clothing becomes fashion is blurred in the contemporary fashion industry; however, consumer emotion again plays an important role. For example, clothing becomes ‘fashion’ for consumers when it affects their self perception rather than fulfilling basic functions of shelter and protection. Successful luxury heritage brands can enhance consumers’ sense of self by involving them in the ‘experience’ and ‘personality’ of the brand so they see it as a reflection of their own exclusiveness, authentic uniqueness, belonging and cultural value. Innovation is a valuable tool for heritage luxury brands to successfully generate these desired emotional responses and meet the evolving needs of contemporary consumers. While traditionally fashion has been a monologue from brand to consumer, new technology has given consumers a voice to engage brands in a conversation to express their evolving needs, ideas and feedback. As a result, in this consumer-empowered era of information sharing, this paper defines innovation as the ability of heritage luxury brands to develop new design and branding strategies in response to this consumer feedback while retaining the emotional core values of their heritage. This paper analyses how luxury heritage brands can effectively position themselves in the contemporary marketplace by separating heritage from history to incorporate innovative strategies that will appeal to consumer needs of today and tomorrow.

Body-site distribution of skin cancer, pre-malignant and common benign pigmented lesions excised in general practice

Background Concern about skin cancer is a common reason for people from predominantly fair-skinned populations to present to primary care doctors. Objectives To examine the frequency and body-site distribution of malignant, pre-malignant and benign pigmented skin lesions excised in primary care. Methods This prospective study conducted in Queensland, Australia, included 154 primary care doctors. For all excised or biopsied lesions, doctors recorded the patient's age and sex, body site, level of patient pressure to excise, and the clinical diagnosis. Histological confirmation was obtained through pathology laboratories. Results Of 9650 skin lesions, 57·7% were excised in males and 75·0% excised in patients ≥50years. The most common diagnoses were basal cell carcinoma (BCC) (35·1%) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) (19·7%). Compared with the whole body, the highest densities for SCC, BCC and actinic keratoses were observed on chronically sun-exposed areas of the body including the face in males and females, the scalp and ears in males, and the hands in females. The density of BCC was also high on intermittently or rarely exposed body sites. Females, younger patients and patients with melanocytic naevi were significantly more likely to exert moderate/high levels of pressure on the doctor to excise. Conclusions More than half the excised lesions were skin cancer, which mostly occurred on the more chronically sun-exposed areas of the body. Information on the type and body-site distribution of skin lesions can aid in the diagnosis and planned management of skin cancer and other skin lesions commonly presented in primary care.

Information accountability for online healthcare social networks

Online social networking has become one of the most popular Internet applications in the modern era. They have given the Internet users, access to information that other Internet based applications are unable to. Although many of the popular online social networking web sites are focused towards entertainment purposes, sharing information can benefit the healthcare industry in terms of both efficiency and effectiveness. But the capability to share personal information; the factor which has made online social networks so popular, is itself a major obstacle when considering information security and privacy aspects. Healthcare can benefit from online social networking if they are implemented such that sensitive patient information can be safeguarded from ill exposure. But in an industry such as healthcare where the availability of information is crucial for better decision making, information must be made available to the appropriate parties when they require it. Hence the traditional mechanisms for information security and privacy protection may not be suitable for healthcare. In this paper we propose a solution to privacy enhancement in online healthcare social networks through the use of an information accountability mechanism.

A trial of the distribution of chlamydia self-collection postal specimen kits from Australian community pharmacies

We explored the feasibility of community pharmacies for the distribution of chlamydia specimen self-collection kits, which featured a transport medium allowing postage of urine specimens in Australia. Eligible clients were requested to complete a code-matched risk-screening questionnaire in the pharmacy, and the derived risk scores were compared to the test results from the corresponding specimen. Four Queensland pharmacies distributed 156 kits, while 44 questionnaires and 18 specimens were received.

On the empirical eigenvalue distribution of slotted amplify-and-forward relaying protocol model

In this paper we consider the case of large cooperative communication systems where terminals use the protocol known as slotted amplify-and-forward protocol to aid the source in its transmission. Using the perturbation expansion methods of resolvents and large deviation techniques we obtain an expression for the Stieltjes transform of the asymptotic eigenvalue distribution of a sample covariance random matrix of the type HH† where H is the channel matrix of the transmission model for the transmission protocol we consider. We prove that the resulting expression is similar to the Stieltjes transform in its quadratic equation form for the Marcenko-Pastur distribution.

Working in online groups-the challenges of virtually integrated learning environments

Universities continue to struggle with the need to combine the pedagogical benefits of collaborative learning with large scale, interactive and technologically sophisticated learning and teaching arrproaches and support systems. This challenge requires imaginative approaches if the outcome is not to the 'worst of both worlds' that results in confusion and disillusionism amongst students. This paper presents three case studies that use online technologies to provide collaborative teaching solutions arguably much superior to that possible without an online intervention.

Online we are all able bodied : Online psychological sense of community and social support found through membership of disability-specific websites promotes well-being for people living with a physical disability

People with a physical disability are a population who for a number of reasons may be vulnerable to social isolation. Research into Internet-based support sites has found that social support and an online sense of community can be developed through computer mediated communication channels. This study aims to gain an understanding of the benefits that membership of disability-specific online communities may have for people with a physical disability. An online survey was administered to a sample of users of such sites (N = 160). Results indicated that users did receive moral support and personal advice through participating in such online communities. Further, results indicated that online social support and feeling a sense of community online were positively associated with participants' well-being in the areas of personal relations and personal growth.

Beware of geeks bearing gifts? Online latent and untapped outlets for farmers' markets in South East Wales

This chapter sets out to identify related issues surrounding the use of Information and Computer Technology (ICT) in developing relationships between local food producers and consumers (both individuals and businesses). Three surveys were conducted in South- East Wales to consider the overlapping issues. The first concerned the role of ICT in relationships between farmers’ market (FMs) vendors and their traditional customers. The second survey examined potential new markets for farmers in the propensity of restaurants and hotels to buy locally, the types and sources of purchases made and the modes of advertising of these businesses. The final survey focused on the potential to expand local web- based selling of farmers’ produce in the future, by examining the potential market of high ICT- use small hotels. Despite the development of tailored ICT facilities, farmers’ market vendors and current individual customers are antipathetic to them. In addition, whilst there is a desire for more local produce particularly amongst independent local restaurants and hotels, this has not been capitalised upon and there is much work to be done even amongst high ICT-use small hotels, to expand the range and scope of farmers’ markets. This raises the need for creation and utilisation of enhanced logistics, payment and marketing management capacity available through a web- based presence, linked to promotion of FMs in business- to- business (B2B) links with local restaurants and hotels. This linked quantitative research highlights the potential value in substantial development of both web portals and supporting logistics to exploit this potential in the future.

Developing shared understandings of standards-based assessment : online moderation practices across geographically diverse contexts

This thesis investigates the place of online moderation in supporting teachers to work in a system of standards-based assessment. The participants of the study were fifty middle school teachers who met online with the aim of developing consistency in their judgement decisions. Data were gathered through observation of the online meetings, interviews, surveys and the collection of artefacts. The data were viewed and analysed through sociocultural theories of learning and sociocultural theories of technology, and demonstrates how utilising these theories can add depth to understanding the added complexity of developing shared meaning of standards in an online context. The findings contribute to current understanding of standards-based assessment by examining the social moderation process as it acts to increase the reliability of judgements that are made within a standards framework. Specifically, the study investigates the opportunities afforded by conducting social moderation practices in a synchronous online context. The study explicates how the technology affects the negotiation of judgements and the development of shared meanings of assessment standards, while demonstrating how involvement in online moderation discussions can support teachers to become and belong within a practice of standards-based assessment. This research responds to a growing international interest in standards-based assessment and the use of social moderation to develop consistency in judgement decisions. Online moderation is a new practice to address these concerns on a systemic basis.

Managing the online news revolution : the UK experience

Newspapers and, if to a lesser extent as yet, linear broadcast news providers on TV and radio are in the process of being replaced as the dominant carrier media of journalism by an emerging network of online outlets.