Studies of granulosa cell maturation in dominant and subordinate bovine follicles : novel extracellular matrix focimatrix is co-ordinately regulated with cholesterol side-chain cleavage CYP11A1

During growth of antral ovarian follicles granulosa cells first become associated with a novel type of extracellular matrix, focimatrix, and at larger sizes follicles become either subordinate or dominant. To examine this, bovine subordinate (9.0±s.e.m. 0.4 mm; n=16), partially dominant (12.0±0.6 mm; n=18) and fully dominant (15.0±0.4 mm; n=14) follicles were examined by real time RT-PCR analyses of granulosa cells and by immunohistochemistry of focimatrix. Changes in the expression of FSH receptor, LH receptor, cholesterol side-chain cleavage (CYP11A1), 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, aromatase (CYP19A1) and inhibin-α and β-B were observed as expected for follicle sizes examined. After adjusting for size differences, only CYP11A1 was significantly different between the groups, and elevated in dominant follicles. Also after adjusting for differences in size there were no significant differences in expression of focimatrix components collagen type IV α-1 (COL4A1), laminin β-2, nidogen 1 (NID1), and perlecan (HSPG2) or the volume density of NID1 and -2 and HSPG2. The volume density of focimatrix components in laminin 111 was significantly elevated in dominant follicles. Adjusting for analysis of more than one follicle per animal and for multiple correlations, CYP11A1 mRNA levels were highly correlated with the focimatrix genes COL4A1, NID1 and -2 and HSPG2. Thus, focimatrix may potentially regulate CYP11A1 expression, and the regulation of both could be important in follicular dominance.

Automatic generation of effective video summaries

As the popularity of video as an information medium rises, the amount of video content that we produce and archive keeps growing. This creates a demand for shorter representations of videos in order to assist the task of video retrieval. The traditional solution is to let humans watch these videos and write textual summaries based on what they saw. This summarisation process, however, is time-consuming. Moreover, a lot of useful audio-visual information contained in the original video can be lost. Video summarisation aims to turn a full-length video into a more concise version that preserves as much information as possible. The problem of video summarisation is to minimise the trade-off between how concise and how representative a summary is. There are also usability concerns that need to be addressed in a video summarisation scheme. To solve these problems, this research aims to create an automatic video summarisation framework that combines and improves on existing video summarisation techniques, with the focus on practicality and user satisfaction. We also investigate the need for different summarisation strategies in different kinds of videos, for example news, sports, or TV series. Finally, we develop a video summarisation system based on the framework, which is validated by subjective and objective evaluation. The evaluation results shows that the proposed framework is effective for creating video skims, producing high user satisfaction rate and having reasonably low computing requirement. We also demonstrate that the techniques presented in this research can be used for visualising video summaries in the form web pages showing various useful information, both from the video itself and from external sources.

Towards learner autonomy : an assessment for learning approach

Using Assessment for Learning (AfL) may develop learner autonomy however, very often AfL is reduced to a set of strategies that do not always achieve the desired outcome. This research adopted a different approach that examined AfL as a cultural practice, situated within influential social relationships that shape learner identity. The study addressed the question “What are the qualities of the teacher-student relationship that support student learning autonomy in an AfL context?” Three case studies of the interactions of Queensland middle school teachers and their classes of Year 7, 8 and 9 were developed over one year. Data were collected from field notes and video recordings of classroom interactions and individual and focus group interviews with teachers and students. The analysis began with a close look at the field data. Interpretations that emerged from a sociocultural theoretical understanding were helpful in informing the process of analysis. Themes and patterns of interrelationships were identified through thematic coding using a constant comparative approach. Validation was achieved through methodological triangulation. Four findings that inform an understanding of AfL and the development of learner autonomy emerged. Firstly, autonomy is theorised as a context-specific identity mediated through the teacher-student relationship. Secondly, it was observed that learners negotiated their identities as knowers through AfL practices in various tacit, explicit, group and individual ways in a ‘generative dance’ of knowing in action (Cook & Brown, 2005). Thirdly, teachers and learners negotiated their participation by drawing from identities in multiple communities of practice. Finally it is proposed that a new participative identity or narrative for assessment is needed. This study contributes to understandings about teacher AfL practices that can help build teacher assessment capacity. Importantly, autonomy is understood as an identity that is available to all learners. This study is also significant as it affirms the importance of teacher assessment to support learners in developing autonomy, a focus that challenges the singular assessment policy focus on measuring performance. Finally this study contributes to a sociocultural theoretical understanding of AfL.

Super-resolved faces for improved face recognition from surveillance video advances in biometrics

Characteristics of surveillance video generally include low resolution and poor quality due to environmental, storage and processing limitations. It is extremely difficult for computers and human operators to identify individuals from these videos. To overcome this problem, super-resolution can be used in conjunction with an automated face recognition system to enhance the spatial resolution of video frames containing the subject and narrow down the number of manual verifications performed by the human operator by presenting a list of most likely candidates from the database. As the super-resolution reconstruction process is ill-posed, visual artifacts are often generated as a result. These artifacts can be visually distracting to humans and/or affect machine recognition algorithms. While it is intuitive that higher resolution should lead to improved recognition accuracy, the effects of super-resolution and such artifacts on face recognition performance have not been systematically studied. This paper aims to address this gap while illustrating that super-resolution allows more accurate identification of individuals from low-resolution surveillance footage. The proposed optical flow-based super-resolution method is benchmarked against Baker et al.’s hallucination and Schultz et al.’s super-resolution techniques on images from the Terrascope and XM2VTS databases. Ground truth and interpolated images were also tested to provide a baseline for comparison. Results show that a suitable super-resolution system can improve the discriminability of surveillance video and enhance face recognition accuracy. The experiments also show that Schultz et al.’s method fails when dealing surveillance footage due to its assumption of rigid objects in the scene. The hallucination and optical flow-based methods performed comparably, with the optical flow-based method producing less visually distracting artifacts that interfered with human recognition.

Factors that influence Information Systems decisions and outcomes: A summary of key themes from four case studies" (2006). ACIS 2006 Proceedings. Paper 43.

This paper reports a summary of key findings from an examination of Information Systems decision making in four organisations. The study focused on what factors influenced decision makers during the critical preimplementation phase of Information Systems projects when systems were evaluated, selected and acquired. Using data gathered from interviews and organisational documentation, a critical hermeneutic analysis was performed in order to build an understanding of how informational and contextual influences acted on decision makers. Eight broad themes of factors were identified as having influence on decision makers and outcomes.

Library and information science education 2.0: guiding principles and models of best practice. Interview with Sue Reynolds.

In 2005, Stephen Abram, vice president of Innovation at SirsiDynix, challenged library and information science (LIS) professionals to start becoming “librarian 2.0.” In the last few years, discussion and debate about the “core competencies” needed by librarian 2.0 have appeared in the “biblioblogosphere” (blogs written by LIS professionals). However, beyond these informal blog discussions few systematic and empirically based studies have taken place. A project funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council fills this gap. The project identifies the key skills, knowledge, and attributes required by “librarian 2.0.” Eighty-one members of the Australian LIS profession participated in a series of focus groups. Eight themes emerged as being critical to “librarian 2.0”: technology, communication, teamwork, user focus, business savvy, evidence based practice, learning and education, and personal traits. Guided by these findings interviews with 36 LIS educators explored the current approaches used within contemporary LIS education to prepare graduates to become “librarian 2.0”. This video presents an example of ‘great practice’ in current LIS educative practice in helping to foster web 2.0 professionals.

Library and information science education 2.0 : guiding principles and models of best practice : interview with John Terrell

In 2005, Stephen Abram, vice president of Innovation at SirsiDynix, challenged library and information science (LIS) professionals to start becoming “librarian 2.0.” In the last few years, discussion and debate about the “core competencies” needed by librarian 2.0 have appeared in the “biblioblogosphere” (blogs written by LIS professionals). However, beyond these informal blog discussions few systematic and empirically based studies have taken place. A project funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council fills this gap. The project identifies the key skills, knowledge, and attributes required by “librarian 2.0.” Eighty-one members of the Australian LIS profession participated in a series of focus groups. Eight themes emerged as being critical to “librarian 2.0”: technology, communication, teamwork, user focus, business savvy, evidence based practice, learning and education, and personal traits. Guided by these findings interviews with 36 LIS educators explored the current approaches used within contemporary LIS education to prepare graduates to become “librarian 2.0”. This video presents an example of ‘great practice’ in current LIS education as it strives to foster web 2.0 professionals.

Library and information science education 2.0 : guiding principles and models of best practice : interview with Kate Davis.

In 2005, Stephen Abram, vice president of Innovation at SirsiDynix, challenged library and information science (LIS) professionals to start becoming “librarian 2.0.” In the last few years, discussion and debate about the “core competencies” needed by librarian 2.0 have appeared in the “biblioblogosphere” (blogs written by LIS professionals). However, beyond these informal blog discussions few systematic and empirically based studies have taken place. A project funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council fills this gap. The project identifies the key skills, knowledge, and attributes required by “librarian 2.0.” Eighty-one members of the Australian LIS profession participated in a series of focus groups. Eight themes emerged as being critical to “librarian 2.0”: technology, communication, teamwork, user focus, business savvy, evidence based practice, learning and education, and personal traits. Guided by these findings interviews with 36 LIS educators explored the current approaches used within contemporary LIS education to prepare graduates to become “librarian 2.0”. This video presents an example of ‘great practice’ in current LIS education as it strives to foster web 2.0 professionals.

Why adopt now? Multiple case studies and survey studies comparing small, medium and large firms

While a number of factors have been highlighted in the innovation adoption literature, little is known about whether different factors are related to innovation adoption in differently-sized firms. We used preliminary case studies of small, medium and large firms to ground our hypotheses, which were then tested using a survey of 94 firms. We found that external stakeholder pressure and non-financial readiness were related to innovation adoption in SMEs; but that for large firms, adoption was related to the opportunity to innovate. It may be that the difficulties of adopting innovations, including both the financial cost and the effort involved, are too great for SMEs to overcome unless there is either a compelling need (external pressure) or enough in-house capability (non-financial readiness). This suggests that SMEs are more likely to have innovation “pushed” onto them while large firms are more likely to “pull” innovations when they have the opportunity.