Augmenting and assisting model elicitation tasks with 3D virtual world context metadata

Accurate process model elicitation continues to be a time consuming task, requiring skill on the part of the interviewer to extract explicit and tacit process information from the interviewee. Many errors occur in this elicitation stage that would be avoided by better activity recall, more consistent specification methods and greater engagement in the elicitation process by interviewees. Theories of situated cognition indicate that interactive 3D representations of real work environments engage and prime the cognitive state of the viewer. In this paper, our major contribution is to augment a previous process elicitation methodology with virtual world context metadata, drawn from a 3D simulation of the workplace. We present a conceptual and formal approach for representing this contextual metadata, integrated into a process similarity measure that provides hints for the business analyst to use in later modelling steps. Finally, we conclude with examples from two use cases to illustrate the potential abilities of this approach.

World emissions and economic growth: Application of non-parametric methods

The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesises an inverse U-shaped relationship between a measure of environmental pollution and per capita income levels. In this study, we apply non-parametric estimation of local polynomial regression (local quadratic fitting) to allow more flexibility in local estimation. This study uses a larger and globally representative sample of many local and global pollutants and natural resources including Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) emission, CO2 emission, CO2 damage, energy use, energy depletion, mineral depletion, improved water source, PM10, particulate emission damage, forest area and net forest depletion. Copyright © 2009 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander university students conceptions of formal learning and experiences of informal learning

This paper describes an investigation of conceptions of learning held by 22 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from three universities in Queensland, Australia. Other areas investigated were students' experiences of informal learning, their reasons for studying and the strategies they used to learn. Research into conceptions of learning is gaining impetus and current beliefs include the premise that approaches to learning adopted by university students, and hence learning outcomes, are closely related to their conceptions of learning. There is substantial research focused on Aboriginal learning styles in early childhood and primary school which indicates that Aboriginal children prefer to learn in a practical way as well as through observation and imitation and trial and error. Very little research has focused specifically on Aboriginal university students' conceptions of learning. Results of this study found that these students view and approach formal university learning in much the same way as other university students and most hold quantitative conceptions of learning. The most interesting result was the difference between students' conceptions of formal learning and their experiences of informal learning. Many students' experiences of informal learning were grounded in practical activities or exhibited a cultural focus, however, most formal learning is not dependent upon practical or cultural knowledge. It is proposed that formal learning for Indigenous students recognise and include an Indigenous perspective such as integrating, where appropriate, practical strategies for learning. We also suggest that Indigenous students be helped to develop conceptions that will enable them to learn formal, theoretical material successfully.

Learning in formal and informal contexts : conceptions and strategies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander university students

Research suggests that students' approaches to learning and hence learning outcomes are closely related to their conceptions of learning. This paper describes an investigation into conceptions of formal learning held by 22 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from three Australian universities in Queensland; categories of informal learning, reasons for studying and strategies used to learn were also investigated. The attrition rate for these students in tertiary education is higher than that of any other group of students. The main aim of this study was to determine their conceptions of learning in order to provide information that might facilitate instruction more suited to their needs in order to address the high attrition rate. Results showed that these students view and approach university learning in much the same way as other university students. It was also apparent that, for the most part, the strategies these students used did not match the conceptions of learning they held. An interesting result was the difference between the conceptions of formal learning and perceptions of informal learning.

Agent-based modelling of aircraft boarding methods

We implemented six different boarding strategies (Wilma, Steffen, Reverse Pyramid, Random, Blocks and By letter) in order to investigate boarding times for Boeing 777 and Airbus 380 aircraft. We also introduce three new boarding methods to find the optimum boarding strategy. Our models explicitly simulate the behaviour of groups of people travelling together and we explicitly simulate the timing to store their luggage as part of the boarding process. Results from the simulation demonstrates the Reverse Pyramid method is the best boarding method for Boeing 777, and the Steffen method is the best boarding method for Airbus 380. For the new suggested boarding methods, aisle first boarding method is the best boarding strategy for Boeing 777 and row arrangement method is the best boarding strategy for Airbus 380. Overall best boarding strategy is aisle first boarding method for Boeing 777 and Steffen method for Airbus 380.

An evaluation of crowd counting methods, features and regression models

Existing crowd counting algorithms rely on holistic, local or histogram based features to capture crowd properties. Regression is then employed to estimate the crowd size. Insufficient testing across multiple datasets has made it difficult to compare and contrast different methodologies. This paper presents an evaluation across multiple datasets to compare holistic, local and histogram based methods, and to compare various image features and regression models. A K-fold cross validation protocol is followed to evaluate the performance across five public datasets: UCSD, PETS 2009, Fudan, Mall and Grand Central datasets. Image features are categorised into five types: size, shape, edges, keypoints and textures. The regression models evaluated are: Gaussian process regression (GPR), linear regression, K nearest neighbours (KNN) and neural networks (NN). The results demonstrate that local features outperform equivalent holistic and histogram based features; optimal performance is observed using all image features except for textures; and that GPR outperforms linear, KNN and NN regression

Preventing infections following caesarean section

Surgical site infections following caesarean section are a serious and costly adverse event for Australian hospitals. In the United Kingdom, 9% of women are diagnosed with a surgical site infection following caesarean section either in hospital or post-discharge (Wloch et al 2012, Ward et al 2008). Additional staff time, pharmaceuticals and health supplies, and increased length of stay or readmission to hospital are often required (Henman et al 2012). Part of my PhD investigated the economics of preventing post-caesarean infection. This paper summarises a review of relevant infection prevention strategies. Administering antibiotic prophylaxis 15 to 60 minutes pre-incision, rather than post cordclamping, is probably the most important infection prevention strategy for caesarean section (Smaill and Gyte2010, Liu et al 2013, Dahlke et al 2013). However the timing of antibiotic administration is reportedly inconsistent in Australian hospitals. Clinicians may be taking advice from the influential, but out-dated RANZCOG and United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines (Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 2011, Mangram et al 1999). A number of other important international clinical guidelines, including Australia's NHMRC guidelines, recommend universal prophylactic antibiotics pre-incision for caesarean section (National Health and Medical Research Council 2010, National Collaborating Centre for Women's and Children's Health 2008, Anderson et al 2008, National Collaborating Centre for Women's and Children's Health 2011, Bratzler et al 2013, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists 2011a, Antibiotic Expert Group 2010). We need to ensure women receive preincision antibiotic prophylaxis, particularly as nurses and midwives play a significant role in managing an infection that may result from sub-optimal practice. It is acknowledged more explicitly now that nurses and midwives can influence prescribing and administration of antibiotics through informal approaches (Edwards et al 2011). Methods such as surgical safety checklists are a more formal way for nurses and midwives to ensure that antibiotics are administered pre-incision (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists 2011 b). Nurses and midwives can also be directly responsible for other infection prevention strategies such as instructing women to not remove pubic hair in the month before the expected date of delivery and wound management education (Ng et al 2013). Potentially more costly but effective strategies include using a Chlorhexidine-gluconate (CHG) sponge preoperatively (in addition to the usual operating room skin preparation) and vaginal cleansing with a povidone-iodine solution (Riley et al 2012, Rauk 2010, Haas, Morgan, and Contreras 2013).

Application of meshfree methods to numerically simulate microscale deformations of different plant food materials during drying

Plant food materials have a very high demand in the consumer market and therefore, improved food products and efficient processing techniques are concurrently being researched in food engineering. In this context, numerical modelling and simulation techniques have a very high potential to reveal fundamentals of the underlying mechanisms involved. However, numerical modelling of plant food materials during drying becomes quite challenging, mainly due to the complexity of the multiphase microstructure of the material, which undergoes excessive deformations during drying. In this regard, conventional grid-based modelling techniques have limited applicability due to their inflexible grid-based fundamental limitations. As a result, meshfree methods have recently been developed which offer a more adaptable approach to problem domains of this nature, due to their fundamental grid-free advantages. In this work, a recently developed meshfree based two-dimensional plant tissue model is used for a comparative study of microscale morphological changes of several food materials during drying. The model involves Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) and Discrete Element Method (DEM) to represent fluid and solid phases of the cellular structure. Simulation are conducted on apple, potato, carrot and grape tissues and the results are qualitatively and quantitatively compared and related with experimental findings obtained from the literature. The study revealed that cellular deformations are highly sensitive to cell dimensions, cell wall physical and mechanical properties, middle lamella properties and turgor pressure. In particular, the meshfree model is well capable of simulating critically dried tissues at lower moisture content and turgor pressure, which lead to cell wall wrinkling. The findings further highlighted the potential applicability of the meshfree approach to model large deformations of the plant tissue microstructure during drying, providing a distinct advantage over the state of the art grid-based approaches.

Emerging methods in using GIS to analyse Barmah Forest virus disease in Queensland, Australia

Barmah Forest virus (BFV) disease is an emerging mosquito-borne disease in Australia. We aimed to outline some recent methods in using GIS for the analysis of BFV disease in Queensland, Australia. A large database of geocoded BFV cases has been established in conjunction with population data. The database has been used in recently published studies conducted by the authors to determine spatio-temporal BFV disease hotspots and spatial patterns using spatial autocorrelation and semi-variogram analysis in conjunction with the development of interpolated BFV disease standardised incidence maps. This paper briefly outlines spatial analysis methodologies using GIS tools used in those studies. This paper summarises methods and results from previous studies by the authors, and presents a GIS methodology to be used in future spatial analytical studies in attempt to enhance the understanding of BFV disease in Queensland. The methodology developed is useful in improving the analysis of BFV disease data and will enhance the understanding of the BFV disease distribution in Queensland, Australia.