Nutrition intervention approaches to reduce malnutrition in oncology patients: A systematic review

Purpose Malnutrition is a very common problem in oncology patients and is associated with many negative consequences including poorer prognosis, quality of life and survival. However, malnutrition in oncology patients is often overlooked although there is growing evidence showing that it can be prevented or reduced through nutrition intervention. This paper aims to provide an updated review on the effectiveness of different nutrition intervention approaches on nutrition status outcomes in oncology patients. Methods Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published between 1994 and 2014 which examined the effects of nutrition intervention approaches—in particular, nutrition counselling (NC), oral nutrition supplements (ONS) and tube feeding (TF)—on nutrition status outcomes of oncology patients were identified and reviewed. Results Thirteen papers from 11 RCTs with a total of 1077 participants were included. The intervention approaches included NC (four studies), NC + ONS (five studies), ONS (three studies) and TF (three studies). The various results suggest that NC with or without ONS was associated with consistent improvements in several nutrition status outcomes. On the other hand, ONS and TF were associated with inconsistent improvements in few aspects of nutrition status outcomes. Conclusions The referral of oncology patients for NC is recommended given the strong evidence of its beneficial effects on the prevention and reduction of malnutrition. Other forms of nutrition support including ONS and TF may then be included if deemed suitable and necessary for the individual.

Modeling approaches for pesticide exposure assessment in rice paddies

Pesticide use in paddy rice production may contribute to adverse ecological effects in surface waters. Risk assessments conducted for regulatory purposes depend on the use of simulation models to determine predicted environment concentrations (PEC) of pesticides. Often tiered approaches are used, in which assessments at lower tiers are based on relatively simple models with conservative scenarios, while those at higher tiers have more realistic representations of physical and biochemical processes. This chapter reviews models commonly used for predicting the environmental fate of pesticides in rice paddies. Theoretical considerations, unique features, and applications are discussed. This review is expected to provide information to guide model selection for pesticide registration, regulation, and mitigation in rice production areas.

Creating a global law graduate: The need, benefits and practical approaches to internationalise the curriculum

The increasingly integrated world has facilitated important international and trans-border trends, such as a progressively connected global economy, a significant growth in transnational business transactions and an increase in global regulation of global issues. Such globalisation has had a transformational impact on the legal profession in a number of ways. These include the need to provide advice on issues or transactions that have a transnational or international element; the increasing globalisation of large law firms; and the delivery of offshore services by legal service providers. This means that not only do law graduates need to be prepared to practice in an increasingly globalised economy and legal profession, there will also be new career opportunities available to them which require understanding of international law, for example in emerging international institutions and non-government organisations. Accordingly there is a need to ensure that law students develop the knowledge and skills they will require to succeed in a globalised legal profession. That is, there is a need to internationalise the law curriculum. This paper provides an insight into the recent progression of law schools in internationalising the law curriculum and provides practical avenues and strategies for the increased integration of international law, foreign law and a comparative perspective into core subjects which will develop the graduates’ knowledge and skills in international and foreign law, in order to enhance their ability to succeed as legal professionals in a globalised world.

Monte Carlo analysis of a puzzle game

When a puzzle game is created, its design parameters must be chosen to allow solvable and interesting challenges to be created for the player. We investigate the use of random sampling as a computationally inexpensive means of automated game analysis, to evaluate the BoxOff family of puzzle games. This analysis reveals useful insights into the game, such as the surprising fact that almost 100% of randomly generated challenges have a solution, but less than 10% will be solved using strictly random play, validating the inventor’s design choices. We show the 1D game to be trivial and the 3D game to be viable.

A methodological survey of future mobility literature: Opportunities for design research

This research establishes that the study of mobility and transportation is multi-disciplinary and highly complex, involving the diverse interplay between infrastructural and psychological factors. Coincidently, a new paradigm in personal mobility is developing. A new generation of mobility solutions is becoming widely available in the form of car and ride sharing services. These services build on the assumption that customers no longer need ownership of a product in order to benefit from it. With the emergence of this new paradigm, this paper presents a methodological review of current practises used by the wider research community. Therefore, this research piece aims to explore methodological approaches involved in the study the effect of community on an individual’s attitudes, perceptions and behaviours of future mobility solutions. The results of this review indicate that the majority of published literature uses quantitative methods as opposed to qualitative and even fewer studies have sought to understand the human factors in these new mobility solutions. This gap in knowledge is a valuable opportunity for design. Inherently qualitative and human focused, design research can fill this gap in knowledge by applying distinctly user-centred methods such as persona design, narrative storytelling, and in-depth observations to discover deeper human insights.

The fisc and the frontier: Approaches to cross-border charity in Australia and the UK

The late twentieth century witnessed the transformation of the global economy beyond the fixed geographic boundaries of the nation-state system to one dominated by financial centers, global markets, and transnational firms. In the two decades to 2011, cross-border philanthropy from OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) donor countries to the developing world grew from approximately USD 5 billion to USD 32 billion (OECD, n.d.),[1] with some estimates for 2011 as high as USD 59 billion (Center for Global Prosperity, 2013). This is only part of cross-border philanthropy, which also includes remittances from migrant communities, social-media-enabled global fundraising, and medical research collaborations.

ASEAN and ADB implementing new approaches to building road safety capacity

Following the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) senior transport officials meeting in May 2011, the Secretariat requested the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to provide assistance to improve road safety in ASEAN. In response, ADB, funded by the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, has begun an innovative approach to capacity building that has already been adapted and replicated in other sub-regions. This paper will discuss the model central to the project. The Road Safety Capacity Building for ASEAN Project commenced in May 2013. Each country has appointed a National Focal Point (NFP) to identify and coordinate information. A team of International Experts were appointed to develop materials and present a comprehensive train the trainer program focused on five key areas. Thirty eight senior Government officers from across ASEAN attended a two week program at ADB headquarters in Manila and will arrange and deliver specific training and associated activities to other colleagues within their country. ADB has appointed a National Consultant to work in partnership with the trainees on a range of activities including development of “pipeline project proposals” for funding consideration investors and donors. As part of the project, a draft ASEAN Regional Road Safety Strategy document has been prepared and consultation will further refine its directions and contents. The project will reach its conclusion in 2015 and a follow up phase three project is being considered.

The ninth 48hr game making challenge (2015)

The 48 hour game making challenge has been running since 2007. In recent years, we have not only been running a 'game jam' for the local community but we have also been exploring the way in which the event itself and the place of the event has the potential to create its own stories. The 2015 challenge is part of a series of data collection opportunities focussed on the game jam itself and the meaning making that the participants engage in about the event. We are continuing the data collection commenced in 2012: "Game jams are the creative festivals of the game development community and a game jam is very much an event or performance; its stories are those of subjective experience. Participants return year after year and recount personal stories from previous challenges; arrival in the 48hr location typically inspires instances of individual memory and narration more in keeping with those of a music festival or an oft frequented holiday destination. Since its inception, the 48hr has been heavily documented, from the photo-blogging of our first jam and the twitter streams of more recent events to more formal interviews and documentaries (see Anderson, 2012). We have even had our own moments of Gonzo journalism with an on-site press room one year and an ‘embedded’ journalist another year (Keogh, 2011). In the last two years of the 48hr we have started to explore ways and means to collect more abstract data during the event, that is, empirical data about movement and activity. The intent behind this form of data collection was to explore graphic and computer generated visualisations of the event, not for the purpose of formal analysis but in the service of further story telling." [exerpt from truna aka j.turner, Thomas & Owen, 2013) See: truna aka j.turner, Thomas & Owen (2013) Living the indie life: mapping creative teams in a 48 hour game jam and playing with data, Proceedings of the 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment, IE'2013, September 30 - October 01 2013, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Analysing commercial catch and effort data from a penaeid trawl fishery: A comparison of linear models, mixed models, and generalised estimating equations approaches

Statistical methods are often used to analyse commercial catch and effort data to provide standardised fishing effort and/or a relative index of fish abundance for input into stock assessment models. Achieving reliable results has proved difficult in Australia's Northern Prawn Fishery (NPF), due to a combination of such factors as the biological characteristics of the animals, some aspects of the fleet dynamics, and the changes in fishing technology. For this set of data, we compared four modelling approaches (linear models, mixed models, generalised estimating equations, and generalised linear models) with respect to the outcomes of the standardised fishing effort or the relative index of abundance. We also varied the number and form of vessel covariates in the models. Within a subset of data from this fishery, modelling correlation structures did not alter the conclusions from simpler statistical models. The random-effects models also yielded similar results. This is because the estimators are all consistent even if the correlation structure is mis-specified, and the data set is very large. However, the standard errors from different models differed, suggesting that different methods have different statistical efficiency. We suggest that there is value in modelling the variance function and the correlation structure, to make valid and efficient statistical inferences and gain insight into the data. We found that fishing power was separable from the indices of prawn abundance only when we offset the impact of vessel characteristics at assumed values from external sources. This may be due to the large degree of confounding within the data, and the extreme temporal changes in certain aspects of individual vessels, the fleet and the fleet dynamics.

Spin it to win it: A comparison of constraints-led versus traditional coaching approaches

This thesis aimed to compare the effects of constraints-led and traditional coaching approaches on young cricket spin bowlers, with a specific research focus on increasing spin rates (i.e., Revolutions per Minute). Participants were 22 spin bowlers from either an Australia state youth squad or an academy in England. Results indicate that adopting a constraints-led approach can benefit younger, inexperienced bowlers, whilst a traditional approach may assist more skilled, older bowlers. The findings are discussed with regards to how they may inform the learning design of training programs by cricket coaches.

Patient decision aids in routine maternity care: Benefits, barriers, and new opportunities

Background and aim Participation in decision-making, supported by comprehensive and quality information provision, is increasingly emphasised as a priority for women in maternity care. Patient decision aids are tools that can offer women greater access to information and guidance to participate in maternity care decision-making. Relative to their evaluation in controlled settings, the implementation of patient decision aids in routine maternity care has received little attention and our understanding of which approaches may be effective is limited. This paper critically discusses the application of patient decision aids in routine maternity care and explores viable solutions for promoting their successful uptake. Discussion A range of patient decision aids have been developed for use within maternity care, and controlled trials have highlighted their positive impact on the decision-making process for women. Nevertheless, evidence of successful patient decision aid implementation in real world health care settings is lacking due to practical and ideological barriers that exist. Patient-directed social marketing campaigns are a relatively novel approach to patient decision aid delivery that may facilitate their adoption in maternity care, at least in the short-term, by overcoming common implementation barriers. Social marketing may also be particularly well suited to maternity care, given the unique characteristics of this health context. Conclusions The potential of social marketing campaigns to facilitate patient decision aid adoption in maternity care highlights the need for pragmatic trials to evaluate their effectiveness. Identifying which sub-groups of women are more or less likely to respond to these strategies will further direct implementation.

Hybrid game strategies for MO problems in aerospace design

Game strategies have been developed in past decades and used in the field of economics, engineering, computer science and biology due to their efficiency in solving design optimisation problems. In addition, research on Multi-Objective (MO) and Multidisciplinary Design Optimisation (MDO) has focused on developing robust and efficient optimisation method to produce quality solutions with less computational time. In this paper, a new optimisation method Hybrid Game Strategy for MO problems is introduced and compared to CMA-ES based optimisation approach. Numerical results obtained from both optimisation methods are compared in terms of computational expense and model quality. The benefits of using Game-strategies are demonstrated.

K-12 transitions: Approaches and lessons learned

More than 140 countries offer what has become the international norm for preteritiary education, namely a kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) system. Why kindergarten? Because, research attests to the long-term learning and social benefits of school readiness programs. Why 12 grades? Because experience in many countries shows that a K-12 system of schooling is the minimum necessary to acquire the knowledge and expertise for university education, employment training, or decent work.

Comparison of decision tree, support vector machines, and Bayesian network approaches for classification of falls in Parkinson’s disease

Being able to accurately predict the risk of falling is crucial in patients with Parkinson’s dis- ease (PD). This is due to the unfavorable effect of falls, which can lower the quality of life as well as directly impact on survival. Three methods considered for predicting falls are decision trees (DT), Bayesian networks (BN), and support vector machines (SVM). Data on a 1-year prospective study conducted at IHBI, Australia, for 51 people with PD are used. Data processing are conducted using rpart and e1071 packages in R for DT and SVM, con- secutively; and Bayes Server 5.5 for the BN. The results show that BN and SVM produce consistently higher accuracy over the 12 months evaluation time points (average sensitivity and specificity > 92%) than DT (average sensitivity 88%, average specificity 72%). DT is prone to imbalanced data so needs to adjust for the misclassification cost. However, DT provides a straightforward, interpretable result and thus is appealing for helping to identify important items related to falls and to generate fallers’ profiles.