Signalling layout for fixed-block railway lines with real-coded genetic algorithms.

Signalling layout design is one of the keys to railway operations with fixed-block signalling system and it also carries direct effect on overall train efficiency and safety. Based on an analysis to system objectives, this paper presents an optimization model with two objectives in order to devise an efficient signalling layout scheme. Taking into account the present railway line design practices in China, the paper describes steps of the computer-based signalling layout optimisation with real-coded genetic algorithms. A computer-aided system, based on train movement simulator, has also been employed to assist the optimisation process. A case study on a practical railway line has been conducted to make comparisons between the proposed GA-based approach and the current practices. The results illustrate the improved performance of the proposed approach in reducing signal block joints and shortening minimum train service headway.

Journalism education dilemmas : career-focussed skill set, teamwork or critical thinking?

In Australian universities, journalism educators usually come to the academy from the journalism profession and consequently place a high priority on leading students to develop a career-focussed skill set. The changing nature of the technological, political and economic environments and the professional destinations of journalism graduates place demands on journalism curricula and educators alike. The profession is diverse, such that the better description is of many ‘journalisms’ rather than one ‘journalism’ with consequential pressures being placed on curricula to extend beyond the traditional skill set, where practical ‘writing’ and ‘editing’ skills dominate, to the incorporation of critical theory and the social construction of knowledge. A parallel set of challenges faces academic staff operating in a higher education environment where change is the only constant and research takes precedent over curriculum development. In this paper, three educators at separate universities report on their attempts to implement curriculum change to imbue graduates with better skills and attributes such as enhanced team work, problem solving and critical thinking, to operate in the divergent environment of 21st century journalism. The paper uses narrative case study to illustrate the different approaches. Data collected from formal university student evaluations inform the narratives along with rich but less formal qualitative data including anecdotal student comments and student reflective assessment presentations. Comparison of the three approaches illustrates the dilemmas academic staff face when teaching in disciplines that are impacted by rapid changes in technology requiring new pedagogical approaches. Recommendations for future directions are considered against the background or learning purpose.

Genotyping of enterococcus faecalis and enterococcus faecium isolates using a set of eight single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)

A SNP genotyping method was developed for E. faecalis and E. faecium using the 'Minimum SNPs' program. SNP sets were interrogated using allele-specific real-time PCR. SNP-typing sub-divided clonal complexes 2 and 9 of E. faecalis and 17 of E. faecium, members of which cause the majority of nosocomial infections globally.

Participatory action research card set

These cards are designed as a resource for implementing participatory action research (PAR) in social programs. Each card covers one of the five key stages of PAR as outlined in the manual 'On PAR- Using participatory Action Research to Improve Early Intervention' (Crane and O'Regan 2010).

Dark humour invigorates familiar fables ; a review

THEATRE: Grimm Tales. By Carol Ann Duffy and Tim Supple. Queensland Theatre Company, Brisbane. November 16. QUEENSLAND Theatre Company concludes its season with Grimm Tales, Carol Ann Duffy and Tim Supple's adaptation of classic cautionary tales as set down by the Brothers Grimm in the 19th century. This programming decision is clearly designed to present fun family entertainment as Christmas approaches. In Grimm Tales, well-known stories such as Hansel and Gretel, Snow White and Rumpelstiltskin pack a little more punch than in your standard picture book. Duffy and Supple's play is by no means the sort of poetic, postmodern or politicised adaptation of the fairytale we see from writers such as Angela Carter, and it is not intended to be subversive or to question the social and gender assumptions that underpin the tales. Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. Rather, a return to the grislier original incarnations of the tales - the wicked stepsisters who lop off parts of their feet to fit the slipper and win the prince, or the hare so confused by the hedgehog's stratagem to make him think he is losing the race, he runs himself to death - has a comic effect. In this production, directed by Michael Futcher, heightened performances from some of Brisbane's best comic and physical actors, live music and an open, acknowledged relationship with the audience establish the atmosphere for the piece. While the production is a little sombre and slow to start with the first tale, Hansel and Gretel, the knowingness and almost slapstick quality with which the cast plays out the gruesome, scatological or silly moments in the other tales are well pitched to carry the comedy. The action is supported by a fantastic set by Greg Clarke of wooden planked walls, stairs and walkways which, with the help of David Walter's lighting design, is transformed into forests, ballrooms and castles as the cast moves up, over and under it. The overall highlight is probably the cast Futcher has brought together. Established QTC actors Eugene Gilfedder, Lucas Stibbard and Scott Witt, and emerging QTC actor Melanie Zanetti, join Liz Buchanan, Dan Crestani and Emma Pursey, all well known for their independent work in Brisbane but making their mainstage debut for the QTC. Every one of them metamorphoses with ease from character to character, human to animal, and central player to support. There is nothing particularly new in Grimm Tales, and it doesn't try to do anything more (or, indeed, less) than entertain, but skilful direction and a strong cast ensure it succeeds on those terms.

The five myths of academic standards

This script provided the basis for a short DVD produced in 2010. The script and DVD were products of research into the introduction of 'minimum threshold' academic standards to Australian Universities. Learning and teaching academic standards are publicly defensible statements about academic standards in all disciplines, intended to establish 'baseline expectations' for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. The script was developed using an 'anti-model' approach to character and narrative. This produced a set of deliberately skewed perspectives on the standards initiative, which are intended stimulate discussion and debate on the topic. The DVD has been shown to a range of stakeholder audiences in a variety of academic forums.

Modeling circulation of train-set with multiple routing

Planning on utilization of train-set is one of the key tasks of transport organization for passenger dedicated railway in China. It also has strong relationships with timetable scheduling and operation plans at a station. To execute such a task in a railway hub pooling multiple railway lines, the characteristics of multiple routing for train-set is discussed in term of semicircle of train-sets' turnover. In programming the described problem, the minimum dwell time is selected as the objectives with special derive constraints of the train-set's dispatch, the connecting conditions, the principle of uniqueness for train-sets, and the first plus for connection in the same direction based on time tolerance σ. A compact connection algorithm based on time tolerance is then designed. The feasibility of the model and the algorithm is proved by the case study. The result indicates that the circulation model and algorithm about multiple routing can deal with the connections between the train-sets of multiple directions, and reduce the train's pulling in or leaving impact on the station's throat.

Methodology for evaluating the landscape character of Malaysian heritage urban river corridors

The effects of rapid development have increased pressures on these places exacerbated by the competition between two key industry sectors, commercial base and tourism development. This, in supplement with urbanisation and industrialisation, has posted a high demand for the uses of these spaces. The political scenario and lack of adaptation on ecological principles and public participations in its design approach have sparked stiff environmental, historical and cultural constraint towards its landscape character as well as the ecological system. Therefore, a holistic approach towards improving the landscape design process is extremely necessary to protect human well being, cultural, environmental and historical values of these places. Limited research also has been carried out to overcome this situation. This further has created an urgent need to explore better ways to improve the landscape design process of Malaysian heritage urban river corridor developments that encompass the needs and aspirations of the Malaysian multi-ethnic society without making any drastic changes to the landscape character of the rivers. This paper presents a methodology to develop an advanced Landscape Character Assessment (aLCA) framework for evaluating the landscape character of the places, derived from the perception of two keys yet oppositional stakeholders: urban design team and special interest public. The triangulation of subjectivist paradigm methodologies: the psychophysical approach; the psychological approach; and, the phenomenological approach will be employed. The outcome will be used to improve the present landscape design process for future development of these places. Unless a range of perspectives can be brought to bear on enhancing the form and function of their future development and management, urban river corridors in the Malaysian context will continue to decline.

Swell : a feature-length screenplay set in the world of Australian surfing, and an accompanying exegesis on three-act structure

Despite many arguments to the contrary, the three-act story structure, as propounded and refined by Hollywood continues to dominate the blockbuster and independent film markets. Recent successes in post-modern cinema could indicate new directions and opportunities for low-budget national cinemas.

Managing the project learning paradox : a set-theoretic approach toward project knowledge transfer

Managing project-based learning is becoming an increasingly important part of project management. This article presents a comparative case study of 12 cases of knowledge transfer between temporary inter-organizational projects and permanent parent organizations. Our set-theoretic analysis of these data yields two major findings. First, a high level of absorptive capacity of the project owner is a necessary condition for successful project knowledge transfer, which implies that the responsibility for knowledge transfer seems to in the first place lie with the project parent organization, not with the project manager. Second, none of the factors are sufficient by themselves. This implies that successful project knowledge transfer is a complex process always involving configurations of multiple factors. We link these implications with the view of projects as complex temporary organizational forms in which successful project managers need to cope with complexity by simultaneously paying attention to both relational and organizational processes.

The undirected feedback vertex set problem has a Poly(k) Kernel

Resolving a noted open problem, we show that the Undirected Feedback Vertex Set problem, parameterized by the size of the solution set of vertices, is in the parameterized complexity class Poly(k), that is, polynomial-time pre-processing is sufficient to reduce an initial problem instance (G, k) to a decision-equivalent simplified instance (G', k') where k' � k, and the number of vertices of G' is bounded by a polynomial function of k. Our main result shows an O(k11) kernelization bound.

Development and validation of novel methods for microbial source tracking based on Escherichia coli as an indicator of water quality

Microbial pollution in water periodically affects human health in Australia, particularly in times of drought and flood. There is an increasing need for the control of waterborn microbial pathogens. Methods, allowing the determination of the origin of faecal contamination in water, are generally referred to as Microbial Source Tracking (MST). Various approaches have been evaluated as indicatorsof microbial pathogens in water samples, including detection of different microorganisms and various host-specific markers. However, until today there have been no universal MST methods that could reliably determine the source (human or animal) of faecal contamination. Therefore, the use of multiple approaches is frequently advised. MST is currently recognised as a research tool, rather than something to be included in routine practices. The main focus of this research was to develop novel and universally applicable methods to meet the demands for MST methods in routine testing of water samples. Escherichia coli was chosen initially as the object organism for our studies as, historically and globally, it is the standard indicator of microbial contamination in water. In this thesis, three approaches are described: single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) screening using high resolution melt analysis (HRMA) methods and phage detection development based on CRISPR types. The advantage of the combination SNP genotyping and CRISPR genes has been discussed in this study. For the first time, a highly discriminatory single nucleotide polymorphism interrogation of E. coli population was applied to identify the host-specific cluster. Six human and one animal-specific SNP profile were revealed. SNP genotyping was successfully applied in the field investigations of the Coomera watershed, South-East Queensland, Australia. Four human profiles [11], [29], [32] and [45] and animal specific SNP profile [7] were detected in water. Two human-specific profiles [29] and [11] were found to be prevalent in the samples over a time period of years. The rainfall (24 and 72 hours), tide height and time, general land use (rural, suburban), seasons, distance from the river mouth and salinity show a lack of relashionship with the diversity of SNP profiles present in the Coomera watershed (p values > 0.05). Nevertheless, SNP genotyping method is able to identify and distinquish between human- and non-human specific E. coli isolates in water sources within one day. In some samples, only mixed profiles were detected. To further investigate host-specificity in these mixed profiles CRISPR screening protocol was developed, to be used on the set of E. coli, previously analysed for SNP profiles. CRISPR loci, which are the pattern of previous DNA coliphages attacks, were considered to be a promising tool for detecting host-specific markers in E. coli. Spacers in CRISPR loci could also reveal the dynamics of virulence in E. coli as well in other pathogens in water. Despite the fact that host-specificity was not observed in the set of E. coli analysed, CRISPR alleles were shown to be useful in detection of the geographical site of sources. HRMA allows determination of ‘different’ and ‘same’ CRISPR alleles and can be introduced in water monitoring as a cost-effective and rapid method. Overall, we show that the identified human specific SNP profiles [11], [29], [32] and [45] can be useful as marker genotypes globally for identification of human faecal contamination in water. Developed in the current study, the SNP typing approach can be used in water monitoring laboratories as an inexpensive, high-throughput and easy adapted protocol. The unique approach based on E. coli spacers for the search for unknown phage was developed to examine the host-specifity in phage sequences. Preliminary experiments on the recombinant plasmids showed the possibility of using this method for recovering phage sequences. Future studies will determine the host-specificity of DNA phage genotyping as soon as first reliable sequences can be acquired. No doubt, only implication of multiple approaches in MST will allow identification of the character of microbial contamination with higher confidence and readability.

Beyond MOF constraints : multiple constraint set metamodelling for lifecycle management

The management of models over time in many domains requires different constraints to apply to some parts of the model as it evolves. Using EMF and its meta-language Ecore, the development of model management code and tools usually relies on the meta- model having some constraints, such as attribute and reference cardinalities and changeability, set in the least constrained way that any model user will require. Stronger versions of these constraints can then be enforced in code, or by attaching additional constraint expressions, and their evaluations engines, to the generated model code. We propose a mechanism that allows for variations to the constraining meta-attributes of metamodels, to allow enforcement of different constraints at different lifecycle stages of a model. We then discuss the implementation choices within EMF to support the validation of a state-specific metamodel on model graphs when changing states, as well as the enforcement of state-specific constraints when executing model change operations.