A stepped-wedge cluster randomised controlled trial for evaluating rates of falls among inpatients in aged care rehabilitation units receiving tailored multimedia education in addition to usual care : a trial protocol

Introduction Falls are the most frequent adverse event reported in hospitals. Approximately 30% of in-hospital falls lead to an injury and up to 2% result in a fracture. A large randomised trial found that a trained health professional providing individualised falls prevention education to older inpatients reduced falls in a cognitively intact subgroup. This study aims to investigate whether this efficacious intervention can reduce falls and be clinically useful and cost-effective when delivered in the real-life clinical environment. Methods A stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial will be used across eight subacute units (clusters) which will be randomised to one of four dates to start the intervention. Usual care on these units includes patient's screening, assessment and implementation of individualised falls prevention strategies, ongoing staff training and environmental strategies. Patients with better levels of cognition (Mini-Mental State Examination >23/30) will receive the individualised education from a trained health professional in addition to usual care while patient's feedback received during education sessions will be provided to unit staff. Unit staff will receive training to assist in intervention delivery and to enhance uptake of strategies by patients. Falls data will be collected by two methods: case note audit by research assistants and the hospital falls reporting system. Cluster-level data including patient's admissions, length of stay and diagnosis will be collected from hospital systems. Data will be analysed allowing for correlation of outcomes (clustering) within units. An economic analysis will be undertaken which includes an incremental cost-effectiveness analysis. Ethics and dissemination The study was approved by The University of Notre Dame Australia Human Research Ethics Committee and local hospital ethics committees. Results The results will be disseminated through local site networks, and future funding and delivery of falls prevention programmes within WA Health will be informed. Results will also be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and medical conferences.

Using cost-effective multimedia to create engaging learning experiences : Resources Manual

A guide to utilising multi-media for teaching and learning.

A multi-touch notice board fostering social interaction

We report on an alternative OCGM interface for a bulletin board, where a user can pin a note or a drawing, and actually shares contents. Exploiting direct and continuous manipulations, opposite to discrete gestures, to explore containers, the proposed interface supports a more natural and immediate interaction. It manages also the presence of different simultaneous users, allowing for the creation of local multimedia contents, the connection to social networks, providing a suitable working environment for cooperative and collaborative tasks in a multi-touch setup, such as touch-tables, interactive walls or multimedia boards

Review of the fire performance of LSF walls

Load bearing LSF walls are commonly made of cold-formed steel frames, gypsum plasterboards and insulation, and their fire performance is an important aspect of design. Many experimental and numerical studies have been conducted on the fire performance of LSF walls at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). These studies have shown that increasing the number or thickness or quality of gypsum plasterboards has improved the fire resistance ratings (FRR) of LSF walls while the use of cavity insulation has reduced their FRR. Therefore new LSF wall systems with external insulation sandwiched between two layers of plasterboards were proposed, which provided higher FRR than cavity insulated walls. There are also other parameters that can improve the fire performance of LSF walls such as the steel type, stud geometry and depth, type of screw fasteners used, joints in the plasterboard and the plasterboard fall off time. This paper presents a review of the fire performance of LSF walls as a function of these parameters based on our research at QUT. Their effects on both the thermal and structural performance of LSF walls are discussed in detail and suitable improvements are recommended, for example, improved plasterboard joint types.

Communication : use multimedia in grant applications

The format of grant applications should be updated to incorporate multimedia video. This would help researchers to convey complex topics to grant-review panels. If time-poor research panels cannot quickly grasp the scientific ideas presented in a paper application, other factors, such as author affiliations and track records, may disproportionately influence project rankings...

Multimedia : a necessary step in the evolution of research funding applications

Multimedia communication capabilities are rapidly expanding, and visual information is easily shared electronically, yet funding bodies still rely on paper grant proposal submissions. Incorporating modern technologies will streamline the granting process by increasing the fidelity of grant communication, improving the efficiency of review, and reducing the cost of the process.

Tools for Mobile Multimedia Programming and Development

Mobile devices are rapidly developing into the primary technology for users to work, socialize, and play in a variety of settings and contexts. Their pervasiveness has provided researchers with the means to investigate innovative solutions to ever more complex user demands. Tools for Mobile Multimedia Programming and Development investigates the use of mobile platforms for research projects, focusing on the development, testing, and evaluation of prototypes rather than final products, which enables researchers to better understand the needs of users through image processing, object recognition, sensor integration, and user interactions. This book benefits researchers and professionals in multiple disciplines who utilize such techniques in the creation of prototypes for mobile devices and applications. This book is part of the Advances in Wireless Technologies and Telecommunication series collection.

Studies on the in-plane shear response of confined masonry shear walls

The prime aim of this research project is to evaluate the performance of confined masonry walls under in-plane shear with a view to contributing to the national masonry design standard through a set of design clauses. This aim stems from the criticisms of the current provisions of the in-plane shear capacity equations in the Australian Masonry Standard AS3700 (2011) being highly non-conservative. This PhD thesis is an attempt to address this gap in the knowledge through systematic investigation of the key parameters that affects the in-plane shear strength of the masonry walls through laboratory experiments and extensive finite element analyses.

Unsteady natural convection within a porous enclosure of sinusoidal corrugated side walls

Numerically investigation of free convection within a porous cavity with differential heating has been performed using modified corrugated side walls. Sinusoidal hot left and cold right walls are assumed to receive sudden differentially heating where top and bottom walls are insulated. Air is considered as working fluid and is quiescent, initially. Numerical experiments reveal 3 distinct stages of developing pattern including initial stage, oscillatory intermediate and finally steady state condition. Implicit Finite Volume Method with TDMA solver is used to solve the governing equations. This study has been performed for the Rayleigh numbers ranging from 100 to 10,000. Outcomes have been reported in terms of isotherms, streamline, velocity and temperature plots and average Nusselt number for various Ra, corrugation frequency and corrugation amplitude. The effects of sudden differential heating and its resultant transient behavior on fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics have been shown for the range of governing parameters. The present results show that the transient phenomena are enormously influenced by the variation of the Rayleigh Number with corrugation amplitude and frequency.

Fire resistance rating of light gauge steel frame walls exposed to realistic design fires : a review and development of time equivalent approach

This paper presents the details of research undertaken on the development of an energy based time equivalent approach for light gauge steel frame (LSF) walls. This research utilized an energy based time equivalent approach to obtain the fire resistance ratings (FRR) of LSF walls exposed to realistic design fires with respect to standard fire exposure [1]. It is based on the equal area concept of fire severity and relates to the amount of energy transferred to the member. The proposed method was used to predict the fire resistance of single and double plasterboard lined and externally insulated LSF walls. The predicted fire resistance ratings were compared with the results from finite element analyses and fire design rules for three different wall configurations. This paper presents the review of the available time equivalent approaches and the development of energy based time equivalent approach for the prediction of fire resistance ratings of LSF walls exposed to realistic design fires.

Effects of plasterboard joints on the fire performance of cold-formed steel walls

This paper presents the effect of plasterboard joints on the fire performance of cold-formed steel walls. Plasterboard joints are unavoidable. However, they can be arranged in a way that they do not significantly influence the fire performance of cold-formed steel walls. Hence a research study into the effects of plasterboard joints on the fire performance of plasterboard lined cold-formed steel walls was undertaken using both full-scale fire tests and numerical studies. In this study a back-blocking technique was used to eliminate the plasterboard joints being located over the studs. Instead plasterboard joints were used between studs with 150 mm wide plasterboards as back-blocks. Both experimental and numerical results from this study show that the fire resistance rating of single plasterboard lined cold-formed steel walls can be increased by 25% through the use of a back-blocking joint arrangement in comparison to the traditional plasterboard joint arrangement over the studs.

Electron/ion energy loss to discharge walls revised : a case study in low-temperature, thermally nonequilibrium plasmas

Reliable calculations of the electron/ion energy losses in low-pressure thermally nonequilibrium low-temperature plasmas are indispensable for predictive modeling related to numerous applications of such discharges. The commonly used simplified approaches to calculation of electron/ion energy losses to the chamber walls use a number of simplifying assumptions that often do not account for the details of the prevailing electron energy distribution function (EEDF) and overestimate the contributions of the electron losses to the walls. By direct measurements of the EEDF and careful calculation of contributions of the plasma electrons in low-pressure inductively coupled plasmas, it is shown that the actual losses of kinetic energy of the electrons and ions strongly depend on the EEDF. It is revealed that the overestimates of the total electron/ion energy losses to the walls caused by improper assumptions about the prevailing EEDF and about the ability of the electrons to pass through the repulsive potential of the wall may lead to significant overestimates that are typically in the range between 9 and 32%. These results are particularly important for the development of power-saving strategies for operation of low-temperature, low-pressure gas discharges in diverse applications that require reasonably low power densities. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.

Azimuthal surface waves in a coaxial semiconductor structure with metal walls

The dispersion properties and topography of the fields of azimuthal surface wave (ASW) in a coaxial semiconductor structure with metal walls, placed in an external magnetic field, are investigated analytically and numerically. It is shown that an ASW phase-shifting device can be realized in the proposed structure. The conditions are indicated for which wave perturbations exist having frequencies that depend on the direction of phase change.

Multimedia copyright protection

Internet and its widespread usage for multimedia document distribution put the copyright issue in a complete new setting. Multimedia documents, specifically those installed on a web page, are no longer passive as they typically include active applets. Copyright protection safeguards the intellectual property (IP) of multimedia documents, which are either sold or distributed free of charge. In this Chapter, the basic tools for copyright protection are discussed. First, general concepts and the vocabulary used in copyright protection of multimedia documents are discussed. Later, taxonomy of watermarking and fingerprinting techniques are studied. This part is concluded by a review of the literature dealing with IP security. The main part of the chapter discusses the generic watermarking scheme and illustrates it on three specific examples: collusion-free watermarking, spread spectrum watermarking, and software fingerprinting. Future trends and conclusions close the chapter.

An iterative speaker re-diarization scheme for improving speaker-based entity extraction in multimedia archives

In this paper we present a novel scheme for improving speaker diarization by making use of repeating speakers across multiple recordings within a large corpus. We call this technique speaker re-diarization and demonstrate that it is possible to reuse the initial speaker-linked diarization outputs to boost diarization accuracy within individual recordings. We first propose and evaluate two novel re-diarization techniques. We demonstrate their complementary characteristics and fuse the two techniques to successfully conduct speaker re-diarization across the SAIVT-BNEWS corpus of Australian broadcast data. This corpus contains recurring speakers in various independent recordings that need to be linked across the dataset. We show that our speaker re-diarization approach can provide a relative improvement of 23% in diarization error rate (DER), over the original diarization results, as well as improve the estimated number of speakers and the cluster purity and coverage metrics.