In the shadow of the enlightenment : Le Corbusier, Le Faisceau and Georges Valois

On 9 January 1927 Le Corbusier materialised on the front cover of the Faisceau journal edited by Georges Valois Le Nouveau Siècle which printed the single-point perspective of Le Corbusier’s Plan Voisin and an extract from the architect’s discourse in Urbanisme. In May Le Corbusier presented slides of his urban designs at a fascist rally. These facts have been known ever since the late 1980s when studies emerged in art history that situated Le Corbusier’s philosophy in relation to the birth of twentieth-century fascism in France—an elision in the dominant reading of Le Corbusier’s philosophy, as a project of social utopianism, whose received genealogy is Saint-Simon and Charles Fourier. Le Corbusier participated with the first group in France to call itself fascist, Valois’s militant Faisceau des Combattants et Producteurs, the “Blue Shirts,” inspired by the Italian “Fasci” of Mussolini. Thanks to Mark Antliff, we know the Faisceau did not misappropriate Le Corbusier’s plans, in some remote quasi-symbolic sense, rather Valois’s organisation was premised on the redesign of Paris based on Le Corbusier’s schematic designs. Le Corbusier’s Urbanisme was considered the “prodigious” model for the fascist state Valois called La Cité Française – after his mentor the anarcho-syndicalist Georges Sorel. Valois stated that Le Corbusier’s architectural concepts were “an expression of our profoundest thoughts,” the Faisceau, who “saw their own thought materialized” on the pages of Le Corbusier’s plans. The question I pose is, In what sense is Le Corbusier’s plan a complete representation of La Cité? For Valois, the fascist city “represents the collective will of La Cité” invoking Enlightenment philosophy, operative in Sorel, namely Rousseau, for whom the notion of “collective will” is linked to the idea of political representation: to ‘stand in’ for someone or a group of subjects i.e. the majority vote. The figures in Voisin are not empty abstractions but the result of “the will” of the “combatant-producers” who build the town. Yet, the paradox in anarcho-syndicalist anti-enlightenment thought – and one that became a problem for Le Corbusier – is precisely that of authority and representation. In Le Corbusier’s plan, the “morality of the producers” and “the master” (the transcendent authority that hovers above La Cité) is lattened into a single picture plane, thereby abolishing representation. I argue that La Cité pushed to the limits of formal abstraction by Le Corbusier thereby reverts to the Enlightenment myth it first opposed, what Theodor Adorno would call the dialectic of enlightenment.

Development, implementation and evaluation of a cancer survivor self-management care plan

Aim There is a growing population of people with cancer who experience physiological and psychological effects that persist long after treatment is complete. Interventions that enhance survivors’ self-management abilities might help offset these effects. The aim of this pilot study was to develop, implement and evaluate interventions tailored to assist patients to manage post-treatment health issues effectively. Method In this pre-post intervention cohort study, participants were recruited on completion of cancer treatment. Participants recruited preimplementation, who received usual care, comprised the control group. Participants recruited later formed the intervention group. In the intervention group, the Cancer Care Coordinator developed an individualised, structured Cancer Survivor Self-management Care Plan. Participants were interviewed on completion of treatment (baseline) and at three months. Assessments concerned health needs (CaSUN), self-efficacy in adjusting and coping with cancer and health-related quality of life (FACIT-B or FACT-C). The impact of the intervention was determined by independent t-tests of change scores. Results The intervention (n = 32) and control groups (n = 35) were comparable on demographic and clinical characteristics. Sample mean age was 54 + 10 years. Cancer diagnoses were breast (82%) and colorectal (18%). Statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) indicated improvement in the intervention group for: (a) functional well-being, from the FACIT, (Control: M = −0.69, SE = 0.91; Intervention: M = 3.04, SE = 1.13); and (b) self-efficacy in maintaining social relationships, (Control: M = −0.333, SE = 0.33; Intervention: M = 0.621, SE = 0.27). No significant differences were found in health needs, other subscales of quality of life, the extent and number of strategies used in coping and adjusting to cancer and in other domains of self-efficacy. Conclusions While the results should be interpreted with caution, due to the non-randomised nature of the study and the small sample size, they indicate the potential benefits of tailored self-management interventions warrant further investigation in this context.

What is plan B? Using Foucault’s archaeology to enhance policy analysis

Many governments in western democracies conduct the work of leading their societies forward through policy generation and implementation. Despite government attempts at extensive negotiation, collaboration and debate, the general populace in these same countries frequently express feelings of disempowerment and undue pressure to be compliant, often leading to disengagement. Here we outline Plan B: a process for examining how policies that emerge from good intentions are frequently interpreted as burdensome or irrelevant by those on whom they have an impact. Using a case study of professional standards for teachers in Australia, we describe how we distilled Foucault’s notions of archaeology into a research approach centring on the creation of ‘polyhedrons of intelligibility’ as an alternative approach by which both policy makers and those affected by their policies may understand how their respective causes are supported and adversely affected.

Discomfort glare in open plan green buildings

This study presents the largest-known, investigation on discomfort glare with 493 surveys collected from five green buildings in Brisbane, Australia. The study was conducted on full-time employees, working under their everyday lighting conditions, all of whom had no affiliation with the research institution. The survey consisted of a specially tailored questionnaire to assess potential factors relating to discomfort glare. Luminance maps extracted from high dynamic range (HDR) images were used to capture the luminous environment of the occupants. Occupants who experienced glare on their monitor and/or electric glare were excluded from analysis leaving 419 available surveys. Occupants were more sensitive to glare than any of the tested indices accounted for. A new index, the UGP was developed to take into account the scope of results in the investigation. The index is based on a linear transformation of the UGR to calculate a probability of disturbed persons. However all glare indices had some correlation to discomfort, and statistically there was no difference between the DGI, UGR and CGI. The UGP broadly reflects the demographics of the working population in Australia and the new index is applicable to open plan green buildings.

New suburbs in the making? Locating master planned estates in a comparative analysis of suburbs in South-East Queensland

In urban scholarship Master Planned Estates (MPEs) are viewed as illustrative of broader changes to the urban environment and characterised as homogenous, affluent enclaves where community life is largely orchestrated by the developer. Yet no study has fully considered if, and to what extent, MPEs can be distinguished from other suburb types in terms of their residential composition and their levels of sociability and community attachment. In this article, we empirically test if MPEs are different from ‘conventional’ suburbs by examining them structurally in terms of their demographic and socio-economic characteristics, as well as in terms of their key community social processes. Using data from a 2008 study of 148 suburbs across Brisbane, Australia (which includes data from two MPEs), we undertake a comparative analysis of suburbs and examine the density of neighbour networks, residents' reports of place attachment and cohesion and neighbourly contact in MPEs compared to other residential suburbs. Our findings suggest that MPEs are not distinct in terms of their degree of homogeneity and socio-economic characteristics, but that connections among residents are lower than other suburbs despite—or perhaps because of—the active interventions of the developer.

Predicting the likelihood of QA failure using treatment plan accuracy metrics

This study used automated data processing techniques to calculate a set of novel treatment plan accuracy metrics, and investigate their usefulness as predictors of quality assurance (QA) success and failure. 151 beams from 23 prostate and cranial IMRT treatment plans were used in this study. These plans had been evaluated before treatment using measurements with a diode array system. The TADA software suite was adapted to allow automatic batch calculation of several proposed plan accuracy metrics, including mean field area, small-aperture, off-axis and closed-leaf factors. All of these results were compared the gamma pass rates from the QA measurements and correlations were investigated. The mean field area factor provided a threshold field size (5 cm2, equivalent to a 2.2 x 2.2 cm2 square field), below which all beams failed the QA tests. The small aperture score provided a useful predictor of plan failure, when averaged over all beams, despite being weakly correlated with gamma pass rates for individual beams. By contrast, the closed leaf and off-axis factors provided information about the geometric arrangement of the beam segments but were not useful for distinguishing between plans that passed and failed QA. This study has provided some simple tests for plan accuracy, which may help minimise time spent on QA assessments of treatments that are unlikely to pass.

Cyber security of networked critical infrastructures [Guest Editorial]

A new era of cyber warfare has appeared on the horizon with the discovery and detection of Stuxnet. Allegedly planned, designed, and created by the United States and Israel, Stuxnet is considered the first known cyber weapon to attack an adversary state. Stuxnet's discovery put a lot of attention on the outdated and obsolete security of critical infrastructure. It became very apparent that electronic devices that are used to control and operate critical infrastructure like programmable logic controllers (PLCs) or supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems lack very basic security and protection measures. Part of that is due to the fact that when these devices were designed, the idea of exposing them to the Internet was not in mind. However, now with this exposure, these devices and systems are considered easy prey to adversaries.

Certified pseudonyms colligated with master secret key

A pseudonym provides anonymity by protecting the identity of a legitimate user. A user with a pseudonym can interact with an unknown entity and be confident that his/her identity is secret even if the other entity is dishonest. In this work, we present a system that allows users to create pseudonyms from a trusted master public-secret key pair. The proposed system is based on the intractability of factoring and finding square roots of a quadratic residue modulo a composite number, where the composite number is a product of two large primes. Our proposal is different from previously published pseudonym systems, as in addition to standard notion of protecting privacy of an user, our system offers colligation between seemingly independent pseudonyms. This new property when combined with a trusted platform that stores a master secret key is extremely beneficial to an user as it offers a convenient way to generate a large number of pseudonyms using relatively small storage.

Treatment plan complexity metrics for predicting IMRT pre-treatment quality assurance results

The planning of IMRT treatments requires a compromise between dose conformity (complexity) and deliverability. This study investigates established and novel treatment complexity metrics for 122 IMRT beams from prostate treatment plans. The Treatment and Dose Assessor software was used to extract the necessary data from exported treatment plan files and calculate the metrics. For most of the metrics, there was strong overlap between the calculated values for plans that passed and failed their quality assurance (QA) tests. However, statistically significant variation between plans that passed and failed QA measurements was found for the established modulation index and for a novel metric describing the proportion of small apertures in each beam. The ‘small aperture score’ provided threshold values which successfully distinguished deliverable treatment plans from plans that did not pass QA, with a low false negative rate.

Prostate radiotherapy treatment plan quality : effects of hip prostheses

Introduction This study aimed to examine the geometric and dosimetric results when radiotherapy treatment plans are designed for prostate cancer patients with hip prostheses. Methods Ten EBRT treatment plans for localised prostate cancer, in the presence of hip prostheses, were analysed and compared with a reference set of 196 treatment plans for localised prostate cancer in patients without prostheses. Crowe et al.’s TADA code [1] was used to extract treatment plan parameters and evaluate doses to target volumes and critical structures against recommended goals [2] and constraints [3, 4]. Results The need to avoid transmitting the radiation beam through the hip prostheses limited the range of gantry angles available for use in both the rotational (VMAT) and the non-rotational (3DCRT and IMRT) radiotherapy treatments. This geometric limitation (exemplified in the VMAT data shown in Fig. 1) reduced the overall quality of the treatment plans for patients with prostheses compared to the reference plans. All plans with prostheses failed the PTV dose homogeneity requirement [2], whereas only 4 % of the plans without prostheses failed this test. Several treatment plans for patients with hip prostheses also failed the QUANTEC requirements that less than 50 % of the rectum receive 50 Gy and less than 35 % of the rectum receive 60 Gy to keep the grade 3 toxicity rate below 10 % [3], or the Hansen and Roach requirement that less than 25 % of the bladder receive 75 Gy [4]. Discussion and conclusions The results of this study exemplify the difficulty of designing prostate radiotherapy treatment plans, where beams provide adequate doses to targeted tissues while avoiding nearby organs at risk, when the presence of hip prostheses limits the available treatment geometries. This work provides qualitative evidence of the compromised dose distributions that can result, in such cases.

Crisis on impact : responding to cyber attacks on critical information infrastructures

In the developing digital economy, the notion of traditional attack on enterprises of national significance or interest has transcended into different modes of electronic attack, surpassing accepted traditional forms of physical attack upon a target. The terrorist attacks that took place in the United States on September 11, 2001 demonstrated the physical devastation that could occur if any nation were the target of a large-scale terrorist attack. Therefore, there is a need to protect criticalnational infrastructure and critical information infrastructure. In particular,this protection is crucial for the proper functioning of a modern society and for a government to fulfill one of its most important prerogatives – namely, the protection of its people. Computer networks have many benefits that governments, corporations, and individuals alike take advantage of in order to promote and perform their duties and roles. Today, there is almost complete dependence on private sector telecommunication infrastructures and the associated computer hardware and software systems.1 These infrastructures and systems even support government and defense activity.2 This Article discusses possible attacks on critical information infrastructures and the government reactions to these attacks.

Security analysis of the non-aggressive challenge response of the DNP3 Protocol using a CPN Model

Distributed Network Protocol Version 3 (DNP3) is the de-facto communication protocol for power grids. Standard-based interoperability among devices has made the protocol useful to other infrastructures such as water, sewage, oil and gas. DNP3 is designed to facilitate interaction between master stations and outstations. In this paper, we apply a formal modelling methodology called Coloured Petri Nets (CPN) to create an executable model representation of DNP3 protocol. The model facilitates the analysis of the protocol to ensure that the protocol will behave as expected. Also, we illustrate how to verify and validate the behaviour of the protocol, using the CPN model and the corresponding state space tool to determine if there are insecure states. With this approach, we were able to identify a Denial of Service (DoS) attack against the DNP3 protocol.

Using the Alliance Form for Operation and Maintenance of Privatized Infrastructures

A significant number of privatizations utilized to operate and maintain critical networked infrastructures have failed to meet contractual expectations and the expectations of the community. The author carried out empirical research ex-ploring four urban water systems. This research revealed that of the four forms of privatization the alliance form was particularly suited to the stewardship of an ur-ban water system. The question then is whether these findings from urban water can be generalised to O&M of infrastructure generally. The answer is increasingly important as governments seek financial sustainability through reapplying the contestability strategy and outsource and privatise further services and activities. This paper first examines the issues encountered with O & M privatisations. Second the findings as to the stewardship achieved by the four case study water systems are unpacked with particular focus upon the alliance form. Third the key variables which were found to have distinct causal links to the stewardship-like behaviour of the private participants in the Alliance case study are described. Fourth the variables which may be crucial to the successful application of the alliance form to the broader range of infrastructures are separated out. Fifth this paper then sets the path for research into these crucial features of the alliance form.

The 1989 Comprehensive Plan of Action (CPA) and refugee policy in Southeast Asia : twenty years forward what has changed?

In 2012, the only South East Asian countries that have ratified the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees (hereafter referred to as the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol) is Philippines (signed 1954), Cambodia (signed 1995) and Timor Leste (signed 2001). Countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have annual asylum seeking populations from Myanmar, South Asia and Middle East, that are estimated to be at 15 000-20 000 per country (UNHCR 2012). The lack of a permanent and formal asylum processing process in these countries means that that asylum-seeking populations in the region are reliant on the local offices of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees based in the region to process their claims. These offices rely upon the good will of these governments to have a presence near detection camps and in capital cities to process claims of those who manage to reach the UNHCR representative office. The only burden sharing mechanism within the region primarily exists under the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime (the Bali Process), introduced in 2002. The Bali Process refers to an informal cooperative agreement amongst the states from the Asia-Pacific region, with Australia and Indonesia as the co-chairs, which discusses its namesake: primarily anti-people smuggling activities and migration protocols. There is no provision within this process to discuss the development of national asylum seeking legislation, processes for domestic processing of asylum claims or burden sharing in contrast to other regions such as Africa and South America (i.e. 2009 African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of the Internally Displaced, 1969 African Union Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa and 1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees [Americas]) (PEF 2010: 19).

New laws for off the plan contracts in Queensland

The Land Sales Act 1984 regulates “off the plan” sales in Queensland in conjunction with several provisions in the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997. Together the Acts regulate sales in both unit developments and housing estates. From 2010 to 2013 the Queensland Government undertook a comprehensive review of the Land Sales Act 1984 to identify opportunities to modernise and improve the legislation. Significant changes were recommended by the Review to align the Land Sales Act 1984 (LSA) with current surveying and conveyancing practice and to overcome a number of practical issues faced by developers under the current legislation. A significant outcome of the review is the removal of provisions related to off the plan community title sales from the LSA to the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (BCCMA) and the Building Units and Group Titles Act 1980 (BUGTA). This article examines the Land Sales and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2014 due to commence in November 2014.