Towards authorisation models for secure information sharing : a survey and research agenda

This article presents a survey of authorisation models and considers their ‘fitness-for-purpose’ in facilitating information sharing. Network-supported information sharing is an important technical capability that underpins collaboration in support of dynamic and unpredictable activities such as emergency response, national security, infrastructure protection, supply chain integration and emerging business models based on the concept of a ‘virtual organisation’. The article argues that present authorisation models are inflexible and poorly scalable in such dynamic environments due to their assumption that the future needs of the system can be predicted, which in turn justifies the use of persistent authorisation policies. The article outlines the motivation and requirement for a new flexible authorisation model that addresses the needs of information sharing. It proposes that a flexible and scalable authorisation model must allow an explicit specification of the objectives of the system and access decisions must be made based on a late trade-off analysis between these explicit objectives. A research agenda for the proposed Objective-based Access Control concept is presented.

The Australian election survey: the tale of the rabbit-less hat. Voting behaviour in 2007

This paper examines voter attitudes and behaviour at the 2007 Australian federal election., using data from the Australian Election Study. It considers socio-demographic factors as well as the role of policy issues and voter evaluations of the party leaders. The paper concludes that issues, such as the government's WorkChoices policy, as well as health and leadership contributed to Labor's victory.

Why adopt now? Multiple case studies and survey studies comparing small, medium and large firms

While a number of factors have been highlighted in the innovation adoption literature, little is known about the key triggers of innovation adoption across differently-sized firms. This study compares case studies of small, medium and large manufacturing firms who recently decided to adopt a process innovation. We also employ organizational surveys from 134 firms investigating the factors which influence innovation adoption. The quantitative results support the qualitative findings that the external pressures are a trigger among small to medium firms, while the larger firm’s adoption was associated with internal causes.

Establishing content validity of a survey research instrument : the older patients in acute care survey - United States

Geriatric nursing competency in the acute care setting is a social mandate for the 21st century. This article reports on the content validation of an Australian research instrument, the Older Patients in Acute Care Survey (OPACS) that examines the attitudes, the knowledge, and the practices of nurses working with acute care patients. The OPACS tool was developed primarily to assist nurse educators to assess attitudes, knowledge, and practices of nursing staff in caring for older patients in the acute care setting; to evaluate the implementation of institution-specific educational interventions; and to improve quality of care given to older patients. An overall content validity index (CVI) for the OPACS was calculated (CVI = .918), revealing high content validity. Opinions (CVI = .92) and practices (CVI = .97) subconstructs revealed high content validity as well. Therefore, results indicate that the OPACS has high content validity in the U.S. acute care setting and could assist nurse educators in establishing and enhancing nurse competency in the care for geriatric patients in the future.

Telephone reliability of the Frenchay Activity Index and EQ-5D amongst older adults

Background Older adults may find it problematic to attend hospital appointments due to the difficulty associated with travelling to, within and from a hospital facility for the purpose of a face-to-face assessment. This study aims to investigate equivalence between telephone and face-to-face administration for the Frenchay Activities Index (FAI) and the Euroqol-5D (EQ-5D) generic health-related quality of life instrument amongst an older adult population. Methods Patients aged >65 (n = 53) who had been discharged to the community following an acute hospital admission underwent telephone administration of the FAI and EQ-5D instruments seven days prior to attending a hospital outpatient appointment where they completed a face-to-face administration of these instruments. Results Overall, 40 subjects' datasets were complete for both assessments and included in analysis. The FAI items had high levels of agreement between the two modes of administration (item kappa's ranged 0.73 to 1.00) as did the EQ-5D (item kappa's ranged 0.67–0.83). For the FAI, EQ-5D VAS and EQ-5D utility score, intraclass correlation coefficients were 0.94, 0.58 and 0.82 respectively with paired t-tests indicating no significant systematic difference (p = 0.100, p = 0.690 and p = 0.290 respectively). Conclusion Telephone administration of the FAI and EQ-5D instruments provides comparable results to face-to-face administration amongst older adults deemed to have cognitive functioning intact at a basic level, indicating that this is a suitable alternate approach for collection of this information.

Electronic telephone directory listings : preferred sampling frame for a population-based study of childhood cancer in Australia

PURPOSE: We report our telephone-based system for selecting community control series appropriate for a complete Australia-wide series of Ewing's sarcoma cases. METHODS: We used electronic directory random sampling to select age-matched controls. The sampling has all listed telephone numbers on an up-dated CD-Rom. RESULTS: 95% of 2245 telephone numbers selected were successfully contacted. The mean number of attempts needed was 1.94, 58% answering at the first attempt. On average, we needed 4.5 contacts per control selected. Calls were more likely to be successful (reach a respondent) when made in the evening (except Saturdays). The overall response rate among contacted telephone numbers was 92.8%. Participation rates among female and male respondents were practically the same. The exclusion of unlisted numbers (13.5% of connected households) and unconnected households (3.7%) led to potential selection bias. However, restricting the case series to listed cases only, plus having external information on the direction of potential bias allow meaningful interpretation of our data. CONCLUSION: Sampling from an electronic directory is convenient, economical and simple, and gives a very good yield of eligible subjects compared to other methods.

Survey of eResearch practices and skills at QUT, Australia

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a multidisciplinary university in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and has 40,000 students and 1,700 researchers. Notable eResearch infrastructure includes the QUT ePrints repository, Microsoft QUT Research Centre, the OAK (Open Access to Knowledge) Law Project, Cambia and leading research institutes. ---------- The Australian Government, via the Australian National Data Service (ANDS), is funding institutions to identify and describe their research datasets, to develop and populate data repositories and collaborative infrastructure, and to seed the Australian Research Data Commons. QUT is currently broadening its range of research support services, including those to support the management of research data, in recognition of the value of these datasets as products of the research process, and in order to maximize the potential for reuse. QUT is integrating Library and High Performance Computing (HPC) services to achieve its research support goals. ---------- The Library and HPC released an online survey using Key Survey to 1,700 researchers in September 2009. A comprehensive range of eResearch practices and skills was presented for response, and grouped into areas of scholarly communication and open access publishing, using collaborative technologies, data management, data collection and management, computation and visualization tools. Researchers were asked to rate their skill level on each practice. 254 responses were received over two weeks. Eight focus groups were also held with 35 higher degree research (HDR) students and staff to provide additional qualitative feedback. A similar survey was released to 100 support staff and 73 responses were received.---------- Preliminary results from the researcher survey and focus groups indicate a gap between current eResearch practices, and the potential for researchers to engage in eResearch practices. Researchers are more likely to seek advice from their peers, than from support staff. HDR students are more positive about eResearch practices and are more willing to learn new ways of conducting research. An account of the survey methodology, the results obtained, and proposed strategies to embed eResearch practices and skills across and within the research disciplines will be provided.

Public awareness of “green” and “energy efficient” residential property : an empirical survey based on data from New Zealand

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the buyer awareness and acceptance of environmental and energy efficiency measures in the New Zealand residential property markets. This study aims to provide a greater understanding of consumer behaviour in the residential property market in relation to green housing issues ---------- Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on an extensive survey of Christchurch real estate offices and was designed to gather data on the factors that were considered important by buyers in the residential property market. The survey was designed to allow these factors to be analysed on a socio-economic basis and to compare buyer behaviour based on property values. ---------- Findings – The results show that regardless of income levels, buyers still consider that the most important factor in the house purchase decision is the location of the property and price. Although the awareness of green housing issues and energy efficiency in housing is growing in the residential property market, it is only a major consideration for young and older buyers in the high income brackets and is only of some importance for all other buyer sectors of the residential property market. Many of the voluntary measures introduced by Governments to improve the energy efficiency of residential housing are still not considered important by buyers, indicating that a more mandatory approach may have to be undertaken to improve energy efficiency in the established housing market, as these measures are not valued by the buyer. ---------- Originality/value – The paper confirms the variations in real estate buyer behaviour across the full range of residential property markets and the acceptance and awareness of green housing issues and measures. These results would be applicable to most established and transparent residential property markets.

The management of transport construction projects : a survey of public sector organisations in Queensland Australia

Construction procurement organisations in the Australian framework provide broad guidelines on project management in setting benchmark performance measurements and processes for evaluating their projects. Despite this, little has been known in the project management practise in transport construction projects in Australia, in particular Queensland. Questionnaire data from 53 project management practitioners employed in State and City public sector organisations in Queensland,suggested that many practitioners in the public sector have little or a lack of understanding of government regulatory policies, which are used as economic evaluation tools for project options. Public sector project managers perceive socio-economic evaluation tools as inappropriate for public sector projects. The survey results also found conducting risk management analysis, developing a risk register and mitigation of risks were most effective way of managing risk. This study provides an opportunity for the public sector to review and provide training on project management practices and government regulatory policies governing public projects. This will improve project management practitioners’ understanding and interpretation of government regulatory policies.

Educational Development in Australasia : 2010 Benchmarking Survey

In 2010, the third bi‐annual ADAPE Australasian benchmarking study was conducted to track educational development in Australia and New Zealand. Invitations to participate were sent to ADAPE’s membership of 820. Non‐members were also welcome to participate. In total, 92% of the 250 survey respondents were members of ADAPE. The 2010 Benchmarking Survey supports and extends results from 2005 and 2008. The 2010 survey was developed by taking into account participant feedback from 2008. With a view to provide the key information that participants want to know, the 2010 survey included more questions about salaries and other employment conditions; marketing and communications, especially new electronic technologies; and major gifts.

Evaluation of fruit and vegetable intakes of Australian adults: the nutrition survey 1995

Objective: To evaluate the fruit and vegetable intakes of Australian adults aged 19-64 years. Methods: Intake data were collected as part of the National Nutrition Survey 1995 representing all Australian States and Territories, including city, metropolitan, rural and remote areas. Dietary intake of 8,891 19-to-64 year-olds was assessed using a structured 24-hour recall. Intake frequency was assessed as the proportion of participants consuming fruit and vegetables on the day prior to interview and variety was assessed as the number of subgroups of fruit and vegetables consumed. Intake levels were compared with the recommendations of the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (AGHE). Results: Sixty-two per cent of participants consumed some fruit and 89% consumed some vegetables on the day surveyed. Males were less likely to consume fruit and younger adults less likely to consume fruit and vegetables compared with females and older adults respectively. Variety was primarily low (1 subcategory) for fruit and medium (3-4 subcategories) for vegetables. Thirty-two per cent of adults consumed the minimum two serves of fruit and 30% consumed the minimum five serves of vegetables as recommended by the AGHE. Eleven per cent of adults met the minimum recommendations for both fruit and vegetables. Conclusion: A large proportion of adults have fruit and vegetable intakes below the AGHE minimum recommendations. Implications: A nationally integrated, longterm campaign to increase fruit and vegetable consumption, supported by policy changes to address structural barriers to consumption, is vital to improve fruit and vegetable consumption among adults