Mark form experience

Weblog of participatory arts Community interactive art project with Cerebral Palsy League. Regional Arts Development grant, Queensland Government. Awarded June 2012. This project has involved exploring and visualising participants’ movements through their drawings and co-designing an interactive, visualisation artwork based on these gestures and images.

Inhibition of form-deprivation myopia by a GABAAOr receptor antagonist, (1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridin-4-yl) methylphosphinic acid (TPMPA), in guinea pigs

Purpose To investigate the effects of the relatively selective GABAAOr receptor antagonist (1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridin-4-yl) methylphosphinic acid (TPMPA) on form-deprivation myopia (FDM) in guinea pigs. Methods A diffuser was applied monocularly to 30 guinea pigs from day 10 to 21. The animals were randomized to one of five treatment groups. The deprived eye received daily sub-conjunctival injections of 100 μl TPMPA at a concentration of (i) 0.03 %, ( ii) 0.3 %, or (iii) 1 %, a fourth group (iv) received saline injections, and another (v) no injections. The fellow eye was left untreated. An additional group received no treatment to either eye. Prior to and at the end of the treatment period, refraction and ocular biometry were performed. Results Visual deprivation produced relative myopia in all groups (treated versus untreated eyes, P < 0.05). The amount of myopia was significantly affected by the drug treatment (one-way ANOVA, P < 0.0001); myopia was less in deprived eyes receiving either 0.3 % or 1 % TPMPA (saline = −4.38 ± 0.57D, 0.3 % TPMPA = −3.00 ± 0.48D, P < 0.01; 1 % TPMPA = −0.88 ± 0.51D, P < 0.001). The degree of axial elongation was correspondingly less (saline = 0.13 ± 0.02 mm, 0.3 % TPMPA = 0.09 ± 0.01 mm, P < 0.01, 1 % TPMPA = 0.02 ± 0.01 mm, P < 0.001) as was the VC elongation (saline = 0.08 ± 0.01 mm, 0.3 % TPMPA = 0.05 ± 0.01 mm, P < 0.01, 1 % TPMPA = 0.01 ± 0.01 mm; P < 0.001). ACD and LT were not affected (one-way ANOVA, P > 0.05). One percent TPMPA was more effective at inhibiting myopia than 0.3 % (P < 0.01), and 0.03 % did not appreciably inhibit the myopia (0.03 % TPMPA versus saline, P > 0.05). Conclusions Sub-conjunctival injections of TPMPA inhibit FDM in guinea pig models in a dose-dependent manner.

[Den musikindustriella förändringen fortsätter och en tjänstebaserad musikekonomi börjar ta form] [in Swedish]

Det har nu gått mer än tio år sedan en student vid Northeastern University i USA lanserade den första fildelningstjänsten som blev framgångsrik bland den breda allmänheten (e.g. Alderman 2001). Lanseringen av tjänsten, som kallades Napster, ses ofta som inledningen på ett av de mest dramatiska decennierna i musikbranschens historia. En lång rad internetbaserade tjänster som följt i Napsters spår har gjort det möjligt att sprida musik till miljontals användare utan att upphovsmän och rättighetsinnehavare fått någon ersättning. Katt-och-råtta-leken mellan lagstiftning och teknik har varit intensiv och har utvecklats till ett av decenniets allra hetaste diskussionsämnen bland politiker och ledarskribenter. Försäljningen av inspelad musik har sjunkit dramatiskt och musikbranschen har tvingats ifrågasätta många väletablerade sanningar. Det här kapitlet belyser ett antal fundamentala aspekter av denna förändring och utforskar några av den ”nya” musikbranschens viktigaste karaktäristika. Under den tid som musikbranschen har beforskats har vanligtvis betoningen legat på fonogrammen, det vill säga den del av branschen som rör produktion och konsumtion av inspelad musik. På grund av branschens förändrade struktur kommer dock det här kapitlet att vidga perspektivet en smula och även inkludera musikbranschens andra delar som exempelvis konserter och förlagsverksamhet...

Urban Form at the Edge : Proceedings from ISUF 2013 [Volume 1]

Urban morphology as a field of study has developed primarily in Europe and North America, and more recently emerging as a recurrent topic in China and South America. As a counterpoint to this centric view, the ISUF 2013 conference explored aspects of ‘urban form at the edge’. In particular the conference examined ‘off centre areas’ such as India, Africa, Middle East, Central Asia and Australasia which require innovative approaches to the study of traditional, as well as post-colonial and contemporary, morphologies. Broader interpretations of urban form at the edge focus on minor centres and suburbia, with their developing and transilient character; edge cities and regional centres; and new technologies and approaches that are developing alongside established methods, tools and theories of urban morphology...

Establishing the conceptual and practical foundations of a new form of theatre for development: Theatre in conversations

This research was developed between Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG) over two years investigating ways in which theatre for development could be held accountable for the claims it makes especially in PNG. The motivation to improve theatre for development (TfD) practice was triggered by the desire to enhance the democratic processes of collaboration and co–creativity often lacking in TfD activity in Papua New Guinea. Through creative practice as research and reflective processes, working with established and experienced local community theatre practitioners, a new form of theatre for development, Theatre in Conversations evolved. This form integrated three related genres of TfD including process drama, community theatre and community conversations. The suitability and impact of Theatre in Conversations was tested in three remote villages in PNG. Findings and outputs from the study have the potential to be used by theatre for development practitioners in other countries.

Searching for people using semantic soft biometric descriptions

It is not uncommon to hear a person of interest described by their height, build, and clothing (i.e. type and colour). These semantic descriptions are commonly used by people to describe others, as they are quick to communicate and easy to understand. However such queries are not easily utilised within intelligent video surveillance systems, as they are difficult to transform into a representation that can be utilised by computer vision algorithms. In this paper we propose a novel approach that transforms such a semantic query into an avatar in the form of a channel representation that is searchable within a video stream. We show how spatial, colour and prior information (person shape) can be incorporated into the channel representation to locate a target using a particle-filter like approach. We demonstrate state-of-the-art performance for locating a subject in video based on a description, achieving a relative performance improvement of 46.7% over the baseline. We also apply this approach to person re-detection, and show that the approach can be used to re-detect a person in a video steam without the use of person detection.

Versatile single-layer sodium phosphidostannate(II): Strain-tunable electronic structure, excellent mechanical flexibility, and an ideal gap for photovoltaics

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed to study the structural, mechanical, electrical, optical properties, and strain effects in single-layer sodium phosphidostannate(II) (NaSnP). We find the exfoliation of single-layer NaSnP from bulk form is highly feasible because the cleavage energy is comparable to graphite and MoS2. In addition, the breaking strain of the NaSnP monolayer is comparable to other widely studied 2D materials, indicating excellent mechanical flexibility of 2D NaSnP. Using the hybrid functional method, the calculated band gap of single-layer NaSnP is close to the ideal band gap of solar cell materials (1.5 eV), demonstrating great potential in future photovoltaic application. Furthermore, strain effect study shows that a moderate compression (2%) can trigger indirect-to-direct gap transition, which would enhance the ability of light absorption for the NaSnP monolayer. With sufficient compression (8%), the single-layer NaSnP can be tuned from semiconductor to metal, suggesting great applications in nanoelectronic devices based on strain engineering techniques.

Email negotiations form a binding land contract without a 'signature'

Email is rapidly replacing other forms of communication as the preferred means of communication between contracting parties. The recent decision of Stellard Pty Ltd v North Queensland Fuel Pty Ltd [2015] QSC 119 reinforces the judicial acceptance of email as an effective means of creating a binding agreement and the willingness to adopt a liberal concept of ‘signing’ in an electronic environment.

A two-stage SVM method to predict membrane protein types by incorporating amino acid classifications and physicochemical properties into a general form of Chou's PseAAC

Membrane proteins play important roles in many biochemical processes and are also attractive targets of drug discovery for various diseases. The elucidation of membrane protein types provides clues for understanding the structure and function of proteins. Recently we developed a novel system for predicting protein subnuclear localizations. In this paper, we propose a simplified version of our system for predicting membrane protein types directly from primary protein structures, which incorporates amino acid classifications and physicochemical properties into a general form of pseudo-amino acid composition. In this simplified system, we will design a two-stage multi-class support vector machine combined with a two-step optimal feature selection process, which proves very effective in our experiments. The performance of the present method is evaluated on two benchmark datasets consisting of five types of membrane proteins. The overall accuracies of prediction for five types are 93.25% and 96.61% via the jackknife test and independent dataset test, respectively. These results indicate that our method is effective and valuable for predicting membrane protein types. A web server for the proposed method is available at http://www.juemengt.com/jcc/memty_page.php

Carbon nanotubes on nanoporous alumina: From surface mats to conformal pore filling

Control over nucleation and growth of multi-walled carbon nanotubes in the nanochannels of porous alumina membranes by several combinations of posttreatments, namely exposing the membrane top surface to atmospheric plasma jet and application of standard S1813 photoresist as an additional carbon precursor, is demonstrated. The nanotubes grown after plasma treatment nucleated inside the channels and did not form fibrous mats on the surface. Thus, the nanotube growth mode can be controlled by surface treatment and application of additional precursor, and complex nanotube-based structures can be produced for various applications. A plausible mechanism of nanotube nucleation and growth in the channels is proposed, based on the estimated depth of ion flux penetration into the channels.

The Queensland high risk foot form (QHRFF): Is it a reliable and valid clinical research tool for foot disease?

Background Foot disease complications, such as foot ulcers and infection, contribute to considerable morbidity and mortality. These complications are typically precipitated by “high-risk factors”, such as peripheral neuropathy and peripheral arterial disease. High-risk factors are more prevalent in specific “at risk” populations such as diabetes, kidney disease and cardiovascular disease. To the best of the authors’ knowledge a tool capturing multiple high-risk factors and foot disease complications in multiple at risk populations has yet to be tested. This study aimed to develop and test the validity and reliability of a Queensland High Risk Foot Form (QHRFF) tool. Methods The study was conducted in two phases. Phase one developed a QHRFF using an existing diabetes foot disease tool, literature searches, stakeholder groups and expert panel. Phase two tested the QHRFF for validity and reliability. Four clinicians, representing different levels of expertise, were recruited to test validity and reliability. Three cohorts of patients were recruited; one tested criterion measure reliability (n = 32), another tested criterion validity and inter-rater reliability (n = 43), and another tested intra-rater reliability (n = 19). Validity was determined using sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive values (PPV). Reliability was determined using Kappa, weighted Kappa and intra-class correlation (ICC) statistics. Results A QHRFF tool containing 46 items across seven domains was developed. Criterion measure reliability of at least moderate categories of agreement (Kappa > 0.4; ICC > 0.75) was seen in 91% (29 of 32) tested items. Criterion validity of at least moderate categories (PPV > 0.7) was seen in 83% (60 of 72) tested items. Inter- and intra-rater reliability of at least moderate categories (Kappa > 0.4; ICC > 0.75) was seen in 88% (84 of 96) and 87% (20 of 23) tested items respectively. Conclusions The QHRFF had acceptable validity and reliability across the majority of items; particularly items identifying relevant co-morbidities, high-risk factors and foot disease complications. Recommendations have been made to improve or remove identified weaker items for future QHRFF versions. Overall, the QHRFF possesses suitable practicality, validity and reliability to assess and capture relevant foot disease items across multiple at risk populations.

Social Media Audience Metrics as a New Form of TV Audience Measurement

Digital media have contributed to significant disruptions in the business of audience measurement. Television broadcasters have long relied on simple and authoritative measures of who is watching what. The demand for ratings data, as a common currency in transactions involving advertising and program content, will likely remain, but accompanying measurements of audience engagement with media content would also be of value. Today's media environment increasingly includes social media and second-screen use, providing a data trail that affords an opportunity to measure engagement. If the limitations of using social media to indicate audience engagement can be overcome, social media use may allow for quantitative and qualitative measures of engagement. Raw social media data must be contextualized, and it is suggested that tools used by sports analysts be incorporated to do so. Inspired by baseball's Sabremetrics, the authors propose Telemetrics in an attempt to separate actual performance from contextual factors. Telemetrics facilitates measuring audience activity in a manner controlling for factors such as time slot, network, and so forth. It potentially allows both descriptive and predictive measures of engagement.

Memory of past random wave conditions in submarine groundwater discharge

Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) is an integral part of the hydrological cycle and represents an important aspect of land-ocean interactions. We used a numerical model to simulate flow and salt transport in a nearshore groundwater aquifer under varying wave conditions based on yearlong random wave data sets, including storm surge events. The results showed significant flow asymmetry with rapid response of influxes and retarded response of effluxes across the seabed to the irregular wave conditions. While a storm surge immediately intensified seawater influx to the aquifer, the subsequent return of intruded seawater to the sea, as part of an increased SGD, was gradual. Using functional data analysis, we revealed and quantified retarded, cumulative effects of past wave conditions on SGD including the fresh groundwater and recirculating seawater discharge components. The retardation was characterized well by a gamma distribution function regardless of wave conditions. The relationships between discharge rates and wave parameters were quantifiable by a regression model in a functional form independent of the actual irregular wave conditions. This statistical model provides a useful method for analyzing and predicting SGD from nearshore unconfined aquifers affected by random waves