Media classification : Content regulation in an age of convergent media

This article outlines the key recommendations of the Australian Law Reform Commission’s review of the National Classification Scheme, as outlined in its report Classification – Content Regulation and Convergent Media (ALRC, 2012). It identifies key contextual factors that underpin the need for reform of media classification laws and policies, including the fragmentation of regulatory responsibilities and the convergence of media platforms, content and services, as well as discussing the ALRC’s approach to law reform.

The relationship between fundamental movement skills and self-reported physical activity during Finnish junior high school

Background: Previous studies have shown that fundamental movement skills (FMS) and physical activity are related. Specifically, earlier studies have demonstrated that the ability to perform a variety of FMS increases the likelihood of children participating in a range of physical activities throughout their lives. To date, however, there have not been studies focused on the development of, or the relationship between, these variables through junior high school (that is, between the ages of 13 and 15). Such studies might provide important insights into the relationships between FMS and physical activity during adolescence, and suggest ways to design more effective physical education programmes for adolescents. Purpose: The main purposes of the study are: (1) to investigate the development of the students' self-reported physical activity and FMS from Grade 7 to Grade 9, (2) to analyse the associations among the students' FMS and self-reported physical activity through junior high school, (3) to analyse whether there are gender differences in research tasks one and/or two. Participants and setting: The participants in the study were 152 Finnish students, aged 13 and enrolled in Grade 7 at the commencement of the study. The sample included 66 girls and 86 boys who were drawn from three junior high schools in Middle Finland. Research design and data collection: Both the FMS tests and questionnaires pertaining to self-reported physical activity were completed annually during a 3 year period: in August (when the participants were in Grade 7), January (Grade 8), and in May (Grade 9). Data analysis: Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variances (MANOVAs) were used to analyse the interaction between gender and time (three measurement points) in FMS test sumscores and self-reported physical activity scores. The relationships between self-reported physical activity scores and fundamental movement skill sumscores through junior high school were analysed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) with LISREL 8.80 software. Findings: The MANOVA for self-reported physical activity demonstrated that both genders' physical activity decreased through junior high school. The MANOVA for the FMS revealed that the boys' FMS sumscore increased whereas the girls' skills decreased through junior high school. The SEM and squared multiple correlations revealed FMS in Grades 7 and 8 as well as physical activity in Grade 9 explained FMS in Grade 9. The portion of prediction was 69% for the girls and 55% for the boys. Additionally, physical activity measured in Grade 7 and FMS measured in Grade 9 explained physical activity in Grade 9. The portion of prediction was 12% for the girls and 29% for the boys. In the boys' group, three additional paths were found; FMS in Grade 7 explained physical activity in Grade 9, physical activity in Grade 7 explained FMS in Grade 8, and physical activity in Grade 7 explained physical activity in Grade 8. Conclusions: The study suggests that supporting and encouraging FMS and physical activity are co-related and when considering combined scores there is a greater likelihood of healthy lifelong outcomes. Therefore, the conclusion can be drawn that FMS curriculum in school-based PE is a plausible way to ensure good lifelong outcomes. Earlier studies support that school physical education plays an important role in developing students FMS and is in a position to thwart the typical decline of physical activity in adolescence. These concepts are particularly important for adolescent girls as this group reflects the greatest decline in physical activity during the adolescent period.

A new classification and database for stratospheric dust particles

With the increasing number of stratospheric particles available for study (via the U2 and/or WB57F collections), it is essential that a simple, yet rational, classification scheme be developed for general use. Such a scheme should be applicable to all particles collected from the stratosphere, rather than limited to only extraterrestial or chemical sub-groups. Criteria for the efficacy of such a scheme would include: (a) objectivity , (b) ease of use, (c) acceptance within the broader scientific community and (d) how well the classification provides intrinsic categories which are consistent with our knowledge of particle types present in the stratosphere.

Towards a complete inventory of stratospheric dust particles, with implications for their classification

Several investigators have recently proposed classification schemes for stratospheric dust particles [1-3]. In addition, extraterrestrial materials within stratospheric dust collections may be used as a measure of micrometeorite flux [4]. However, little attention has been given to the problems of the stratospheric collection as a whole. Some of these problems include: (a) determination of accurate particle abundances at a given point in time; (b) the extent of bias in the particle selection process; (c) the variation of particle shape and chemistry with size; (d) the efficacy of proposed classification schemes and (e) an accurate determination of physical parameters associated with the particle collection process (e.g. minimum particle size collected, collection efficiency, variation of particle density with time). We present here preliminary results from SEM, EDS and, where appropriate, XRD analysis of all of the particles from a collection surface which sampled the stratosphere between 18 and 20km in altitude. Determinations of particle densities from this study may then be used to refine models of the behavior of particles in the stratosphere [5].

Classification of the Johnson Space Center stratospheric dust collection

A review of 291 catalogued particles on the bases of particle size, shape, bulk chemistry, and texture is used to establish a reliable taxonomy. Extraterrestrial materials occur in three defined categories: spheres, aggregates and fragments. Approximately 76% of aggregates are of probable extraterrestrial origin, whereas spheres contain the smallest amount of extraterrestrial material (approx 43%). -B.M.

Does fundamental indexation lead to better risk-adjusted returns? New evidence from Australian Securities Exchange

We investigate the claims of superiority of fundamental indexation strategy over capitalisation-weighted indexation by using data for Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) listed stocks. Whilst our results are in line with the outperformance observed in other geographical markets, we find that the excess returns from fundamental indexation in Australian market are much higher. On a rolling 5-year basis, the fundamental index always outperforms the capitalisation-weighted index. Our results suggest that superior performance of fundamental indexation could not be entirely attributed to value, size, or momentum effects. The outperformance persists even after adjusting for slightly higher transaction costs related to turnover.

Supplementary Information : Hogan, Holland, Holloway, Petit and Read : Read Classification for Next Generation Sequencing, ESANN 2013, April 2013

This item provides supplementary materials for the paper mentioned in the title, specifically a range of organisms used in the study. The full abstract for the main paper is as follows: Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies have revolutionised molecular biology, allowing clinical sequencing to become a matter of routine. NGS data sets consist of short sequence reads obtained from the machine, given context and meaning through downstream assembly and annotation. For these techniques to operate successfully, the collected reads must be consistent with the assumed species or species group, and not corrupted in some way. The common bacterium Staphylococcus aureus may cause severe and life-threatening infections in humans,with some strains exhibiting antibiotic resistance. In this paper, we apply an SVM classifier to the important problem of distinguishing S. aureus sequencing projects from alternative pathogens, including closely related Staphylococci. Using a sequence k-mer representation, we achieve precision and recall above 95%, implicating features with important functional associations.

V1-inspired features induce a weighted margin in SVMs

Image representations derived from simplified models of the primary visual cortex (V1), such as HOG and SIFT, elicit good performance in a myriad of visual classification tasks including object recognition/detection, pedestrian detection and facial expression classification. A central question in the vision, learning and neuroscience communities regards why these architectures perform so well. In this paper, we offer a unique perspective to this question by subsuming the role of V1-inspired features directly within a linear support vector machine (SVM). We demonstrate that a specific class of such features in conjunction with a linear SVM can be reinterpreted as inducing a weighted margin on the Kronecker basis expansion of an image. This new viewpoint on the role of V1-inspired features allows us to answer fundamental questions on the uniqueness and redundancies of these features, and offer substantial improvements in terms of computational and storage efficiency.

Information provision and network performance represented by Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram

The existence of the Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD), which relates network space-mean density and flow, has been shown in urban networks under homogeneous traffic conditions. Since the MFD represents the area-wide network traffic performances, studies on perimeter control strategies and an area traffic state estimation utilizing the MFD concept has been reported. The key requirements for the well-defined MFD is the homogeneity of the area wide traffic condition, which is not universally expected in real world. For the practical application of the MFD concept, several researchers have identified the influencing factors for network homogeneity. However, they did not explicitly take drivers’ behaviour under real time information provision into account, which has a significant impact on the shape of the MFD. This research aims to demonstrate the impact of drivers’ route choice behaviour on network performance by employing the MFD as a measurement. A microscopic simulation is chosen as an experimental platform. By changing the ratio of en-route informed drivers and pre-trip informed drivers as well as by taking different route choice parameters, various scenarios are simulated in order to investigate how drivers’ adaptation to the traffic congestion influences the network performance and the MFD shape. This study confirmed and addressed the impact of information provision on the MFD shape and highlighted the significance of the route choice parameter setting as an influencing factor in the MFD analysis.

Classification of railway bridges based on criticality and vulnerability factors

Bridges are currently rated individually for maintenance and repair action according to the structural conditions of their elements. Dealing with thousands of bridges and the many factors that cause deterioration, makes this rating process extremely complicated. The current simplified but practical methods are not accurate enough. On the other hand, the sophisticated, more accurate methods are only used for a single or particular bridge type. It is therefore necessary to develop a practical and accurate rating system for a network of bridges. The first most important step in achieving this aim is to classify bridges based on the differences in nature and the unique characteristics of the critical factors and the relationship between them, for a network of bridges. Critical factors and vulnerable elements will be identified and placed in different categories. This classification method will be used to develop a new practical rating method for a network of railway bridges based on criticality and vulnerability analysis. This rating system will be more accurate and economical as well as improve the safety and serviceability of railway bridges.

Fundamental understanding on the use of Bluetooth MAC scanner for arterial travel time estimation

This report is the eight deliverable of the Real Time and Predictive Traveller Information project and the third deliverable of the Arterial Travel Time Information sub-project in the Integrated Traveller Information research Domain of the Smart Transport Research Centre. The primary objective of the Arterial Travel Time Information sub-project is to develop algorithms for real-time travel time estimation and prediction models for arterial traffic. Brisbane arterial network is highly equipped with Bluetooth MAC Scanners, which can provide travel time information. Literature is limited with the knowledge on the Bluetooth protocol based data acquisition process and accuracy and reliability of the analysis performed using the data. This report expands the body of knowledge surrounding the use of data from Bluetooth MAC Scanner (BMS) as a complementary traffic data source. A multi layer simulation model named Traffic and Communication Simulation (TCS) is developed. TCS is utilised to model the theoretical properties of the BMS data and analyse the accuracy and reliability of travel time estimation using the BMS data.

Fundamental Tax Legislation 2013

Fundamental Tax Legislation 2013 contains the essential provisions from the primary legislation that affects Australia’s taxation system. Updated and expanded for 2013, this volume is an indispensable reference for undergraduate and postgraduate students of taxation. New in 2013 is a revised Year in Review section, which summarises the legislative developments in taxation over the previous 12 months, a listing of the passage of tax-related legislation during the last year and the inclusion of reference statistics (such as CPI quarterly figures and individual tax rates for residents and non-residents). Also, new for 2013 is a Tax Rates and Tables section which contains an accessible summary of the main tax rates and tables that students will need to refer to for their tax studies.

Read classification for next generation sequencing

Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) has revolutionised molec- ular biology, allowing routine clinical sequencing. NGS data consists of short sequence reads, given context through downstream assembly and annotation, a process requiring reads consistent with the assumed species or species group. The common bacterium Staphylococcus aureus may cause severe and life-threatening infections in humans, with some strains exhibiting antibiotic resistance. Here we apply an SVM classifier to the important problem of distinguishing S. aureus sequencing projects from other pathogens, including closely related Staphylococci. Using a sequence k-mer representation, we achieve precision and recall above 95%, implicating features with important functional associations.