Dynamic simulation of CFRP strengthened steel column under impact loading

Carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) strengthening of metallic structures under static loading has shown great potential in the recent years. However, steel structures are often experienced natural (e.g. earthquake, wind) as well as man-made (e.g. vehicular impact, blast) dynamic loading. Therefore, there is a growing interest among the researchers to investigate the capability of CFRP strengthened members under such dynamic conditions. This study focuses on the finite element (FE) numerical modelling and simulation of CFRP strengthened steel column under transverse impact loading to predict the behaviour and failure modes. Impact simulation process and the CFRP strengthened steel column are validated with the existing experimental results in literature. The validated FE model of CFRP strengthened steel column is then further used to investigate the effects of transverse impact loading on its structural performance. The results are presented in terms of transvers e impact force, lateral and axial displacement, and deformed shape to evaluate the effectiveness of CFRP strengthening technique. Comparisons between the bare steel and CFRP strengthened steel columns clearly indicate the performance enhancement of strengthened column under transverse impact loading.

Understanding advanced and extended professional practice

The Advanced Pharmacy Practice Framework Steering Committee (now replaced by the Pharmacy Practitioner Development Committee) undertook work to develop an advanced pharmacy practice recognition model. As part of that work, and to assure clarity and consistency in the terminology it uses, the Committee collated the definitions used in literature sources consulted. Most recently, this involved a review of the meaning attributed to the terms ‘advanced’ and ‘extended’ when used in the context of describing aspects of professional practice. Both terms encompass the acquisition of additional expertise. While ‘advanced’ practice involves the acquisition of additional expertise to achieve a higher performance level, ‘extended’ practice relates specifically to scope of practice and involves the acquisition of additional expertise sufficient to provide services or perform tasks that are outside the usual scope of practice of the profession. Performance level operates independently of scope of practice but both must be elucidated to fully describe the professional practice of an individual practitioner.

From ImageNet to mining: Adapting visual object detection with minimal supervision

This paper presents visual detection and classification of light vehicles and personnel on a mine site.We capitalise on the rapid advances of ConvNet based object recognition but highlight that a naive black box approach results in a significant number of false positives. In particular, the lack of domain specific training data and the unique landscape in a mine site causes a high rate of errors. We exploit the abundance of background-only images to train a k-means classifier to complement the ConvNet. Furthermore, localisation of objects of interest and a reduction in computation is enabled through region proposals. Our system is tested on over 10km of real mine site data and we were able to detect both light vehicles and personnel. We show that the introduction of our background model can reduce the false positive rate by an order of magnitude.

A new public health context to understand male sex work

Background Researching male sex work offers insight into the sexual lives of men and women while developing a more realistic appreciation for the changing issues associated with male sex work. This type of research is important because it not only reflects a growing and diversifying consumer demand for male sex work, but also because it enables the construction of knowledge that is up-to-date with changing ideas around sex and sexualities. Discussion This paper discusses a range of issues emerging in the male sex industry. Notably, globalisation and technology have contributed to the normalisation of male sex work and reshaped the landscape in which the male sex industry operates. As part of this discussion, we review STI and HIV rates among male sex workers at a global level, which are widely disparate and geographically contextual, with rates of HIV among male sex workers ranging from 0% in some areas to 50% in others. The Internet has reshaped the way that male sex workers and clients connect and has been identified as a useful space for safer sex messages and research that seeks out hidden or commonly excluded populations. Future directions We argue for a public health context that recognises the emerging and changing nature of male sex work, which means programs and policies that are appropriate for this population group. Online communities relating to male sex work are important avenues for safer sexual messages and unique opportunities to reach often excluded sub-populations of both clients and male sex workers. The changing structure and organisation of male sex work alongside rapidly changing cultural, academic and medical discourses provide new insight but also new challenges to how we conceive the sexualities of men and male sex workers. Public health initiatives must reflect upon and incorporate this knowledge.

Daubism: Copyright law and artistic works

An artistic controversy over a group of landscape painters called the Daubists provided impetus for copyright law reform in Australia in the early 1990's. In the first exhibition of Daubism in 1991 driller Jet Armstrong painted a crop circle over a painting of the Olgas by Charles Bannon - an artist, print-maker, and the father of the State Premier at the time, John Bannon. He called the resulting work, Crop Circles on a Bannon Landscape. Armstrong also inserted an inverted crucifix over a painting of the Flinders Ranges by Bannon, and renamed the work The Crop Circle Conspiracy Landscape. In response, Bannon took legal action against Armstrong in the Federal Court of Australia on the grounds of false attribution and defamation. He won an interlocutory injunction against Armstrong and the gallery, but then reached a settlement with the Daubists. An anonymous buyer purchased the work for $650 on the condition that it was returned to the painter. In his fight against the Daubists, Bannon received help and support from the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA). This professional group used the controversy to campaign for the reform of copyright law - in particular, the need for a moral rights regime. The artistic controversy over the Daubists was a catalyst for the introduction of the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000 (Cth) in Australia. It offers an illuminating case study of the operation of copyright law in the visual arts.

Convergence of regenerative medicine and synthetic biology to develop standardized and validated models of human diseases with clinical relevance

In order to progress beyond currently available medical devices and implants, the concept of tissue engineering has moved into the centre of biomedical research worldwide. The aim of this approach is not to replace damaged tissue with an implant or device but rather to prompt the patient's own tissue to enact a regenerative response by using a tissue-engineered construct to assemble new functional and healthy tissue. More recently, it has been suggested that the combination of Synthetic Biology and translational tissue-engineering techniques could enhance the field of personalized medicine, not only from a regenerative medicine perspective, but also to provide frontier technologies for building and transforming the research landscape in the field of in vitro and in vivo disease models.

The grumpy stump - ultrasound and stump appendicitis

BACKGROUND: Stump appendicitis, the inflammation of an incompletely removed appendix, is a rare clinical presentation. Sonography can be useful in the diagnosis of the condition; by either directly visualising the inflamed stump, or by identifying signs of peri-caecal inflammation that can raise suspicion of the condition. SUMMARY OF WORK: A potential case of stump appendicitis was identified. This prompted a review of literature focused on the incidence of stump appendicitis, utility of ultrasound to identify an inflamed appendiceal stump, and surgical techniques used in appendectomy. SUMMARY OF RESULTS: Stump appendicitis is rare, with as few as 61 cases identified in literature during the last 60 years1. Of the two common techniques of appendectomy, which are ligation and invagination, the former can sometimes leave a residual stump that acts as a potential lumen for the pathophysiological process of appendicitis to recur. Established sonographic criteria for appendicitis also apply to the residual stump. Sonographic secondary signs that suggest the presence of acute appendicitis2 have also been demonstrated in cases of stump appendicitis3, even in the absence of an identifiable stump. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Appendicitis is usually dismissed in patients with a history of appendectomy. Though uncommon, sonographers should be aware of stump appendicitis in post-appendectomy patients that present with right iliac fossa pain from months to decades later. REFERENCE(S) 1. Subramanian A, Liang MK. A 60-year literature review of stump appendicitis: The need for a critical view. Am J Surg; 2012;203(4):503–7. 2. Reddan T, Corness J, Mengersen K, Harden F. Ultrasound of paediatric appendicitis and its secondary sonographic signs: providing a more meaningful finding. J Med Radiat Sci. 2015;DOI: 10.1002/jmrs.154 3. Martínez Chamorro E, Merina Castilla A, Muñoz Fraile B, Koren Fernández L, Borruel Nacenta S. Stump appendicitis: Preoperative imaging findings in four cases. Abdom Imaging. 2013;38(6):1214–9.