Cartilage regeneration using zonal chondrocyte subpopulations : a promising approach or an overcomplicated strategy?

Cartilage defects heal imperfectly and osteoarthritic changes develop frequently as a result. Although the existence of specific behaviours of chondrocytes derived from various depth-related zones in vitro has been known for over 20 years, only a relatively small body of in vitro studies has been performed with zonal chondrocytes and current clinical treatment strategies do not reflect these native depth-dependent (zonal) differences. This is surprising since mimicking the zonal organization of articular cartilage in neo-tissue by the use of zonal chondrocyte subpopulations could enhance the functionality of the graft. Although some research groups including our own have made considerable progress in tailoring culture conditions using specific growth factors and biomechanical loading protocols, we conclude that an optimal regime has not yet been determined. Other unmet challenges include the lack of specific zonal cell sorting protocols and limited amounts of cells harvested per zone. As a result, the engineering of functional tissue has not yet been realized and no long-term in vivo studies using zonal chondrocytes have been described. This paper critically reviews the research performed to date and outlines our view of the potential future significance of zonal chondrocyte populations in regenerative approaches for the treatment of cartilage defects. Secondly, we briefly discuss the capabilities of additive manufacturing technologies that can not only create patient-specific grafts directly from medical imaging data sets but could also more accurately reproduce the complex 3D zonal extracellular matrix architecture using techniques such as hydrogel-based cell printing.

A hardware virtualization-based component sandboxing architecture

Modern applications comprise multiple components, such as browser plug-ins, often of unknown provenance and quality. Statistics show that failure of such components accounts for a high percentage of software faults. Enabling isolation of such fine-grained components is therefore necessary to increase the robustness and resilience of security-critical and safety-critical computer systems. In this paper, we evaluate whether such fine-grained components can be sandboxed through the use of the hardware virtualization support available in modern Intel and AMD processors. We compare the performance and functionality of such an approach to two previous software based approaches. The results demonstrate that hardware isolation minimizes the difficulties encountered with software based approaches, while also reducing the size of the trusted computing base, thus increasing confidence in the solution's correctness. We also show that our relatively simple implementation has equivalent run-time performance, with overheads of less than 34%, does not require custom tool chains and provides enhanced functionality over software-only approaches, confirming that hardware virtualization technology is a viable mechanism for fine-grained component isolation.

The search for individualism : Self-expression through product personalisation

This research paper explores the impact product personalisation has upon product attachment and aims to develop a deeper understanding of why, how and if consumers choose to do so. The current research in this field is mainly based on attachment theories and is predominantly product specific. This paper researches the link between product attachment and personalisation through in-depth, semi-structured interviews, where the data has been thematically analysed and broken down into three themes, and nine sub-themes. It was found that participants did become more attached to products once they were personalised and the reasons why this occurred varied. The most common reasons that led to personalisation were functionality and usability, the expression of personality through a product and the complexity of personalisation. The reasons why participants felt connected to their products included strong emotions/memories, the amount of time and effort invested into the personalisation, a sense of achievement. Reasons behind the desire for personalisation included co-designing, expression of uniqueness/individualism and having choice for personalisation. Through theme and inter-theme relationships, many correlations were formed, which created the basis for design recommendations. These recommendations demonstrate how a designer could implement the emotions and reasoning for personalisation into the design process.

A framework for automated identification of attack scenarios on IT infrastructures

Due to increased complexity, scale, and functionality of information and telecommunication (IT) infrastructures, every day new exploits and vulnerabilities are discovered. These vulnerabilities are most of the time used by ma¬licious people to penetrate these IT infrastructures for mainly disrupting business or stealing intellectual pro¬perties. Current incidents prove that it is not sufficient anymore to perform manual security tests of the IT infra¬structure based on sporadic security audits. Instead net¬works should be continuously tested against possible attacks. In this paper we present current results and challenges towards realizing automated and scalable solutions to identify possible attack scenarios in an IT in¬frastructure. Namely, we define an extensible frame¬work which uses public vulnerability databases to identify pro¬bable multi-step attacks in an IT infrastructure, and pro¬vide recommendations in the form of patching strategies, topology changes, and configuration updates.

A review on environmental durability of CFRP strengthened system

Recently the use of the carbon fibre reinforced polymer(CFRP) composites appears to be an excellent solution for retrofitting and strengthening of concrete and steel structures because of its superior physical and mechanical properties through the integration of other materials. However, the overall functionality and durability under various environmental conditions of the system has not yet been well documented. This paper reviews the environmental durability of CFRP strengthened system that has received only small coverage in previous review articles. Future research topics have also been indentified, such as durability of steel circular hollow section under various environmental conditions subjected to bending. Environment of interests are moisture/solution, alkalinity, creep/relaxation, fatigue, fire, thermal effects (including freeze-thaw), and ultraviolet exposure.

Design of open source framework for traffic and travel simulation

For the evaluation, design, and planning of traffic facilities and measures, traffic simulation packages are the de facto tools for consultants, policy makers, and researchers. However, the available commercial simulation packages do not always offer the desired work flow and flexibility for academic research. In many cases, researchers resort to designing and building their own dedicated models, without an intrinsic incentive (or the practical means) to make the results available in the public domain. To make matters worse, a substantial part of these efforts pertains to rebuilding basic functionality and, in many respects, reinventing the wheel. This problem not only affects the research community but adversely affects the entire traffic simulation community and frustrates the development of traffic simulation in general. For this problem to be addressed, this paper describes an open source approach, OpenTraffic, which is being developed as a collaborative effort between the Queensland University of Technology, Australia; the National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo; and the Technical University of Delft, the Netherlands. The OpenTraffic simulation framework enables academies from geographic areas and disciplines within the traffic domain to work together and contribute to a specific topic of interest, ranging from travel choice behavior to car following, and from response to intelligent transportation systems to activity planning. The modular approach enables users of the software to focus on their area of interest, whereas other functional modules can be regarded as black boxes. Specific attention is paid to a standardization of data inputs and outputs for traffic simulations. Such standardization will allow the sharing of data with many existing commercial simulation packages.

Approaches to designing for older adults' intuitive interaction with complex devices

Many older people have difficulties using modern consumer products due to increased product complexity both in terms of functionality and interface design. Previous research has shown that older people have more difficulty in using complex devices intuitively when compared to the younger. Furthermore, increased life expectancy and a falling birth rate have been catalysts for changes in world demographics over the past two decades. This trend also suggests a proportional increase of older people in the work-force. This realisation has led to research on the effective use of technology by older populations in an effort to engage them more productively and to assist them in leading independent lives. Ironically, not enough attention has been paid to the development of interaction design strategies that would actually enable older users to better exploit new technologies. Previous research suggests that if products are designed to reflect people's prior knowledge, they will appear intuitive to use. Since intuitive interfaces utilise domain-specific prior knowledge of users, they require minimal learning for effective interaction. However, older people are very diverse in their capabilities and domain-specific prior knowledge. In addition, ageing also slows down the process of acquiring new knowledge. Keeping these suggestions and limitations in view, the aim of this study was set to investigate possible approaches to developing interfaces that facilitate their intuitive use by older people. In this quest to develop intuitive interfaces for older people, two experiments were conducted that systematically investigated redundancy (the use of both text and icons) in interface design, complexity of interface structure (nested versus flat), and personal user factors such as cognitive abilities, perceived self-efficacy and technology anxiety. All of these factors could interfere with intuitive use. The results from the first experiment suggest that, contrary to what was hypothesised, older people (65+ years) completed the tasks on the text only based interface design faster than on the redundant interface design. The outcome of the second experiment showed that, as expected, older people took more time on a nested interface. However, they did not make significantly more errors compared with younger age groups. Contrary to what was expected, older age groups also did better under anxious conditions. The findings of this study also suggest that older age groups are more heterogeneous in their capabilities and their intuitive use of contemporary technological devices is mediated more by domain-specific technology prior knowledge and by their cognitive abilities, than chronological age. This makes it extremely difficult to develop product interfaces that are entirely intuitive to use. However, by keeping in view the cognitive limitations of older people when interfaces are developed, and using simple text-based interfaces with flat interface structure, would help them intuitively learn and use complex technological products successfully during early encounter with a product. These findings indicate that it might be more pragmatic if interfaces are designed for intuitive learning rather than for intuitive use. Based on this research and the existing literature, a model for adaptable interface design as a strategy for developing intuitively learnable product interfaces was proposed. An adaptable interface can initially use a simple text only interface to help older users to learn and successfully use the new system. Over time, this can be progressively changed to a symbols-based nested interface for more efficient and intuitive use.

e-Technology v t-Engagement : a snapshot of Australia's digital economy readiness

Before e-Technology’s effects on users can be accurately measured, those users must be fully engaged with the relevant systems and services. That is they must be able to function as part of the digital economy. The paper refers to this ‘user functionality’ as t-Engagement. Not all users are t-Engaged and in many instances achieving t-Engagement will require assistance from external sources. This paper identifies the current state of Australia’s regional digital economy readiness and highlights the role of Local Government Authorities (‘LGAs’) in enabling t-Engagement. The paper analyses responses to the 2012 BTA, NBN and Digital Economy Survey by LGA and other regional organizations within Australia. The paper’s particular focus is on the level of use by Local Government Authorities of federal, state and other programs designed to enable t-Engagement. The analysis confirms the role of LGAs in enabling t-Engagement and in promoting Australia’s digital economy. The paper concludes by reinforcing the need to ensure ongoing meaningful federal and State support of regional initiatives, as well as identifying issues requiring specific attention.

Monitoring android for collaborative anomaly detection : a first architectural draft

Our daily lives become more and more dependent upon smartphones due to their increased capabilities. Smartphones are used in various ways, e.g. for payment systems or assisting the lives of elderly or disabled people. Security threats for these devices become more and more dangerous since there is still a lack of proper security tools for protection. Android emerges as an open smartphone platform which allows modification even on operating system level and where third-party developers first time have the opportunity to develop kernel-based low-level security tools. Android quickly gained its popularity among smartphone developers and even beyond since it bases on Java on top of "open" Linux in comparison to former proprietary platforms which have very restrictive SDKs and corresponding APIs. Symbian OS, holding the greatest market share among all smartphone OSs, was even closing critical APIs to common developers and introduced application certification. This was done since this OS was the main target for smartphone malwares in the past. In fact, more than 290 malwares designed for Symbian OS appeared from July 2004 to July 2008. Android, in turn, promises to be completely open source. Together with the Linux-based smartphone OS OpenMoko, open smartphone platforms may attract malware writers for creating malicious applications endangering the critical smartphone applications and owners privacy. Since signature-based approaches mainly detect known malwares, anomaly-based approaches can be a valuable addition to these systems. They base on mathematical algorithms processing data that describe the state of a certain device. For gaining this data, a monitoring client is needed that has to extract usable information (features) from the monitored system. Our approach follows a dual system for analyzing these features. On the one hand, functionality for on-device light-weight detection is provided. But since most algorithms are resource exhaustive, remote feature analysis is provided on the other hand. Having this dual system enables event-based detection that can react to the current detection need. In our ongoing research we aim to investigates the feasibility of light-weight on-device detection for certain occasions. On other occasions, whenever significant changes are detected on the device, the system can trigger remote detection with heavy-weight algorithms for better detection results. In the absence of the server respectively as a supplementary approach, we also consider a collaborative scenario. Here, mobile devices sharing a common objective are enabled by a collaboration module to share information, such as intrusion detection data and results. This is based on an ad-hoc network mode that can be provided by a WiFi or Bluetooth adapter nearly every smartphone possesses.

Challenges facing carbon dioxide labelling of construction materials

In the absence of a benchmarking mechanism specifically designed for local requirements and characteristics, a carbon dioxide footprint assessment and labelling scheme for construction materials is urgently needed to promote carbon dioxide reduction in the construction industry. This paper reports on a recent interview survey of 18 senior industry practitioners in Hong Kong to elicit their knowledge and opinions concerning the potential of such a carbon dioxide labelling scheme. The results of this research indicate the following. A well-designed carbon dioxide label could stimulate demand for low carbon dioxide construction materials. The assessment of carbon dioxide emissions should be extended to different stages of material lifecycles. The benchmarks for low carbon dioxide construction materials should be based on international standards but without sacrificing local integrity. Administration and monitoring of the carbon dioxide labelling scheme could be entrusted to an impartial and independent certification body. The implementation of any carbon dioxide labelling schemes should be on a voluntary basis. Cost, functionality, quality and durability are unlikely to be replaced by environmental considerations in the absence of any compelling incentives or penalties. There are difficulties in developing and operating a suitable scheme, particularly in view of the large data demands involved, reluctance in using low carbon dioxide materials and limited environmental awareness.

From movie screens to moving screens : mapping qualities of new urban interactions

Next generation screens of diverse dimensions such as the Pebble e-paper watch, Google’s Project Glass, Microsoft’s Kinect and IllumiRoom, and large-scale multi-touch screen surface areas, increasingly saturate and diversify the urban mediascape. This paper seeks to contribute to media architecture and interaction design theory by starting to critically examine how these different screen formats are creating a ubiquitous screen mediascape across the city. We introduce next generation personal, domestic, and public screens. The paper critically challenges conventional dichotomies such as local / global, online / offline, private / public, large / small, mobile / static, that have been created in the past to describe some of the qualities and characteristics of interfaces and their usage. More and more scholars recognise that the black and white nature of these dichotomies does not adequately represent the fluid and agile capabilities of many new screen interfaces. With this paper, we hope to illustrate the more nuanced ‘trans-scalar’ qualities of these new urban interactions, that is, ways in which they provide a range functionality, without being locked into either end of a scale.

Livestock production in a changing climate : adaptation and mitigation research in Australia

Climate change presents a range of challenges for animal agriculture in Australia. Livestock production will be affected by changes in temperature and water availability through impacts on pasture and forage crop quantity and quality, feed-grain production and price, and disease and pest distributions. This paper provides an overview of these impacts and the broader effects on landscape functionality, with a focus on recent research on effects of increasing temperature, changing rainfall patterns, and increased climate variability on animal health, growth, and reproduction, including through heat stress, and potential adaptation strategies. The rate of adoption of adaptation strategies by livestock producers will depend on perceptions of the uncertainty in projected climate and regional-scale impacts and associated risk. However, management changes adopted by farmers in parts of Australia during recent extended drought and associated heatwaves, trends consistent with long-term predicted climate patterns, provide some insights into the capacity for practical adaptation strategies. Animal production systems will also be significantly affected by climate change policy and national targets to address greenhouse gas emissions, since livestock are estimated to contribute ~10% of Australia’s total emissions and 8–11% of global emissions, with additional farm emissions associated with activities such as feed production. More than two-thirds of emissions are attributed to ruminant animals. This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities facing livestock industries in Australia in adapting to and mitigating climate change. It examines the research needed to better define practical options to reduce the emissions intensity of livestock products, enhance adaptation opportunities, and support the continued contribution of animal agriculture to Australia’s economy, environment, and regional communities.

Increasing Food Production Sustainably in a Changing Climate : Understanding the Pressures and Potential

Australian agriculture is faced with the dilemma of increasing food production for a growing domestic and world population while decreasing environmental impacts and supporting the social and economic future of regional communities. The challenge for farmers is compounded by declining rates of productivity growth which have been linked to changes in climate and decreasing investment in agricultural research. The answer must lie in understanding the ecological functionality of landscapes and matching management of agricultural systems and use of natural resources to landscape capacity in a changing climate. A simplified mixed grain and livestock farm case study is used to illustrate the challenges of assessing the potential for shifts in land allocation between commodities to achieve sustainable intensification of nutrition production. This study highlights the risks associated with overly-simplistic solutions and the need for increased investment in research to inform the development of practical strategies for increasing food production in Australian agro-ecosystems while managing the impacts of climate change and addressing climate change mitigation policies.

The key regulatory roles of the PI3K/Akt signalling pathway in the functionalities of mesenchymal stem cells and applications in tissue regeneration

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multi-potent cells that can differentiate into various cell types and have been used widely in tissue engineering application. In tissue engineering, a scaffold, MSCs and growth factors are used as essential components and their interactions have been regarded to be important for regeneration of tissues. A critical problem for MSCs in tissue engineering is their low survival ability and functionality. Most MSCs are going to be apoptotic after transplantation. Therefore, increasing MSC survival ability and functionalities is the key for potential applications of MSCs. Several approaches have been studied to increase MSC tissue forming capacity including application of growth factors, overexpression of stem cell regulatory genes and improvement of biomaterials for scaffolds. The effects of these approaches on MSCs have been associated with the activation of the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. The pathway plays central regulatory roles in MSC survival, proliferation, migration, angiogenesis, cytokine production and differentiation. In this review, we summarize and discuss the literatures related to the roles of the PI3K/Akt pathway in the functionalities of MSCs and the involvement of the pathway in biomaterials-increased MSC functinalities. Biomaterials have been modified in their properties, surface structure and loaded with growth factors to increase MSC functionalities. Several studies demonstrated that the biomaterials-increased MSC functionalities are mediated by the activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway.

ClusterEval 1.0 : Cluster quality Evaluation software

This report describes the available functionality and use of the ClusterEval evaluation software. It implements novel and standard measures for the evaluation of cluster quality. This software has been used at the INEX XML Mining track and in the MediaEval Social Event Detection task.