The state-of-the-art in personalized recommender systems for social networking

With the explosion of Web 2.0 application such as blogs, social and professional networks, and various other types of social media, the rich online information and various new sources of knowledge flood users and hence pose a great challenge in terms of information overload. It is critical to use intelligent agent software systems to assist users in finding the right information from an abundance of Web data. Recommender systems can help users deal with information overload problem efficiently by suggesting items (e.g., information and products) that match users’ personal interests. The recommender technology has been successfully employed in many applications such as recommending films, music, books, etc. The purpose of this report is to give an overview of existing technologies for building personalized recommender systems in social networking environment, to propose a research direction for addressing user profiling and cold start problems by exploiting user-generated content newly available in Web 2.0.

Alter/Asians : Asian-Australian Identities in Art, Media and Popular Culture

Exploration of how Australia and Asia are intertwined in everyday culture, and in the imagined worlds of Australians of all backgrounds. Investigates Asian cultural production of art, literature, media and performance that embody Asian social and cultural experiences. Includes endnotes, bibliography and index. Ang and Chalmers work in the School of Cultural Studies at University of Western Sydney. Law and Thomas are Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellows at Australian National University and the Research Centre in Inter-communal Studies respectively.

Parent and adolescent perceptions of family functioning : a comparison of clinic and non-clinic families

In this paper two studies are reported which compare (a) the perceptions of family functioning held by clinic and non-clinic adolescents, and (b) the perceptions of family functioning held by adolescents and their mothers in clinic and non-clinic families. In Study 1, matched group of clinic and non-clinic adolescents were compared on their responses to a 30-item scale (ICPS) designed to measure three factors of family functioning: Intimacy (high vs. low), Parenting Style (democratic vs. controlled) and Conflict (high vs. low). Clinic and non-clinic adolescents were also compared on their responses to a multi-dimensional measure of adolescent self-concept. Although there was little difference between the two groups of adolescents in terms of their perceptions of family functioning, there were strong relationships between the self-concept variables and the family functioning variables. In Study 2, comparisons were made between the perceptions of family functioning held by mothers and adolescents for both clinical and non-clinic families. There were no differences between the two groups of adolescents in terms of their perceptions of family functioning, although there were clear differences between the two groups of mothers. In addition, clinic adolescents and their mothers did not differ in their perceptions of the family, whereas adolescents in the non-clinic group saw their families significantly as less intimate and more conflicted than did their mothers.

Rates of attendance at a smoking cessation clinic within a cardiac rehabilitation service

Objectives: Smoking cessation has been shown to be an important intervention for preventing cardiovascular events and improving the health of patients with heart disease. However, unaided quit attempts in these patients often leads to high rates of failure and a return to smoking. Outpatient smoking cessation clinics using face-to-face counseling, ongoing behavioral support, advice on smoking pharmacotherapy and objective monitoring, have been found to be one of the most effective interventions for improving quit smoking rates. An outpatient smoking cessation clinic was trialed within a cardiac rehabilitation service in order to explore its effects on smoking rates for patients with or at risk of heart disease. Attendance rates to the clinic were also monitored. Methods: A descriptive exploratory design was used for this newly developed clinic. Patients who currently smoked tobacco and who had a history of either coronary artery disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation or those seen under a chest pain assessment service were invited to an outpatient ‘Cardiac Patients Smokers Clinic’. Initially patients were offered up to 10 clinic visits over a 3 month period. Follow-up clinic visits were conducted at 3, 6 and 12 months. A portable carbon monoxide meter was used to objectively measure levels of smoking and validate smoking abstinence. Primary outcomes included rates of attendance. Results: Preliminary findings showed 24 per cent of participants (N = 6) completed all their clinic visits and remained smoke free as measured by their ongoing expired carbon monoxide readings. Clinic attendance rates appeared lowest for those with significant mental health issues such as schizophrenia or substance abuse. However, rates of attendance were improved by having an administration officer make reminder telephone calls prior to clinic visits. Conclusions: Early findings indicate the feasibility of providing a specialist smoking cessation clinic within a cardiac rehabilitation service. Further, that reminder telephone calls prior to appointments improved attendance rates in patients with heart disease to this type of clinic. However, future investigations are warranted.

The power of art, the power of entertainment

The question of the relationship between culture and power continues to exercise researchers. In this paper I argue that it is useful to consider the differences between ‘art’ and ‘entertainment’ as systems of culture, each involving a distinct set of power relationships between producers and audiences. Art wants to change audiences; entertainment wants to be changed by audiences. From these different starting points a series of differences unfold in the power possessed by producers and audiences. Artists pride themselves in not involving the audience in the process of making art. By contrast, entertainment wants audiences to contribute to the making of texts. As to the question of who controls the range of what forms of culture are available, it seems that entertainment consumers – unlike art consumers – are ill-disciplined. Historical evidence demonstrates that if legal corporate providers do not offer the kinds of entertainment they want, they will turn to illegal sources. The different ways in which ‘art’ and ‘entertainment’ function as cultural systems suggest that we must rethink our positions on ‘media power’.

Pieces of a city : the art of making speculative cities, bodies, & texts

This practice-led doctorate involved the development of a collection – a bricolage – of interwoven fragments of literary texts and visual imagery explor-ing questions of speculative fiction, urban space and embodiment. As a sup-plement to the creative work, I also developed an exegesis, using a combina-tion of theoretical and contextual analysis combined with critical reflections on my creative process and outputs. An emphasis on issues of creative practice and a sustained investigation into an aesthetics of fragmentation and assem-blage is organised around the concept and methodology of bricolage, the eve-ryday art of ‘making do’. The exegesis also addresses my interest in the city and urban forms of subjectivity and embodiment through the use of a range of theorists, including Michel de Certeau and Elizabeth Grosz.

The naturally imperfect form : investigations of the application of digital sculpting methods - extracted art : incorporating and translating ‘found art’ into the medium of digital sculpture

This dissertation analyses how physical objects are translated into digital artworks using techniques which can lead to ‘imperfections’ in the resulting digital artwork that are typically removed to arrive at a ‘perfect’ final representation. The dissertation discusses the adaptation of existing techniques into an artistic workflow that acknowledges and incorporates the imperfections of translation into the final pieces. It presents an exploration of the relationship between physical and digital artefacts and the processes used to move between the two. The work explores the 'craft' of digital sculpting and the technology used in producing what the artist terms ‘a naturally imperfect form’, incorporating knowledge of traditional sculpture, an understanding of anatomy and an interest in the study of bones (Osteology). The outcomes of the research are presented as a series of digital sculptural works, exhibited as a collection of curiosities in multiple mediums, including interactive game spaces, augmented reality (AR), rapid prototype prints (RP) and video displays.

The politics and poetics of coexistence : experiments at the intersection of art and environmental engineering

This research project explores how interdisciplinary art practices can provide ways for questioning and envisaging alternative modes of coexistence between humans and the non-humans who together, make up the environment. As a practiceled project, it combines a body of creative work (50%) and this exegesis (50%). My interdisciplinary artistic practice appropriates methods and processes from science and engineering and merges them into artistic contexts for critical and poetic ends. By blending pseudo-scientific experimentation with creative strategies like visual fiction, humour, absurd public performance and scripted audience participation, my work engages with a range of debates around ecology. This exegesis details the interplay between critical theory relating to these debates, the work of other creative practitioners and my own evolving artistic practice. Through utilising methods and processes drawn from my prior career in water engineering, I present an interdisciplinary synthesis that seeks to promote improved understandings of the causes and consequences of our ecological actions and inactions.

Carbon dioxide reforming of methane to produce synthesis gas over metal-supported catalysts: State of the art

Carbon dioxide reforming of methane produces synthesis gas with a low hydrogen to carbon monoxide ratio, which is desirable for many industrial synthesis processes. This reaction also has very important environmental implications since both methane and carbon dioxide contribute to the greenhouse effect. Converting these gases into a valuable feedstock may significantly reduce the atmospheric emissions of CO2 and CH4. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review on the thermodynamics, catalyst selection and activity, reaction mechanism, and kinetics of this important reaction. Recently, research has centered on the development of catalysts and the feasible applications of this reaction in industry. Group VIII metals supported on oxides are found to be effective for this reason. However, carbon deposition causing catalyst deactivation is the major problem inhibiting the industrial application of the CO2/CH4 reaction. Ni-based catalysts impregnated on certain supports show carbon-free operation and thus attract much attention. To develop an effective catalyst for CO2 reforming of CH4 and accelerate the commercial application of the reaction, the following are identified to be the most important areas for future work: (1) selection of metal and support and studying the effect of their interaction on catalyst activity; (2) the effect of different promoter on catalyst activity; (3) the reaction mechanism and kinetics; and (4) pilot reactor performance and scale-up operation.

The art of interpretation: Tracing logics of evaluation in Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing (2000) and Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing (2010)

Celebration (and the celebritisation) of the Australian-ness of children’s authors who enjoy critical or commercial international success, and especially of those who win international prizes speaks to a desire to partake in both national and international cultural spheres. Prizing is often presumed to both guarantee and emerge from a creator's reputation at home and abroad. Australian artist and writer Shaun Tan has received a wide array of cultural and literary prizes, ranging from Australian book awards, to an Academy Award, to the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Prize. This paper considers logics of evaluation and interpretation as they can be traced in the intratextual, intertextual, and extratextual codes of Shaun Tan’s picture book, The Lost Thing (2000), the animated film adaptation of The Lost Thing (2010). It further considers the ways in which the desire for a global audience may necessitate an erasure of the national culture which is traded on in a global market.

Electrospraying of polymers with therapeutic molecules : state of the art

The encapsulation and release of bioactive molecules from polymeric vehicles represents the holy grail of drug and growth factor delivery therapies, whereby sustained and controlled release is crucial in eliciting a positive therapeutic effect. To this end, electrospraying is rapidly emerging as a popular technology for the production of polymeric particles containing bioactive molecules. Compared with traditional emulsion fabrication techniques, electrospraying has the potential to reduce denaturation of protein drugs and affords tighter regulation over particle size distribution and morphology. In this article, we review the importance of the electrospraying parameters that enable reproducible tailoring of the particles' physical and in vitro drug release characteristics, along with discussion of existing in vivo data. Controlled morphology and monodispersity of particles can be achieved with electrospraying, with high encapsulation efficiencies and without unfavorable denaturation of bioactive molecules throughout the process. Finally, the combination of electrospraying with electrospun scaffolds, with an emphasis on tissue regeneration is reviewed, depicting a technique in its relative infancy but holding great promise for the future of regenerative medicine.

Women from refugee backgrounds and their experiences of attending a specialist antenatal clinic : narratives from an Australian setting

Problem: In response to an identified need, a specialist antenatal clinic for women from refugee backgrounds was introduced in 2008, with an evaluation planned and completed in 2010. Question: Can maternity care experiences for women from refugee backgrounds, attending a specialist antenatal clinic in a tertiary Australian public hospital, be improved? Methods: The evaluation employed mixed methods, generating qualitative and quantitative data from two hospital databases, a chart audit, surveys and interviews with service users, providers and stakeholders. Contributions were received from 202 participants. Findings: The clinic was highly regarded by all participants. Continuity of care throughout the antenatal period was particularly valued by newly arrived women as it afforded them security and support to negotiate an unfamiliar Western maternity system. Positive experiences decreased however; as women transitioned from the clinic to labour and postnatal wards where they reported that their traditional birthing and recuperative practices were often interrupted by the imposition of Western biomedical notions of appropriate care. The centrally located clinic was problematic, frequently requiring complex travel arrangements. Appointment schedules often impacted negatively on traditional spousal and family obligations. Conclusions: Providing comprehensive and culturally responsive maternity care for women from refugee backgrounds is achievable, however it is also resource intensive. The production of translated information which is high quality in terms of production and content, whilst also taking account of languages which are only rarely encountered, is problematic. Cultural competency programmes for staff, ideally online, require regular updating in light of new knowledge and changing political sensitivities.

The paradox of autistic art

Certain autistic children whose linguistic ability is virtually nonexistent can draw natural scenes from memory with astonishing accuracy. In particular their drawings display convincing perspective. In contrast, normal children of the same preschool age group and even untrained adults draw primitive schematics or symbols of objects which they can verbally identify. These are usually conceptual outlines devoid of detail. It is argued that the difference between autistic child artists and normal individuals is that autistic artists make no assumptions about what is to be seen in their environment. They have not formed mental representations of what is significant and consequently perceive all details as equally important. Equivalently, they do not impose visual or linguistic schema -- a process necessary for rapid conceptualisation in a dynamic existence, especially when the information presented to the eye is incomplete.

Constructing the shitting citizen : the promise of scatological art as environmental and social activism

Art activism uses visual and performance art to promote social and environmental agendas. In this paper, I explore attempts to raise awareness of sanitation issues at the global, local and personal level using scatological art. I focus on the successes of the open-air public art exhibition set up in the Brisbane (Queensland, Australia) central business district to celebrate World Toilet Day in 2008. The art in this exhibition featured included one hundred toilets decorated to raise awareness of global sanitation issues and the distribution of promotional materials featuring scatological images including postcards and stickers. Given the subject matter and intent, the toilet art and promotional materials presented at the One Hundred Toilet exhibition can be seen as an example of scatological art employed for the purposes of social and environmental activism. Through the One Hundred Toilet exhibition, I consider the political aims and activist potential of using scatological art to progress social and environmental agendas and consider how this kind of ‘shit on show’ approach can contribute to the construction of the shitting citizen; one who is simultaneously responsible for and responsive to managing the waste that they produce and recognising and responding to broader sanitation issues.