Land fraud and inappropriate dealings in an electronic environment : An Australian and New Zealand perspective

The thesis presented in this paper is that the land fraud committed by Matthew Perrin in Queensland and inflicted upon Roger Mildenhall in Western Australia demonstrates the need for urgent procedural reform to the conveyancing process. Should this not occur, then calls to reform the substantive principles of the Torrens system will be heard throughout the jurisdictions that adopt title by registration, particularly in those places where immediate indefeasibility is still the norm. This paper closely examines the factual matrix behind both of these frauds, and asks what steps should have been taken to prevent them occurring. With 2012 bringing us Australian legislation embedding a national e-conveyancing system and a new Land Transfer Act for New Zealand we ask what legislative measures should be introduced to minimise the potential for such fraud. In undertaking this study, we reflect on whether the activities of Perrin and the criminals responsible for stealing Mildenhall's land would have succeeded under the present system for automated registration utilised in New Zealand.

Unit commitment in power systems with plug-in hybrid electric vehicles

With the continued development of renewable energy generation technologies and increasing pressure to combat the global effects of greenhouse warming, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) have received worldwide attention, finding applications in North America and Europe. When a large number of PHEVs are introduced into a power system, there will be extensive impacts on power system planning and operation, as well as on electricity market development. It is therefore necessary to properly control PHEV charging and discharging behaviors. Given this background, a new unit commitment model and its solution method that takes into account the optimal PHEV charging and discharging controls is presented in this paper. A 10-unit and 24-hour unit commitment (UC) problem is employed to demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the developed method, and the impacts of the wide applications of PHEVs on the operating costs and the emission of the power system are studied. Case studies are also carried out to investigate the impacts of different PHEV penetration levels and different PHEV charging modes on the results of the UC problem. A 100-unit system is employed for further analysis on the impacts of PHEVs on the UC problem in a larger system application. Simulation results demonstrate that the employment of optimized PHEV charging and discharging modes is very helpful for smoothing the load curve profile and enhancing the ability of the power system to accommodate more PHEVs. Furthermore, an optimal Vehicle to Grid (V2G) discharging control provides economic and efficient backups and spinning reserves for the secure and economic operation of the power system

Towards semantic search and inference in electronic medical records : an approach using concept-based information retrieval

Background This paper presents a novel approach to searching electronic medical records that is based on concept matching rather than keyword matching. Aim The concept-based approach is intended to overcome specific challenges we identified in searching medical records. Method Queries and documents were transformed from their term-based originals into medical concepts as defined by the SNOMED-CT ontology. Results Evaluation on a real-world collection of medical records showed our concept-based approach outperformed a keyword baseline by 25% in Mean Average Precision. Conclusion The concept-based approach provides a framework for further development of inference based search systems for dealing with medical data.

Validation of a new hand-held electronic data capture method for continuous monitoring of subjective appetite sensations

Background When large scale trials are investigating the effects of interventions on appetite, it is paramount to efficiently monitor large amounts of human data. The original hand-held Electronic Appetite Ratings System (EARS) was designed to facilitate the administering and data management of visual analogue scales (VAS) of subjective appetite sensations. The purpose of this study was to validate a novel hand-held method (EARS II (HP® iPAQ)) against the standard Pen and Paper (P&P) method and the previously validated EARS. Methods Twelve participants (5 male, 7 female, aged 18-40) were involved in a fully repeated measures design. Participants were randomly assigned in a crossover design, to either high fat (>48% fat) or low fat (<28% fat) meal days, one week apart and completed ratings using the three data capture methods ordered according to Latin Square. The first set of appetite sensations was completed in a fasted state, immediately before a fixed breakfast. Thereafter, appetite sensations were completed every thirty minutes for 4h. An ad libitum lunch was provided immediately before completing a final set of appetite sensations. Results Repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted for ratings of hunger, fullness and desire to eat. There were no significant differences between P&P compared with either EARS or EARS II (p > 0.05). Correlation coefficients between P&P and EARS II, controlling for age and gender, were performed on Area Under the Curve ratings. R2 for Hunger (0.89), Fullness (0.96) and Desire to Eat (0.95) were statistically significant (p < 0.05). Conclusions EARS II was sensitive to the impact of a meal and recovery of appetite during the postprandial period and is therefore an effective device for monitoring appetite sensations. This study provides evidence and support for further validation of the novel EARS II method for monitoring appetite sensations during large scale studies. The added versatility means that future uses of the system provides the potential to monitor a range of other behavioural and physiological measures often important in clinical and free living trials.

Performance analysis of PTP components for IEC 61850 process bus applications

New substation automation applications, such as sampled value process buses and synchrophasors, require sampling accuracy of 1 µs or better. The Precision Time Protocol (PTP), IEEE Std 1588, achieves this level of performance and integrates well into Ethernet based substation networks. This paper takes a systematic approach to the performance evaluation of commercially available PTP devices (grandmaster, slave, transparent and boundary clocks) from a variety of manufacturers. The ``error budget'' is set by the performance requirements of each application. The ``expenditure'' of this error budget by each component is valuable information for a system designer. The component information is used to design a synchronization system that meets the overall functional requirements. The quantitative performance data presented shows that this testing is effective and informative. Results from testing PTP performance in the presence of sampled value process bus traffic demonstrate the benefit of a ``bottom up'' component testing approach combined with ``top down'' system verification tests. A test method that uses a precision Ethernet capture card, rather than dedicated PTP test sets, to determine the Correction Field Error of transparent clocks is presented. This test is particularly relevant for highly loaded Ethernet networks with stringent timing requirements. The methods presented can be used for development purposes by manufacturers, or by system integrators for acceptance testing. A sampled value process bus was used as the test application for the systematic approach described in this paper. The test approach was applied, components were selected, and the system performance verified to meet the application's requirements. Systematic testing, as presented in this paper, is applicable to a range of industries that use, rather than develop, PTP for time transfer.

Director liability for uncommercial transactions : is s 588G(1A) impotent to provide liquidators the means to seek compensation for creditors?

In the 10 years since the addition of uncommercial transactions to the table of deemed “debts incurred” in s 588G(1A) of the Corporations Act, the sub-section has arguably achieved little. This article explains why this has been so, and what needs to be done to enable this aspect of Australia’s insolvent trading laws to operate effectively and as originally intended.

Personalised electronic messages to improve sun protection in young adults

The incidence of all skin cancers, including melanoma, continues to rise. It is well known that ultraviolet (UV) radiation is the main environmental risk factor for skin cancer, and excessive exposure at a young age increases the risk of developing skin cancer. The aim of this study was to determine the acceptability and feasibility of delivering sun protection messages via electronic media such as short message services (SMS) to people 18-40 years, and explore factors associated with their acceptability. Overall, 80% of participants agreed that they would like to receive some form of sun protection advice; of these, 20% prefer to receive it via SMS and 42% via email. Willingness to receive electronic messages about the UV index was associated with being unsure about whether a suntanned person would look healthy and greater use of sun protection in the past. Careful attention to message framing and timing of message delivery and focus on short-term effects of sun exposure such as sunburn and skin ageing should increase the acceptability of such messages to young people. We conclude that sun protection messages delivered to young adults via electronic media appear feasible and acceptable.

Identity verification in conveyancing : the failure of current legislative and regulatory measures, and recommendations for change

"Defrauding land titles systems impacts upon us all. Those who deal in land include ordinary citizens, big business, small business, governments, not-for-profit organisation, deceased estates...Fraud here touches almost everybody." the thesis presented in this paper is that the current and disparate steps taken by jurisdictions to alleviate land fraud associated with identity-based crimes are inadequate. The centrepiece of the analysis is the consideration of two scenarios that have recently occurred. One is the typical scenario where a spouse forges the partner's signature to obtain a mortgage from a financial institution. The second is atypical. It involves a sophisticated overseas fraud duping many stakeholders involved in the conveyancing process. After outlining these scenarios, we will examine how identity verification requirements of the United Kingdom, Ontario, the Australian states, and New Zealand would have been applied to these two frauds. Our conclusion is that even though some jurisdictions may have prevented the frauds from occurring, the current requirements are inadequate. We use the lessons learnt to propose what we consider core principles for identity verification in land transactions.

Performance analysis of IEC 61850 sampled value process bus networks

Process bus networks are the next stage in the evolution of substation design, bringing digital technology to the high voltage switchyard. Benefits of process buses include facilitating the use of Non-Conventional Instrument Transformers, improved disturbance recording and phasor measurement and the removal of costly, and potentially hazardous, copper cabling from substation switchyards and control rooms. This paper examines the role a process bus plays in an IEC 61850 based Substation Automation System. Measurements taken from a process bus substation are used to develop an understanding of the network characteristics of "whole of substation" process buses. The concept of "coherent transmission" is presented and the impact of this on Ethernet switches is examined. Experiments based on substation observations are used to investigate in detail the behavior of Ethernet switches with sampled value traffic. Test methods that can be used to assess the adequacy of a network are proposed, and examples of the application and interpretation of these tests are provided. Once sampled value frames are queued by an Ethernet switch the additional delay incurred by subsequent switches is minimal, and this allows their use in switchyards to further reduce communications cabling, without significantly impacting operation. The performance and reliability of a process bus network operating with close to the theoretical maximum number of digital sampling units (merging units or electronic instrument transformers) was investigated with networking equipment from several vendors, and has been demonstrated to be acceptable.

Network interactions and performance of a multi-function IEC 61850 process bus

New substation technology, such as non-conventional instrument transformers,and a need to reduce design and construction costs, are driving the adoption of Ethernet based digital process bus networks for high voltage substations. Protection and control applications can share a process bus, making more efficient use of the network infrastructure. This paper classifies and defines performance requirements for the protocols used in a process bus on the basis of application. These include GOOSE, SNMP and IEC 61850-9-2 sampled values. A method, based on the Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP) and virtual local area networks, is presented that separates management and monitoring traffic from the rest of the process bus. A quantitative investigation of the interaction between various protocols used in a process bus is described. These tests also validate the effectiveness of the MSTP based traffic segregation method. While this paper focusses on a substation automation network, the results are applicable to other real-time industrial networks that implement multiple protocols. High volume sampled value data and time-critical circuit breaker tripping commands do not interact on a full duplex switched Ethernet network, even under very high network load conditions. This enables an efficient digital network to replace a large number of conventional analog connections between control rooms and high voltage switchyards.

Outline of the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth)

Australia has new national legislation - the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) and the Personal Property Securities Regulations 2010 – which commenced operation on 30 January 2012. The policy objectives of the new legislation are to increase certainty and consistency and to reduce complexity and cost. To achieve this, the legislation treats like transactions alike, by focusing on substance over form, and so removes distinctions between security interests which have been based on their structure. Differences based on the location or nature of the secured property and the debtor’s legal form, as an individual or company, have also disappeared. We now have one single national scheme and one national electronic registration system for all security interests throughout Australia. The Act applies to security interests in tangible and intangible personal property, including those based on some form of title retention which are not security interests under the general law. This legislation rationalises previous laws and bring about substantial changes to this area of law. This paper seeks to explain the principal changes and their implications.