Visual effects in great bowerbird sexual displays and their implications for signal design

It is often assumed that the primary purpose of a male's sexual display is to provide information about quality, or to strongly stimulate prospective mates, but other functions of courtship displays have been relatively neglected. Male great bowerbirds (Ptilonorhynchus nuchalis) construct bowers that exploit the female's predictable field of view (FOV) during courtship displays by creating forced perspective illusions, and the quality of illusion is a good predictor of mating success. Here, we present and discuss two additional components of male courtship displays that use the female's predetermined viewpoint: (i) the rapid and diverse flashing of coloured objects within her FOV and (ii) chromatic adaptation of the female's eyes that alters her perception of the colour of the displayed objects. Neither is directly related to mating success, but both are likely to increase signal efficacy, and may also be associated with attracting and holding the female's attention. Signal efficacy is constrained by trade-offs between the signal components; there are both positive and negative interactions within multicomponent signals. Important signal components may have a threshold effect on fitness rather than the often assumed linear relationship.

Clinical review criteria and medical emergency teams: evaluating a two-tier rapid response system

OBJECTIVES: To assess the prevalence of patients fulfilling clinical review criteria (CRC), to determine activation rates for CRC assessments, to compare baseline characteristics and outcomes of patients who fulfilled CRC with patients who did not, and to identify the documented nursing actions in response to CRC values. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A cross-sectional study using a retrospective medical record audit, in a universityaffiliated, tertiary referral hospital with a two-tier rapid response system in Melbourne, Australia. We used a convenience sample of hospital inpatients on general medical, surgical and specialist service wards admitted during a 24-hour period in 2013. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Medical emergency team (MET) or code blue activation, unplanned intensive care unit admissions, hospital length of stay and inhospital mortality. For patients who fulfilled CRC or MET criteria during the 24- hour period, the specific criteria fulfilled, escalation treatments and outcomes were collected. RESULTS: Of the sample (N = 422), 81 patients (19%) fulfilled CRC on 109 occasions. From 109 CRC events, 66 patients (81%) had at least one observation fulfilling CRC, and 15 patients (18%) met CRC on multiple occasions. The documented escalation rate was 58 of 109 events (53%). The number of patients who fulfilled CRC and subsequent MET call activation criteria within 24 hours was significantly greater than the number who did not meet CRC (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: About one in five patients reached CRC during the study period; these patients were about four times more likely to also fulfil MET call criteria. Contrary to hospital policy, escalation was not documented for about half the patients meeting CRC values. Despite the clarity of escalation procedures on the graphic observation chart, escalation remains an ongoing problem. Further research is needed on the impact on patient outcomes over time and to understand factors influencing staff response.

The effect of a staged, emergency department specific rapid response system on reporting of clinical deterioration

BACKGROUND: Despite emerging evidence regarding clinical deterioration in emergency department (ED) patients, the widespread uptake of rapid response systems (RRS) in EDs has been limited. AIMS: To evaluate the effect of an ED RRS on reporting of clinical deterioration and determine if there were differences between patients who did, and did not, deteriorate during ED care. METHODS: A retrospective cross sectional design was used to conduct this single site study in Melbourne, Australia. Stratified random sampling identified 50 patients with shortness of breath, chest pain or abdominal pain per each year studied (2009-2012) giving a total of 600 patients. The intervention was an ED RRS implemented in stages. RESULTS: The frequency of clinical deterioration was 14.8% (318 episodes/89 patients). Unreported deterioration decreased each year (86.7%; 68.8%; 55.3%; 54.0%, p=0.141). Patients who deteriorated during ED care had a longer median ED length of stay (2.8h; p<0.001), were 31.9% more likely to need hospital admission (p<0.001) and 4.9% more likely to die in hospital (p=0.044). CONCLUSIONS: A staged ED specific RRS decreased the frequency of unreported clinical deterioration. Controlled multi-site studies of ED specific RRSs are needed to examine the effect of formal ED RRSs on patient outcomes.

Improving the health of Australians by applying evidence from behavioural epidemiology to urban design projects

Rapid urban population growth in Australia requires an expansion of supporting hard and soft infrastructure. In the State of Victoria, directing this growth are a number of urban design and planning mechanisms that provide a ‘blueprint for development and investment’. Although topics revolving around physical health are present in these and other planning related documents, largely absent from this literature are ‘tools’ to assist decision makers in determining whether or not an urban setting supports physical health and provides opportunities for physical activity. Insufficient physical activity is a risk factor contributing to Australia’s growing and significant burden of chronic disease including cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and overweight/obesity. The potential of the built environment to influence population-level physical activity is well recognised. A key element in Victoria’s planning framework that can help address these health concerns is the provision and redevelopment of open space(s) in urban areas that provide opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to engage in physical activity. However, in the realisation of these settings, evidence informing the design of urban open space(s) that promote opportunities for physical activity is needed to produce evidence based decision making. Using the three geo-spatial visioning layers embedded in Victoria’s planning framework (i.e. Growth Area Framework Plans, Precinct Structure Plans and Planning Permits) as positioning instruments, this paper merges the fields of behavioural epidemiology and urban design to: i) provide a brief overview of current research relating to design of open space to optimise usage and physical activity, ii) consider what type of evidence relating to features of open space is needed to help inform decision makers, iii) consider the methods and procedures practitioners may use to incorporate evidence in to their planning, and iv) discuss the geo-spatial development level that the respective data can best assist decision making to achieve positive gains in physical health.

Industry case study: rapid prototype of mountain bike frame section

The purpose of this study is to detail a virtual and physical prototyping process to overcome a design constraint in the mountain bike industry. Through a series of techniques, 3D scanning, developing detailed CAD models, then through additive manufacturing processes, a solution wasdeveloped. The challenge in the industry is the constant geometrical changes of components; the trend has been that bike cranks are becoming narrower due to biomechanical factors and tyres are becoming wider due to rider preferences and increased grip. This change in geometry results in metal tubes that can no longer be deformed without exceeding the minimum bend radius for the material. As such exceeding the minimum bend radius will induce early performance failure and geometrical (aesthetic) defects. The solution is an additivemanufactured part that can be substituted into the process without disrupting the entire conventional build process of a customised bike build.

Design and evaluation of coordinated in-network caching model for content centric networking

In-network caching has been widely adopted in Content Centric Networking (CCN) to accelerate data delivery, mitigate server load and reduce network traffic. However, the line-speed requirement makes the in-network caching space very limited. With the rapid growth of network traffic, it is significant challenging to decide content placement in such limited cache space. To conquer this conflict, coordinated in-network caching schemes are needed so as to maximize the profit of ubiquitous caching capacities. In particular, in-network caching in CCN is deployed as an arbitrary network topology and naturally supports dynamic request routing. Therefore, content placement scheme and dynamic request routing are tightly coupled and should be addressed together. In this paper, we propose a coordinated in-network caching model to decide the optimal content placement and the shortest request routing path under constraints of cache space and link bandwidth in a systematic fashion. Via extensive simulations, the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed model has been validated.