Management of service level agreement for service-oriented content adaptation platform

It is paramount to provide seamless and ubiquitous access to rich contents available online to interested users via a wide range of devices with varied characteristics. Recently, a service-oriented content adaptation scheme has emerged to address this content-device mismatch problem. In this scheme, content adaptation functions are provided as services by third-party providers. Clients pay for the consumed services and thus demand service quality. As such, negotiating for the QoS offers, assuring negotiated QoS levels and accuracy of adapted content version are essential. Any non-compliance should be handled and reported in real time. These issues elevate the management of service level agreement (SLA) as an important problem. This chapter presents prior work, important challenges, and a framework for managing SLA for service-oriented content adaptation platform.

Enhancing audio-haptic enabled novel dental training platform performance

Existing haptic and non-haptic dental simulators do not eliminate the problem of hand instability while using the haptic devices for training purpose. This paper reports an audio-haptic dental training platform, which uses a Hand Stability System to reduce the effect of nervousness and hand instability for trainee dental students. Maintaining the ease of implementation, application customizability and the cost factor, the proposed platform increases the training efficiency by enhancing the immersive haptic experience with hand stability. This haptic platform includes multiple angle viewing techniques, audio feedback and session recording for after action review. Trials using this preliminary platform reduced the effect of human nervousness and hand instability due to the customized design.

Deakin University Library : an active partner in the implementation of the new generation e-learning platform Desire2Learn

Deakin University has a long association with e-learning platforms, utilising the functionality of various Learning Management Systems (LMS) over a period of years. Transforming learning and teaching is a key priority of the University and moving to a new generation e-learning platform that supports engaging learning experiences through quality course design is a strategic imperative.

In 2010 Deakin University selected Desire2Learn as its replacement LMS, an innovative platform that offers next generation functionality. The University is investing significant resources in 2011 to implement the new system. The Library is harnessing the opportunity to embed search and discovery and information access throughout the LMS, including presence at the highest level of navigation. A Library widget providing students with clear pathways and immediate access to key library collections, services and features is being developed by the Library in conjunction with the Faculties‟ academic champions and educational developers. Liaison Librarians are negotiating with academic staff to create context-specific pathways, to utilise Desire2Learn Web2.0 capabilities and to imbed more personalised resources and LibGuides aligned with units of study. This is happening at a time when libraries are introducing new approaches to information discovery.

This paper describes Deakin University Library‟s journey in partnering with academic staff and others across the University to implement Desire2Learn as a vital new e-learning platform. It reports on many outcomes including: value created by embedding quality information in learner-centred course delivery; increased awareness of library subscription resources when accessible within students‟ workspace; strong and continuing relationships built with academic staff; enhanced Library staff engagement with flexible learning principles and new technologies. The question of where embedding information access in online courses and units fits with the Library‟s exploration of web scale solutions is also touched upon. And finally, an insight into how recent research undertaken by Deakin University Library has influenced our approach to information discovery solutions suggests an opportunity for many more questions to be explored.

A Conducting-Polymer Platform with Biodegradable Fibers for Stimulation and Guidance of Axonal Growth

A biosynthetic platform composed of a conducting polypyrrole sheet embedded with unidirectional biodegradable polymer fibers is described (see image; scale bar = 50 µm). Such hybrid systems can promote rapid directional nerve growth for neuro-regenerative scaffolds and act as interfaces between the electronic circuitry of medical bionic devices and the nervous system.

An interspecific Nicotiana Hybrid as a useful and cost-effective platform for production of animal vaccines

The use of transgenic plants to produce novel products has great biotechnological potential as the relatively inexpensive inputs of light, water, and nutrients are utilised in return for potentially valuable bioactive metabolites, diagnostic proteins and vaccines. Extensive research is ongoing in this area internationally with the aim of producing plant-made vaccines of importance for both animals and humans. Vaccine purification is generally regarded as being integral to the preparation of safe and effective vaccines for use in humans. However, the use of crude plant extracts for animal immunisation may enable plant-made vaccines to become a cost-effective and efficacious approach to safely immunise large numbers of farm animals against diseases such as avian influenza. Since the technology associated with genetic transformation and large-scale propagation is very well established in Nicotiana, the genus has attributes well-suited for the production of plant-made vaccines. However the presence of potentially toxic alkaloids in Nicotiana extracts impedes their use as crude vaccine preparations. In the current study we describe a Nicotiana tabacum and N. glauca hybrid that expresses the HA glycoprotein of influenza A in its leaves but does not synthesize alkaloids. We demonstrate that injection with crude leaf extracts from these interspecific hybrid plants is a safe and effective approach for immunising mice. Moreover, this antigen-producing alkaloid-free, transgenic interspecific hybrid is vigorous, with a high capacity for vegetative shoot regeneration after harvesting. These plants are easily propagated by vegetative cuttings and have the added benefit of not producing viable pollen, thus reducing potential problems associated with bio-containment. Hence, these Nicotiana hybrids provide an advantageous production platform for partially purified, plant-made vaccines which may be particularly well suited for use in veterinary immunization programs.

The Australian multiple sclerosis (MS) immunotherapy study: A prospective, multicentre study of drug utilisation using the MSBase platform

To prospectively characterise treatment persistence and predictors of treatment discontinuation in an Australian relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) population. Tertiary MS treatment centres participating in the MSBase registry prospectively assessed treatment utilisation, persistence, predictors of treatment discontinuation and switch rates. Multivariable survival analyses were used to compare treatment persistence between drugs and to identify predictors of treatment discontinuation. 1113 RRMS patients were studied. Patients persisted on their first disease-modifying therapy (DMT) for a median of 2.5 years. Treatment persistence on GA was shorter than on all IFNβ products (p<0.03). Younger age at treatment initiation and higher EDSS were predictive of DMT discontinuation. Patients persisted on subsequent DMTs, for 2.3 years. Patients receiving natalizumab (NAT) as a subsequent DMT persisted longer on treatment than those on IFNβ or GA (p<0.000). The primary reason for treatment discontinuation for any drug class was poor tolerability. Annualised switch or cessation rates were 9.5–12.5% for individual IFNβ products, 11.6% for GA and 4.4% for NAT. This multicentre MS cohort study is the first to directly compare treatment persistence on IFNβ and GA to NAT. We report that treatment persistence in our Australian RRMS population is short, although patients receiving IFNβ as a first DMT persisted longer on treatment than those on GA. Additionally, patients receiving NAT as a subsequent DMT were more likely to persist on treatment than those switched to IFNβ or GA. EDSS and age at DMT initiation were predictive of DMT discontinuation. Treatment intolerance was the principal reason for treatment cessation.

Ionic liquid electrolytes as a platform for rechargeable metal–air batteries: a perspective

Metal-air batteries are a well-established technology that can offer high energy densities, low cost and environmental responsibility. Despite these favourable characteristics and utilisation of oxygen as the cathode reactant, these devices have been limited to primary applications, due to a number of problems that occur when the cell is recharged, including electrolyte loss and poor efficiency. Overcoming these obstacles is essential to creating a rechargeable metal-air battery that can be utilised for efficiently capturing renewable energy. Despite the first metal-air battery being created over 100 years ago, the emergence of reactive metals such as lithium has reinvigorated interest in this field. However the reactivity of some of these metals has generated a number of different philosophies regarding the electrolyte of the metal-air battery. Whilst much is already known about the anode and cathode processes in aqueous and organic electrolytes, the shortcomings of these electrolytes (i.e. volatility, instability, flammability etc.) have led some of the metal-air battery community to study room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) as non-volatile, highly stable electrolytes that have the potential to support rechargeable metal-air battery processes. In this perspective, we discuss how some of these initial studies have demonstrated the capabilities of RTILs as metal-air battery electrolytes. We will also show that much of the long-held mechanistic knowledge of the oxygen electrode processes might not be applicable in RTIL based electrolytes, allowing for creative new solutions to the traditional irreversibility of the oxygen reduction reaction. Our understanding of key factors such as the effect of catalyst chemistry and surface structure, proton activity and interfacial reactions is still in its infancy in these novel electrolytes. In this perspective we highlight the key areas that need the attention of electrochemists and battery engineers, in order to progress the understanding of the physical and electrochemical processes in RTILs as electrolytes for the various forms of rechargeable metal-air batteries.

Humanities Networked Infrastructure (HuNI) research platform

HuNI (Humanities Networked Infrastructure) combines data from many Australian cultural websites into the biggest humanities and creative arts database ever assembled in Australia. HuNI data covers all disciplines and brings together information about the people, works, events, organisations and places that make up the country's rich cultural landscape.

Robust non-fragile control for offshore steel jacket platform with nonlinear perturbations

This study is concerned with the design of a non-fragile controller for an offshore steel jacket platform with nonlinear perturbations. The delay-dependent sufficient conditions are derived in terms of linear matrix inequalities based on suitable Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional, the second-order reciprocally convex approach and the lower bound lemma. The results indicate asymptotic stability of the offshore steel jacket platform utilizing the proposed non-fragile controller. Besides that, robust stability conditions are derived for an uncertain offshore platform subject to the non-fragile controller. A numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed theoretical results.

HealthMap: a visual platform for patient suicide risk review

Misjudging suicide risk can be fatal. Risk assessment is complicated by multiplicity of risk factors, none of which individually can reliably predict risk. This paper addresses the need for better clinical support, visualising risk factors scattered in raw electronic medical records. HealthMap is a visual tool that helps clinicians effectively examine patient histories during a suicide risk assessment. We characterise the information visualisation problems accompanying suicide risk assessments. A design driven by visualisation principles was implemented. The prototype was evaluated by clinicians and accepted into daily clinical work-flow.

Efficient consolidation-aware VCPU scheduling on multicore virtualization platform

Multicore processors are widely used in today's computer systems. Multicore virtualization technology provides an elastic solution to more efficiently utilize the multicore system. However, the Lock Holder Preemption (LHP) problem in the virtualized multicore systems causes significant CPU cycles wastes, which hurt virtual machine (VM) performance and reduces response latency. The system consolidates more VMs, the LHP problem becomes worse. In this paper, we propose an efficient consolidation-aware vCPU (CVS) scheduling scheme on multicore virtualization platform. Based on vCPU over-commitment rate, the CVS scheduling scheme adaptively selects one algorithm among three vCPU scheduling algorithms: co-scheduling, yield-to-head, and yield-to-tail based on the vCPU over-commitment rate because the actions of vCPU scheduling are split into many single steps such as scheduling vCPUs simultaneously or inserting one vCPU into the run-queue from the head or tail. The CVS scheme can effectively improve VM performance in the low, middle, and high VM consolidation scenarios. Using real-life parallel benchmarks, our experimental results show that the proposed CVS scheme improves the overall system performance while the optimization overhead remains low.

Evaluation of a knowledge translation and exchange platform to advance non-communicable disease prevention

Coordinated systems are required to ensure evidence-informed practice and evaluation of community-based interventions (CBIs). Knowledge translation and exchange (KTE) strategies show promise, but these require evaluation. This paper describes implementation and evaluation of COOPS, a national KTE platform to support best practice in obesity prevention CBIs. A logic model guides KTE activities including knowledge brokering, networking, tailored communications, training, and needs assessments. A mixed-methods evaluation includes communications data, knowledge brokering database, annual survey of CBIs, pre- and post-event questionnaires, interviews, social network analysis, and case studies. This evaluation will contribute to understanding the process of implementing a KTE platform with CBIs and its reach, quality and effectiveness.

Cross-platform urine metabolomics of experimental hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetes

Hyperglycemia causes diabetic nephropathy, a condition for which there are no specific diagnostic markers thatpredict progression to renal failure. Here we describe a multiplatform metabolomic analysis of urine from individualswith type 2 diabetes, collected before and immediately following experimental hyperglycemia. We used targetednuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), liquid chromatography - mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and gaschromatography - MS (GC-MS) to identify markers of hyperglycemia. Following optimization of data normalisation andstatistical analysis, we identified a reproducible NMR and LC-MS based urine signature of hyperglycemia. Significantincreases of alanine, alloisoleucine, isoleucine, leucine, N-isovaleroylglycine, valine, choline, lactate and taurine anddecreases of arginine, gamma-aminobutyric acid, hippurate, suberate and N-acetylglutamate were observed. GC-MSanalysis identified a number of metabolites differentially present in post-glucose versus baseline urine, but these could not be identified using current metabolite libraries. This analysis is an important first step towards identifying biomarkers of early-stage diabetic nephropathy.