Do cyclic changes in women's face preferences target cues to long-term health?

A shift to prefer more masculine male faces when conception risk is high may be an adaptation for finding mates with good disease resistance. We investigated whether preferences for other facial cues to long-term health also increase when conception is likely. We examined preferences for the faces of men with good health histories and for facial averageness and symmetry, two putative indicators of health during development. Preferences were tested at two points in the menstrual cycle that differed maximally in conception risk. No cyclic changes in preferences were found. We consider implications for the sexual selection of variation in preferences across the menstrual cycle.

Improving telemarketing intelligence through significant proportion of target instances

In this paper we propose, develop, and test a new single-feature evaluator called Significant Proportion of Target Instances (SPTI) to handle the direct-marketing data with the class imbalance problem. The SPTI feature evaluator demonstrates its stability and outstanding performance through empirical experiments in which the real- orld customer data of an e-recruitment firm are used. This research demonstrates that the feature selection using SPTI successfully improves the classifier’s performance in terms of two practical performance metrics. Additionally, we show that it outperforms other well-known feature selection methods and state-of-the-art remedies to the class-imbalance problem. Practically, the findings, when used with the classification model, will help telemarketers to better understand their customers.

Skeletal muscle reactive oxygen species: a target of good cop/bad cop for exercise and disease

Metabolic stresses associated with disease, ageing, and exercise increase the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in skeletal muscle. These ROS have been linked mechanistically to adaptations in skeletal muscle that can be favourable (i.e. in response to exercise) or detrimental (i.e. in response to disease). The magnitude, duration (acute versus chronic), and cellular origin of the ROS are important underlying factors in determining the metabolic perturbations associated with the ROS produced in skeletal muscle. In particular, insulin resistance has been linked to excess ROS production in skeletal muscle mitochondria. A chronic excess of mitochondrial ROS can impair normal insulin signalling pathways and glucose disposal in skeletal muscle. In contrast, ROS produced in skeletal muscle in response to exercise has been linked to beneficial metabolic adaptations including mitochondrial biogenesis and muscle hypertrophy. Moreover, unlike insulin resistance, exercise-induced ROS appears to be primarily of non-mitochondrial origin. The present review summarizes the diverse ROS-targeted metabolic outcomes associated with insulin resistance versus exercise in skeletal muscle, thus, presenting two contrasting perspectives of pathologically harmful versus physiologically beneficial ROS. Here, we discuss the key sites of ROS production during exercise and the effect of ROS in skeletal muscle of people with type 2 diabetes.

Managing ICT costs in e-commerce organizations with the time-driven activity-based costing model: a note

As online business activities continue to grow, it is important for organizations to understand the implications of being an e-commerce organization and the appropriateness of applying existing business techniques to e-commerce organizations. This paper examines issues in managing information and communication technologies (ICT) costs in e-commerce organizations and the potentials of the Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TDABC) model as a solution to these issues. The reliance on ICT in value creation, the unique natures of ICT costs and the need to maintain updated costing models present new challenges to e-commerce organizations in management of ICT costs. The TDABC model, as a variant of the Activity-Based Costing (ABC) model, inherits the strengths of activity-based paradigm and has unique features that can provide additional benefits to e-commerce organizations.

Last drinks: a study of rural emergency department data collection to identify and target community alcohol-related violence

The present study summarises the methodology and findings of a pilot project designed to measure the sources and locations of alcohol-related harm by implementing anonymised 'last drinks' questions in the ED of a rural community.

Target coverage in camera networks for manufacturing workplaces

In this paper, we investigate the camera network placement problem for target coverage in manufacturing workplaces. The problem is formulated to find the minimum number of cameras of different types and their best configurations to maximise the coverage of the monitored workplace such that the given set of target points of interest are each k-covered with a predefined minimum spatial resolution. Since the problem is NP-complete, and even NP-hard to approximate, a novel method based on Simulated Annealing is presented to solve the optimisation problem. A new neighbourhood generation function is proposed to handle the discrete nature of the problem. The visual coverage is modelled using realistic and coherent assumptions of camera intrinsic and extrinsic parameters making it suitable for many real world camera based applications. Task-specific quality of coverage measure is proposed to assist selecting the best among the set of camera network placements with equal coverage. A 3D CAD of the monitored space is used to examine physical occlusions of target points. The results show the accuracy, efficiency and scalability of the presented solution method; which can be applied effectively in the design of practical camera networks.

Building Nature’s Safety Net 2014 : A decade of protected area achievements in Australia

The single most important asset for the conservation of Australia’s unique and globally significant biodiversity is the National Reserve System, a mosaic of over 10,000 discrete protected areas on land on all tenures: government, Indigenous and private,including on-farm covenants, as well as state, territory and Commonwealth marine parks and reserves.THE NATIONAL RESERVE SYSTEMIn this report, we cover major National Reserve System initiatives that have occurred in the period 2002 to the present and highlight issues affecting progress toward agreed national objectives. We define a minimum standard for the National Reserve System to comprehensively, adequately and representatively protect Australia’s ecosystem and species diversity on sea and land. Using government protected area, species and other relevant spatial data, we quantify gaps: those areas needing to move from the current National Reserve System to one which meets this standard. We also provide new estimates of financial investments in protected areas and of the benefits that protected areas secure for society. Protected areas primarily serve to secure Australia’s native plants and animals against extinction, and to promote their recovery.BENEFITSProtected areas also secure ecosystem services that provide economic benefits forhuman communities including water, soil and beneficial species conservation, climatemoderation, social, cultural and health benefits. On land, we estimate these benefitsare worth over $38 billion a year, by applying data collated by the Ecosystem ServicesPartnership. A much larger figure is estimated to have been secured by marineprotected areas in the form of moderation of climate and impact of extreme eventsby reef and mangrove ecosystems. While these estimates have not been verified bystudies specific to Australia, they are indicative of a very large economic contributionof protected areas. Visitors to national parks and nature reserves spend over $23.6 billion a year in Australia, generating tax revenue for state and territory governments of $2.36 billion a year. All these economic benefits taken together greatly exceed the aggregate annual protected area expansion and management spending by all Australian governments, estimated to be ~$1.28 billion a year. It is clear that Australian society is benefiting far greater than its governments’ investment into strategic growth and maintenance of the National Reserve System.Government investment and policy settings play a leading role in strategic growth of the National Reserve System in Australia, and provide a critical stimulus fornon-government investment. Unprecedented expansion of the National Reserve System followed an historic boost in Australian Government funding under Caring for Our Country 2008–2013. This expansion was highly economical for the Australian Government, costing an average of only $44.40 per hectare to buy and protect land forever. State governments have contributed about six times this amount toward the expansion of the National Reserve System, after including in-perpetuity protected area management costs. The growth of Indigenous Protected Areas by the Australian Government has cost ~$26 per hectare on average, including management costs capitalised in-perpetuity, while also delivering Indigenous social and economic outcomes. The aggregate annual investment by all Australian governments has been ~$72.6 million per year on protected area growth and ~$1.21 billion per year on recurrent management costs. For the first time in almost two decades, however, the Australian Government’s National Reserve System Program, comprising a specialist administrative unit and funding allocation, was terminated in late 2012. This program was fundamental in driving significant strategic growth in Australia’s protected area estate. It is highly unlikely that Australia can achieve its long-standing commitments to an ecologically representative National Reserve System, and prevent major biodiversity loss, without this dedicated funding pool. The Australian Government has budgeted ~$400 million per year over the next five years (2013-2018) under the National Landcare and related programs. This funding program should give high priority to delivery of national protected area commitments by providing a distinct National Reserve System funding allocation. Under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Australia has committed to bringing at least 17 percent of terrestrial and at least 10 per cent of marine areas into ecologically representative, well-connected systems of protected areas by 2020 (Aichi Target 11).BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATIONAustralia also has an agreed intergovernmental Strategy for developing a comprehensive, adequate and representative National Reserve System on land andsea that, if implemented, would deliver on this CBD target. Due to dramatic recent growth, the National Reserve System covers 16.5 per cent of Australia’s land area, with highly protected areas, such as national parks, covering 8.3 per cent. The marine National Reserve System extends over one-third of Australian waters with highly protected areas such as marine national parks, no-take or green zones covering 13.5 per cent. Growth has been uneven however, and the National Reserve System is still far from meeting Aichi Target 11, which requires that it also be ecologically representative and well-connected. On land, 1,655 of 5,815 ecosystems and habitats for 138 of 1,613 threatened species remain unprotected. Nonetheless, 436 terrestrial ecosystems and 176 threatened terrestrial species attained minimum standards of protection due to growth of the National Reserve System on land between 2002 and 2012. The gap for ecosystem protection on land – the area needed to bring all ecosystems to the minimum standard of protection – closed by a very substantial 20 million hectares (from 77 down to 57 million hectares) between 2002 and 2012, not including threatened species protection gaps. Threatened species attaining a minimum standard for habitat protection increased from 27 per cent to 38 per cent over the decade 2002–2012. A low proportion of critically endangered species meeting the standard (29 per cent) and the high proportion with no protection at all (20 per cent) are cause for concern, but one which should be relatively easy to amend, as the distributions of these species tend to be small and localised. Protected area connectivity has increased modestly for terrestrial protected areas in terms of the median distance between neighbouring protected areas, but this progress has been undermined by increasing land use intensity in landscapes between protected areas.A comprehensive, adequate and representative marine reserve system, which meetsa standard of 15 per cent of each of 2,420 marine ecosystems and 30 per cent of thehabitats of each of 177 marine species of national environmental significance, wouldrequire expansion of marine national parks, no-take or green zones up to nearly 30per cent of state and Australian waters, not substantially different in overall extentfrom that of the current marine reserve system, but different in configuration.Protection of climate change refugia, connectivity and special places for biodiversityis still low and requires high priority attention. FINANCING TO FILL GAPS AND MEET COMMITMENTSIf the ‘comprehensiveness’ and ‘representativeness’ targets in the agreed terrestrial National Reserve System Strategy were met by 2020, Australia would be likely to have met the ‘ecologically representative’ requirement of Aichi Target 11. This would requireexpanding the terrestrial reserve system by at least 25 million hectares. Considering that the terrestrial ecosystem protection gap has closed by 20 million hectares over the past decade, this required expansion would be feasible with a major boost in investment and focus on long-standing priorities. A realistic mix of purchases, Indigenous Protected Areas and private land covenants would require an Australian Government National Reserve System investment of ~$170 million per year over the five years to 2020, representing ~42 per cent of the $400 million per year which the Australian Government has budgeted for landcare and conservation over the next five years. State, territory and local governments, private and Indigenous partners wouldlikewise need to boost financial commitments to both expand and maintain newprotected areas to meet the agreed National Reserve System strategic objectives.The total cost of Australia achieving a comprehensive, adequate and representativemarine reserve system that would satisfy Aichi Target 11 is an estimated $247 million.

Does angling technique selectively target fishes based on their behavioural type?

Recently, there has been growing recognition that fish harvesting practices can have important impacts on the phenotypic distributions and diversity of natural populations through a phenomenon known as fisheries-induced evolution. Here we experimentally show that two common recreational angling techniques (active crank baits versus passive soft plastics) differentially target wild largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) and rock bass (Ambloplites rupestris) based on variation in their behavioural tendencies. Fish were first angled in the wild using both techniques and then brought back to the laboratory and tested for individual-level differences in common estimates of personality (refuge emergence, flight-initiation-distance, latency-to-recapture and with a net, and general activity) in an in-lake experimental arena. We found that different angling techniques appear to selectively target these species based on their boldness (as characterized by refuge emergence, a standard measure of boldness in fishes) but not other assays of personality. We also observed that body size was independently a significant predictor of personality in both species, though this varied between traits and species. Our results suggest a context-dependency for vulnerability to capture relative to behaviour in these fish species. Ascertaining the selective pressures angling practices exert on natural populations is an important area of fisheries research with significant implications for ecology, evolution, and resource management.

The extra resource burden of in-hospital falls: a cost of falls study

OBJECTIVE: To quantify the additional hospital length of stay (LOS) and costs associated with in-hospital falls and fall injuries in acute hospitals in Australia. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A multisite prospective cohort study conducted during 2011-2013 in the control wards of a falls prevention trial (6-PACK). The trial included all admissions to 12 acute medical and surgical wards of six Australian hospitals. In-hospital falls data were collected from medical record reviews, daily verbal reports by ward nurse unit managers, and hospital incident reporting and administrative databases. Clinical costing data were linked for three of the six participating hospitals to calculate patient-level costs. OUTCOME MEASURES: Hospital LOS and costs associated with in-hospital falls and fall injuries for each patient admission. RESULTS: We found that 966 of a total of 27 026 hospital admissions (3.6%) involved at least one fall, and 313 (1.2%) at least one fall injury, a total of 1330 falls and 418 fall injuries. After adjustment for age, sex, cognitive impairment, admission type, comorbidity and clustering by hospital, patients who had an in-hospital fall had a mean increase in LOS of 8 days (95% CI, 5.8-10.4; P < 0.001) compared with non-fallers, and incurred mean additional hospital costs of $6669 (95% CI, $3888-$9450; P < 0.001). Patients with a fall-related injury had a mean increase in LOS of 4 days (95% CI, 1.8-6.6; P = 0.001) compared with those who fell without injury, and there was also a tendency to additional hospital costs (mean, $4727; 95% CI, -$568 to $10 022; P = 0.080). CONCLUSION: Patients who experience an in-hospital fall have significantly longer hospital stays and higher costs. Programs need to target the prevention of all falls, not just the reduction of fall-related injuries.

The Glutathione System: a new drug target in neuroimmune disorders

Glutathione (GSH) has a crucial role in cellular signaling and antioxidant defenses either by reacting directly with reactive oxygen or nitrogen species or by acting as an essential cofactor for GSH S-transferases and glutathione peroxidases. GSH acting in concert with its dependent enzymes, known as the glutathione system, is responsible for the detoxification of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) and electrophiles produced by xenobiotics. Adequate levels of GSH are essential for the optimal functioning of the immune system in general and T cell activation and differentiation in particular. GSH is a ubiquitous regulator of the cell cycle per se. GSH also has crucial functions in the brain as an antioxidant, neuromodulator, neurotransmitter, and enabler of neuron survival. Depletion of GSH leads to exacerbation of damage by oxidative and nitrosative stress; hypernitrosylation; increased levels of proinflammatory mediators and inflammatory potential; dysfunctions of intracellular signaling networks, e.g., p53, nuclear factor-κB, and Janus kinases; decreased cell proliferation and DNA synthesis; inactivation of complex I of the electron transport chain; activation of cytochrome c and the apoptotic machinery; blockade of the methionine cycle; and compromised epigenetic regulation of gene expression. As such, GSH depletion has marked consequences for the homeostatic control of the immune system, oxidative and nitrosative stress (O&NS) pathways, regulation of energy production, and mitochondrial survival as well. GSH depletion and concomitant increase in O&NS and mitochondrial dysfunctions play a role in the pathophysiology of diverse neuroimmune disorders, including depression, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and Parkinson’s disease, suggesting that depleted GSH is an integral part of these diseases. Therapeutical interventions that aim to increase GSH concentrations in vivo include N-acetyl cysteine; Nrf-2 activation via hyperbaric oxygen therapy; dimethyl fumarate; phytochemicals, including curcumin, resveratrol, and cinnamon; and folate supplementation.

Target coverage through distributed clustering in directional sensor networks

Maximum target coverage with minimum number of sensor nodes, known as an MCMS problem, is an important problem in directional sensor networks (DSNs). For guaranteed coverage and event reporting, the underlying mechanism must ensure that all targets are covered by the sensors and the resulting network is connected. Existing solutions allow individual sensor nodes to determine the sensing direction for maximum target coverage which produces sensing coverage redundancy and much overhead. Gathering nodes into clusters might provide a better solution to this problem. In this paper, we have designed distributed clustering and target coverage algorithms to address the problem in an energy-efficient way. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that exploits cluster heads to determine the active sensing nodes and their directions for solving target coverage problems in DSNs. Our extensive simulation study shows that our system outperforms a number of state-of-the-art approaches.

Labeled random finite sets and the bayes multi-target tracking filter

An analytic solution to the multi-target Bayes recursion known as the δ-Generalized Labeled Multi-Bernoulli ( δ-GLMB) filter has been recently proposed by Vo and Vo in [“Labeled Random Finite Sets and Multi-Object Conjugate Priors,” IEEE Trans. Signal Process., vol. 61, no. 13, pp. 3460-3475, 2014]. As a sequel to that paper, the present paper details efficient implementations of the δ-GLMB multi-target tracking filter. Each iteration of this filter involves an update operation and a prediction operation, both of which result in weighted sums of multi-target exponentials with intractably large number of terms. To truncate these sums, the ranked assignment and K-th shortest path algorithms are used in the update and prediction, respectively, to determine the most significant terms without exhaustively computing all of the terms. In addition, using tools derived from the same framework, such as probability hypothesis density filtering, we present inexpensive (relative to the δ-GLMB filter) look-ahead strategies to reduce the number of computations. Characterization of the L1-error in the multi-target density arising from the truncation is presented.