Outdoor fungi and child asthma health service attendances

Asthma is a significant global public health issue. Severe asthma exacerbations can be triggered by environmental factors and require medical care from health services. Although it is known that fungal exposure may lead to allergic sensitization, little is understood about its impact on asthma exacerbations. This review aims to examine whether outdoor fungi play a significant role in child asthma exacerbations. Systematic search of seven electronic databases and hand searching for peer-reviewed studies published in English, up to 31 August 2013. Inclusion criteria were study population aged <18 yr, diagnosis of asthma, attended a health service; outdoor fungi exposure was reported. Quality and risk of bias assessments were conducted. Due to significant heterogeneity, meta-analysis was not conducted. Of the 1896 articles found, 15 were eligible. Findings were not consistent, possibly due to methodological variations in exposure classifications, statistical methods and inclusion of confounders. Cross-sectional studies found no or weak associations. All but one time series studies indicated an association that varied between fungal species. Increasing evidence indicates that asthmatic children are susceptible to asthma exacerbations when exposed to outdoor fungal spores. There is limited understanding of the contributions of different fungal species. Research is needed to investigate interactions of outdoor fungi with pollen, air pollutants and respiratory viruses.

Patterns and Characteristics of Ambulance Attendance at Heroin Overdose at a Local-Area Level in Melbourne, Australia: Implications for Service Provision

The monitoring of heroin use and related harms is undertaken in Australia with a view to inform policy responses. Some surveillance data on heroin-related harms is well suited to inform the planning and delivery of heroin-related services, such as needle and syringe provision. This article examines local-area variation in the characteristics of nonfatal heroin overdoses attended by ambulances in Melbourne over the period June 1998 to October 2000 to inform the delivery of services to the heroin-using population in Melbourne.

Distributed defense against distributed denial-of-service attacks

Distributed defense is a promising way to neutralize the distributed Denial-of-Service attacks by detecting and responding the attacking sources widespread around the Internet. Components of the distributed defense system will cooperate with each other to combat the attacks. Compared with the centralized defense systems, distributed defense systems can discover the attacks more timely from both source end and victim end, fight the attacks with more resources and take advantage of more flexible strategies. This paper investigates 7 distributed defense systems which make use of various strategies to mitigate the DDoS attacks. Different architectures are designed in these 7 systems to provide distributed DDoS defense solutions. We evaluate these systems in terms of deployment, detection, response, security, robustness and implementation. For each criteria, we give a recommendation on which technologies are best suitable for a successful distributed defense system based on the analysis result. Finally we propose our idea on the design of an effective distributed defense system.

Service provision factors that affect the health and wellbeing of people living in a lower SES environment: the perspective of service providers

Inequalities in health and wellbeing within low socioeconomic (SES)  environments are well documented. Factors inherent to the health care system itself, such as inaccessible, inflexible or inappropriate seroiceprovision, contribute to the poorer health status ofresidents oflow SES areas. This paper explores the issues ofseroice provision in low SES areas, documenting the perceptions of seroice providers about the seroice needs of residents, in order to understand the systemic factors that negatively impact on health and wellbeing. A total of54 health and welfare seroice providers from two adjacent low SES suburbs within regional Victoria were interoiewed using qualitative research methods. Keyfindings indicate that successful navigation of health care seroices by residents within these low SES environments is being impeded by issues ofaccess, a lack ofappropriate early interoention options or measures, and general resident disempowerment. Central to the improvement of seroice provision is the need for seroices to become economically, geographically and culturally accessible. In particular, the importance of community involvement in health planning and health promoting seroices must be reflected in the ethos ofseroice provision.

Knowledge transfer in enterprise information technology support using web-based self-service systems

This paper explores Critical Success Factors (CSFs) in the transfer
of after-sales support-oriented knowledge from Information Technology (IT)
support organisations to enterprise customers, using Web-based self-service Systems (WSS). As it appears that best-in-class companies are ahead of the academic work in this area, we approached the topic through an exploratory CSF study of a best-in-class multinational IT services firm and identified 26 CSFs. Key findings from the study indicate that best-in-class IT service organisations may be cognisant of a range of factors relating to supporting customers, but are less aware of what is needed to support their own frontline support agents. Such organisations also lack an understanding of what is needed to provide enterprise support in the later stages of knowledge transfer, where enterprise customers can experience problems attempting to integrate resolutions. The study further showed that many aspects that might be characterised as encompassing socio-technical issues relating to the provision of web-based self-service are still poorly understood.

The nose and tongue as chemical detectors

Human chemical senses are the gatekeepers of our digestive system. Chemical separation combined with human sensory perception has been used to isolate and identify a natural non-steroidal anti-inflammatory compound in olive oil.

An exploration of relational customers` response to service failure

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how customers with different relational bonds respond to the same service failure. In particular, the framework to service failure and recovery devised by Fournier and Mick is applied.
Design/methodology/approach – To uncover rich emotional and cognitive responses to service failure, in-depth interviews with eight former and current patrons of an Australian opera were used.
Findings – Three types of relationship were identified: satisfaction-as-love (SaL), satisfaction-as-trust (SaT) and satisfaction-as-control (SaC). Each responded to the same failure in different ways. SaL customers had emotional bonds with the product category and thus reaffiremed their loyalty following the failure. SaT customers saw the service failure and inadequate recovery as a breach of the brand's implied promise and thus excited the relationship. SaC customers took charge of the situation, using their status to improve their situation and then defended the brand.
Practical implications – The findings indicate the importance of customizing service recovery strategies, in this case to those customers with the strongest emotional bonds to the brand, not the product class.
Originality/value – This is the first paper to examine how relational customers respond to service failure and identify how different customer-brand relationships result in different post-failure reactions and expectations of service recovery.

Further Observations on the Diet of the Sooty Owl Tyto Tenebricosa in the Royal National Park, Sydney

Dietary samples from four Sooty Owl Tyto tenebricosa roost-sites within one territory in the Royal National Park, Sydney, New South Wales, were collected in December 2005. A total of 144 dietary items was identified, representing eight mammal species and at least one bird species. The samples were compared with those collected during a study 10 years earlier (in 1994-96) that included samples from the same roost-sites. Ten years later, the diet of the Sooty Owl in this territory appears little changed, except that the Sugar Glider Petaurus breviceps is now taken more frequently. The Common Ringtail Possum Pseudocheirus peregrinus continued to be the principal prey species taken by the Owls at this location. The Long-nosed Bandicoot Perameles nasuta may have declined in the Sooty Owl's diet during this period, but this trend was not significant statistically. This study showed that Sooty Owl diet at a single location is relatively stable, despite the occurrence of a major disturbance to habitat caused by a severe wildfire 12 years previously.

Exploring the role of relationship variables in predicting customer voice to a service worker

Customers’ perceptions of service workers’ trustworthiness and power, and their commitment to the service worker were investigated as possible determinants of the likelihood of customer voice directly to the service worker in the event of a service failure. Set in the context of hairdressing salons, it was found that hair stylists’ perceived trust (benevolence and credibility) and expert power were positively associated with clients’ intention to voice. By contrast, the level of coercive power hair stylists were perceived to have was negatively associated with intentions to voice. Hair stylists’ perceived benevolence was the strongest predictor of client voice.

A new roadmap to life: media, culture, and modernity in the United Arab Emirates

Critical to the vision of a new United Arab Emirates is an educated, skilled workforce that fuels the intelligent growth needed in a knowledge-based economy. As the country begins developing its version of that economy, the mediated, transparent environment fundamental to this process will carry with it new visions of (and possibilities for) living life. If peaceful change is to be achieved, a transitional generation faces the conundrum of adapting the best that modernity can offer while retaining the best of tradition. As have others, this study suggests two things: that (1) media literacy, growing in part from education, is correlated with urbanization and a changing infrastructure, and that (2) media in all its forms is inseparable from the outcome of this drive to modernization.

Proposed multi-dimensional approach to evaluating service recovery

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to extend thinking on service recovery processes and satisfaction with service recovery, using multi-dimensional consumer outcomes. The objective of the work was to propose that satisfaction with service recovery should be based on customers' expectations of the recovery encounter, which would be shaped by their expectations of “non-failed” encounters.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts a theoretical approach. Using the existing service recovery literature as well as the traditional services literature, the conceptual framework and associated research propositions are developed.

Findings – The proposed framework suggests that service recovery is a service encounter it its own right. The effectiveness of recovery encounters will be based on how encounters operate relative to customer expectations and experiences with regard to the recovery activity.

Research limitations/implications – The research propositions and proposed framework need further empirical investigation.

Practical implications – The proposed framework suggests that managing service recovery should be undertaken in a similar fashion to managing any service, and thus managers need to understand customers' recovery expectations. Organisations also need to consider how a recovery action impacts on a range of customer outcomes, as focusing on one aspect will not capture consumers' full set of behaviours.

Originality/value – The proposed model identifies that service recovery should be evaluated with regard to consumers' recovery expectations and satisfaction is not based on expectations with regard to non-failed encounters.

Our health in our hands : building effective community partnerships for rural health service provision

This paper reports findings from a study in two small Tasmanian rural communities that examined the process of developing and sustaining partnerships between health services and their communities. It identifies a generic framework for partnership development that appears to be common to partnerships, regardless of their purpose or of partners involved. The framework comprises ten predictors or indicators of effectiveness, and a sequential nine-stage partnership development process. Integral to the framework are social capital, and the leadership practices of health service and community leaders. The influence of context on the partnership development process is also examined, with reference to historical precedent, age or maturity of the partnership, and community readiness.

Violent offender rehabilitation and the therapeutic community model of treatment : towards integrated service provision?

Rehabilitation programs for violent offenders are at an early stage in their development, and there is currently only a very limited empirical base from which to draw any conclusions about treatment effectiveness (Jolliffe and Farrington, 2007). Therapeutic communities for offender populations have a much longer history, although the effects of applying this model of treatment to violent offenders have not been systematically investigated. This paper reviews the content and evidence supporting both violent offender treatment programs and therapeutic community models, concluding that approaches to treatment which combine features of both may prove to be most successful, and warrant further development and evaluation.