The use of speech and lip modalities for robust speaker verification under adverse conditions

Investigates the use of lip information, in conjunction with speech information, for robust speaker verification in the presence of background noise. We have previously shown (Int. Conf. on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Proc., vol. 6, pp. 3693-3696, May 1998) that features extracted from a speaker's moving lips hold speaker dependencies which are complementary with speech features. We demonstrate that the fusion of lip and speech information allows for a highly robust speaker verification system which outperforms either subsystem individually. We present a new technique for determining the weighting to be applied to each modality so as to optimize the performance of the fused system. Given a correct weighting, lip information is shown to be highly effective for reducing the false acceptance and false rejection error rates in the presence of background noise

An approach to access control under uncertainty

In dynamic and uncertain environments such as healthcare, where the needs of security and information availability are difficult to balance, an access control approach based on a static policy will be suboptimal regardless of how comprehensive it is. The uncertainty stems from the unpredictability of users’ operational needs as well as their private incentives to misuse permissions. In Role Based Access Control (RBAC), a user’s legitimate access request may be denied because its need has not been anticipated by the security administrator. Alternatively, even when the policy is correctly specified an authorised user may accidentally or intentionally misuse the granted permission. This paper introduces a novel approach to access control under uncertainty and presents it in the context of RBAC. By taking insights from the field of economics, in particular the insurance literature, we propose a formal model where the value of resources are explicitly defined and an RBAC policy (entailing those predictable access needs) is only used as a reference point to determine the price each user has to pay for access, as opposed to representing hard and fast rules that are always rigidly applied.

Mechanical behaviours of pumpkin peel under compression test

Mechanical damages such as bruising, collision and impact during food processing stages diminish quality and quantity of productions as well as efficiency of operations. Studying mechanical characteristics of food materials will help to enhance current industrial practices. Mechanical properties of fruits and vegetables describe how these materials behave under loading in real industrial operations. Optimizing and designing more efficient equipments require accurate and precise information of tissue behaviours. FE modelling of food industrial processes is an effective method of studying interrelation of variables during mechanical operation. In this study, empirical investigation has been done on mechanical properties of pumpkin peel. The test was a part of FE modelling and simulation of mechanical peeling stage of tough skinned vegetables. The compression test has been conducted on Jap variety of pumpkin. Additionally, stress strain curve, bio-yield and toughness of pumpkin skin have been calculated. The required energy for reaching bio-yield point was 493.75, 507.71 and 451.71 N.mm for 1.25, 10 and 20 mm/min loading speed respectively. Average value of force in bio-yield point for pumpkin peel was 310 N.

Numerical exploration of the defect’s effect on mechanical properties of nanowires under torsion

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have been carried out to investigate the defect’s effect on the mechanical properties of single-crystal copper nanowire with different surface defects, under torsion deformation. The torsional rigidity is found insensitive to the surface defects and the critical angle appears an obvious decrease due to the surface defects, the largest decrease is found for the nanowire with surface horizon defect. The deformation mechanism appears different degrees of influence due to surface defects. The surface defects play a role of dislocation sources. Comparing with single intrinsic stacking faults formation for the perfect nanowire, much affluent deformation processes have been activated because of surface defects, for instance, we find the twins formation for the nanowire with a surface 45o defect.

Under the carpet : the politics and trauma of patient harm

Few studies have investigated iatrogenic outcomes from the viewpoint of patient experience. To address this anomaly, the broad aim of this research is to explore the lived experience of patient harm. Patient harm is defined as major harm to the patient, either psychosocial or physical in nature, resulting from any aspect of health care. Utilising the method of Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR), in-depth interviews are conducted with twenty-four volunteer research participants who self-report having been severely harmed by an invasive medical procedure. A standardised measure of emotional distress, the Impact of Event Scale (IES), is additionally employed for purposes of triangulation. Thematic analysis of transcript data indicate numerous findings including: (i) difficulties regarding patients‘ prior understanding of risks involved with their medical procedure; (ii) the problematic response of the health system post-procedure; (iii) multiple adverse effects upon life functioning; (iv) limited recourse options for patients; and (v) the approach desired in terms of how patient harm should be systemically handled. In addition, IES results indicate a clinically significant level of distress in the sample as a whole. To discuss findings, a cross-disciplinary approach is adopted that draws upon sociology, medicine, medical anthropology, psychology, philosophy, history, ethics, law, and political theory. Furthermore, an overall explanatory framework is proposed in terms of the master themes of power and trauma. In terms of the theme of power, a postmodernist analysis explores the politics of patient harm, particularly the dynamics surrounding the politics of knowledge (e.g., notions of subjective versus objective knowledge, informed consent, and open disclosure). This analysis suggests that patient care is not the prime function of the health system, which appears more focussed upon serving the interests of those in the upper levels of its hierarchy. In terms of the master theme of trauma, current understandings of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are critiqued, and based on data from this research as well as the international literature, a new model of trauma is proposed. This model is based upon the principle of homeostasis observed in biology, whereby within every cell or organism a state of equilibrium is sought and maintained. The proposed model identifies several bio-psychosocial markers of trauma across its three main phases. These trauma markers include: (i) a profound sense of loss; (ii) a lack of perceived control; (iii) passive trauma processing responses; (iv) an identity crisis; (v) a quest to fully understand the trauma event; (vi) a need for social validation of the traumatic experience; and (vii) posttraumatic adaption with the possibility of positive change. To further explore the master themes of power and trauma, a natural group interview is carried out at a meeting of a patient support group for arachnoiditis. Observations at this meeting and members‘ stories in general support the homeostatic model of trauma, particularly the quest to find answers in the face of distressing experience, as well as the need for social recognition of that experience. In addition, the sociopolitical response to arachnoiditis highlights how public domains of knowledge are largely constructed and controlled by vested interests. Implications of the data overall are discussed in terms of a cultural revolution being needed in health care to position core values around a prime focus upon patients as human beings.

Hormones down under: Hormone therapy use after the Women's Health Initiative

Aims:  The primary objective was to describe the usage pattern of hormone therapy (HT) in a sample of urban Australian women in 2001 and to assess the characteristics of users vs. non-users. The second objective was to determine whether there had been any change in usage since the publication of the results of the combined oestrogen plus progestagen arm of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) in 2002. Methods:  A cohort of 374 postmenopausal women aged 50–80 years participated in this substudy of the LAW (Longitudinal Assessment of Ageing in Women) project: a 5-year multidisciplinary, observational study. Participants completed an annual medical assessment including details of the use of HT and the reasons for use, as well as demographic and psychosocial data. Results:  In December 2001, 30.8% of the participants were using HT, whereas 55.4% were ever users. The management of vasomotor symptoms and mood disturbance were the primary reasons for use. Of those who had been using HT in December 2001 (24.4%) women ceased using HT in the 3 months following publication of the WHI results. The percentage of women using HT in December 2003 (13.9%) was less than half of that of December 2001. Conclusion:  The rate of HT use and the reasons for use, in 2001 in Brisbane was similar to that of other Australian regions. Usage of HT decreased since the publication of the WHI results in 2002 which may reflect changing attitudes by patients and practitioners regarding HT.

Structural and thermal performance of cold-formed steel stud wall systems under fire conditions

Cold-formed steel stud walls are a major component of Light Steel Framing (LSF) building systems used in commercial, industrial and residential buildings. In the conventional LSF stud wall systems, thin steel studs are protected from fire by placing one or two layers of plasterboard on both sides with or without cavity insulation. However, there is very limited data about the structural and thermal performance of stud wall systems while past research showed contradicting results, for example, about the benefits of cavity insulation. This research was therefore conducted to improve the knowledge and understanding of the structural and thermal performance of cold-formed steel stud wall systems (both load bearing and non-load bearing) under fire conditions and to develop new improved stud wall systems including reliable and simple methods to predict their fire resistance rating. Full scale fire tests of cold-formed steel stud wall systems formed the basis of this research. This research proposed an innovative LSF stud wall system in which a composite panel made of two plasterboards with insulation between them was used to improve the fire rating. Hence fire tests included both conventional steel stud walls with and without the use of cavity insulation and the new composite panel system. A propane fired gas furnace was specially designed and constructed first. The furnace was designed to deliver heat in accordance with the standard time temperature curve as proposed by AS 1530.4 (SA, 2005). A compression loading frame capable of loading the individual studs of a full scale steel stud wall system was also designed and built for the load-bearing tests. Fire tests included comprehensive time-temperature measurements across the thickness and along the length of all the specimens using K type thermocouples. They also included the measurements of load-deformation characteristics of stud walls until failure. The first phase of fire tests included 15 small scale fire tests of gypsum plasterboards, and composite panels using different types of insulating material of varying thickness and density. Fire performance of single and multiple layers of gypsum plasterboards was assessed including the effect of interfaces between adjacent plasterboards on the thermal performance. Effects of insulations such as glass fibre, rock fibre and cellulose fibre were also determined while the tests provided important data relating to the temperature at which the fall off of external plasterboards occurred. In the second phase, nine small scale non-load bearing wall specimens were tested to investigate the thermal performance of conventional and innovative steel stud wall systems. Effects of single and multiple layers of plasterboards with and without vertical joints were investigated. The new composite panels were seen to offer greater thermal protection to the studs in comparison to the conventional panels. In the third phase of fire tests, nine full scale load bearing wall specimens were tested to study the thermal and structural performance of the load bearing wall assemblies. A full scale test was also conducted at ambient temperature. These tests showed that the use of cavity insulation led to inferior fire performance of walls, and provided good explanations and supporting research data to overcome the incorrect industry assumptions about cavity insulation. They demonstrated that the use of insulation externally in a composite panel enhanced the thermal and structural performance of stud walls and increased their fire resistance rating significantly. Hence this research recommends the use of the new composite panel system for cold-formed LSF walls. This research also included steady state tensile tests at ambient and elevated temperatures to address the lack of reliable mechanical properties for high grade cold-formed steels at elevated temperatures. Suitable predictive equations were developed for calculating the yield strength and elastic modulus at elevated temperatures. In summary, this research has developed comprehensive experimental thermal and structural performance data for both the conventional and the proposed non-load bearing and load bearing stud wall systems under fire conditions. Idealized hot flange temperature profiles have been developed for non-insulated, cavity insulated and externally insulated load bearing wall models along with suitable equations for predicting their failure times. A graphical method has also been proposed to predict the failure times (fire rating) of non-load bearing and load bearing walls under different load ratios. The results from this research are useful to both fire researchers and engineers working in this field. Most importantly, this research has significantly improved the knowledge and understanding of cold-formed LSF walls under fire conditions, and developed an innovative LSF wall system with increased fire rating. It has clearly demonstrated the detrimental effects of using cavity insulation, and has paved the way for Australian building industries to develop new wall panels with increased fire rating for commercial applications worldwide.

Actions for declaratory or injunctive relief by the Corporate Regulator under s 471B of the Corporations Act

This article by Ben McEniery discusses the matters a court will consider when leave to commence or proceed against a company in liquidation is sought not by a creditor seeking to prove a debt, but by the corporate regulator pursuing declaratory or injunctive relief.

Noble metal photocatalysts under visible light and UV light irradiation

One of the greatest challenges for the study of photocatalysts is to devise new catalysts that possess high activity under visible light illumination. This would allow the use of an abundant and green energy source, sunlight, to drive chemical reactions. Gold nanoparticles strongly absorb both visible light and UV light. It is therefore possible to drive chemical reactions utilising a significant fraction of full sunlight spectrum. Here we prepared gold nanoparticles supported on various oxide powders, and reported a new finding that gold nanoparticles on oxide supports exhibit significant activity for the oxidation of formaldehyde and methanol in the air at ambient temperature, when illuminated with visible light. We suggested that visible light can greatly enhance local electromagnetic fields and heat gold nanoparticles due to surface plasmon resonance effect which provides activation energy for the oxidation of organic molecules. Moreover, the nature of the oxide support has an important influence on the activity of the gold nanoparticles. The finding reveals the possibility to drive chemical reactions with sunlight on gold nanoparticles at ambient temperature, highlighting a new direction for research on visible light photocatalysts. Gold nanoparticles supported on oxides also exhibit significant dye oxidation activity under visible light irradiation in aqueous solution at ambient temperature. Turnover frequencies of the supported gold nanoparticles for the dye degradation are much higher than titania based photocatalysts under both visible and UV light. These gold photocatalysts can also catalyse phenol degradation as well as selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol under UV light. The reaction mechanism for these photocatalytic oxidations was studied. Gold nanoparticles exhibit photocatalytic activity due to visible light heating gold electrons in 6sp band, while the UV absorption results in electron holes in gold 5d band to oxidise organic molecules. Silver nanoparticles also exhibit considerable visible light and UV light absorption due to surface plasmon resonance effect and the interband transition of 4d electrons to the 5sp band, respectively. Therefore, silver nanoparticles are potentially photocatalysts that utilise the solar spectrum effectively. Here we reported that silver nanoparticles at room temperature can be used to drive chemical reactions when illuminated with light throughout the solar spectrum. The significant activities for dye degradation by silver nanoparticles on oxide supports are even better than those by semiconductor photocatalysts. Moreover, silver photocatalysts also can degrade phenol and drive the oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde under UV light. We suggested that surface plasmon resonance effect and interband transition of silver nanoparticles can activate organic molecule oxidations under light illumination.

Adaptive and optimal under frequency load shedding

Power systems in many countries are stressed towards their stability limit. If these stable systems experience any unexpected serious contingencies, or disturbances, there is a significant risk of instability, which may lead to wide-spread blackout. Frequency is a reliable indicator for such instability condition exists on the power system; therefore under-frequency load shedding technique is used to stable the power system by curtail some load. In this paper, the SFR-UFLS model redeveloped to generate optimal load shedding method is that optimally shed load following one single particular contingency event. The proposed optimal load shedding scheme is then tested on the 39-bus New England test system to show the performance against random load shedding scheme.

Managing product quality and reliability under new challenges

This paper presents the findings of an investigation of the challenges Australian manufacturers are currently facing. A comprehensive questionnaire survey was conducted among leading Australian manufacturers. This paper reports the main findings of this study. Evidence indicates that product quality and reliability (Q & R) are the main challenges for Australian manufacturers. Design capability and time to market came second. Results show that there is no effective information exchange between the parties involved in production and quality control. Learning from the past mistakes is not proving to have significant effects on improving product quality. The technological innovation speed is high and companies are introducing as many as 5 new products in a year. This technological speed has pressure on the Q & R of new products. To overcome the new challenges, companies need a Q & R improvement model.

Effect of MHD and heat generation on natural convection flow in an open square cavity under microgravity condition

Purpose - Thermo-magnetic convection and heat transfer of paramagnetic fluid placed in a micro-gravity condition (g = 0) and under a uniform vertical gradient magnetic field in an open square cavity with three cold sidewalls have been studied numerically. Design/methodology/approach - This magnetic force is proportional to the magnetic susceptibility and the gradient of the square of the magnetic induction. The magnetic susceptibility is inversely proportional to the absolute temperature based on Curie’s law. Thermal convection of a paramagnetic fluid can therefore take place even in zero-gravity environment as a direct consequence of temperature differences occurring within the fluid due to a constant internal heat generation placed within a magnetic field gradient. Findings - Effects of magnetic Rayleigh number, Ra, Prandtl number, Pr, and paramagnetic fluid parameter, m, on the flow pattern and isotherms as well as on the heat absorption are presented graphically. It is found that the heat transfer rate is suppressed in increased of the magnetic Rayleigh number and the paramagnetic fluid parameter for the present investigation. Originality/value - It is possible to control the buoyancy force by using the super conducting magnet. To the best knowledge of the author no literature related to magnetic convection for this configuration is available.

Practice and procedure : an application under r367 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules may be of use in obtaining copies of otherwise unavailable documents held by government agencies.

In Bowenbrae Pty Ltd v Flying Fighters Maintenance and Restoration [2010] QDC 347 Reid DCJ made orders requiring the plaintiffs to make application under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (“the FOI Act”) for documents sought by the defendant.

MHD natural convection flow from an isothermal horizontal circular cylinder under consideration of temperature dependent viscosity

Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) natural convection laminar flow from an iso-thermal horizontal circular cylinder immersed in a fluid with viscosity proportional to a linear function of temperature will be discussed with numerical simulations. The governing boundary layer equations are transformed into a non-dimensional form and the resulting nonlinear system of partial differential equa-tions are reduced to convenient form, which are solved numerically by two very efficient methods, namely, (i) Implicit finite difference method together with Keller box scheme and (ii) Direct numerical scheme. Numerical results are presented by velocity and temperature distributions of the fluid as well as heat transfer characteristics, namely the shearing stress and the local heat transfer rate in terms of the local skin-friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number for a wide range of magnetohydrodynamic parameter, viscosity-variation parameter and viscous dissipation parameter. MHD flow in this geometry with temperature dependent viscosity is absent in the literature. The results obtained from the numerical simulations have been veri-fied by two methodologies.