Report : enabling team collaboration with pervasive and mobile computing : a review of existing mobile computing technologies

The application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in construction industry has been recognised widely by some practitioners and researchers for the last several years. During the 1990s the international construction industry started using with the increasing confidence information and communication technology. The use of e-mail became usual and web-sites were established for marketing purposes. Intranets and extranets were also established to facilitate communication within companies and throughout their branches. One of the important applications of the ICT in construction industry was the use of mobile computing devices to achieve better communication and data transmission between construction sites and offices.

Social Awareness Concepts to Support Social Computing

Our social life is characterised by norms that manifest as attitudinal and behavioural uniformities among people. With greater awareness about our social context, we can interact more efficiently. Any theory or account of human interaction that fails to include social concepts could be suggested to lack a critical element. This paper identifies social concepts that need to be supported by future context-aware systems. It discusses the limitations of existing context-aware and Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) to support social psychology theories related to the identification and membership of social groups. We argue thatsocial norms are among the core modeling concepts that future context-aware systems need to capture with the view to support and enhance social interactions. The social concepts identified in this paper could be used to simulate agent interactions imbued with social norms or use ICT to facilitate, assist or enhance social interactions. They also could be used in virtual communities modeling where the awareness of a community as well as the process of joining and exiting a community are important.

From Prosumer to Produser: Understanding User-Led Content Creation

Alvin Toffler’s image of the prosumer (1970, 1980, 1990) continues to influence in a significant way our understanding of the user-led, collaborative processes of content creation which are today labelled “social media” or “Web 2.0”. A closer look at Toffler’s own description of his prosumer model reveals, however, that it remains firmly grounded in the mass media age: the prosumer is clearly not the self-motivated creative originator and developer of new content which can today be observed in projects ranging from open source software through Wikipedia to Second Life, but simply a particularly well-informed, and therefore both particularly critical and particularly active, consumer. The highly specialised, high end consumers which exist in areas such as hi-fi or car culture are far more representative of the ideal prosumer than the participants in non-commercial (or as yet non-commercial) collaborative projects. And to expect Toffler’s 1970s model of the prosumer to describe these 21st-century phenomena was always an unrealistic expectation, of course. To describe the creative and collaborative participation which today characterises user-led projects such as Wikipedia, terms such as ‘production’ and ‘consumption’ are no longer particularly useful – even in laboured constructions such as ‘commons-based peer-production’ (Benkler 2006) or ‘p2p production’ (Bauwens 2005). In the user communities participating in such forms of content creation, roles as consumers and users have long begun to be inextricably interwoven with those as producer and creator: users are always already also able to be producers of the shared information collection, regardless of whether they are aware of that fact – they have taken on a new, hybrid role which may be best described as that of a produser (Bruns 2008). Projects which build on such produsage can be found in areas from open source software development through citizen journalism to Wikipedia, and beyond this also in multi-user online computer games, filesharing, and even in communities collaborating on the design of material goods. While addressing a range of different challenges, they nonetheless build on a small number of universal key principles. This paper documents these principles and indicates the possible implications of this transition from production and prosumption to produsage.

Determinants of knowledge transfer and learning in hybrid public private alliances

This paper uses the case study of a hybrid public-private strategic alliance as data to complement and contrast with the traditional views on knowledge transfer and learning between alliance partners. In particular, the paper explores whether the concept of competitive collaboration conceptualized by Hamel (1991) in his seminal work holds true for all forms of strategic alliances. Conceptualizing the knowledge boundaries of organisations in alliances as a ‘collaborative membrane’, we focus attention on the permeability of these boundaries rather than the actual location of the boundaries. In this vein, we present a case study of a major public sector organization that illustrates how these principles have allowed it to start rebuilding its internal capabilities adopting a more collaborative stance and ensuring their knowledge boundaries are highly porous as they move more major projects into hybrid public private alliance contracts.

Hybrid system simulation of computer control applications over communication networks

Discrete event-driven simulations of digital communication networks have been used widely. However, it is difficult to use a network simulator to simulate a hybrid system in which some objects are not discrete event-driven but are continuous time-driven. A networked control system (NCS) is such an application, in which physical process dynamics are continuous by nature. We have designed and implemented a hybrid simulation environment which effectively integrates models of continuous-time plant processes and discrete-event communication networks by extending the open source network simulator NS-2. To do this a synchronisation mechanism was developed to connect a continuous plant simulation with a discrete network simulation. Furthermore, for evaluating co-design approaches in an NCS environment, a piggybacking method was adopted to allow the control period to be adjusted during simulations. The effectiveness of the technique is demonstrated through case studies which simulate a networked control scenario in which the communication and control system properties are defined explicitly.

Chlamydial infection and spatial ascension of the female genital tract : a novel hybrid cellular automata and continuum mathematical model

Sexually transmitted chlamydial infection initially establishes in the endocervix in females, but if the infection ascends the genital tract, significant disease, including infertility, can result. Many of the mechanisms associated with chlamydial infection kinetics and disease ascension are unknown. We attempt to elucidate some of these processes by developing a novel mathematical model, using a cellular automata–partial differential equation model. We matched our model outputs to experimental data of chlamydial infection of the guinea-pig cervix and carried out sensitivity analyses to determine the relative influence of model parameters. We found that the rate of recruitment and action of innate immune cells to clear extracellular chlamydial particles and the rate of passive movement of chlamydial particles are the dominant factors in determining the early course of infection, magnitude of the peak chlamydial time course and the time of the peak. The rate of passive movement was found to be the most important factor in determining whether infection would ascend to the upper genital tract. This study highlights the importance of early innate immunity in the control of chlamydial infection and the significance of motility-diffusive properties and the adaptive immune response in the magnitude of infection and in its ascension.

Computational approach to localization using global energy minimization

Damage localization induced by strain softening can be predicted by the direct minimization of a global energy function. This article concerns the computational strategy for implementing this principle for softening materials such as concrete. Instead of using heuristic global optimization techniques, our strategies are a hybrid of local optimization methods with a path-finding approach to ensure a global optimum. With admissible nodal displacements being independent variables, it is easy to deal with the geometric (mesh) constraint conditions. The direct search optimization methods recover the localized solutions for a range of softening lattice models which are representative of quasi-brittle structures

A framework for network RTK data processing based on grid computing

Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) positioning is a technique used to provide precise positioning services at centimetre accuracy level in the context of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). While a Network-based RTK (N-RTK) system involves multiple continuously operating reference stations (CORS), the simplest form of a NRTK system is a single-base RTK. In Australia there are several NRTK services operating in different states and over 1000 single-base RTK systems to support precise positioning applications for surveying, mining, agriculture, and civil construction in regional areas. Additionally, future generation GNSS constellations, including modernised GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, and Compass, with multiple frequencies have been either developed or will become fully operational in the next decade. A trend of future development of RTK systems is to make use of various isolated operating network and single-base RTK systems and multiple GNSS constellations for extended service coverage and improved performance. Several computational challenges have been identified for future NRTK services including: • Multiple GNSS constellations and multiple frequencies • Large scale, wide area NRTK services with a network of networks • Complex computation algorithms and processes • Greater part of positioning processes shifting from user end to network centre with the ability to cope with hundreds of simultaneous users’ requests (reverse RTK) There are two major requirements for NRTK data processing based on the four challenges faced by future NRTK systems, expandable computing power and scalable data sharing/transferring capability. This research explores new approaches to address these future NRTK challenges and requirements using the Grid Computing facility, in particular for large data processing burdens and complex computation algorithms. A Grid Computing based NRTK framework is proposed in this research, which is a layered framework consisting of: 1) Client layer with the form of Grid portal; 2) Service layer; 3) Execution layer. The user’s request is passed through these layers, and scheduled to different Grid nodes in the network infrastructure. A proof-of-concept demonstration for the proposed framework is performed in a five-node Grid environment at QUT and also Grid Australia. The Networked Transport of RTCM via Internet Protocol (Ntrip) open source software is adopted to download real-time RTCM data from multiple reference stations through the Internet, followed by job scheduling and simplified RTK computing. The system performance has been analysed and the results have preliminarily demonstrated the concepts and functionality of the new NRTK framework based on Grid Computing, whilst some aspects of the performance of the system are yet to be improved in future work.

The roles and importance of formal and informal sources of business support in young firms : evidence from the UK’s 2008 Federation of Small Business Survey

Objectives This research explores the relationship between young firms, their growth orientation-intention and a range of relationships which can be seen to provide business support. Prior-work Research indicates that networks impact the firm’s ability to secure resources (Sirmon and Hitt 2003; Liao and Welsch. 2004; Hanlon and Saunders 2007). Networks have been evaluated in a number of ways ranging from simple counts to characteristics of their composition (Davidsson and Honig 2003), strength of relationships (Granovetter 1973) and network diversity (Carter et al 2003). By providing access to resources and knowledge (from start-up assistance and raising capital, (e.g. Smallbone et al, 2003), networks may assist in enabling continued persistence during those times where firms may experience resource constraints owing to firm growth (Baker and Nelson 2005). Approach The data used in this research was generated in the 2008 UK Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) survey. Over 1,000 of the firms responding were found to fall into the category of “young”, ((defined as firms under 4 years old). Firms were considered the unit of analysis with the entrepreneur being the chief spokesperson for the firm. Preliminary data analysis considered key demographic characteristics and industry classifications, comparing the FSB data with that of the UK government’s own (BERR) Small Business Surveys of 2007 and 2008, to establish some degree of representativeness of the respondents. The analysis then examined networks with varying potential ability to provide support for young firms, the networks measured in terms of number, diversity, characteristic and strength in its relationship to young firm growth orientation. The diversity of business-support-related relationships ranged from friends and family, through professional services, customers and suppliers, and government business services, to trade associations and informal business networks. The characteristics of these formal and informal sources of support for new businesses are examined across a range of business support-type activities for new firms. The number of relationships and types of business support are also explored. Finally, the strength of these relationships is examined by analysis of the source of business support, type of business support, and links to the growth orientation-intention of the firm, after controlling for a number of key variables related to firm and industry status and owner characteristics. Results Preliminary analysis of the data by means of univariate analysis showed that average number of sources of advice was around 2.5 (from a potential total of 6). In terms of the diversity of relationships, universities had by far the smallest percentage of firms receiving beneficial advice from them. Government business services were beneficially used by 40% of young firms, the other relationship types being around the 50-55% mark. In terms of characteristics of the advice, the average number of areas in which benefit was achieved was around 5.5 of a maximum of 15. Start-up advice has by far the highest percentage of firms obtaining beneficial advice, with increasing sales, improving contacts and improving confidence being the other categories at or around the 50% mark. Other market-focused areas where benefits were also received were in the areas of new markets, existing product improvements and new product improvements, where around 40% of the young responding firms obtained benefit. Regression techniques evaluating the strength of these relationships in terms of the links between business support (by source of support, type of support, and range of support) and firm growth orientation-intention focus highlighted a number of significant relationships, even after controlling for a range of other explanatory variables identified in the literature. Specifically, there was found to be a positive relationship between receiving business advice generally (regardless of type or source) and growth orientation. This relationship was seen to be stronger, however, when looking at the number of types of beneficial advice received, and stronger again for the number of sources of this advice. In terms of individual sources of advice, customers and suppliers had the strongest relationship with growth, with Government business services also found to be significant. Combining these two sources was also seen to increase the strength of the relationship between these two sources of advice and growth orientation. In considering areas of support, growth was most strongly positively related to advice that benefited the development of new products and services, and also business confidence, but was negatively related to advice linked to business recovery. Finally, amalgamating the 4 key types and sources of advice to examine the impact of combinations of these types and sources of advice also improved the strength of the relationship. Implications The findings will assist in the understanding of young firms in general and growth more specifically, particularly the role and importance of specific sources, types and combinations of business support used more extensively by new young growth-oriented firms. Value This research may assist in processes designed to allow entrepreneurs to make better decisions; educators and support organizations to develop better advice and assistance, and Governments design better conditions for the creation of new growth-oriented businesses.

Vitamin D in health and disease : an insight into traditional functions and new roles for the 'sunshine vitamin'

Vitamin D is unique among the vitamins in that humans can synthesize it via the action of UV radiation upon the skin. This combined with its ability to act on specific target tissues via Vitamin D Receptor’s (VDR) make its classification as a steroid hormone more appropriate. While Vitamin D deficiency is a recognized problem in some northern latitude countries, recent studies have shown even in sunny countries such as Australia, vitamin D deficiency may be more prevalent than first thought. Vitamin D is most well known for its role in bone health, however, the discovery of VDR’s on a wide variety of tissue types has also opened up roles for vitamin D far beyond traditional bone health. These include possible associations with autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel diseases, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and muscle strength. Firstly, this paper presents an overview of the two sources of vitamin D: exposure to ultraviolet-B radiation and food sources of vitamin D, with particular focus on both Australian and international studies on dietary vitamin D intake and national fortification strategies. Secondly, the paper reviews recent epidemiological and experimental evidence linking vitamin D and its role in health and disease for the major conditions linked to suboptimal vitamin D, while identifying significant gaps in the research and possible future directions for research.