Robustness in health research : do differences in health measures, techniques, and time frame matter?

Survey-based health research is in a boom phase following an increased amount of health spending in OECD countries and the interest in ageing. A general characteristic of survey-based health research is its diversity. Different studies are based on different health questions in different datasets; they use different statistical techniques; they differ in whether they approach health from an ordinal or cardinal perspective; and they differ in whether they measure short-term or long-term effects. The question in this paper is simple: do these differences matter for the findings? We investigate the effects of life-style choices (drinking, smoking, exercise) and income on six measures of health in the US Health and Retirement Study (HRS) between 1992 and 2002: (1) self-assessed general health status, (2) problems with undertaking daily tasks and chores, (3) mental health indicators, (4) BMI, (5) the presence of serious long-term health conditions, and (6) mortality. We compare ordinal models with cardinal models; we compare models with fixed effects to models without fixed-effects; and we compare short-term effects to long-term effects. We find considerable variation in the impact of different determinants on our chosen health outcome measures; we find that it matters whether ordinality or cardinality is assumed; we find substantial differences between estimates that account for fixed effects versus those that do not; and we find that short-run and long-run effects differ greatly. All this implies that health is an even more complicated notion than hitherto thought, defying generalizations from one measure to the others or one methodology to another.

Computer vision onboard UAVs for civilian tasks

Computer vision is much more than a technique to sense and recover environmental information from an UAV. It should play a main role regarding UAVs’ functionality because of the big amount of information that can be extracted, its possible uses and applications, and its natural connection to human driven tasks, taking into account that vision is our main interface to world understanding. Our current research’s focus lays on the development of techniques that allow UAVs to maneuver in spaces using visual information as their main input source. This task involves the creation of techniques that allow an UAV to maneuver towards features of interest whenever a GPS signal is not reliable or sufficient, e.g. when signal dropouts occur (which usually happens in urban areas, when flying through terrestrial urban canyons or when operating on remote planetary bodies), or when tracking or inspecting visual targets—including moving ones—without knowing their exact UMT coordinates. This paper also investigates visual serving control techniques that use velocity and position of suitable image features to compute the references for flight control. This paper aims to give a global view of the main aspects related to the research field of computer vision for UAVs, clustered in four main active research lines: visual serving and control, stereo-based visual navigation, image processing algorithms for detection and tracking, and visual SLAM. Finally, the results of applying these techniques in several applications are presented and discussed: this study will encompass power line inspection, mobile target tracking, stereo distance estimation, mapping and positioning.

Participatory Learning in the Early Years : Research and Pedagogy

The early years are an important period for learning, but the questions surrounding participatory learning amongst toddlers remain under-examined. This book presents the latest theoretical and research perspectives about how ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care) contexts promote democracy and citizenship through participatory learning approaches. The contributors provide insight into national policies, provisions, and practices and advance our understandings of theory and research on toddlers’ experiences for democratic participation across a number of countries, including the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Sweden, and Norway.

Commentary : Biomaterials offer cancer research the third dimension

In a mini review from 2002, Tyler Jacks and Robert Weinberg commented on the pioneering three-dimensional (3D) culture work from Bissell laboratories and concluded: “Suddenly the study of cancer cells in two dimensions seems quaint if not archaic.” The relevance of this statement for planning and executing mechanistic biological studies and advanced drug testing has been largely disregarded by both academic researchers and the pharmaceutical and biomedical industry in the twenty-first century.

Can tissue engineering concepts advance tumor biology research?

Advances in tissue engineering have traditionally led to the design of scaffold- or matrix-based culture systems that better reflect the biological, physical and biochemical environment of the natural extracellular matrix. Although their clinical applications in regenerative medicine tend to receive most of the attention, it is obvious that other areas of biomedical research could be well served by the powerful tools that have already been developed in tissue engineering. In this article, we review the recent literature to demonstrate how tissue engineering platforms can enhance in vitro and in vivo models of tumorigenesis and thus hold great promise to contribute to future cancer research.

Survey research

This book aims to provide an overview of approaches to assist researchers and practitioners to explore ways of undertaking research in the information literacy field. The first chapter provides an introductory overview of research by Dr Kirsty Williamson (author of Research Methods for Students, Academics and Professionals: Information Management and Systems) and this sets the scene for the rest of the chapters where each author explores the key aspects of a specific method and explains how it may be applied in practice. The methods covered include those representing qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods. Both a chapter on the topical evidence-based practice approach, and another critiquing it, are also included. The final chapter points the way towards potential new directions for the burgeoning field

Making Connections - Innovation in Research across QUT

This is a video of the first of a seminar series which took place 10th February 2010. The presentations showcase how QUT researchers engage with new technology and techniques when conducting research. This sharing of eresearch experience resulted in great feedback from colleagues attending the presentations. Welcome – Prof Arun Sharma Presentations Prof Christian Langton, Prof Edward Chung, Assoc Prof Axel Bruns, Prof David Kavanagh, Prof Paul Roe, Martin Borchert, Dr Kirsty Kitto, Prof Robin Drogemuller, Prof Peter Corke, Assoc Prof Marcus Foth, Close – Prof Tom Cochrane.

Closing the cultural distance gap: managing value-based knowledge in MNC by using MEP

Today more than ever, generating and managing knowledge is an essential source of competitive advantage for every organization, and particularly for Multinational corporations (MNC). However, despite the undisputed agreement about the importance of creating and managing knowledge, there are still a large number of corporations that act unethically or illegally. Clearly, there is a lack of attention in gaining more knowledge about the management of ethical knowledge in organizations. This paper refers to value-based knowledge, as the process of recognise and manage those values that stand at the heart of decision-making and action in organizations. In order to support MNCs in implementing value-based knowledge process, the managerial ethical profile (MEP) has been presented as a valuable tool to facilitate knowledge management process at both the intra-organizational network level and at the inter-organizational network level.

Realism and control : problem-based learning programs as a data source for work-related research

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a pedagogical methodology that presents the learner with a problem to be solved to stimulate and situate learning. This paper presents key characteristics of a problem-based learning environment that determines its suitability as a data source for workrelated research studies. To date, little has been written about the availability and validity of PBL environments as a data source and its suitability for work-related research. We describe problembased learning and use a research project case study to illustrate the challenges associated with industry work samples. We then describe the PBL course used in our research case study and use this example to illustrate the key attributes of problem-based learning environments and show how the chosen PBL environment met the work-related research requirements of the research case study. We propose that the more realistic the PBL work context and work group composition, the better the PBL environment as a data source for a work-related research. The work context is more realistic when relevant and complex project-based problems are tackled in industry-like work conditions over longer time frames. Work group composition is more realistic when participants with industry-level education and experience enact specialized roles in different disciplines within a professional community.

Discrepancies between metabolic activity and DNA content as tool to assess cell proliferation in cancer research

Cell proliferation is a critical and frequently studied feature of molecular biology in cancer research. Therefore, various assays are available using different strategies to measure cell proliferation. Metabolic assays such as AlamarBlue, WST-1, and MTT, which were originally developed to determine cell toxicity, are being used to assess cell numbers. Additionally, proliferative activity can be determined by quantification of DNA content using fluorophores, such as CyQuant and PicoGreen. Referring to data published in high ranking cancer journals, 945 publications applied these assays over the past 14 years to examine the proliferative behaviour of diverse cell types. Within this study, mainly metabolic assays were used to quantify changes in cell growth yet these assays may not accurately reflect cellular proliferation rates due to a miscorrelation of metabolic activity and cell number. Testing this hypothesis, we compared metabolic activity of different cell types, human cancer cells and primary cells, over a time period of 4 days using AlamarBlue and fluorometric assays CyQuant and PicoGreen to determine their DNA content. Our results show certain discrepancies in terms of over-estimation of cell proliferation with respect to the metabolic assay in comparison to DNA binding fluorophores.

Performance Research in Rangeland Communities

In 2003, Bill Dunstone, John McCallum and Paul Makeham began a collaboration with researchers at the Centre for the Management of Arid Environments (CMAE) in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. CMAE researchers are keen to develop 'people-oriented' strategies for implementing agricultural extension initiatives in their region. Traditional hierarchies of knowledge-transfer have impeded the 'connectedness' between community and researchers that gives meaning and relevance to useful practice (Ison and Russell, 2000). Our aim is to establish a partnership between the Live Events Research Network (LERN) and CMAE, investigating ways to link creative, performance-based research and practice with the scientific methodologies associated with natural resources management. This accords with recent work undertaken by Deborah Mills and Paul Brown, showing how community cultural development strategies enhance the implementation of policy concerned with community wellbeing. Mills and Brown 'adopted a concept of wellbeing which builds on a social and environmental view of health', and considered such themes as ecological sustainability, rural economic revitalisation, community strengthening, health and wellbeing (Mills, 2003). We propose that rangeland communities can creatively manage some of the challenges confronting them through performance-based projects which: - activate the stories through which a community enacts its sense of place; - facilitate live events in which the community enacts ownership of its culture and identity; - directly involve the community in the formulation of research issues

Multi-objective mission flight planning in civil unmanned aerial systems

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are emerging as an ideal platform for a wide range of civil applications such as disaster monitoring, atmospheric observation and outback delivery. However, the operation of UAVs is currently restricted to specially segregated regions of airspace outside of the National Airspace System (NAS). Mission Flight Planning (MFP) is an integral part of UAV operation that addresses some of the requirements (such as safety and the rules of the air) of integrating UAVs in the NAS. Automated MFP is a key enabler for a number of UAV operating scenarios as it aids in increasing the level of onboard autonomy. For example, onboard MFP is required to ensure continued conformance with the NAS integration requirements when there is an outage in the communications link. MFP is a motion planning task concerned with finding a path between a designated start waypoint and goal waypoint. This path is described with a sequence of 4 Dimensional (4D) waypoints (three spatial and one time dimension) or equivalently with a sequence of trajectory segments (or tracks). It is necessary to consider the time dimension as the UAV operates in a dynamic environment. Existing methods for generic motion planning, UAV motion planning and general vehicle motion planning cannot adequately address the requirements of MFP. The flight plan needs to optimise for multiple decision objectives including mission safety objectives, the rules of the air and mission efficiency objectives. Online (in-flight) replanning capability is needed as the UAV operates in a large, dynamic and uncertain outdoor environment. This thesis derives a multi-objective 4D search algorithm entitled Multi- Step A* (MSA*) based on the seminal A* search algorithm. MSA* is proven to find the optimal (least cost) path given a variable successor operator (which enables arbitrary track angle and track velocity resolution). Furthermore, it is shown to be of comparable complexity to multi-objective, vector neighbourhood based A* (Vector A*, an extension of A*). A variable successor operator enables the imposition of a multi-resolution lattice structure on the search space (which results in fewer search nodes). Unlike cell decomposition based methods, soundness is guaranteed with multi-resolution MSA*. MSA* is demonstrated through Monte Carlo simulations to be computationally efficient. It is shown that multi-resolution, lattice based MSA* finds paths of equivalent cost (less than 0.5% difference) to Vector A* (the benchmark) in a third of the computation time (on average). This is the first contribution of the research. The second contribution is the discovery of the additive consistency property for planning with multiple decision objectives. Additive consistency ensures that the planner is not biased (which results in a suboptimal path) by ensuring that the cost of traversing a track using one step equals that of traversing the same track using multiple steps. MSA* mitigates uncertainty through online replanning, Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) and tolerance. Each trajectory segment is modeled with a cell sequence that completely encloses the trajectory segment. The tolerance, measured as the minimum distance between the track and cell boundaries, is the third major contribution. Even though MSA* is demonstrated for UAV MFP, it is extensible to other 4D vehicle motion planning applications. Finally, the research proposes a self-scheduling replanning architecture for MFP. This architecture replicates the decision strategies of human experts to meet the time constraints of online replanning. Based on a feedback loop, the proposed architecture switches between fast, near-optimal planning and optimal planning to minimise the need for hold manoeuvres. The derived MFP framework is original and shown, through extensive verification and validation, to satisfy the requirements of UAV MFP. As MFP is an enabling factor for operation of UAVs in the NAS, the presented work is both original and significant.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles UAVs attitude, height, motion estimation and control using visual systems

This paper presents an implementation of an aircraft pose and motion estimator using visual systems as the principal sensor for controlling an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or as a redundant system for an Inertial Measure Unit (IMU) and gyros sensors. First, we explore the applications of the unified theory for central catadioptric cameras for attitude and heading estimation, explaining how the skyline is projected on the catadioptric image and how it is segmented and used to calculate the UAV’s attitude. Then we use appearance images to obtain a visual compass, and we calculate the relative rotation and heading of the aerial vehicle. Additionally, we show the use of a stereo system to calculate the aircraft height and to measure the UAV’s motion. Finally, we present a visual tracking system based on Fuzzy controllers working in both a UAV and a camera pan and tilt platform. Every part is tested using the UAV COLIBRI platform to validate the different approaches, which include comparison of the estimated data with the inertial values measured onboard the helicopter platform and the validation of the tracking schemes on real flights.