Personal exposure to ultrafine particles at schools microenvironment

This work was motivated by the limited knowledge on personal exposure to ultrafine (UF) particles, especially for children (Mejía et al. 2011). Most research efforts in the past have investigated particle mass concentration and only a limited number of studies have been conducted to quantify other particle metrics, such as particle number, in the classrooms and school microenvironment in general (Diapouli et al. 2008; Guo et al. 2008; Weichenthal et al. 2008; Mullen et al. 2011).

Creating Queensland, creative communities partnership - major Brisbane festival & Australia Council for the Arts

In March 2010, Brisbane Festival commissioned a Research Team, led by Dr Bree Hadley and Dr Sandra Gattenhof, Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, to conduct an evaluation of the Creating Queensland program, a new Creative Communities partnership between Brisbane Festival and the Australia Council for the Arts. This Final Report reviews and reports on the effectiveness of the program gathered during three phases throughout 2010: Phase 1, in which the research team analysed Brisbane Festival’s pre-existing data on the Creating Queensland events in 2009; Phase 2, in which the research team designed a new suite of instruments to gather data from producers, producing partners, artists and attendees involved in the Creating Queensland events in 2010; and Phase 3, in which the research team used content analysis of the narratives emerging in the data to establish how Brisbane Festival has adopted processes, activities or engagement protocols to operate as catalysts that produce experiences with specific impacts on individuals and communities. The Final Report finds that the Creating Queensland events concentrate on developing specific experiences for those involved – usually associated with storytelling, showcasing, and the valorisation or re-valorisation of neglected or forgotten cultural forms – in order to give communities a voice. It finds that the events prioritise accessibility – usually associated with allowing specific local communities or local artists to present material that is meaningful to them – and inclusivity – usually associated with using connections with producing partners (such as the Multicultural Development Association) to bring more and more people into the program. It finds that the events have a capacity-building effect, which allows local communities to increase their capacity to launch their own ideas, initiatives or events, allows individuals to increase their employability, or allows communities and individuals to increase their visibility within mainstream cultural practices and infrastructure. The Final Report further finds that Brisbane Festival has, throughout its years of commitment to community programming, developed specific techniques to enable events in the Creating Queensland program to have these effects, that these can be tracked, and, as a result, deployed or redeployed both by Brisbane Festival and other community arts organisations in the development of effective community arts programs. The data demonstrates that Creating Queensland is, by and large, having the desired effect on communities – people are actually participating, presenting work, and increasing their personal, professional and social skills in various ways, and this is valued by all stakeholders. The data also demonstrates that, as would be expected with any community arts program – particularly programs of this size and complexity – there are areas in which Creating Queensland is functioning exceptionally well and areas in which continuous improvement processes should be continued. Areas of excellence relate to Brisbane Festival’s longstanding commitment to community arts, and active community participation in the arts, as well as its ability to create well-known and loved programs that use effective techniques to have a positive impact on communities. Areas for improvement relate to Brisbane Festival’s potential to benefit from the following: clarifying relationships between community participants and professionals; increasing mentoring relationships between these groups; consolidating the discourses it uses to describe event aims across strategic, production, and publicity documents across the years; and re-considering the number of small events inside the larger Creating Queensland program.

Negligible heat strain in armored vehicle officers wearing personal body armor

Objectives This study evaluated the heat strain experienced by armored vehicle officers (AVOs) wearing personal body armor (PBA) in a sub-tropical climate. Methods Twelve male AVOs, aged 35-58 years, undertook an eight hour shift while wearing PBA. Heart rate and core temperature were monitored continuously. Urine specific gravity (USG) was measured before and after, and with any urination during the shift. Results Heart rate indicated an intermittent and low-intensity nature of the work. USG revealed six AVOs were dehydrated from pre through post shift, and two others became dehydrated. Core temperature averaged 37.4 ± 0.3°C, with maximum's of 37.7 ± 0.2°C. Conclusions Despite increased age, body mass, and poor hydration practices, and Wet-Bulb Globe Temperatures in excess of 30°C; the intermittent nature and low intensity of the work prevented excessive heat strain from developing.

From homepages to network profiles : balancing personal and social identity

The World Wide Web constitutes one of the most important inventions of the late 20th century: it has changed culture, society, business, communication, politics, and many other fields of human endeavour, not least also by providing a more user-friendly pathway of access to its major underlying technology, the Internet itself. Key phases in its development can be charted, especially by how it has been used to present and share information – and here, the personal or professional, private or official homepage stands in as a useful representation of wider Web trends overall. From hand-coded beginnings through several successive stages of experimentation and standardisation, to the shifting balance between personal sites and social networks, the homepage demonstrates how the Web itself, and its place in our lives, have changed.

New discursive configurations of journalism : Narratives in Rio de Janeiro's favelas [Novas configurações discursivas no jornalismo: narrativas digitais nas favelas do Rio de Janeiro]

Oprincipal objetivo desse artigo é apresentar os resultados parciais de uma pesquisa em andamento sobre o processo de produção de conteúdo do portal Viva Favela, um dos projetos sociais realizados pela organização nãogovernamental Viva Rio. Partindo de uma abordagem conceitual que discute os modos pelos quais a mídia alternativa e o jornalismo público/jornalismo cívico criam as condições de possibilidade para que uma determinada prática jornalística dê ‘voz’ e ‘empodere’ (empower) moradores de periferias e favelas brasileiras, estamos realizando um estudo das rotinas produtivas do Viva Favela e seus ‘correspondentes comunitários’. O conceito sobre voice, de Jo Tacchi, oferece-nos um embasamento teórico adequado para refletirmos sobre o que vem sendo denominado, nos Estados Unidos, de digital storytelling – as narrativas digitais produzidas com as tecnologias de informação e comunicação para “contar estórias” 1, que são criativamente apropriadas, no Brasil, por moradores das favelas e periferias das regiões metropolitanas.

Narratives of the 'everyday' in Rio de Janeiro's favelas : community photographers' attempts at generating alternative news values [Narrativas do cotidiano nas favelas do Rio de Janeiro: tentativas de construção de valores-notícia alternativos pelos fotógrafos populares]

Abstract This paper presents the partial results of an ongoing research project which investigates ethnographically community (photo)journalism media initiatives, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Viva Rio and Observatorio de Favelas (NGOs) run projects that provide favela residents with skills to take, edit and print their own (photo) journalism contents that enables community-based framing and documentation of favela live, personalities and issues. Three months of fieldwork related to these projects in Rio's favelas generated remarkable theoretical issues that represent the community photographers' attempt to establish counter news values by shifting the focus from poverty, shortages, violence and criminality to images of the ordinary life which included the myriad events that occurs in the day of the favelas. Resumo Este artigo apresenta os resultados parciais de uma pesquisa em andamento que, a partir do método etnográfico, investiga os projetos de comunicação comunitária, jornalismo e fotojornalismo, no Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. As organizações não-governamentais (ONGs) Viva Rio e Observatório de Favela apoiam projetos que objetivam tornar moradores de favelas capazes de produzir, editar e publicar as suas próprias narrativas sobre personagens e questões do cotidiano de suas comunidades. O trabalho de campo sobre estes projetos, realizado durante três meses nas favelas do Rio de Janeiro, forneceu questões teóricas relevantes que representam o esforço dos fotógrafos populares para estabelecer contra valores-notícia transferindo o foco da pobreza, escassez, violência e criminalidade para imagens do cotidiano que inclui uma miríade de eventos que acontecem no dia-a-dia das favelas.

Narratives of the 'everyday' in Rio de Janeiro's favelas : the construction of alternative news values by community photographers [Narrativas do cotidiano nas favelas cariocas: a problematizacao dos valores-noticia pelos fotografos populares]

Resumo: Esse artigo apresenta os resultados parciais de uma pesquisa em andamento que, a partir do método etnográfico, investiga os projetos de comunicação comunitária, jornalismo e fotojornalismo desenvolvidos por duas organizações não-governamentais na cidade do Rio de Janeiro. O trabalho de campo, realizado durante três meses nas favelas cariocas, forneceu questões teóricas relevantes para os estudos do jornalismo, destacando-se as problematizações sobre a noção de valores-notícia. Voltados para a produção de narrativas centradas no cotidiano das comunidades, os fotojornalistas populares consideram fundamental discutir os valores-notícia formulados pela grande imprensa e propor “contra-valores”.

Transforming mobile personal life log into autobiographical multimedia eChronicles

Mobile devices are becoming indispensable personal assistants in people's daily life as these devices support work, study, play and socializing activities. The multi-modal sensors and rich features of smartphones can capture abundant information about users' life experience, such as taking photos or videos on what they see and hear, and organizing their tasks and activities using calendar, to-do lists, and notes. Such vast information can become useful to help users recalling episodic memories and reminisce about meaningful experiences. In this paper, we propose to apply autobiographical memory framework to provide an effective mechanism to structure mobile life-log data. The proposed model is an attempt towards a more complete personal life-log indexing model, which will support long term capture, organization, and retrieval. To demonstrate the benefits of the proposed model, we propose some design solutions for enabling users-driven capture, annotation, and retrieval of autobiographical multimedia chronicles tools.

Lessons on sin and forgiveness : a crisis in the Roman Catholic Church

One of the greatest challenges facing the Roman Catholic Church (the Church) across the world continues to be found in addressing complaints of child sexual abuse (csa) by clergy. The list of Catholic clergy in Australia who have been criminally processed for sexual offences against children is disturbingly long. As disturbing as this list is, more disturbing are the accounts of clergy who have not been criminally prosecuted, but protected within the cloister of the Church. It is increasingly recognised that the significant difficulty with child sexual abuse in Catholic Churches, in particular, has not been the presence of perpetrators but the response of Church leadership to allegations of csa by clergy. Those who have faced criminal charges have often done so due to the resilience of victim/survivors and not because of the support of Church structures or culture. The Church has been slow to come to terms with the realities of the perpetration of csa by its clergy and even slower to recognise the need to prioritise victims in any effective, just response. The church has been slowest of all recognising that there are significant cultural and discursive challenges to confront in addressing the management of csa by clergy. There is, however, progressive recognition of the role that discursive constructs of forgiveness have played in perpetuating the crises and ultimately in perpetuating abuse. The institutional praxis of forgiveness can be demonstrated not only in the Church, but in lessons learned from use of forgiveness as an institutional response to mass violations of human rights. This paper explores the juncture between criminality, church culture and forgiveness in responding to csa by clergy.

In focus : the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth)

Australia has new national legislation - the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) and the Personal Property Securities Regulations 2010 – which commenced operation on 30 January 2012. Previous personal property securities legislation was very complex, with more than seventy pieces of legislation in the states and territories, and more than forty registers. This reform package is the culmination of a process that began many years ago and various drafts have been the subject of much investigation and consultation. This legislation rationalises previous laws and bring about substantial changes to this area of law. This paper seeks to explain the principal changes and their implications.

Outline of the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth)

Australia has new national legislation - the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) and the Personal Property Securities Regulations 2010 – which commenced operation on 30 January 2012. The policy objectives of the new legislation are to increase certainty and consistency and to reduce complexity and cost. To achieve this, the legislation treats like transactions alike, by focusing on substance over form, and so removes distinctions between security interests which have been based on their structure. Differences based on the location or nature of the secured property and the debtor’s legal form, as an individual or company, have also disappeared. We now have one single national scheme and one national electronic registration system for all security interests throughout Australia. The Act applies to security interests in tangible and intangible personal property, including those based on some form of title retention which are not security interests under the general law. This legislation rationalises previous laws and bring about substantial changes to this area of law. This paper seeks to explain the principal changes and their implications.

Improving self care of patients with chronic disease using online personal health record

BACKGROUND: Effective management of chronic diseases such as prostate cancer is important. Research suggests a tendency to use self-care treatment options such as over-the-counter (OTC) complementary medications among prostate cancer patients. The current trend in patient-driven recording of health data in an online Personal Health Record (PHR) presents an opportunity to develop new data-driven approaches for improving prostate cancer patient care. However, the ability of current online solutions to share patients' data for better decision support is limited. An informatics approach may improve online sharing of self-care interventions among these patients. It can also provide better evidence to support decisions made during their self-managed care. AIMS: To identify requirements for an online system and describe a new case-based reasoning (CBR) method for improving self-care of advanced prostate cancer patients in an online PHR environment. METHOD: A non-identifying online survey was conducted to understand self-care patterns among prostate cancer patients and to identify requirements for an online information system. The pilot study was carried out between August 2010 and December 2010. A case-base of 52 patients was developed. RESULTS: The data analysis showed self-care patterns among the prostate cancer patients. Selenium (55%) was the common complementary supplement used by the patients. Paracetamol (about 45%) was the commonly used OTC by the patients. CONCLUSION: The results of this study specified requirements for an online case-based reasoning information system. The outcomes of this study are being incorporated in design of the proposed Artificial Intelligence (Al) driven patient journey browser system. A basic version of the proposed system is currently being considered for implementation.

Email as an arena for authoring a dialogical self among gifted young adolescents : a qualitative study

This paper describes a qualitative study that investigated young adolescents’ self-constructions within the context of online (email) communication. Drawing from dialogical perspectives of self as multiply-situated and complex phenomena, the study focused on the everyday narratives of individual young adolescents interpreted as different “I” voices. With the assumption that computer mediation offers cultural relevance and empowerment to young adolescents, techniques of personal journal writing were used in combination with email as an alternative to face-to-face methods. Twelve participants aged 10 to 14 years were recruited online and by word-of-mouth with an invitation to write freely about their lives over a six month period in a participant-led email journal project. The role of the researcher was to develop a supportive voice of listener/responder that was intended to facilitate the emergence of participants’ own ‘self’ voices within an interactive space for relatively autonomous self-expression. Data as email texts were analysed using a close listening method that synchronised with the theory by revealing multi-layered patterns and shifts of voices in order to give a nuanced understanding of participants’ self and other evaluations. The paper shows that narrative methods used online and in concert with dialogical concepts have potential to heighten self-reflection and strengthen agency as a means to access rich and nuanced data from young adolescent individuals. The study’s findings contribute to a growing interest in the use of dialogical concepts to explore the ways people engage in active meaning-making while embedded in their specific social and cultural environments.

TS-fuzzy controlled DFIG based wind energy conversion system

This paper focuses on the implementation of the TS (Tagaki-Sugino) fuzzy controller for the active power and the DC capacitor voltage control of the Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) based wind generator. DFIG system is represented by a third-order model where electromagnetic transients of the stator are neglected. The effectiveness of the TS-fuzzy controller on the rotor speed oscillations and the DC capacitor voltage variations of the DFIG damping controller on converter ratings of the DFIG system is also investigated. The results of the time domain simulation studies are presented to elucidate the effectiveness of the TS-fuzzy controller compared with conventional PI controller in the DFIG system. The proposed TS-fuzzy controller can improve the fault ride through capability of DFIG compared to the conventional PI controller

Catalytic conversion of gases via cation-exchangable alumino-silicate materials

A process for catalytic conversion and/or adsorption of gases inclusive of NOx, SOx, CO2, CO, dioxins and PAHs and combinations thereof wherein said gases may contain particulates which include contacting one or more of such gases with an alumino-silicate material having: a primarily tetrahedrally co-ordinated aluminium as established by the fact that the 27 A1 Magic Angle Spinning (MAS) provides a single peak at 55-58 ppm (FWHM ~23 ppm) relative to Al(H 2 0) 6 3 and (ii) a cation exchange capacity of at least 1 meq 100 in aqueous solution at room temperature.