Using viewer’s facial expression and heart rate for sports video highlights detection

Viewer interests, evoked by video content, can potentially identify the highlights of the video. This paper explores the use of facial expressions (FE) and heart rate (HR) of viewers captured using camera and non-strapped sensor for identifying interesting video segments. The data from ten subjects with three videos showed that these signals are viewer dependent and not synchronized with the video contents. To address this issue, new algorithms are proposed to effectively combine FE and HR signals for identifying the time when viewer interest is potentially high. The results show that, compared with subjective annotation and match report highlights, ‘non-neutral’ FE and ‘relatively higher and faster’ HR is able to capture 60%-80% of goal, foul, and shot-on-goal soccer video events. FE is found to be more indicative than HR of viewer’s interests, but the fusion of these two modalities outperforms each of them.

PM348 Heart education assessment and rehabilitation toolkit: Heart online. A web resource for clinicians

Access to the right information at the right time is a challenge facing health professionals across the globe. HEART Online (www.heartonline.org.au) is a website designed to support the delivery of evidence based care for the prevention and rehabilitation of heart disease. It was developed by the Queensland Government and the National Heart Foundation of Australia and launched May 2013.

Crash involvement patterns of unlicensed drivers and riders in Queensland. Report to Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads

Unlicensed driving remains a serious problem for road safety, despite ongoing improvements in traffic law enforcement practices and technology. While it does not play a direct causative role in road crashes, unlicensed driving undermines the integrity of the driver licensing system and is associated with a range of high-risk behaviours. This report examines official road crash data from Queensland for the years 2003-08 to compare the crash involvement patterns of unlicensed drivers with those of licensed drivers and explore the scope and nature of unlicensed driving. This study replicates and extends upon two previous studies examining the involvement of unlicensed drivers in crashes in Queensland (Watson, 2004a; 2004b; Watson & Steinhardt, 2006).

Crash involvement patterns of unlicensed drivers: Literature review. Report to Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads

There is a lack of definitive evidence available relating to the extent and nature of unlicensed driving. Analysis of the crash involvement of unlicensed drivers provides an opportunity to better understand the behaviours of this group. This paper reviews the available literature relating to crash involvement patterns of unlicensed drivers. Key areas discussed include the prevalence of unlicensed driving as indicated by studies of crashes involving this group and associations between unlicensed driving and higher levels of risk-taking on the road. This paper also notes differences found in the characteristics and on-road behaviour of unlicensed drivers and the degree to which these factors, in particular alcohol and drug misuse, may influence crash involvement patterns. Drawing on Australian and international studies, this paper consolidates the available research evidence and identifies gaps in current knowledge relating to crash involvement patterns of unlicensed drivers.

B-adrenoceptor determinants of contractility in the human heart: The role of phosphodiesterase enzymes

This thesis investigated how enzymes called phosphodiesterases control changes in contractility mediated by noradrenaline and adrenaline through activation of β1- and β2-adrenoceptors in live human heart tissue from patients with advanced heart failure undergoing transplantation. The study compared patients who had been administered β-blocker medicines metoprolol or carvedilol or no β-blocker treatment. This work helped to further elucidate the complex roles of target receptors and enzymes that are integral to the progression of heart failure, to compare the mechanisms of action of β-blockers currently used to manage heart failure and to identify new drug targets for heart failure treatment.

Evaluating the level of stakeholder involvement during the project planning processes of building projects

The purpose of this study is to examine the current level of stakeholder involvement during the project's planning process. Stakeholders often provide the needed resources and have the ability to control the interaction and resource flows in the network. They also ultimately have strong impact on an organisation's survival, and therefore appropriate management and involvement of key stakeholders should be an important part of any project management plan. A series of literature reviews was conducted to identify and categorise significant phases involved in the planning. For data collection, a questionnaire survey was designed and distributed amongst nearly 200 companies who were involved in the residential building sector in Australia. Results of the analysis demonstrate the engagement levels of the four stakeholder groups involved in the planning process and establish a basis for further stakeholder involvement improvement.

Prefrontal cortex involvement in selective letter generation: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Cerebral responses to alternating periods of a control task and a selective letter generation paradigm were investigated with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Subjects selectively generated letters from four designated sets of six letters from the English language alphabet, with the instruction that they were not to produce letters in alphabetical order either forward or backward, repeat or alternate letters. Performance during this condition was compared with that of a control condition in which subjects recited the same letters in alphabetical order. Analyses revealed significant and extensive foci of activation in a number of cerebral regions including mid-dorsolateral frontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, precuneus, supramarginal gyrus, and cerebellum during the selective letter generation condition. These findings are discussed with respect to recent positron emission tomography (PET) and fMRI studies of verbal working memory and encoding/retrieval in episodic memory.

Antibody reactivity to the transmembrane protein of the caprine arthritis encephalitis virus correlates with severity of arthritis: No evidence for the involvement of epitope mimicry

Serum and synovial antibody reactivities of caprine arthritis encephalitis virus (CAEV) infected goats were assessed by Western blotting against purified CAEV antigen and the greatest intensity of reactivity in the serum of arthritic goats was to the gp45 transmembrane protein (TM). The extracytoplasmic domain of the TM gene was cloned into a pGEX vector and expressed in Escherichia coil as a glutathione S transferase fusion protein (GST-TM). This clone was found to be 90.5 and 89.2% homologous to published sequences of CAEV TM gene. Serum of 16 goats naturally infected with CAEV were examined by Western blotting for reactivity to the fusion protein. Antibody reactivity to the GST-TM correlated with clinically detectable arthritis (R = 0.642, P ≤ 0.007). The hypothesis that the immune response to the envelope proteins of the CAEV contributes to the severity of arthritis in goats naturally infected with CAEV via epitope mimicry was tested. Antibodies from 5 CAEV infected goats were affinity purified against the GST-TM fusion protein and tested for cross-reactivity with a series of goat synovial extracts and proteogylcans. No serum antibody response or cross-reactivity of affinity purified antibodies could be detected. Peptides of the CAEV SU that were predicted to be linear epitopes and a similar heat shock protein 83 (HSP) peptide identified by database searching, were synthesized and tested for reactivity in CAEV goats using ELISA, in vitro lymphocyte proliferation and delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) assays. Peripheral blood lymphocytes from 10 of 17 goats with long term natural CAEV infections proliferated in vitro in response to CAEV and in vivo 3 of 7 CAEV infected goats had a DTH reaction to CAEV antigen. However, none of the peptides elicited significant cell mediated immune responses from CAEV infected goats. No antibody reactivity to the SU peptides or HSP peptide was found. We observed that the antibody reactivity to the CAEV TM protein associated with severity of arthritis however epitope mimicry by the envelope proteins of CAEV is unlikely to be involved.

A multimarker approach to diagnose and stratify heart failure

Background We have previously demonstrated that circulating NT-proBNP is truncated at the N and C termini. Aims of this study are three-fold: firstly to determine whether the NT-proBNP levels correlate with NYHA functional classes when measuring with different antibody pairs; secondly to evaluate the diagnostic potential of ProBNP and; thirdly to investigate whether combining NT-proBNP assays with or without ProBNP would lead to better diagnostic accuracies. Methods Plasma samples were collected from healthy controls (n = 52) and HF patients (n = 46). Customized AlphaLISA® immunoassays were developed and validated to measure the concentrations of proBNP and NT-proBNP (with antibodies targeting 13–45, 13–76, 28–76). The diagnostic performance and predictive value of proBNP and NT-proBNP assays and their combinations were evaluated. Results Plasma proBNP assay showed acceptable diagnostic performance. NT-proBNP13–76 assay is useful in diagnosing and stratifying HF patients. The diagnostic performance of NT-proBNP13–76 demonstrated improvement over commercial NT-proBNP tests. The combination of NT-proBNP13–76 with NT-proBNP28–76 assays gave the best diagnostic assay performance. Conclusion Our results demonstrate that while there is major heterogeneity in circulating NT-proBNP, specific epitopes of the peptides are extraordinarily stable, providing ideal targets for clinically useful diagnostic assays. Future new clinical diagnostic clinical trials should include a multimarker approach rather than using a single marker to diagnose HF.

Association between glaucoma and at–fault motor vehicle collision involvement among older drivers

Objective To examine the association between glaucoma and motor vehicle collision (MVC) involvement among older drivers, including the role of visual field impairment that may underlie any association found. Design A retrospective population-based study Participants A sample of 2,000 licensed drivers aged 70 years and older who reside in north central Alabama. Methods At-fault MVC involvement for five years prior to enrollment was obtained from state records. Three aspects of visual function were measured: habitual binocular distance visual acuity, binocular contrast sensitivity and the binocular driving visual field constructed from combining the monocular visual fields of each eye. Poisson regression was used to calculate crude and adjusted rate ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Main Outcomes Measures At-fault MVC involvement for five years prior to enrollment. Results Drivers with glaucoma (n = 206) had a 1.65 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.20-2.28, p = 0.002) times higher MVC rate compared to those without glaucoma after adjusting for age, gender and mental status. Among those with glaucoma, drivers with severe visual field loss had higher MVC rates (RR = 2.11, 95% CI 1.09-4.09, p = 0.027), whereas no significant association was found among those with impaired visual acuity and contrast sensitivity. When the visual field was sub-divided into six regions (upper, lower, left, and right visual fields; horizontal and vertical meridians), we found that impairment in the left, upper or lower visual field was associated with higher MVC rates, and an impaired left visual field showed the highest RR (RR = 3.16, p = 0.001) compared to other regions. However, no significant association was found in deficits in the right side or along the horizontal or vertical meridian. Conclusions A population-based study suggests that older drivers with glaucoma are more likely to have a history of at-fault MVC involvement than those without glaucoma. Impairment in the driving visual field in drivers with glaucoma appears to have an independent association with at-fault MVC involvement, whereas visual acuity and contrast sensitivity impairments do not.

Chemical Modification Studies of Gelonin - Involvement of Arginine Residues in Biological-Activity

Gelonin inhibits protein synthesis by inactivating the eukaryotic 60 S ribosomal subunit by an unknown mechanism. The protein was purified in high yield by a new method using Cibacron blue F3GA-Sepharose. Chemical modification studies reveal that arginine residues are essential for biological activity.

International survey of bicycling exposure, crash involvement, behaviors, and attitudes: Preliminary results

This paper presents some results from preliminary analyses of the data of an international online survey of bicycle riders, who reported riding at least once a month. On 4 July 2015, data from 7528 participants from 17 countries was available in the survey, and were subsequently cleaned and checked for consistency. The median distance ridden ranged from 30 km/week in Israel to 150 km/week in Greece (overall median 54 km/week). City/hybrid bicycles were the most common type of bicycle ridden (44%), followed by mountain (20%) and road bikes (15%). Almost half (47%) of the respondents rode “nearly daily”. About a quarter rode daily to work or study (27%). Overall, 40% of respondents reported wearing a helmet ‘always’, varying from 2% in the Netherlands to 80% in Norway, while 25% reported ‘never’ wearing a helmet. Thus, individuals appeared to consistently either use or not use helmets. Helmet wearing rates were generally higher when riding for health/fitness than other purposes and appeared to be little affected by the type of riding location, but some divergences in these patterns were found among countries. Almost 29% of respondents reported being involved in at least one bicycle crash in the last year (ranging from 12% in Israel to 53% in Turkey). Among the most severe crashes for each respondent, about half of the crashes involved falling off a bicycle. Just under 10% of the most severe crashes for each respondent were reported to police. Among the bicycle-motor vehicle crashes, only a third were reported to police. Further analyses will address questions regarding the influence of factors such as demographic characteristics, type of bicycle ridden, and attitudes on both bi-cycle use and helmet wearing rates.

Internationalizing school curriculum in Australasia: As niche, by test, or at heart?

Global citizenship has emerged as a pressing curricular priority which all educational systems are currently grappling with. The challenge is to negotiate how this orientation might sit alongside the more traditional mission of mass school curriculum in building collective ballast for a national identity through a common morality and shared narratives, or may conflict with efforts to protect and promote indigenous and minority identities. As a case study of how these agendas interact, this chapter will consider curricular responses to global imperatives in the variegated conditions across the Australasian region (defined as Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea). The chapter will outline recent developments in the social, economic and political contexts surrounding curricular reforms in these settings, and demonstrate how these developments have changed the conditions of possibility and strength of purpose behind efforts to internationalise school curricula. Three types of systemic responses are then described: firstly, an appetite for globally branded curricula such as the International Baccalaureate, Montessori, and Cambridge University Certificates to distinguish some in a stratified market; secondly, convergence in curriculum to improve national performance on international standardised tests; and thirdly, the infusion of cosmopolitan sensibilities, regional identities and intercultural competencies as a core curricular goal for all. The chapter considers the various pragmatic interpretations of ‘internationalisation’ in these responses, and argues that the third response seems both the most difficult to enact, and the most vulnerable to political interference.

Up close and personal with those experiencing homelessness: Pharmacist involvement in a multidisciplinary healthcare team

Introduction. The Brisbane City Council holds a biannual Homeless Connect event which brings together business and community groups on one day to provide free services to people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Pharmacists were involved in this initiative and provided health services in a multidisciplinary healthcare environment building on the lessons of previous Homeless Connect events (Chan et al, 2015) Aims. To explore pharmacists reflections on their role in a multidisciplinary healthcare team providing services at a community outreach event for those experiencing homelessness. Methods. The pharmacists (n=2) documented the types of services provided during the Homeless Connect event. A semi-structured interview was conducted post-event to investigate barriers, facilitators and changes that would be recommended for future events. Their perceptions of their role in the multidisciplinary healthcare team were also explored. Results. Primarily, the services provided included delivery of primary healthcare, advice on accessing cost effective pharmacy services and addressing medication enquiries. The pharmacists also provided moisturiser samples and health information leaflets. Interdisciplinary referrals were primarily between the pharmacists and podiatrists; no pharmacist-medical practitioner referrals occurred. The pharmacists did believe they had a positive role in this health initiative but improvements could be implemented to improve the delivery of these services in future events. Discussion. Pharmacists can play an important role in providing services to people experiencing or at risk of homelessness and the overall experience was positive for the pharmacists. They were able to integrate into a multidisciplinary healthcare team in this setting but strategies for further collaboration were identified. The possibility of involving pharmacy students in future events was identified.

‘They rush you and push you too much … and you can't really get any good response off them’: A qualitative examination of family involvement in care of people with dementia in acute care

Aim: To explore the role and needs of the family carer across different acute care contexts and their level of involvement in the care of their relative with dementia in this setting. Method: A pragmatic, exploratory-descriptive qualitative approach. A convenience sample of 30 family carers across three sites completed semi-structured interviews. Results: Family carers wanted to be involved in the acute care of their family member with dementia. They acknowledged the importance of a central source of information, educated staff, guidelines on roles and processes, and positive communication, as well as respect from staff for the carer’s knowledge of the older person and their needs. They also highlighted the need for medical staff to discuss with them the family member’s treatment and care. Conclusion: There is a need for family-focused interventions to improve communication and involvement of family in the care of family members with dementia in the acute setting.