988 resultados para Product failure


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At a quite fundamental level, the very way in which Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) may envisage its future usually captured in the semantic shift from PSB to Public Service Media (PSM) is at stake when considering the recent history of public value discourse and the public value test. The core Reithian PSB idea assumed that public value would be created through the application of core principles of universality of availability and appeal, provision for minorities, education of the public, distance from vested interests, quality programming standards, program maker independence, and fostering of national culture and the public sphere. On the other hand, the philosophical import of the public value test is that potentially any excursion into the provision of new media services needs to be justified ex ante. In this era of New Public Management, greater transparency and accountability, and the proposition that resources for public value deliverables be contestable and not sequestered in public sector institutions, what might be the new Archimedean point around which a contemporised normativity for PSM be built? This paper will argue for the innovation imperative as an organising principle for contemporary PSM. This may appear counterintuitive, as it is precisely PSB’s predilection for innovating in new media services (in online, mobile, and social media) that has produced the constraining apparatus of the ex ante/public value/Drei-Stufen-Test in Europe, based on principles of competitive neutrality and transparency in the application of public funds for defined and limited public benefit. However, I argue that a commitment to innovation can define as complementary to, rather than as competitive ‘crowding out’, the new products and services that PSM can, and should, be delivering into a post-scarcity, superabundant all-media marketplace. The evidence presented in this paper for this argument is derived mostly from analysis of PSM in the Australian media ecology. While no PSB outside Europe is subject to a formal public value test, the crowding out arguments are certainly run in Australia, particularly by powerful commercial interests for whom free news is a threat to monetising quality news journalism. Take right wing opinion leader, herself a former ABC Board member, Judith Sloan: ‘… the recent expansive nature of the ABC – all those television stations, radio stations and online offerings – is actually squeezing activity that would otherwise be undertaken by the private sector. From partly correcting market failure, the ABC is now causing it. We are now dealing with a case of unfair competition and wasted taxpayer funds’ (The Drum, 1 August http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2818220.html). But I argue that the crowding out argument is difficult to sustain in Australia because of the PSB’s non-dominant position and the fact that much of innovation generated by the two PSBs, the ABC and the SBS, has not been imitated by or competed for by the commercials. The paper will bring cases forward, such as SBS’ Go Back to Where you Came From (2011) as an example of product innovation, and a case study of process and organisational innovation which also has resulted in specific product and service innovation – the ABC’s Innovation Unit. In summary, at least some of the old Reithian dicta, along with spectrum scarcity and market failure arguments, have faded or are fading. Contemporary PSM need to justify their role in the system, and to society, in terms of innovation.

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The decision of Applegarth J in Heartwood Architectural & Joinery Pty Ltd v Redchip Lawyers [2009] QSC 195 (27 July 2009) involved a costs order against solicitors personally. This decision is but one of several recent decisions in which the court has been persuaded that the circumstances justified costs orders against legal practitioners on the indemnity basis. These decisions serve as a reminder to practitioners of their disclosure obligations when seeking any interlocutory relief in an ex parte application. These obligations are now clearly set out in r 14.4 of the Legal Profession (Solicitors) Rule 2007 and r 25 of 2007 Barristers Rule. Inexperience or ignorance will not excuse breaches of the duties owed to the court.

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Much has been written on Michel Foucault’s reluctance to clearly delineate a research method, particularly with respect to genealogy (Harwood 2000; Meadmore, Hatcher, & McWilliam 2000; Tamboukou 1999). Foucault (1994, p. 288) himself disliked prescription stating, “I take care not to dictate how things should be” and wrote provocatively to disrupt equilibrium and certainty, so that “all those who speak for others or to others” no longer know what to do. It is doubtful, however, that Foucault ever intended for researchers to be stricken by that malaise to the point of being unwilling to make an intellectual commitment to methodological possibilities. Taking criticism of “Foucauldian” discourse analysis as a convenient point of departure to discuss the objectives of poststructural analyses of language, this paper develops what might be called a discursive analytic; a methodological plan to approach the analysis of discourses through the location of statements that function with constitutive effects.

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Background Efficient effective child product safety (PS) responses require data on hazards, injury severity and injury probability. PS responses in Australia largely rely on reports from manufacturers/retailers, other jurisdictions/regulators, or consumers. The extent to which reactive responses reflect actual child injury priorities is unknown. Aims/Objectives/Purpose This research compared PS issues for children identified using data compiled from PS regulatory data and data compiled from health data sources in Queensland, Australia. Methods PS regulatory documents describing issues affecting children in Queensland in 2008–2009 were compiled and analysed to identify frequent products and hazards. Three health data sources (ED, injury surveillance and hospital data) were analysed to identify frequent products and hazards. Results/Outcomes Projectile toys/squeeze toys were the priority products for PS regulators with these toys having the potential to release small parts presenting choking hazards. However, across all health datasets, falls were the most common mechanism of injury, and several of the products identified were not subject to a PS system response. While some incidents may not require a response, a manual review of injury description text identified child poisonings and burns as common mechanisms of injuries in the health data where there was substantial documentation of product-involvement, yet only 10% of PS system responses focused on these two mechanisms combined. Significance/contribution to the field Regulatory data focused on products that fail compliance checks with ‘potential’ to cause harm, and health data identified actual harm, resulting in different prioritisation of products/mechanisms. Work is needed to better integrate health data into PS responses in Australia.

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Structural framing systems and mechanisms designed for normal use rarely possess adequate robustness to withstand the effects of large impacts, blasts and extreme earthquakes that have been experienced in recent times. Robustness is the property of systems that enables them to survive unforeseen or unusual circumstances (Knoll & Vogel, 2009). Queensland University of Technology with industry collaboration is engaged in a program of research that commenced 15 years ago to study the impact of such unforeseeable phenomena and investigate methods of improving robustness and safety with protective mechanisms embedded or designed in structural systems. This paper highlights some of the research pertaining to seismic protection of building structures, rollover protective structures and effects of vehicular impact and blast on key elements in structures that could propagate catastrophic and disproportionate collapse.

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Unlike most normal construction projects, post-disaster housing projects are diverse in nature, have unique socio-cultural and economical requirements, and are extremely dynamic and thus necessitate a meaningful and dynamic response. Post-disaster reconstruction practices that lack a strategy compatible with the severity of disaster, community culture, socio-economic requirements, environmental condition, government legislations, and technical and technological situations, often fail to operate and respond effectively to the needs of the wider affected population. Factors that frequently pose real threats to the eventual success of reconstruction projects are rarely given appropriate consideration when designing such projects. Research into past reconstruction practices has shown that ignoring these factors altogether or failing to give them meaningful consideration can affect housing reconstruction projects. In other words, they either miss their targets altogether or undergo serious modifications after their occupancy, subsequently resulting in an overall loss of project resources. This article touches upon the common factors that negatively impact the outcome of such projects.

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Currently, recommender systems (RS) have been widely applied in many commercial e-commerce sites to help users deal with the information overload problem. Recommender systems provide personalized recommendations to users and thus help them in making good decisions about which product to buy from the vast number of product choices available to them. Many of the current recommender systems are developed for simple and frequently purchased products like books and videos, by using collaborative-filtering and content-based recommender system approaches. These approaches are not suitable for recommending luxurious and infrequently purchased products as they rely on a large amount of ratings data that is not usually available for such products. This research aims to explore novel approaches for recommending infrequently purchased products by exploiting user generated content such as user reviews and product click streams data. From reviews on products given by the previous users, association rules between product attributes are extracted using an association rule mining technique. Furthermore, from product click streams data, user profiles are generated using the proposed user profiling approach. Two recommendation approaches are proposed based on the knowledge extracted from these resources. The first approach is developed by formulating a new query from the initial query given by the target user, by expanding the query with the suitable association rules. In the second approach, a collaborative-filtering recommender system and search-based approaches are integrated within a hybrid system. In this hybrid system, user profiles are used to find the target user’s neighbour and the subsequent products viewed by them are then used to search for other relevant products. Experiments have been conducted on a real world dataset collected from one of the online car sale companies in Australia to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed recommendation approaches. The experiment results show that user profiles generated from user click stream data and association rules generated from user reviews can improve recommendation accuracy. In addition, the experiment results also prove that the proposed query expansion and the hybrid collaborative filtering and search-based approaches perform better than the baseline approaches. Integrating the collaborative-filtering and search-based approaches has been challenging as this strategy has not been widely explored so far especially for recommending infrequently purchased products. Therefore, this research will provide a theoretical contribution to the recommender system field as a new technique of combining collaborative-filtering and search-based approaches will be developed. This research also contributes to a development of a new query expansion technique for infrequently purchased products recommendation. This research will also provide a practical contribution to the development of a prototype system for recommending cars.

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Aims: This paper describes the development of a risk adjustment (RA) model predictive of individual lesion treatment failure in percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) for use in a quality monitoring and improvement program. Methods and results: Prospectively collected data for 3972 consecutive revascularisation procedures (5601 lesions) performed between January 2003 and September 2011 were studied. Data on procedures to September 2009 (n = 3100) were used to identify factors predictive of lesion treatment failure. Factors identified included lesion risk class (p < 0.001), occlusion type (p < 0.001), patient age (p = 0.001), vessel system (p < 0.04), vessel diameter (p < 0.001), unstable angina (p = 0.003) and presence of major cardiac risk factors (p = 0.01). A Bayesian RA model was built using these factors with predictive performance of the model tested on the remaining procedures (area under the receiver operating curve: 0.765, Hosmer–Lemeshow p value: 0.11). Cumulative sum, exponentially weighted moving average and funnel plots were constructed using the RA model and subjectively evaluated. Conclusion: A RA model was developed and applied to SPC monitoring for lesion failure in a PCI database. If linked to appropriate quality improvement governance response protocols, SPC using this RA tool might improve quality control and risk management by identifying variation in performance based on a comparison of observed and expected outcomes.

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In order to develop more inclusive products and services, designers need a means of assessing the inclusivity of existing products and new concepts. Following previous research on the development of scales for inclusive design at University of Cambridge, Engineering Design Centre (EDC) [1], this paper presents the latest version of the exclusion audit method. For a specific product interaction, this estimates the proportion of the Great British population who would be excluded from using a product or service, due to the demands the product places on key user capabilities. A critical part of the method involves rating of the level of demand placed by a task on a range of key user capabilities, so the procedure to perform this assessment was operationalised and then its reliability was tested with 31 participants. There was no evidence that participants rated the same demands consistently. The qualitative results from the experiment suggest that the consistency of participants’ demand level ratings could be significantly improved if the audit materials and their instructions better guided the participant through the judgement process.

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A key issue in the field of inclusive design is the ability to provide designers with an understanding of people's range of capabilities. Since it is not feasible to assess product interactions with a large sample, this paper assesses a range of proxy measures of design-relevant capabilities. It describes a study that was conducted to identify which measures provide the best prediction of people's abilities to use a range of products. A detailed investigation with 100 respondents aged 50-80 years was undertaken to examine how they manage typical household products. Predictor variables included self-report and performance measures across a variety of capabilities (vision, hearing, dexterity and cognitive function), component activities used in product interactions (e.g. using a remote control, touch screen) and psychological characteristics (e.g. self-efficacy, confidence with using electronic devices). Results showed, as expected, a higher prevalence of visual, hearing, dexterity, cognitive and product interaction difficulties in the 65-80 age group. Regression analyses showed that, in addition to age, performance measures of vision (acuity, contrast sensitivity) and hearing (hearing threshold) and self-report and performance measures of component activities are strong predictors of successful product interactions. These findings will guide the choice of measures to be used in a subsequent national survey of design-relevant capabilities, which will lead to the creation of a capability database. This will be converted into a tool for designers to understand the implications of their design decisions, so that they can design products in a more inclusive way.

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Anisotropic damage distribution and evolution have a profound effect on borehole stress concentrations. Damage evolution is an irreversible process that is not adequately described within classical equilibrium thermodynamics. Therefore, we propose a constitutive model, based on non-equilibrium thermodynamics, that accounts for anisotropic damage distribution, anisotropic damage threshold and anisotropic damage evolution. We implemented this constitutive model numerically, using the finite element method, to calculate stress–strain curves and borehole stresses. The resulting stress–strain curves are distinctively different from linear elastic-brittle and linear elastic-ideal plastic constitutive models and realistically model experimental responses of brittle rocks. We show that the onset of damage evolution leads to an inhomogeneous redistribution of material properties and stresses along the borehole wall. The classical linear elastic-brittle approach to borehole stability analysis systematically overestimates the stress concentrations on the borehole wall, because dissipative strain-softening is underestimated. The proposed damage mechanics approach explicitly models dissipative behaviour and leads to non-conservative mud window estimations. Furthermore, anisotropic rocks with preferential planes of failure, like shales, can be addressed with our model.

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Ambiguity resolution plays a crucial role in real time kinematic GNSS positioning which gives centimetre precision positioning results if all the ambiguities in each epoch are correctly fixed to integers. However, the incorrectly fixed ambiguities can result in large positioning offset up to several meters without notice. Hence, ambiguity validation is essential to control the ambiguity resolution quality. Currently, the most popular ambiguity validation is ratio test. The criterion of ratio test is often empirically determined. Empirically determined criterion can be dangerous, because a fixed criterion cannot fit all scenarios and does not directly control the ambiguity resolution risk. In practice, depending on the underlying model strength, the ratio test criterion can be too conservative for some model and becomes too risky for others. A more rational test method is to determine the criterion according to the underlying model and user requirement. Miss-detected incorrect integers will lead to a hazardous result, which should be strictly controlled. In ambiguity resolution miss-detected rate is often known as failure rate. In this paper, a fixed failure rate ratio test method is presented and applied in analysis of GPS and Compass positioning scenarios. A fixed failure rate approach is derived from the integer aperture estimation theory, which is theoretically rigorous. The criteria table for ratio test is computed based on extensive data simulations in the approach. The real-time users can determine the ratio test criterion by looking up the criteria table. This method has been applied in medium distance GPS ambiguity resolution but multi-constellation and high dimensional scenarios haven't been discussed so far. In this paper, a general ambiguity validation model is derived based on hypothesis test theory, and fixed failure rate approach is introduced, especially the relationship between ratio test threshold and failure rate is examined. In the last, Factors that influence fixed failure rate approach ratio test threshold is discussed according to extensive data simulation. The result shows that fixed failure rate approach is a more reasonable ambiguity validation method with proper stochastic model.

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Background: Heart failure is a serious condition estimated to affect 1.5-2.0% of the Australian population with a point prevalence of approximately 1% in people aged 50-59 years, 10% in people aged 65 years or more and over 50% in people aged 85 years or over (National Heart Foundation of Australian and the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand, 2006). Sleep disturbances are a common complaint of persons with heart failure. Disturbances of sleep can worsen heart failure symptoms, impair independence, reduce quality of life and lead to increased health care utilisation in patients with heart failure. Previous studies have identified exercise as a possible treatment for poor sleep in patients without cardiac disease however there is limited evidence of the effect of this form of treatment in heart failure. Aim: The primary objective of this study was to examine the effect of a supervised, hospital-based exercise training programme on subjective sleep quality in heart failure patients. Secondary objectives were to examine the association between changes in sleep quality and changes in depression, exercise performance and body mass index. Methods: The sample for the study was recruited from metropolitan and regional heart failure services across Brisbane, Queensland. Patients with a recent heart failure related hospital admission who met study inclusion criteria were recruited. Participants were screened by specialist heart failure exercise staff at each site to ensure exercise safety prior to study enrolment. Demographic data, medical history, medications, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score, Geriatric Depression Score, exercise performance (six minute walk test), weight and height were collected at Baseline. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score, Geriatric Depression Score, exercise performance and weight were repeated at 3 months. One hundred and six patients admitted to hospital with heart failure were randomly allocated to a 3-month disease-based management programme of education and self-management support including standard exercise advice (Control) or to the same disease management programme as the Control group with the addition of a tailored physical activity program (Intervention). The intervention consisted of 1 hour of aerobic and resistance exercise twice a week. Programs were designed and supervised by an exercise specialist. The main outcome measure was achievement of a clinically significant change (.3 points) in global Pittsburgh Sleep Quality score. Results: Intervention group participants reported significantly greater clinical improvement in global sleep quality than Control (p=0.016). These patients also exhibited significant improvements in component sleep disturbance (p=0.004), component sleep quality (p=0.015) and global sleep quality (p=0.032) after 3 months of supervised exercise intervention. Improvements in sleep quality correlated with improvements in depression (p<0.001) and six minute walk distance (p=0.04). When study results were examined categorically, with subjects classified as either "poor" or "good" sleepers, subjects in the Control group were significantly more likely to report "poor" sleep at 3 months (p=0.039) while Intervention participants were likely to report "good" sleep at this time (p=0.08). Conclusion: Three months of supervised, hospital based, aerobic and resistance exercise training improved subjective sleep quality in patients with heart failure. This is the first randomised controlled trial to examine the role of aerobic and resistance exercise training in the improvement of sleep quality for patients with this disease. While this study establishes exercise as a therapy for poor sleep quality, further research is needed to investigate the effect of exercise training on objective parameters of sleep in this population.