Go8 warning on equity

Universities could exploit the Rudd government's multimillion-dollar equity push by enrolling underprepared students, the Group of Eight universities has warned.

With $503 million available, incentives are high to quickly increase the number of low socioeconomic status students "without regard for likelihood of success", the Go8 has told the government.

Defending against large-scale and coordinated attacks in the ubiquitous environments

Ubiquitous computing is an exciting paradigm shift where technology becomes virtually invisible in our lives. In the increasingly interconnected world, threats to our daily lives can come from unexpected sources and universal directions. Criminals and terrorists have recognized the value of leveraging the ubiquitous computing environments to facilitate the commission of crimes. The cyber criminals typically launch different forms of large-scale and coordinated attacks, causing huge financial loss and potential life hazard. In this talk, we report two innovative approaches to defend against large-scale and coordinated attacks in the ubiquitous environments: 1) Inferring the cyber crime's intent through network traffic classification to enable the early warning of potential attacks, and 2) Profiling the large-scale and coordinated cyber attacks through both microscopic and macroscopic modeling to provide better control of such attacks. These approaches are effective in finding weak symptoms caused by the attacks thus can successfully defend against the large-scale and coordinated attacks at their early stages.

The uptake of an early warning system in an Australian emergency department : a pilot study

Objectives: To evaluate the uptake of an emergency department early warning system (ED EWS) for recognition of, and response to, clinical deterioration.

Design, setting and participants: A descriptive exploratory study conducted in an urban district hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Systematic sampling was used to identify every 10th patient for whom the ED EWS was activated from May 2009 to May 2011.

Main outcome measures: Patient characteristics, ED system data and ED EWS activation characteristics.

Results: ED EWS activation occurred in 1.5% of ED patients; 204 patients were included in this pilot study. The median age was 65.1 years (interquartile range [IQR], 47.8-77.5 years), 89.2% of patients were classified as triage category 2 or 3, and 82.4% of patients were seen by medical staff before ED EWS activation. Hypotension (27.7%) and tachycardia (23.7%) were the most common reasons for ED EWS activation. Median duration of clinical instability was 39 minutes (IQR, 5- 129 minutes). Nurses made 93.1% of ED EWS activations. Median time between documenting physiological abnormalities and ED EWS activation was 5 minutes (IQR, 0- 20). Most patients (57.8%) required hospital admission: 4.4% of patients required intensive care unit admission.

Conclusions: The ED EWS resulted in at least two formal reports of clinical deterioration in ED patients per day, indicating reasonable uptake by clinicians. A greater understanding of clinical deterioration in ED patients is warranted to inform an evidence-based approach to recognition of, and response to, clinical deterioration in ED patients.

Twitter tsunami early warning network : a social network analysis of Twitter information flows

In the aftermath of earthquakes, tsunamis, such as the 2011 Great East Japan Tsunami, caused enormous damage around the world. With the extreme disaster events of the past, nations improved disaster preparedness and response through sensors and tsunami early warning systems. Even with system usage, however, governments still need to warn the targeted citizens – who may be anywhere within the vulnerable areas – of predicted tsunami and ordered mass evacuations within a very limited lead time. While social media research is on the rise outside the domain of social networking, very little is written about Twitter use for tsunami early warning. In this research, therefore, we examined the utility of Twitter as a tsunami early warning network, which engages citizens and disaster management agencies in diffusing disaster information. We conducted a social network analysis of Twitter information flows among the central disaster warning agency’s Twitter followers during the 2012 Indonesia Earthquake.

Provision of control measures for exposure of the hands to wet-working conditions in Australian workplaces

Objective: To analyze the occupational and demographic characteristics for workers participating in the Australian National Hazard Exposure Worker Surveillance (NHEWS) Survey, who reported the provision of various types of workplace control measures for exposure of the hands to wet-working conditions, and to identify the barriers for the provision of controls. Methods: Computer-assisted telephone interviews were conducted with 4500 workers in 2008. Workers were asked about the types of control measures provided to them in the workplace for exposure of the hands to liquids. Results: Workplace size was the strongest predictor for the provision of control measures. Compared to workplaces with fewer than five employees, workers in workplaces with 200 or more employees were more likely to report provision of gloves, barrier creams and moisturizers, labeling and warning, and ongoing training and education about skin care. Conclusion: Smaller workplaces have poorer access to control measures to mitigate exposure to wet work.

The unintended consequence of an EGM warning

The article discusses a study which examined how different ways for delivering Electronic Gaming Machine (EGM) warnings affected the EGM use of regular gamblers. The gambling warnings used in the study are those considered for implementation in land-based casinos in countries like Australia. The warnings delivered via a pop-up window are designed to deter and reduce gambling.