Design overview of USDL

Enabling web-based service networks and ecosystems requires a way of describing services by a "commercial envelope" as discussed in Chapter 1. A uniform conception of services across all walks of life (including technical services) is required capturing business, operational and technical aspects. Therefore, our proposed Unified Service Description Language (USDL) particularly draws from and generalizes the best-of-breed approaches presented in Part I. The following chapter presents the design rationale of USDL where the different aspects are put in a framework of descriptions requirements. This is followed by the subsequent chapters of this part that provide details on specific aspects such as pricing or legal issues.

Isolation and functional characterisation of banana phytoene synthase genes as potential cisgenes

Carotenoids occur in all photosynthetic organisms where they protect photosystems from auto-oxidation, participate in photosynthetic energy-transfer and are secondary metabolites. Of the more than 600 known plant carotenoids, few can be converted into vitamin A by humans and so these pro-vitamin A carotenoids (pVAC) are important in human nutrition. Phytoene synthase (PSY) is a key enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway of pVACs and plays a central role in regulating pVAC accumulation in the edible portion of crop plants. Bananas are a major commercial crop and serve as a staple crop for more than 30 million people. There is natural variation in fruit pVAC content across different banana cultivars, but this is not well understood. Therefore, we isolated PSY genes from banana cultivars with relatively high (cv. Asupina) and low (cv. Cavendish) pVAC content. We provide evidence that PSY in banana is encoded by two paralogs (PSY1 and PSY2), each with a similar gene structure to homologous genes in other monocots. Further, we demonstrate that PSY2 is more highly expressed in fruit pulp compared to leaf. Functional analysis of PSY1 and PSY2 in rice callus and E. coli demonstrate that both genes encode functional enzymes, and that Asupina PSYs have approximately twice the enzymatic activity of the corresponding Cavendish PSYs. These results suggest that differences in PSY enzyme activity contribute significantly to the differences in Asupina and Cavendish fruit pVAC content. Importantly, Asupina PSY genes could potentially be used to generate new cisgenic or intragenic banana cultivars with enhanced pVAC content.

Structuring and restructuring nonprofit associations

In the mid seventies there was a spate of legal claims involving unincorporated not-for-profit associations. These claims highlighted the liability exposure of management committee members and prompted a dramatic increase in the number of associations seeking shelter behind the corporate veil. Corporate structure decisions during this period were primarily motivated by the incentive of limited liability. Twenty years later, the not-for-profit sector is subject to new challenges. The Industry Commission Report into Charitable Organisations in Australia heralds an increasing intrusion of legislative responsibilities and reform in the sector. The traditional sources of funds for not-for-profit organisations are about to radically change with the advent of “competitive tendering” for government funding and the declining benevolence of society. The legal scuffle between Australian Rugby Football League Limited (the “ARL”) and News Limited has also exposed the vulnerability of not-for-profit groups and the many legal and commercial minefields in structural decision-making. The sector is beginning to respond to these pressures by rationalisation and restructure. Corporate structure decisions are now motivated by the need to promote efficiency and resilience. Survival of the fittest. Restructuring is by no means a task for the faint-hearted. A delicate balance between legality and practicality needs to be maintained. The focus of this paper is on the restructuring choices for not-for-profit organisations and groups in Queensland. It answers “how-to” questions and identifies some important restructuring issues.

Integrity, attribution, and exploitation : contractual and normative moral rights protection in open licensing

Over the last twenty years, the use of open content licenses has become increasingly and surprisingly popular. The use of such licences challenges the traditional incentive-based model of exclusive rights under copyright. Instead of providing a means to charge for the use of particular works, what seems important is mitigating against potential personal harm to the author and, in some cases, preventing non-consensual commercial exploitation. It is interesting in this context to observe the primacy of what are essentially moral rights over the exclusionary economic rights. The core elements of common open content licences map somewhat closely to continental conceptions of the moral rights of authorship. Most obviously, almost all free software and free culture licences require attribution of authorship. More interestingly, there is a tension between social norms developed in free software communities and those that have emerged in the creative arts over integrity and commercial exploitation. For programmers interested in free software, licence terms that prohibit commercial use or modification are almost completely inconsistent with the ideological and utilitarian values that underpin the movement. For those in the creative industries, on the other hand, non-commercial terms and, to a lesser extent, terms that prohibit all but verbatim distribution continue to play an extremely important role in the sharing of copyright material. While prohibitions on commercial use often serve an economic imperative, there is also a certain personal interest for many creators in avoiding harmful exploitation of their expression – an interest that has sometimes been recognised as forming a component of the moral right of integrity. One particular continental moral right – the right of withdrawal – is present neither in Australian law or in any of the common open content licences. Despite some marked differences, both free software and free culture participants are using contractual methods to articulate the norms of permissible sharing. Legal enforcement is rare and often prohibitively expensive, and the various communities accordingly rely upon shared understandings of acceptable behaviour. The licences that are commonly used represent a formalised expression of these community norms and provide the theoretically enforceable legal baseline that lends them legitimacy. The core terms of these licences are designed primarily to alleviate risk in sharing and minimise transaction costs in sharing and using copyright expression. Importantly, however, the range of available licences reflect different optional balances in the norms of creating and sharing material. Generally, it is possible to see that, stemming particularly from the US, open content licences are fundamentally important in providing a set of normatively accepted copyright balances that reflect the interests sought to be protected through moral rights regimes. As the cost of creation, distribution, storage, and processing of expression continues to fall towards zero, there are increasing incentives to adopt open content licences to facilitate wide distribution and reuse of creative expression. Thinking of these protocols not only as reducing transaction costs but of setting normative principles of participation assists in conceptualising the role of open content licences and the continuing tensions that permeate modern copyright law.

The social car : new interactive vehicular applications derived from social media and urban informatics

Digital information that is place- and time-specific, is increasingly becoming available on all aspects of the urban landscape. People (cf. the Social Web), places (cf. the Geo Web), and physical objects (cf. ubiquitous computing, the Internet of Things) are increasingly infused with sensors, actuators, and tagged with a wealth of digital information. Urban informatics research explores these emerging digital layers of the city at the intersection of people, place and technology. However, little is known about the challenges and new opportunities that these digital layers may offer to road users driving through today’s mega cities. We argue that this aspect is worth exploring in particular with regards to Auto-UI’s overarching goal of making cars both safer and more enjoyable. This paper presents the findings of a pilot study, which included 14 urban informatics research experts participating in a guided ideation (idea creation) workshop within a simulated environment. They were immersed into different driving scenarios to imagine novel urban informatics type of applications specific to the driving context.

Gifts, the law and functional rationalism

This paper examines the legal facilitation (or rather lack of facilitation) of gifts. The emerging western political ideology of welfare is based on the premise that nonprofit organisations are to play a far greater role in the delivery of welfare services. This role will be enabled in part by increased gifts. The ideology has not addressed the fundamental hostility of the law to the facilitation of gifts. The nature of the legal obstruction of such gifts is compared to equivalent commercial transactions, the reasons given for this obstruction are analysed and the appropriateness of such nonfacilitation is challenged. A state that does not alter the legal hostility to gifts may find that organisations do not attain their expected role in the changing welfare state.

Creative industries in China : art, design and media

Creative industries in China provides a fresh account of China’s emerging commercial cultural sector. The author shows how developments in Chinese art, design and media industries are reflected in policy, in market activity, and grassroots participation. Never has the attraction of being a media producer, an artist, or a designer in China been so enticing. National and regional governments offer financial incentives; consumption of cultural goods and services have increased; creative workers from Europe, North America and Asia are moving to Chinese cities; culture is increasingly positioned as a pillar industry. But what does this mean for our understanding of Chinese society? Can culture be industrialised following the low-cost model of China’s manufacturing economy. Is the national government really committed to social liberalisation? This engaging book is a valuable resource for students and scholars interested in social change in China. It draws on leading Chinese scholarship together with insights from global media studies, economic geography and cultural studies.

Identification of bone morphogenetic proteins 2 and 4 in commercial demineralized freeze-dried bone allograft preparations : pilot study

BACKGROUND: Demineralized freeze-dried bone allografts (DFDBAs) have been proposed as a useful adjunct in periodontal therapy to induce periodontal regeneration through the induction of new bone formation. The presence of bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) within the demineralized matrix has been proposed as a possible mechanism through which DFDBA may exert its biologic effect. However, in recent years, the predictability of results using DFDBA has been variable and has led to its use being questioned. One reason for the variability in tissue response may be attributed to differences in the processing of DFDBA, which may lead to loss of activity of any bioactive substances within the DFDBA matrix. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation was to determine whether there are detectable levels of bone morphogenetic proteins in commercial DFDBA preparations. METHODS: A single preparation of DFDBA was obtained from three commercial sources. Each preparation was studied in triplicate. Proteins within the DFDBA samples were first extracted with 4M guanidinium HCI for seven days at 40 degrees celsius and the residue was further extracted with 4M guanidinium HCL/EDTA for seven days at 40 degrees celsius. Two anti-human BMP-2 and -4 antibodies were used for the detection of the presence of BMP's in the extracts. RESULTS: Neither BMP-2 nor BMP-4 was detected in any of the extracts. When recombinant human BMP-2 and -4 were added throughout the extraction process of DFDBA extraction, not only were intact proteins detected but smaller molecular weight fragments were also noted in the extract. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that all of the DFDBA samples tested had no detectable amounts of BMP-2 and -4. In addition, an unknown substance present in the DFDBA may be responsible for degradation of whatever BMPs might be present.

Videogame control device impact on the play experience

New types of control devices for videogames have emerged and expanded the demographics of the game playing public, yet little is known about which populations of gamers prefer which style of interaction and why. This paper presents data from a study that seeks to clarify the influence the control interface has on the play experience. Three commercial control devices were categorised using an existing typology, according to how the interface maps physical control inputs with the virtual gameplay actions. The devices were then used in a within-groups experimental design aimed at measuring differences in play experience across 64 participants. Descriptive analysis is undertaken on the performance, play experience and preference results for each device. Potential explanations for these results are discussed, as well as the direction of future work.

Flourishing and video games

Studies dedicated to understanding the relationship between gaming and mental health, have traditionally focused on the effects of depression, anxiety, obsessive usage, aggression, obesity, and faltering ‘real life’ relationships. The complexity of game genre and personality aside, this review aims to define a space for a positive relationship between videogame play and wellbeing by applying current videogame research to the criteria that defines the wellbeing construct ‘flourishing’. Self- determination theory (SDT), and flow provide context, and areas of overlap are explored.

Exploiting SNOMED CT concepts and relationships for clinical information retrieval : Australian e-Health Research Centre and Queensland University of Technology at the TREC 2012 Medical Track

The Australian e-Health Research Centre and Queensland University of Technology recently participated in the TREC 2012 Medical Records Track. This paper reports on our methods, results and experience using an approach that exploits the concept and inter-concept relationships defined in the SNOMED CT medical ontology. Our concept-based approach is intended to overcome specific challenges in searching medical records, namely vocabulary mismatch and granularity mismatch. Queries and documents are transformed from their term-based originals into medical concepts as defined by the SNOMED CT ontology, this is done to tackle vocabulary mismatch. In addition, we make use of the SNOMED CT parent-child `is-a' relationships between concepts to weight documents that contained concept subsumed by the query concepts; this is done to tackle the problem of granularity mismatch. Finally, we experiment with other SNOMED CT relationships besides the is-a relationship to weight concepts related to query concepts. Results show our concept-based approach performed significantly above the median in all four performance metrics. Further improvements are achieved by the incorporation of weighting subsumed concepts, overall leading to improvement above the median of 28% infAP, 10% infNDCG, 12% R-prec and 7% Prec@10. The incorporation of other relations besides is-a demonstrated mixed results, more research is required to determined which SNOMED CT relationships are best employed when weighting related concepts.

Using the collaborative evidence based practice model : a systematic review and uptake of chlorhexidine-impregnated sponge dressings on central venous access devices in a tertiary cancer centre

Background: Greater research utilisation in cancer nursing practice is needed, in order to provide well-informed and effective nursing care to people affected by cancer. This paper aims to report on the implementation of evidence-based practice in a tertiary cancer centre. Methods: Using a case report design, this paper reports on the use of the Collaborative Model for Evidence Based Practice (CMEBP) in an Australian tertiary cancer centre. The clinical case is the uptake of routine application of chlorhexidine-impregnated sponge dressings for preventing centrally inserted catheter-related bloodstream infections. In this case report, a number of processes that resulted in a service-wide practice change are described. Results: This model was considered a feasible method for successful research utilisation. In this case report, chlorhexidine-impregnated sponge dressings were proposed and implemented in the tertiary cancer centre with an aim of reducing the incidence of centrally inserted catheter-related bloodstream infections and potentially improving patient health outcomes. Conclusion: The CMEBP is feasible and effective for implementing clinical evidence into cancer nursing practice. Cancer nurses and health administrators need to ensure a supportive infrastructure and environment for clinical inquiry and research utilisation exists, in order to enable successful implementation of evidence-based practice in their cancer centres.

Next-generation sequencing of cervical DNA detects human papillomavirus types not detected by commercial kits

Background Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the aetiological agent for cervical cancer and genital warts. Concurrent HPV and HIV infection in the South African population is high. HIV positive (+) women are often infected with multiple, rare and undetermined HPV types. Data on HPV incidence and genotype distribution are based on commercial HPV detection kits, but these kits may not detect all HPV types in HIV + women. The objectives of this study were to (i) identify the HPV types not detected by commercial genotyping kits present in a cervical specimen from an HIV positive South African woman using next generation sequencing, and (ii) determine if these types were prevalent in a cohort of HIV-infected South African women. Methods Total DNA was isolated from 109 cervical specimens from South African HIV + women. A specimen within this cohort representing a complex multiple HPV infection, with 12 HPV genotypes detected by the Roche Linear Array HPV genotyping (LA) kit, was selected for next generation sequencing analysis. All HPV types present in this cervical specimen were identified by Illumina sequencing of the extracted DNA following rolling circle amplification. The prevalence of the HPV types identified by sequencing, but not included in the Roche LA, was then determined in the 109 HIV positive South African women by type-specific PCR. Results Illumina sequencing identified a total of 16 HPV genotypes in the selected specimen, with four genotypes (HPV-30, 74, 86 and 90) not included in the commercial kit. The prevalence's of HPV-30, 74, 86 and 90 in 109 HIV positive South African women were found to be 14.6 %, 12.8 %, 4.6 % and 8.3 % respectively. Conclusions Our results indicate that there are HPV types, with substantial prevalence, in HIV positive women not being detected in molecular epidemiology studies using commercial kits. The significance of these types in relation to cervical disease remains to be investigated.

A method for systematically pooling data in very early stage construction price forecasting

Client owners usually need an estimate or forecast of their likely building costs in advance of detailed design in order to confirm the financial feasibility of their projects. Because of their timing in the project life cycle, these early stage forecasts are characterized by the minimal amount of information available concerning the new (target) project to the point that often only its size and type are known. One approach is to use the mean contract sum of a sample, or base group, of previous projects of a similar type and size to the project for which the estimate is needed. Bernoulli’s law of large numbers implies that this base group should be as large as possible. However, increasing the size of the base group inevitably involves including projects that are less and less similar to the target project. Deciding on the optimal number of base group projects is known as the homogeneity or pooling problem. A method of solving the homogeneity problem is described involving the use of closed form equations to compare three different sampling arrangements of previous projects for their simulated forecasting ability by a cross-validation method, where a series of targets are extracted, with replacement, from the groups and compared with the mean value of the projects in the base groups. The procedure is then demonstrated with 450 Hong Kong projects (with different project types: Residential, Commercial centre, Car parking, Social community centre, School, Office, Hotel, Industrial, University and Hospital) clustered into base groups according to their type and size.