Activity analysis in complicated scenes using DFT coefficients of particle trajectories

Modelling activities in crowded scenes is very challenging as object tracking is not robust in complicated scenes and optical flow does not capture long range motion. We propose a novel approach to analyse activities in crowded scenes using a “bag of particle trajectories”. Particle trajectories are extracted from foreground regions within short video clips using particle video, which estimates long range motion in contrast to optical flow which is only concerned with inter-frame motion. Our applications include temporal video segmentation and anomaly detection, and we perform our evaluation on several real-world datasets containing complicated scenes. We show that our approaches achieve state-of-the-art performance for both tasks.

Reconceptualising mega project success in Australian Defence : recognising the importance of value co-creation

Recent literature in project management has urged a re-conceptualisation of projects as a value co-creation process. Contrary to the traditional output-focused project methodology, the value creation perspective argues for the importance of creating new knowledge, processes, and systems for suppliers and customers. Stakeholder involvement is important in this new perspective, as the balancing of competing needs of stakeholders in mega projects becomes a major challenge in managing the value co-creation process. In this study we present interview data from three Australian defence mega projects to demonstrate that senior executives have a more complex understanding of project success than traditional iron triangle measures. In these mega defence projects, customers and other stakeholders actively engage in the value creation process, and over time both content and process value are created to increase defence and national capability. Value created and captured during and post projects are the key to true success.

Hypercapitalism : language, new media and social perceptions of value

Using examples from contemporary policy and business discourses, and exemplary historical texts dealing with the notion of value, I put forward an argument as to why a critical scholarship that draws on media history, language analysis, philosophy and political economy is necessary to understand the dynamics of what is being called 'the global knowledge economy'. I argue that the social changes associated with new modes of value determination are closely associated with new media forms.

Searching for value : the influence of policy and reform on nurses’ sense of value in long-term aged care in Australia.

Contemporary literature on long-term aged care focuses heavily on issues associated with the recruitment and retention of nursing staff, such as job satisfaction and attitudes towards caring for older people. This paper aims to highlight one aspect of a larger study of registered nurses' experiences in long-term aged care in Australia and the influence that government policy and reform has in shaping that experience. This insight into aspects of nurses' everyday experience also contributes to a broader understanding of job satisfaction in long-term care. Findings from this study suggest that registered nurses experience tension in their search for value in their practice, which incorporates professional, political and social mediators of value and worth. These issues are discussed in relation to the impact of policy and reform on nurses' sense of value in long-term aged care and highlight the need for sensitive policy initiatives that support issues of value in nursing practice.

The value of health and wellbeing : an empirical model of value creation in social marketing

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of multiple actors in the value creation process for a preventative health service, and observe the subsequent impact on key service outcomes of satisfaction and customer behaviour intentions to use a preventative health service again in the future. Design/methodology/approach An online self-completion survey of Australian women (n=797) was conducted to test the proposed framework in the context of a free, government-provided breastscreening service. Data were analysed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Findings The findings indicate that functional and emotional value are created from organisational and customer resources. These findings indicate that health service providers and customers are jointly responsible for the successful creation of value, leading to desirable outcomes for all stakeholders. Practical implications The results highlight to health professionals the aspects of service that can be managed in order to create value with target audiences. The findings also indicate the importance of the resources provided by users in the creation of value, signifying the importance of customer education and management. Originality/value This study provides a significant contribution to social marketing through the provision of an empirically validated model of value creation in a preventative health service. The model demonstrates how the creation and provision of value can lead to the achievement of desirable social behaviours - a key aim of social marketing.

What's in it for me? Virtual conspicuous donation strategies as a source of value in blood donation

Providing an incentive is becoming common practice among blood service organisations. Driven by self-orientated motives rather than pure philanthropic intentions, research is showing that people increasingly want something in return for their support. It is contended that individuals donate conspicuously with the hope it will improve their social standing. Yet there is limited evidence for the effectiveness of conspicuous recognition strategies, and no studies, to the researcher’s knowledge, that have examined conspicuous donation strategies in an online social media context. There is a need to understand what value drives individuals to donate blood, and whether conspicuous donation strategies are a source of such value post blood donation. The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise how conspicuous donation strategies, in the form of virtual badges on social media sites, can be applied to the social behaviour of blood donation, as a value-adding tool, to encourage repeat behaviour.

Degree of value alignment : a grounded theory of rural nurse resignations

INTRODUCTION: The shortage of nurses willing to work in rural Australian healthcare settings continues to worsen. Australian rural areas have a lower retention rate of nurses than metropolitan counterparts, with more remote communities experiencing an even higher turnover of nursing staff. When retention rates are lower, patient outcomes are known to be poorer. This article reports a study that sought to explore the reasons why registered nurses resign from rural hospitals in the state of New South Wales, Australia. METHODS: Using grounded theory methods, this study explored the reasons why registered nurses resigned from New South Wales rural hospitals. Data were collected from 12 participants using semi-structured interviews; each participant was a registered nurse who had resigned from a rural hospital. Nurses who had resigned due to retirement, relocation or maternity leave were excluded. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and imported into NVivo software. The constant comparative method of data collection and analysis was followed until a core category emerged. RESULTS: Nurses resigned from rural hospitals when their personal value of how nursing should occur conflicted with the hospital's organisational values driving the practice of nursing. These conflicting values led to a change in the degree of value alignment between the nurse and hospital. The degree of value alignment occurred in three dynamic stages that nurses moved through prior to resigning. The first stage, sharing values, was a time when a nurse and a hospital shared similar values. The second stage was conceding values where, due to perceived changes in a hospital's values, a nurse felt that patient care became compromised and this led to a divergence of values. The final stage was resigning, a stage where a nurse 'gave up' as they felt that their professional integrity was severely compromised. The findings revealed that when a nurse and organisational values were not aligned, conflict was created for a nurse about how they could perform nursing that aligned with their internalised professional values and integrity. Resignation occurred when nurses were unable to realign their personal values to changed organisational values - the organisational values changed due to rural area health service restructures, centralisation of budgets and resources, cumbersome hierarchies and management structures that inhibited communication and decision making, out-dated and ineffective operating systems, insufficient and inexperienced staff, bullying, and a lack of connectedness and shared vision. CONCLUSIONS: To fully comprehend rural nurse resignations, this study identified three stages that nurses move through prior to resignation. Effective retention strategies for the nursing workforce should address contributors to a decrease in value alignment and work towards encouraging the coalescence of nurses' and hospitals' values. It is imperative that strategies enable nurses to provide high quality patient care and promote a sense of connectedness and a shared vision between nurse and hospital. Senior managers need to have clear ways to articulate and imbue organisational values and be explicit in how these values accommodate nurses' values. Ward-level nurse managers have a significant responsibility to ensure that a hospital's values (both explicit and implicit) are incorporated into ward culture.

Contextualising co-creation of value in electronic personal health records

This conceptual paper is a preliminary part of an ongoing study into take-up of electronic personal health records (ePHRs). The purpose of this work is to contextually ‘operationalise' Grönroos’ (2012) model of value co-creation in service for ePHRs. Using findings in the extant literature we enhance theoretical and practical understanding of the potential for co-creation of value with ePHRs for relevant stakeholders. The research design focused on the selection and evaluation of relevant literature to include in the discussion. The objective was to demonstrate which articles can be used to 'contextualise' the concepts in relation to relevant healthcare providers and patient engagement in the co-creation of value from having shared ePHRs. Starting at the service concept, that is, what the service provider wants to achieve and for whom, there is little doubt that there are recognised benefits that co-create value for both healthcare providers and healthcare consumers (i.e. patients) through shared ePHRs. We further highlight both alignments and misalignments in the resources and activities concepts between stakeholder groups. Examples include the types of functionalities as well as the interactive and peer communication needs perceived as useful for healthcare providers compared to healthcare consumers. The paper has implications for theory and practice and is an original and innovative approach to studying the co-creation of value in eHealth delivery.

An evaluation of the effectiveness of Value-at-Risk (VaR) models for Australian banks under Basel III

This study compares Value-at-Risk (VaR) measures for Australian banks over a period that includes the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) to determine whether the methodology and parameter selection are important for capital adequacy holdings that will ultimately support a bank in a crisis period. VaR methodology promoted under Basel II was largely criticised during the GFC for its failure to capture downside risk. However, results from this study indicate that 1-year parametric and historical models produce better measures of VaR than models with longer time frames. VaR estimates produced using Monte Carlo simulations show a high percentage of violations but with lower average magnitude of a violation when they occur. VaR estimates produced by the ARMA GARCH model also show a relatively high percentage of violations, however, the average magnitude of a violation is quite low. Our findings support the design of the revised Basel II VaR methodology which has also been adopted under Basel III.

Measurement of Partition Coefficients of Substituted Benzoic Acids between Two Immiscible Solvents by Hyper-Rayleigh Scattering

We demonstrate that the hyper-Rayleigh scattering technique can be employed to measure the partition coefficient (k(p)) of a solute in a mixture of two immiscible solvents. Specifically, partition coefficients of six substituted benzoic acids in water/toluene (1:1 v/v) and water/chloroform (1:1 v/v) systems have been measured. Our values compare well with the k(p) values measured earlier by other techniques, The advantages offered by this technique are also discussed.

Thermal Expansivities and Temperature Coefficients of Refractive Indices for Molten Salts

An empirical relation for temperature–independent molar polarization is suggested. When this relation was used, the thermal expansivity was estimated correctly from refractive index data.

Ultrasonic velocities and thermal expansion coefficients of amorphous Se80Te20 and Se90Te10 alloys near glass transitions

Precise measurements of the ultrasonic velocities and thermal expansivities of amorphous Se80Te20 and Se90Te10 alloys are reported near the glass transition. The samples are produced by liquid quenching. The longitudinal and transverse velocities are measured at 10 MHz frequency using the McSkimin pulse superposition technique. The thermal expansivities,agr, are measured using a three-terminal capacitance bridge. Theagr-values show a sharp maximum near the glass transition temperature,T g. The ultrasonic velocities also show a large temperature derivative, dV/dT nearT g. The data are discussed in terms of existing theories of the glass transition. The continuous change inagr shows that the glass transition is not a first-order transition, as suggested by some theories. The samples are found to be deformed by small loads nearT g. The ultrasonic velocities and dV/dT have contributions arising from this deformation.

Ultrafast Switching Time and Third Order Nonlinear Coefficients of Microwave Treated Single Walled Carbon Nanotube Suspensions

Microwave treated water soluble and amide functionalized single walled carbon nanotubes have been investigated using femtosecond degenerate pump-probe and nonlinear transmission experiments. The time resolved differential transmission using 75 femtosecond pulse with the central wavelength of 790 nm shows a bi-exponential ultrafast photo-bleaching with time constants of 160 fs (130 fs) and 920 fs (300 fs) for water soluble (amide functionalized) nanotubes. Open and closed aperture z-scans show saturation absorption and positive (negative) nonlinear refraction for water soluble (amide functionalized) nanotubes. Two photon absorption coefficient, beta(0) similar to 250 cm/GW (650 cm/GW) and nonlinear index, gamma similar to 15 cm(2)/pW (-30 cm(2)/pW) are obtained from the theoretical fit in the saturation limit to the data for two types of nanotubes.

Ultrasonic velocities and thermal expansion coefficients of amorphous Se80Te20 and Se90Te10 alloys near glass transitions

Precise measurements of the ultrasonic velocities and thermal expansivities of amorphous Se80Te20 and Se90Te10 alloys are reported near the glass transition. The samples are produced by liquid quenching. The longitudinal and transverse velocities are measured at 10 MHz frequency using the McSkimin pulse superposition technique. The thermal expansivities,agr, are measured using a three-terminal capacitance bridge. Theagr-values show a sharp maximum near the glass transition temperature,T g. The ultrasonic velocities also show a large temperature derivative, dV/dT nearT g. The data are discussed in terms of existing theories of the glass transition. The continuous change inagr shows that the glass transition is not a first-order transition, as suggested by some theories. The samples are found to be deformed by small loads nearT g. The ultrasonic velocities and dV/dT have contributions arising from this deformation.