Measuring up! Bringing everything we know together to make the researcher profile “sing”.

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Dynamic modelling of long-term care decisions

This paper describes and analyzes research on the dynamics of long-term care and the policy relevance of identifying the sources of persistence in caregiving arrangements (including the effect of dynamics on parameter estimates, implications for family welfare, parent welfare, child welfare, and cost of government programs). We discuss sources and causes of observed persistence in caregiving arrangements including inertia/state dependence (confounded by unobserved heterogeneity) and costs of changing caregivers. We comment on causes of dynamics including learning/human capital accumulation; burnout; and game-playing. We suggest how to deal with endogenous geography; dynamics in discrete and continuous choices; and equilibrium issues (multiple equilibria, dynamic equilibria). We also present an overview of commonly used longitudinal data sets and evaluate their relative advantages/disadvantages. We also discuss other data issues related to noisy measures of wealth and family structure. Finally, we suggest some methods to handle econometric problems such as endogeneous geography. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Two dynamic discrete choice estimation problems and simulation method solutions

This paper considers two problems that frequently arise in dynamic discrete choice problems but have not received much attention with regard to simulation methods. The first problem is how to simulate unbiased simulators of probabilities conditional on past history. The second is simulating a discrete transition probability model when the underlying dependent variable is really continuous. Both methods work well relative to reasonable alternatives in the application discussed. However, in both cases, for this application, simpler methods also provide reasonably good results.

Approximate solutions to stochastic dynamic programs

This paper examines the properties of various approximation methods for solving stochastic dynamic programs in structural estimation problems. The problem addressed is evaluating the expected value of the maximum of available choices. The paper shows that approximating this by the maximum of expected values frequently has poor properties. It also shows that choosing a convenient distributional assumptions for the errors and then solving exactly conditional on the distributional assumption leads to small approximation errors even if the distribution is misspecified. © 1997 Cambridge University Press.

Characterising and predicting cyber attacks using the Cyber Attacker Model Profile (CAMP)

Purpose Ethnographic studies of cyber attacks typically aim to explain a particular profile of attackers in qualitative terms. The purpose of this paper is to formalise some of the approaches to build a Cyber Attacker Model Profile (CAMP) that can be used to characterise and predict cyber attacks. Design/methodology/approach The paper builds a model using social and economic independent or predictive variables from several eastern European countries and benchmarks indicators of cybercrime within the Australian financial services system. Findings The paper found a very strong link between perceived corruption and GDP in two distinct groups of countries – corruption in Russia was closely linked to the GDP of Belarus, Moldova and Russia, while corruption in Lithuania was linked to GDP in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine. At the same time corruption in Russia and Ukraine were also closely linked. These results support previous research that indicates a strong link between been legitimate economy and the black economy in many countries of Eastern Europe and the Baltic states. The results of the regression analysis suggest that a highly skilled workforce which is mobile and working in an environment of high perceived corruption in the target countries is related to increases in cybercrime even within Australia. It is important to note that the data used for the dependent and independent variables were gathered over a seven year time period, which included large economic shocks such as the global financial crisis. Originality/value This is the first paper to use a modelling approach to directly show the relationship between various social, economic and demographic factors in the Baltic states and Eastern Europe, and the level of card skimming and card not present fraud in Australia.

A dynamic Web agent for verifying the security and integrity of a Web site's contents

To harness safe operation of Web-based systems in Web environments, we propose an SSPA (Server-based SHA-1 Page-digest Algorithm) to verify the integrity of Web contents before the server issues an HTTP response to a user request. In addition to standard security measures, our Java implementation of the SSPA, which is called the Dynamic Security Surveillance Agent (DSSA), provides further security in terms of content integrity to Web-based systems. Its function is to prevent the display of Web contents that have been altered through the malicious acts of attackers and intruders on client machines. This is to protect the reputation of organisations from cyber-attacks and to ensure the safe operation of Web systems by dynamically monitoring the integrity of a Web site's content on demand. We discuss our findings in terms of the applicability and practicality of the proposed system. We also discuss its time metrics, specifically in relation to its computational overhead at the Web server, as well as the overall latency from the clients' point of view, using different Internet access methods. The SSPA, our DSSA implementation, some experimental results and related work are all discussed

Improvement of a dynamic accumulator at ICICS 07 and its application in multi-user keyword-based retrieval on encrypted data

A dynamic accumulator is an algorithm, which merges a large set of elements into a constant-size value such that for an element accumulated, there is a witness confirming that the element was included into the value, with a property that accumulated elements can be dynamically added and deleted into/from the original set. Recently Wang et al. presented a dynamic accumulator for batch updates at ICICS 2007. However, their construction suffers from two serious problems. We analyze them and propose a way to repair their scheme. We use the accumulator to construct a new scheme for common secure indices with conjunctive keyword-based retrieval.

Non-square-well potential profile and suppression of blinking in compositionally graded Cd1−xZnxSe/CdxZn1−xSe nanocrystals

Random blinking is a major problem on the way to successful applications of semiconducting nanocrystals in optoelectronics and photonics, which until recently had neither a practical solution nor a theoretical interpretation. An experimental breakthrough has recently been made by fabricating non-blinking Cd1-xZnxSe/ZnSe graded nanocrystals [Wang et al., Nature, 2009, 459, 686]. Here, we (1) report an unequivocal and detailed theoretical investigation to understand the properties (e.g., profile) of the potential-well and the distribution of Zn content with respect to the nanocrystal radius and (2) develop a strategy to find the relationship between the photoluminescence (PL) energy peaks and the potential-well due to Zn distribution in nanocrystals. It is demonstrated that the non-square-well potential can be varied in such a way that one can indeed control the PL intensity and the energy-level difference (PL energy peaks) accurately. This implies that one can either suppress the blinking altogether, or alternatively, manipulate the PL energy peaks and intensities systematically to achieve a controlled non-random intermittent luminescence. The approach developed here is based on the ionization energy approximation and as such is generic and can be applied to any non-free-electron nanocrystals.

Dynamic self-organization phenomena in complex ionized gas systems : new paradigms and technological aspects

An overview of dynamic self-organization phenomena in complex ionized gas systems, associated physical phenomena, and industrial applications is presented. The most recent experimental, theoretical, and modeling efforts to understand the growth mechanisms and dynamics of nano- and micron-sized particles, as well as the unique properties of the plasma-particle systems (colloidal, or complex plasmas) and the associated physical phenomena are reviewed and the major technological applications of micro- and nanoparticles are discussed. Until recently, such particles were considered mostly as a potential hazard for the microelectronic manufacturing and significant efforts were applied to remove them from the processing volume or suppress the gas-phase coagulation. Nowadays, fine clusters and particulates find numerous challenging applications in fundamental science as well as in nanotechnology and other leading high-tech industries.

Keyword field-free conjunctive keyword searches on encrypted data and extension for dynamic groups

We consider the following problem: a user stores encrypted documents on an untrusted server, and wishes to retrieve all documents containing some keywords without any loss of data confidentiality. Conjunctive keyword searches on encrypted data have been studied by numerous researchers over the past few years, and all existing schemes use keyword fields as compulsory information. This however is impractical for many applications. In this paper, we propose a scheme of keyword field-free conjunctive keyword searches on encrypted data, which affirmatively answers an open problem asked by Golle et al. at ACNS 2004. Furthermore, the proposed scheme is extended to the dynamic group setting. Security analysis of our constructions is given in the paper.

Lower partial moment and information entropy-based dynamic electricity purchasing strategy

In the electricity market environment, load-serving entities (LSEs) will inevitably face risks in purchasing electricity because there are a plethora of uncertainties involved. To maximize profits and minimize risks, LSEs need to develop an optimal strategy to reasonably allocate the purchased electricity amount in different electricity markets such as the spot market, bilateral contract market, and options market. Because risks originate from uncertainties, an approach is presented to address the risk evaluation problem by the combined use of the lower partial moment and information entropy (LPME). The lower partial moment is used to measure the amount and probability of the loss, whereas the information entropy is used to represent the uncertainty of the loss. Electricity purchasing is a repeated procedure; therefore, the model presented represents a dynamic strategy. Under the chance-constrained programming framework, the developed optimization model minimizes the risk of the electricity purchasing portfolio in different markets because the actual profit of the LSE concerned is not less than the specified target under a required confidence level. Then, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is employed to solve the optimization model. Finally, a sample example is used to illustrate the basic features of the developed model and method.

A review of the profile of endothelin axis in cancer and its management

The endothelins and their associated receptors are important controllers of vascular growth, inflammation and vascular tone. In cancer, they have roles in the control of numerous factors in cancer development and progression, including angiogenesis, stromal reaction, epithelial mesenchymal transitions, apoptosis, invasion, metastases and drug resistance. Also, we consider current information on the role of this signalling system in cancer and examine the state of the current cell, animal and clinical trials utilizing endothelin targeted drugs for cancer management. Although targeting the endothelin axis in cell lines and xenografts show some promise in retarding cellular growth, results from limited clinical trials in prostatic cancer are less encouraging and did not offer significant survival benefit. The ability to target both cancer cells and vasculature via endothelin is an important consideration that necessitates the further refining of therapeutic strategies as we continue to explore the possibilities of the endothelin axis in cancer treatment.

Expression profile of endothelin 1 and its receptor endothelin receptor A in papillary thyroid carcinoma and their correlations with clinicopathologic characteristics

The endothelin axis is a group of signaling molecules and their receptors that have been implicated in vascularization of cancers, with their expression being observed to change in different cancer types. In this research, we examined the expression of endothelin 1 and endothelin receptor A at the protein and messenger RNA (mRNA) levels in 123 papillary thyroid carcinomas and 40 matched lymph nodes with metastatic papillary thyroid carcinomas. We found altered endothelin axis mRNA expression in several clinicopathologic parameters with increased endothelin 1 expression in thyroid papillary carcinoma showing stromal calcification, cancers in men, and primary cancers with lymph node metastases. Increased endothelin receptor A mRNA expression was noted in the larger cancers. There is a significant correlation between expression of endothelin receptor A and endothelin 1 in papillary thyroid carcinoma. Both endothelin receptor A and endothelin 1 mRNA expressions were significantly higher in metastatic carcinoma in the lymph node than in primary thyroid cancer. The metastatic carcinoma in the lymph node had increased expression compared with matched primary thyroid carcinoma. Expressions of endothelin 1 and endothelin receptor A were also documented as being high at the protein level. Our results indicate that in thyroid cancer, endothelin 1 and endothelin receptor A are associated with growth in advanced stages and lymph node metastases, likely through known angiogenic linkages. Targeting the endothelin axis may be useful in planning angiogenesis therapy for thyroid cancer.

Global start-ups profile : one size fits all?

Our research aims to answer the research questions “How do we commonly describe the global start-ups profile as evidenced in prior inductive research?” and “Does this global start-ups profile can effectively explain phenomena in Australian global start-up firms?” We systematically review 29 global start-ups (144 firms) qualitative articles to understand descriptive definitions of global-startup firms. We then triangulate this finding with an Australian high-tech firm. Our contribution is to form a descriptive profile of global start-up phenomenon and raise interesting issues that have potentially fruitful findings for both research and practice. This profile might well be just a deviant from the traditional model that describes how firms establish their footprints, first in their domestic markets followed by moves into cross-border activities. Regardless, government agencies, consultants, and entrepreneurs need to understand the phenomenon. Thus we anticipate that this phenomenon will continue to provide interesting issues for pursuit, both by researchers as well as the practitioner community.

Detection of dynamic primary user with cooperative spectrum sensing

In this paper we demonstrate that existing cooperative spectrum sensing formulated for static primary users cannot accurately detect dynamic primary users regardless of the information fusion method. Performance error occurs as the sensing parameters calculated by the conventional detector result in sensing performance that violates the sensing requirements. Furthermore, the error is accumulated and compounded by the number of cooperating nodes. To address this limitation, we design and implement the duty cycle detection model for the context of cooperative spectrum sensing to accurately calculate the sensing parameters that satisfy the sensing requirements. We show that longer sensing duration is required to compensate for dynamic primary user traffic.