Information sharing in Onesocialweb using a multiple profile manager to better informed medical decision making processes

The study shows an alternative solution to existing efforts at solving the problem of how to centrally manage and synchronise users’ Multiple Profiles (MP) across multiple discrete social networks. Most social network users hold more than one social network account and utilise them in different ways depending on the digital context (Iannella, 2009a). They may, for example, enjoy friendly chat on Facebook1, professional discussion on LinkedIn2, and health information exchange on PatientsLikeMe3 In this thesis the researcher proposes a framework for the management of a user’s multiple online social network profiles. A demonstrator, called Multiple Profile Manager (MPM), will be showcased to illustrate how effective the framework will be. The MPM will achieve the required profile management and synchronisation using a free, open, decentralized social networking platform (OSW) that was proposed by the Vodafone Group in 2010. The proposed MPM will enable a user to create and manage an integrated profile (IP) and share/synchronise this profile with all their social networks. The necessary protocols to support the prototype are also proposed by the researcher. The MPM protocol specification defines an Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) extension for sharing vCard and social network accounts information between the MPM Server, MPM Client, and social network sites (SNSs). . Therefore many web users need to manage disparate profiles across many distributed online sources. Maintaining these profiles is cumbersome, time-consuming, inefficient, and may lead to lost opportunity. The writer of this thesis adopted a research approach and a number of use cases for the implementation of the project. The use cases were created to capture the functional requirements of the MPM and to describe the interactions between users and the MPM. In the research a development process was followed in establishing the prototype and related protocols. The use cases were subsequently used to illustrate the prototype via the screenshots taken of the MPM client interfaces. The use cases also played a role in evaluating the outcomes of the research such as the framework, prototype, and the related protocols. An innovative application of this project is in the area of public health informatics. The researcher utilised the prototype to examine how the framework might benefit patients and physicians. The framework can greatly enhance health information management for patients and more importantly offer a more comprehensive personal health overview of patients to physicians. This will give a more complete picture of the patient’s background than is currently available and will prove helpful in providing the right treatment. The MPM prototype and related protocols have a high application value as they can be integrated into the real OSW platform and so serve users in the modern digital world. They also provide online users with a real platform for centrally storing their complete profile data, efficiently managing their personal information, and moreover, synchronising the overall complete profile with each of their discrete profiles stored in their different social network sites.

Informed for healthy ageing : exploring how ageing Australians experience health information use

Exploring information use within everyday or community contexts is a recent area of interest for information literacy research endeavours. Within this domain, health information literacy (HIL) has emerged as a focus of interest due to identified synergies between information use and health status. However, while HIL has been acknowledged as a core ingredient that can assist people to take responsibility for managing and improving their own health, limited research has explored how HIL is experienced in everyday community life. This article will present the findings of ongoing research undertaken using phenomenography to explore how HIL is experienced among older Australians within everyday contexts. It will also discuss how these findings may be used to inform policy formulation in health communication and as an evidence base for the design and delivery of consumer health information resources and services.

Informed learning in online environments : supporting the higher education curriculum beyond Web 2.0

As boundaries between physical and online learning spaces become increasingly blurred in higher education, how can students gain full benefit of Web 2.0 social media and mobile technologies for learning? How can we, as information professionals and educators, best support the information literacy learning needs of students who are universally mobile and Google-focused? This chapter presents informed learning (Bruce, 2008) as a pedagogical construct with potential to support learning across the higher education curriculum, for Web 2.0 and beyond. After outlining the principles of informed learning and how they may enrich the higher education curriculum, we explain the role of library and information professionals in promoting informed learning for Web 2.0 and beyond. Then, by way of illustration, we describe recent experience at an American university where librarians simultaneously learned about and applied informed learning principles in reshaping the information literacy program.

Informed cyberlearning : a case study

This cyberlearning case study demonstrates the application of Web 2.0 in mainstream higher education curriculum, whilst providing an in-practice example of informed learning (Bruce, 2008. The case study features the learning experiences and creative outcomes of postgraduate Cyberlearning students at Queensland University of Technology in 2011. As informed learners, the students learned simultaneously about the theory and practice of Cyberlearning by carrying out a virtual team project. This involved collaboratively researching a topical issue, as well as exploring and applying Web 2.0 media. To support the informed learning of their peers, they created online resources which both convey disciplinary knowledge and showcase the educational potential of Web 2.0.

Experiencing religious information literacy : informed learning in church communities

This paper reports an exploration of religious information literacy in terms of how people use information to learn in the context of church communities. The research approach of phenomenography was used to explore Uniting Church in Australia members' experience of using information to learn as participants in their church communities. Five ways of experiencing religious information literacy were identified, using information to learn about: growing faith, developing relationships, managing the church, serving church communities and reaching out beyond church communities. It is anticipated that such findings will be of interest to information professionals, including information literacy specialists, as well as leaders and members of church communities.

Towards informed learning: Snapshots of a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence program in Denver

This paper outlines the Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence (SIR) program that I undertook at University of Colorado in Denver, USA, in August-December 2010. It explains how the SIR program proved a most enriching experience for me, professionally and personally. One reason for this paper is to encourage other LIS professionals and educators to apply for Fulbrights and other types of scholarships and exchange programs. And also to reinforce the message that research and further study really can open doors and enrich our professional careers.

Supporting risk-informed decisions during business process execution

This paper proposes a technique that supports process participants in making risk-informed decisions, with the aim to reduce the process risks. Risk reduction involves decreasing the likelihood and severity of a process fault from occurring. Given a process exposed to risks, e.g. a financial process exposed to a risk of reputation loss, we enact this process and whenever a process participant needs to provide input to the process, e.g. by selecting the next task to execute or by filling out a form, we prompt the participant with the expected risk that a given fault will occur given the particular input. These risks are predicted by traversing decision trees generated from the logs of past process executions and considering process data, involved resources, task durations and contextual information like task frequencies. The approach has been implemented in the YAWL system and its effectiveness evaluated. The results show that the process instances executed in the tests complete with substantially fewer faults and with lower fault severities, when taking into account the recommendations provided by our technique.

The compatibility of leasehold and freehold tenure arrangements with environmental offset and trading initiatives

Environmental offsets and environmental trading initiatives are being rapidly introduced into environmental regulatory regimes. These relatively new legal mechanisms are attempting to fill in the gaps left by command and control regulation. The introduction of environmental offset and trading policy in Queensland will need to be compatible with existing land tenure regulation. Who owns and who uses natural resources are controlled by a range of legislative reservations and restrictions. Reservations give the State ownership of certain natural resources such as minerals, quarry material and, in some circumstances, forest products. Where there is a reservation in operation, the land holders rights are weakened. Restrictions in relation to uses prevent land holders from carrying out certain activities on the land. An example of a restriction of use is the operation of the Vegetation Management Act 1999(Qld), which prescribes the manner in which vegetation is to be dealt with. This article explores the nature of freehold and leasehold land tenure in Queensland and examines the effect of reservations and restrictions upon the operation of environmental offset and trading initiatives. Presently Queensland legislation does not directly address the relationship between land tenure and environmental offset and trading initiatives. The stability of tenure required for the creation of environmental offsets can be at odds with the flexibility allowed for under leasehold arrangements. This flexibility may act to undermine the permanency requirement of environmental offset creation (i.e. the guarantee that the offset is created for the long term).

Legal issues in the design and implementation of environmental offset and environmental trading frameworks

The Queensland Government released its new Environmental Offset Policy in July 2008. This policy creates a set of overarching principles which are to be incorporated into existing environmental offset policy. This article is the final article in a set of three interrelated articles discussing the operation and implementation of environmental offsets in Queensland. The first article discusses the Environmental Offsets Discussion Paper and the existing environmental offset requirements. No significant changes have been made to these existing offset requirements under the new Environmental Offset Policy. This article also touches briefly on the legal issues associated with design and implementation of environmental offset and trading frameworks. The second article considered the compatibility of different land tenure arrangements in Queensland against the requirements for the creation and trade of environmental offsets. The third article being the present article, discusses the application of the new Environmental Offset Policy while also analysing the legal issues associated with environmental offsets in further detail.

The cost of carbon : capital market effects of the proposed emission trading scheme (ETS)

In March 2008, the Australian Government announced its intention to introduce a national Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), now expected to start in 2015. This impending development provides an ideal setting to investigate the impact an ETS in Australia will have on the market valuation of Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) firms. This is the first empirical study into the pricing effects of the ETS in Australia. Primarily, we hypothesize that firm value will be negatively related to a firm's carbon intensity profile. That is, there will be a greater impact on firm value for high carbon emitters in the period prior (2007) to the introduction of the ETS, whether for reasons relating to the existence of unbooked liabilities associated with future compliance and/or abatement costs, or for reasons relating to reduced future earnings. Using a sample of 58 Australian listed firms (constrained by the current availability of emissions data) which comprise larger, more profitable and less risky listed Australian firms, we first undertake an event study focusing on five distinct information events argued to impact the probability of the proposed ETS being enacted. Here, we find direct evidence that the capital market is indeed pricing the proposed ETS. Second, using a modified version of the Ohlson (1995) valuation model, we undertake a valuation analysis designed not only to complement the event study results, but more importantly to provide insights into the capital market's assessment of the magnitude of the economic impact of the proposed ETS as reflected in market capitalization. Here, our results show that the market assesses the most carbon intensive sample firms a market value decrement relative to other sample firms of between 7% and 10% of market capitalization. Further, based on the carbon emission profile of the sample firms we imply a ‘future carbon permit price’ of between AUD$17 per tonne and AUD$26 per tonne of carbon dioxide emitted. This study is more precise than industry reports, which set a carbon price of between AUD$15 to AUD$74 per tonne.

Securities market regulators’ use of the ‘please explain’ queries sanction and its power of compliance

The aim of this study is to investigate the compliance impact of price queries issued by a securities market operator to its participating firms. Market operators in Australia and New Zealand, such as the Australian Securities Exchange and the New Zealand Securities Exchange, have the regulatory power in their rules to issue queries to its market participants to explain unusual fluctuations in trading price or volume in the market. The operator will issue a price query where it believes that the market has not been fully informed as to price relevant information. Responsive regulation has informed much of the regulatory debate in securities laws in our region. We posit that price queries are one strategy that a market operator can use in communicating its enforcement expectations to its stakeholder. However, whilst responsive regulation informs regulatory choices, an alternate view seeks to explain why participants respond to these regulatory strategies, and we use disclosure behaviour after price queries to test compliance behaviour

An evidence-informed strategy to prevent osteoporosis in Australia

Osteoporosis imposes a tremendous burden on Australia : 1.2 million Australians have osteoporosis and 6.3 million have Osteopenia. In the 2007-08 financial year, 82000 Australians suffered fragility fractures, of Which >17000 were hip fractures. In the 2000-01 financial year, direct costs were estimated at $1.9 billion per year and an additional $5.6 billion on indirect costs. Osteoporosis was designated a National Health Priority Area in 2002; however, implementation of national plans has not yet matched the rhetoric in terms of urgency. Building healthy bones throughout life, the Osteoporosis Australia strategy to prevent osteoporosis throughout the life cycle, presents an evidence-informed set of recommendations for consumers, health care professionals and policymakers. The strategy was adopted by consensus at the Osteoporosis Australia Summit in Sydney, 20 October 2011. Primary objectives throughout the life cycle are: to maximise peak bone mass during childhood and adolescence to prevent premature bone loss and improve or maintain muscle mass, strength and functional capacity in healthy adults to prevent and treat osteoporosis in order to minimise the risk of suffering fragility fractures, and reduce falls risk, in older people. The recommendations focus on three affordable and important interventions to ensure people have adequate calcium intake, vitamin D levels and appropriate, physical activity throughout their lives. Recommendations relevant to all stages of life include: daily dietary calcium intakes should be consistent with Australian and New Zealand guidelines serum levels of vitamin D in the general population should be above 50 nmol/L in winter or early spring for optimal bone health regular weight-bearing physical activity, Muscle strengthening exercises and challenging balance/ mobility activities should be conducted in a safe environment.