A data quality control program for computer-assisted personal interviews

Researchers strive to optimize data quality in order to ensure that study findings are valid and reliable. In this paper, we describe a data quality control program designed to maximize quality of survey data collected using computer-assisted personal interviews. The quality control program comprised three phases: (1) software development, (2) an interviewer quality control protocol, and (3) a data cleaning and processing protocol. To illustrate the value of the program, we assess its use in the Translating Research in Elder Care Study. We utilize data collected annually for two years from computer-assisted personal interviews with 3004 healthcare aides. Data quality was assessed using both survey and process data. Missing data and data errors were minimal. Mean and median values and standard deviations were within acceptable limits. Process data indicated that in only 3.4% and 4.0% of cases was the interviewer unable to conduct interviews in accordance with the details of the program. Interviewers’ perceptions of interview quality also significantly improved between Years 1 and 2. While this data quality control program was demanding in terms of time and resources, we found that the benefits clearly outweighed the effort required to achieve high-quality data.

Zonal banning and public order in urban Australia

In recent years, Australian governments of various ideological persuasions at local, state and territory and federal levels have introduced a range of zonal governing techniques to manage the flow of people in urban spaces. Zonal governance involves the identification and formal declaration of a specific urban geographic region to enable police and security personnel to deploy special powers and allied forms of surveillance technologies as a supplement to their conventional public order maintenance functions.

Despite the impetus towards open flows or movement within sovereign territories or larger territorial groupings, such as the European Union, considerable governmental effort has been directed towards the use of new forms of criminal law to re-territorialize urban space through new administrative, property law and regulatory measures. These low-level spatial demarcations introduce various supplementary police powers and discretionary procedures that enhance surveillance within a declared area to increase the level of contemporary urban security. Of particular concern is the legal right to ban or exclude “undesirable” individuals and groups from entering or using certain designated urban zones, to prevent antisocial or violent behavior usually associated with alcohol consumption.

To date, most discussion of the impact of banning and related surveillance measures focuses on illegal migration through ports of entry into sovereign nations and the commensurate burdens this creates for both citizens and non-citizens to authenticate their movements at national geographic borders. This logic is permeating more localized forms of regulation adopted by Australian local and mid-tier state and territory governments to control the movement of people in and out of major event sites and in the urban night-time economy.

A survey of recent reforms in the state of Victoria reveals how this new logic of mass-surveillance aims to promote greater levels of urban security while reshaping the conventional order maintenance functions of both the public and private police. This chapter describes these procedures and their impact in sanctioning the efficient screening of people to promote order in specific zones within the contemporary Australian urban environment, at the expense of more progressive and inclusive crime prevention initiatives. We focus on two exemplars of the intensification of surveillance through zonal governance techniques: ‘major events’ and ‘designated alcohol zones’.

Remote centre-of-motion control algorithms of 6-RRCRR parallel robot assisted surgery system (PRAMiSS)

In this paper a 6-RRCRR parallel robot assisted minimally invasive surgery/microsurgery system (PRAMiSS) is introduced. Remote centre-of-motion (RCM) control algorithms of PRAMiSS suitable for minimally invasive surgery and microsurgery are also presented. The programmable RCM approach is implemented in order to achieve manipulation under the constraint of moving through the fixed penetration point. Having minimised the displacements of the mobile platform of the parallel micropositioning robot, the algorithms also apply orientation constraint to the instrument and prevent the tool tip to orient due to the robot movements during the manipulation. Experimental results are provided to verify accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed RCM control algorithms for minimally invasive surgery.

A fuzzy technique to control congestion in WSN

Congestion in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is a crucial issue. That is due to the relatively high node density and source-to-sink communication pattern. Congestion not only causes packet loss, but also leads to excessive energy consumption as well as delay. Therefore, in order to prolong network lifetime and improve fairness and provide better quality of service, developing a novel solution for congestion estimation and control is important to be considered. To address this problem, we propose a type-2 fuzzy logic based algorithm to detect and control congestion level in WSNs. The proposed algorithm considers local information such as packet loss rate and delay to control congestion in the network. Simulation results show that our protocol performs better than a recently developed protocol in prolonging network lifetime as well as decreasing packet loss.

Age-related differences in inhibitory control in the early school years

The transition to school is associated with a greater requirement to inhibit irrelevant or inappropriate thought and behavior in order to concentrate on effective learning and to interact successfully with peers. Current knowledge of inhibitory control development in the early school years is limited due to a lack of normative data from age-appropriate, sensitive measures. In this study, three pictorial versions of the Stroop task were administered to investigate inhibitory control development in early school-aged children. Age-related trajectories of inhibition and effects of gender were examined in 80 children (42 boys) aged 5 to 8 years. All children were assessed with the Cognitive Assessment System Expressive Attention subtest (Big-Small Stroop), Fruit Stroop, and Boy-Girl Stroop. The Big-Small Stroop revealed substantial age-related improvement in inhibition from 5 to 7 years with a levelling of performance at 8 years of age, while the Fruit Stroop and Boy-Girl Stroop demonstrated clear but nonsignificant age trends. In particular, older children committed fewer errors and corrected their errors more frequently than younger children. Performance on all Stroop tasks correlated significantly, providing evidence that they tap similar cognitive abilities. Some gender differences were found. This study indicates that inhibitory skills develop rapidly in the early school years and suggests that error awareness may be a useful indicator of the development of cognitive inhibition for this age group.

Intelligent traffic light control of isolated intersections using machine learning methods

Traffic congestion is one of the major problems in modern cities. This study applies machine learning methods to determine green times in order to minimize in an isolated intersection. Q-learning and neural networks are applied here to set signal light times and minimize total delays. It is assumed that an intersection behaves in a similar fashion to an intelligent agent learning how to set green times in each cycle based on traffic information. Here, a comparison between Q-learning and neural network is presented. In Q-learning, considering continuous green time requires a large state space, making the learning process practically impossible. In contrast to Q-learning methods, the neural network model can easily set the appropriate green time to fit the traffic demand. The performance of the proposed neural network is compared with two traditional alternatives for controlling traffic lights. Simulation results indicate that the application of the proposed method greatly reduces the total delay in the network compared to the alternative methods.

Paracrine control of milk protein gene expression in tammar wallaby

Stephen utilised the unique lactation strategy of the tammar wallaby to identify factors within the mammary gland that determine the composition of milk and how the milk composition changes throughout lactation in order to provide immunity both to the nursing mammary gland and the suckling.

Molding micropatterns of elasticity on PEG-based hydrogels to control cell adhesion and migration

We present an innovative and simple, soft UV lithographic method “FIll-Molding In Capillaries” (FIMIC) that combines soft lithography with capillary force driven filling of micro-channels to create smooth hydrogel substrates with a 2D micro-pattern on the surface. The lithographic procedure involves the molding of a polymer; in our case a bulk PEG-based hydrogel, via UV-curing from a microfabricated silicon master. The grooves of the created regular line pattern are consequently filled with a second hydrogel by capillary action. As a result, a smooth surface is obtained with a well-defined pattern design of the two different polymers on its surface. The FIMIC method is very versatile; the only prerequisite is that the second material is liquid before curing in order to enable the filling process. In this specific case we present the proof of principle of this method by applying two hydrogels which differ in their crosslinking density and therefore in their elasticity. Preliminary cell culture studies on the fabricated elasticity patterned hydrogels indicate the preferred adhesion of the cells to the stiffer regions of the substrates, which implies that the novel substrates are a very useful platform for systematic cell migration studies, e.g. more fundamental investigation of the concept of “durotaxis”

A shared framework for the common mental disorders and Non-Communicable Disease: key considerations for disease prevention and control.

BACKGROUND: Historically, the focus of Non Communicable Disease (NCD) prevention and control has been cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), cancer and chronic respiratory diseases. Collectively, these account for more deaths than any other NCDs. Despite recent calls to include the common mental disorders (CMDs) of depression and anxiety under the NCD umbrella, prevention and control of these CMDs remain largely separate and independent. DISCUSSION: In order to address this gap, we apply a framework recently proposed by the Centers for Disease Control with three overarching objectives: (1) to obtain better scientific information through surveillance, epidemiology, and prevention research; (2) to disseminate this information to appropriate audiences through communication and education; and (3) to translate this information into action through programs, policies, and systems. We conclude that a shared framework of this type is warranted, but also identify opportunities within each objective to advance this agenda and consider the potential benefits of this approach that may exist beyond the health care system.

Robust non-fragile control for offshore steel jacket platform with nonlinear perturbations

This study is concerned with the design of a non-fragile controller for an offshore steel jacket platform with nonlinear perturbations. The delay-dependent sufficient conditions are derived in terms of linear matrix inequalities based on suitable Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional, the second-order reciprocally convex approach and the lower bound lemma. The results indicate asymptotic stability of the offshore steel jacket platform utilizing the proposed non-fragile controller. Besides that, robust stability conditions are derived for an uncertain offshore platform subject to the non-fragile controller. A numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed theoretical results.

Surveillance, responsibility and control: an analysis of government and industry discourses about 'problem' and 'responsible' gambling

Background: Discussions of gambling have traditionally focused on ideas of “problem” and “responsible” gambling. However, few studies have examined how Institutions attempt to exert social control over gamblers in order to promote so-called “responsible” behaviour. In this study, we examine the way “problem” and “responsible” gambling are discussed by Australian governments and the gambling industry, using a theoretical framework based on the work of Foucault.

Method: We conducted a thematic analysis of discourses surrounding problem and responsible gambling in government and gambling industry websites, television campaigns and responsible gambling materials.

Results: Documents distinguished between gambling, which was positive for the community, and problem gambling, which was portrayed as harmful and requiring medical intervention. The need for responsible gambling was emphasised in many of the documents, and reinforced by mechanisms including self-monitoring, self-control and surveillance of gamblers.

Conclusions: Government and industry expect gamblers to behave “responsibly”, and are heavily influenced by neoliberal ideas of rational, controlled subjects in their conceptualisation of what constitutes “responsible behaviour”. As a consequence, problem gamblers become constructed as a deviant group. This may have significant consequences for problem gamblers, such as the creation of stigma.

Prediction interval-based modelling and control of nonlinear processes

 Novel computational intelligence-based methods have been investigated to quantify uncertainties prevalent in the operation of chemical plants. A new family of predication interval-based controlling algorithms is proposed and successfully applied to chemical reactors in order to minimise energy consumption and operational cost.

Incorporating human perception with the motion washout filter using fuzzy logic control

Abstract—Nowadays, classical washout filters are extensively used in commercial motion simulators. Even though there are several advantages for classical washout filters, such as short processing time, simplicity and ease of adjustment, they have several shortcomings. The main disadvantage is the fixed scheme and parameters of the classical washout filter cause inflexibility of the structure and thus the resulting simulator fails to suit all circumstances. Moreover, it is a conservative approach and the platform cannot be fully exploited. The aim of this research is to present a fuzzy logic approach and take the human perception error into account in the classical motion cueing algorithm, in order to improve both the physical limits of restitution and realistic human sensations. The fuzzy compensator signal is applied to adjust the filtered signals on the longitudinal and rotational channels online, as well as the tilt coordination to minimize the vestibular sensation error below the human perception threshold. The results indicate that the proposed fuzzy logic controllers significantly minimize the drawbacks of having fixed parameters and conservativeness in the classical washout filter. In addition, the performance of motion cueing algorithm and human perception for most occasions is improved.

An integrated workplace mental health intervention in a policing context: protocol for a cluster randomised control trial

BACKGROUND: In this paper, we present the protocol for a cluster-randomised trial to evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of a workplace mental health intervention in the state-wide police department of the south-eastern Australian state of Victoria. n. The primary aims of the intervention are to improve psychosocial working conditions and mental health literacy, and secondarily to improve mental health and organisational outcomes.

METHODS/DESIGN: The intervention was designed collaboratively with Victoria Police based on a mixed methods pilot study, and combines multi-session leadership coaching for the senior officers within stations (e.g., Sergeants, Senior Sergeants) with tailored mental health literacy training for lower and upper ranks. Intervention effectiveness will be evaluated using a two-arm cluster-randomised trial design, with 12 police stations randomly assigned to the intervention and 12 to the non-intervention/usual care control condition. Data will be collected from all police members in each station (estimated at >20 per station). Psychosocial working conditions (e.g., supervisory support, job control, job demands), mental health literacy (e.g., knowledge, confidence in assisting someone who may have a mental health problem), and mental health will be assessed using validated measures. Organisational outcomes will include organisational depression disclosure norms, organisational cynicism, and station-level sickness absence rates. The trial will be conducted following CONSORT guidelines. Identifying data will not be collected in order to protect participant privacy and to optimise participation, hence changes in primary and secondary outcomes will be assessed using a two-sample t-test comparing summary measures by arm, with weighting by cluster size.

DISCUSSION: This intervention is novel in its integration of stressor-reduction and mental health literacy-enhancing strategies. Effectiveness will be rigorously evaluated, and if positive results are observed, the intervention will be adapted across Victoria Police (total employees ~16,500) as well as possibly in other policing contexts, both nationally and internationally.