The Leg Club model in the Australian context

Leg Clubs are an innovative approach to the holistic treatment of leg ulcers. They are run in a social context by community nurses who deliver ongoing support and treatment for a wide spectrum of lower limb pathology. This article looks at how the Leg Club model has been established in Australia.

An exploration of advertising engagement, advertising avoidance and privacy concerns on social networking sites

This thesis examines perceptions of advertising on social networking sites (SNS), in particular consumers' privacy concerns, advertising engagement and advertising avoidance. It contributes to the understanding of social media by providing results of a longitudinal investigation of consumer perceptions of advertising, a topography of engagement and avoidance triggers and a three dimensional model of advertising avoidance on SNS. This research used a mixed methodology, employing Critical Incident Technique, In-depth interviews and online surveys.

Toward a model for forming psychological safety climate in construction project management

The nature of construction projects and their delivery exposes participants to accidents and dangers. Safety climate serves as a frame of reference for employees to make sense of safety measures in the workplace and adapt their behaviors. Though safety climate research abounds, fewer efforts are made to investigate the formation of a safety climate. An effort to explore forming psychological safety climate, an operationalization of safety climate at the individual level, is an appropriate starting point. Taking the view that projects are social processes, this paper develops a conceptual framework of forming the psychological safety climate, and provides a preliminary validation. The model suggests that management can create the desired psychological safety climate by efforts from structural, perceptual, interactive, and cultural perspectives. Future empirical research can be built on the model to provide a more comprehensive and coherent picture of the determinants of safety climate.

Resolving the conflicts of sustainable world heritage landscapes in cities : fully open or limited access for visitors?

World Heritage Landscapes (WHLs) are receiving increased attention from researchers, urban planners, managers, and policy makers and many heritage values and resources are becoming irreversibly lost. This phenomenon is especially prominent for WHLs located in cities, where greater development opportunities are involved. Decision making for sustainable urban landscape planning, conservation and management of WHLs often takes place from an economic perspective, especially in developing countries. This, together with the uncertain source of funding to cover WHL operating and maintenance costs, has resulted in many urban managers seeking private sector funding either in the form of visitor access fees or leasing part of the site for high-rental facilities such as five star hotels, clubs and expensive restaurants. For the former, this can result in low-income urban citizens being unable to afford the access fees and hence contradicting the principle of equal access for all; while, for the latter, the principle of open access for all is equally violated. To resolve this conflict, a game model is developed to determine how urban managers should allocate WHL spaces to maximize the combination of economic, social and ecological benefits and cultural values. A case study is provided of the Hangzhou's West Lake Scenic Area, a WHL located at the centre of Hangzhou city, in which several high-rental facilities have recently been closed down by the local authorities due to charges of elitism and misuse of public funds by government officials. The result shows that the best solution is to lease a small space with high rents and leave the remainder of the site to the public. This solution is likely to be applicable only in cities with a strong economy.

Caribbean schooling and the social divide – what will it take to change neo-colonial education systems?

When Professor N’Dri Assie-Lumumba asked me to reflect on what ‘ubuntu’ might mean in the context of education in the Caribbean, the first thing that came to mind was an image of pit latrines in impoverished primary schools in poor countries. In this essay, I argue that the continuing problem of pit latrines in these schools symbolizes the failure to solve the problem of poverty, neglect and inadequate provision of education services for people at the bottom rungs of Caribbean and other decolonising societies. I ask what implications the ‘ubuntu’ concept chosen for the 2015 CIES conference would have for reforming education in a direction that combines global reform, ethics and good sense. Educators rarely consider toilets when they are thinking about what is needed to reform the system. But talking about toilets draws attention to the entrenched inequity that persists in education systems across the globe – an inequity that forces many schools and young people to remain at the base of the social pyramid, and that perpetuates a dysfunctional model of education holding back many societies. Starting from the twin images of social pyramids and toilets, we can ask some pointed questions about education reform.

Macro- and micronutrient disposition in an ex vivo model of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation

Background Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) circuits have been shown to sequester circulating blood compounds such as drugs based on their physicochemical properties. This study aimed to describe the disposition of macro- and micronutrients in simulated ECMO circuits. Methods Following baseline sampling, known quantities of macro- and micronutrients were injected post oxygenator into ex vivo ECMO circuits primed with the fresh human whole blood and maintained under standard physiologic conditions. Serial blood samples were then obtained at 1, 30 and 60 min and at 6, 12 and 24 h after the addition of nutrients, to measure the concentrations of study compounds using validated assays. Results Twenty-one samples were tested for thirty-one nutrient compounds. There were significant reductions (p < 0.05) in circuit concentrations of some amino acids [alanine (10%), arginine (95%), cysteine (14%), glutamine (25%) and isoleucine (7%)], vitamins [A (42%) and E (6%)] and glucose (42%) over 24 h. Significant increases in circuit concentrations (p < 0.05) were observed over time for many amino acids, zinc and vitamin C. There were no significant reductions in total proteins, triglycerides, total cholesterol, selenium, copper, manganese and vitamin D concentrations within the ECMO circuit over a 24-h period. No clear correlation could be established between physicochemical properties and circuit behaviour of tested nutrients. Conclusions Significant alterations in macro- and micronutrient concentrations were observed in this single-dose ex vivo circuit study. Most significantly, there is potential for circuit loss of essential amino acid isoleucine and lipid soluble vitamins (A and E) in the ECMO circuit, and the mechanisms for this need further exploration. While the reductions in glucose concentrations and an increase in other macro- and micronutrient concentrations probably reflect cellular metabolism and breakdown, the decrement in arginine and glutamine concentrations may be attributed to their enzymatic conversion to ornithine and glutamate, respectively. While the results are generally reassuring from a macronutrient perspective, prospective studies in clinical subjects are indicated to further evaluate the influence of ECMO circuit on micronutrient concentrations and clinical outcomes.

Global variation in the prevalence and incidence of major depressive disorder : a systematic review of the epidemiological literature

Background Summarizing the epidemiology of major depressive disorder (MDD) at a global level is complicated by significant heterogeneity in the data. The aim of this study is to present a global summary of the prevalence and incidence of MDD, accounting for sources of bias, and dealing with heterogeneity. Findings are informing MDD burden quantification in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2010 Study. Method A systematic review of prevalence and incidence of MDD was undertaken. Electronic databases Medline, PsycINFO and EMBASE were searched. Community-representative studies adhering to suitable diagnostic nomenclature were included. A meta-regression was conducted to explore sources of heterogeneity in prevalence and guide the stratification of data in a meta-analysis. Results The literature search identified 116 prevalence and four incidence studies. Prevalence period, sex, year of study, depression subtype, survey instrument, age and region were significant determinants of prevalence, explaining 57.7% of the variability between studies. The global point prevalence of MDD, adjusting for methodological differences, was 4.7% (4.4–5.0%). The pooled annual incidence was 3.0% (2.4–3.8%), clearly at odds with the pooled prevalence estimates and the previously reported average duration of 30 weeks for an episode of MDD. Conclusions Our findings provide a comprehensive and up-to-date profile of the prevalence of MDD globally. Region and study methodology influenced the prevalence of MDD. This needs to be considered in the GBD 2010 study and in investigations into the ecological determinants of MDD. Good-quality estimates from low-/middle-income countries were sparse. More accurate data on incidence are also required.

Predicting Australian adults' sun-safe behaviour : examining the role of personal and social norms

Objectives To address the scarcity of comprehensive, theory-based research in the Australian context, this study, using a theory of planned behaviour (TPB) framework, investigated the role of personal and social norms to identify the key predictors of adult Australians' sun-safe intentions and behaviour. Design The study used a prospective design with two waves of data collection, 1 week apart. Methods Participants were 816 adults (48.2% men) aged between 18 and 88 years recruited from urban, regional, and rural areas of Australia. At baseline, participants completed a questionnaire assessing the standard TPB predictors (attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control [PBC]), past behaviour, behavioural intention, and additional measures of group norm for the referent groups of friends and family, image norm, personal norm, personal choice/responsibility, and Australian identity. Seventy-one per cent of the participants (n = 577) reported on their sun-safe behaviour in the subsequent week. Results Via path modelling, past behaviour, attitude, group norm (friends), personal norm, and personal choice/responsibility emerged as independent predictors of intentions which, in turn, predicted sun-safe behaviour prospectively. Past behaviour, but not PBC, had direct effects on sun-safe behaviour. The model explained 61.6% and 43.9% of the variance in intention and behaviour, respectively. Conclusions This study provides support for the use of a comprehensive theoretical decision-making model to explain Australian adults' sun-safe intentions and behaviours and identifies viable targets for health-promoting messages in this high-risk context.

A framework for model integration and holistic modelling of socio-technical systems

This paper presents a layered framework for the purposes of integrating different Socio-Technical Systems (STS) models and perspectives into a whole-of-systems model. Holistic modelling plays a critical role in the engineering of STS due to the interplay between social and technical elements within these systems and resulting emergent behaviour. The framework decomposes STS models into components, where each component is either a static object, dynamic object or behavioural object. Based on existing literature, a classification of the different elements that make up STS, whether it be a social, technical or a natural environment element, is developed; each object can in turn be classified according to the STS elements it represents. Using the proposed framework, it is possible to systematically decompose models to an extent such that points of interface can be identified and the contextual factors required in transforming the component of one model to interface into another is obtained. Using an airport inbound passenger facilitation process as a case study socio-technical system, three different models are analysed: a Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) model, Hybrid Queue-based Bayesian Network (HQBN) model and an Agent Based Model (ABM). It is found that the framework enables the modeller to identify non-trivial interface points such as between the spatial interactions of an ABM and the causal reasoning of a HQBN, and between the process activity representation of a BPMN and simulated behavioural performance in a HQBN. Such a framework is a necessary enabler in order to integrate different modelling approaches in understanding and managing STS.

Decision making in social neurobiological systems modeled as transitions in dynamic pattern formation

Extant models of decision making in social neurobiological systems have typically explained task dynamics as characterized by transitions between two attractors. In this paper, we model a three-attractor task exemplified in a team sport context. The model showed that an attacker–defender dyadic system can be described by the angle x between a vector connecting the participants and the try line. This variable was proposed as an order parameter of the system and could be dynamically expressed by integrating a potential function. Empirical evidence has revealed that this kind of system has three stable attractors, with a potential function of the form V(x)=−k1x+k2ax2/2−bx4/4+x6/6, where k1 and k2 are two control parameters. Random fluctuations were also observed in system behavior, modeled as white noise εt, leading to the motion equation dx/dt = −dV/dx+Q0.5εt, where Q is the noise variance. The model successfully mirrored the behavioral dynamics of agents in a social neurobiological system, exemplified by interactions of players in a team sport.

Soft tissue human thigh and buttock finite element model to simulate vehicle seat cushion indentation

Accurate modelling of automotive occupant posture is strongly related to the mechanical interaction between human body soft tissue and flexible seat components. This paper presents a finite-element study simulating the deflection of seat cushion foam and supportive seat structures, as well as human buttock and thigh soft tissue when seated. The thigh-buttock surface shell model was based on 95th percentile male subject scan data and made of two layers, covering thin to moderate thigh and buttock proportions. To replicate the effects of skin and fat, the neoprene rubber layer was modelled as a hyperelastic material with viscoelastic behaviour. The analytical seat model is based on a Ford production seat. The result of the finite-element indentation simulation is compared to a previous simulation of an indentation with a hard shell human model of equal geometry, and to the physical indentation result. We conclude that SAE composite buttock form and human-seat indentation of a suspended seat cushion can be validly simulated.

A simulation model of the within-host dynamics of Plasmodium vivax infection

Background The benign reputation of Plasmodium vivax is at odds with the burden and severity of the disease. This reputation, combined with restricted in vitro techniques, has slowed efforts to gain an understanding of the parasite biology and interaction with its human host. Methods A simulation model of the within-host dynamics of P. vivax infection is described, incorporating distinctive characteristics of the parasite such as the preferential invasion of reticulocytes and hypnozoite production. The developed model is fitted using digitized time-series’ from historic neurosyphilis studies, and subsequently validated against summary statistics from a larger study of the same population. The Chesson relapse pattern was used to demonstrate the impact of released hypnozoites. Results The typical pattern for dynamics of the parasite population is a rapid exponential increase in the first 10 days, followed by a gradual decline. Gametocyte counts follow a similar trend, but are approximately two orders of magnitude lower. The model predicts that, on average, an infected naïve host in the absence of treatment becomes infectious 7.9 days post patency and is infectious for a mean of 34.4 days. In the absence of treatment, the effect of hypnozoite release was not apparent as newly released parasites were obscured by the existing infection. Conclusions The results from the model provides useful insights into the dynamics of P. vivax infection in human hosts, in particular the timing of host infectiousness and the role of the hypnozoite in perpetuating infection.

Innovate triple constraints model for better construction projects results

The continuous changing impacts appeared in all solution understanding approaches in the projects management field (especially in the construction field of work) by adopting dynamic solution paths. The paper will define what argue to be a better relational model for project management constraints (time, cost, and scope). This new model will increase the success factors of any complex program / project. This is a qualitative research adopting a new avenue of investigation by following different approach of attributing project activities with social phenomena, and supporting phenomenon with field of observations rather than mathematical method by emerging solution from human, and ants' colonies successful practices. The results will show the correct approach of relation between the triple constraints considering the relation as multi agents system having specified communication channels based on agents locations. Information will be transferred between agents, and action would be taken based on constraint agents locations in the project structure allowing immediate changes abilities in order to overcome issues of over budget, behind schedule, and additional scope impact. This is complex adaptive system having self organizes technique, and cybernetic control. Resulted model can be used for improving existing project management methodologies.

On Merging Business Process Management and Geographic Information Systems : Modeling and Execution of Ecological Concerns in Processes

Business Process Management describes a holistic management approach for the systematic design, modeling, execution, validation, monitoring and improvement of organizational business processes. Traditionally, most attention within this community has been given to control-flow aspects, i.e., the ordering and sequencing of business activities, oftentimes in isolation with regards to the context in which these activities occur. In this paper, we propose an approach that allows executable process models to be integrated with Geographic Information Systems. This approach enables process models to take geospatial and other geographic aspects into account in an explicit manner both during the modeling phase and the execution phase. We contribute a structured modeling methodology, based on the well-known Business Process Model and Notation standard, which is formalized by means of a mapping to executable Colored Petri nets. We illustrate the feasibility of our approach by means of a sustainability-focused case example of a process with important ecological concerns.