Adaptive optical flow for person tracking

Person tracking systems are dependent on being able to locate a person accurately across a series of frames. Optical flow can be used to segment a moving object from a scene, provided the expected velocity of the moving object is known; but successful detection also relies on being able segment the background. A problem with existing optical flow techniques is that they don’t discriminate the foreground from the background, and so often detect motion (and thus the object) in the background. To overcome this problem, we propose a new optical flow technique, that is based upon an adaptive background segmentation technique, which only determines optical flow in regions of motion. This technique has been developed with a view to being used in surveillance systems, and our testing shows that for this application it is more effective than other standard optical flow techniques.

Marketing unions to young people : recruiting and ‘rusting on’

In light of declining trade union density, specifically amongst young workers, this paper explores how trade unions are servicing and organising young people. Our specific focus is the way in which trade unions market their services to the young. We use, as a lens of analysis, the services marketing literature and the concept of an ‘experience good’ to explore trade union strategies. Based on interviews with a number of Queensland union officials, it is clear unions see the issue of recruitment of young people as significant, and that resources are being targeted on the development of innovative strategies at least in some unions.

Levels of cardiac knowledge and cardiopulmonary resuscitation training among older people in Queensland

Objectives: The current study was conducted to determine levels of cardiac knowledge and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training in older people in Queensland, Australia.---------- Methods: A telephone survey of 4490 Queensland adults examined respondents’ knowledge of coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors, knowledge of heart attack symptoms, knowledge of the local emergency telephone number, as well as respondents’ rates and recency of training in CPR.---------- Results: Older participants, aged 60 years and over, were approximately one and a half times more likely than the 30–39 year-old reference group to have limited knowledge of heart disease risk factors (OR = 1.53), and low knowledge of heart attack symptoms (OR = 1.60). Knowledge of the local emergency telephone number also decreased with age. Older participants had significantly lower rates of training in CPR, with almost three quarters (71.7%) reporting that they had never been trained. Older people who had completed CPR training were significantly less likely to have done so recently.---------- Conclusions: Cardiac knowledge levels and CPR training rates in older Queensland persons were lower than those found in the younger population.

Poor functional health literacy : the silent disability for older people

In this information age, people are confronted by verbal, visual and written information. This is especially important in the health field, where information is needed to follow directions, understand prescriptions and undertake preventive behaviours. If provided in written form, much of this information may be inaccessible to people who cannot adequately read. Although poor literacy skills affect all groups in the population, older adults with fewer years of education seem to be particularly disadvantaged by an increasing reliance on written communication of health information. With older age comes a higher risk of illness and disability and a greater potential need to access the health system. As a result, poor literacy skills of older individuals may directly impact their health status. This paper explores the link between functional literacy and health, particularly for the older population, provides strategies to practitioners for the management of this problem, and suggests research initiatives in this area.

Teaching young people first aid skills to reduce injury

Background First aid given immediately after a motor vehicle crash can have considerable benefits. Less understood however is first aid training as a prevention strategy for reducing risk-taking. A first step is to understand whether first aid skills are associated with risk-taking and injury experiences. Further, students and teachers who undergo or deliver such training offer important perspectives about implementation. Aims The research has two aims: (i) to identify whether first aid knowledge is associated with road risk-taking and injury and (ii) to examine teachers’ and students’ experiences of first aid activities within a school-based injury prevention and control program. Method Participants were 173 Year 9s (47% male) who completed a survey which included demographic information, first aid knowledge and risk-taking behaviour and injury experiences. Focus groups were held with 8 teachers who delivered, and 70 students who participated in, a school-based injury prevention and control program. Results Results showed a relationship between greater first aid knowledge and reduced engagement in risk-taking and injury experiences. Both students and teachers reported favourably on first aid however teachers also acknowledged challenges in delivering practical activities. Discussion & Conclusion It appears that first aid can be implemented within the school setting, particularly at the Year 9 level, and that both students and teachers involved in such training identify multiple benefits and positive experiences with first aid training. In addition, the findings suggest that first aid knowledge could be an important part of a prevention program.

The impact of pain on the quality of life of people with multiple sclerosis: A community survey

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of pain on functioning across multiple quality of life (QOL) domains among individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS). A total of 219 people were recruited from a regional MS society membership database to serve as the community-based study sample. All participants completed a questionnaire containing items about their demographic and clinical characteristics, validated measures of QOL and MS-related disability, and a question on whether or not they had experienced clinically significant pain in the preceding 2 weeks. Respondents who reported pain then completed an in-person structured pain interview assessing pain characteristics (intensity, quality, location, extent, and duration). Comparisons between participants with and without MS-related pain demonstrated that pain prevalence and intensity were strongly correlated with QOL: physical health, psychological health, level of independence, and global QOL were more likely to be impaired among people with MS when pain was present, and the extent of impairment was associated with the intensity of pain. Moreover, these relationships remained significant even after statistically controlling for multiple demographic and clinical covariates associated with self-reported QOL. These findings suggest that for people with MS, pain is an important source of distress and disability beyond that caused by neurologic impairments.

Disposable maps : ad hoc location sharing

The gathering of people in everyday life is intertwined with travelling to negotiated locations. As a result, mobile phones are often used to rearrange meetings when one or more participants are late or cannot make it on time. Our research is based on the hypothesis that the provision of location data can enhance the experience of people who are meeting each other in different locations. This paper presents work-in-progress on a novel approach to share one’s location data in real-time which is visualised on a web-based map in a privacy conscious way. Disposable Maps allows users to select contacts from their phone’s address book who then receive up-to-date location data. The utilisation of peer-to-peer notifications and the application of unique URLs for location storage and presentation enable location sharing whilst ensuring users’ location privacy. In contrast to other location sharing services like Google Latitude, Disposable Maps enables ad hoc location sharing to actively selected location receivers for a fixed period of time in a specific given situation. We present first insights from an initial application user test and show future work on the approach of disposable information allocation.

Wet potential

Water is so fundamental to everything that it is almost impossible to meaningfully conceptualise it, which is why it forms the basis of pretty much everything. To suggest that landscape architecture has some sort of privilege with it would be deluded. But, as alchemists of “the world”, we are both expected to deal with it professionally, as well as being forced to do so practically in making anything real, built in that same “world”. When people use words too much, that is the signifiers of things in sound, they become a kind of conceptual short hand to what they are referring to. You can hear this short hand when they use the word, as it gets grammatically dealt with differently – it becomes a conceptual object – a different type of noun. Water is one of these words, and as a supervisor I have almost universally seen students refer to it like this, by the end of their projects, and then have to force themselves to reconsider what it was about water that made them interested in water in the first place. This process is a transition of ideas and technology and technique, and will be the subject of this essay, tracking students responses to the weird substance in design subjects I have taught or projects I have supervised at RMIT since 1997, to and from and then again back to the qualities and issues of water for people generally, and landscape architecture in particular.