Granule mining and its application for network traffic characterization

Decision table and decision rules play an important role in rough set based data analysis, which compress databases into granules and describe the associations between granules. Granule mining was also proposed to interpret decision rules in terms of association rules and multi-tier structure. In this paper, we further extend granule mining to describe the relationships between granules not only by traditional support and confidence, but by diversity and condition diversity as well. Diversity measures how diverse of a granule associated with the other ganules, it provides a kind of novel knowledge in databases. Some experiments are conducted to test the proposed new concepts for describing the characteristics of a real network traffic data collection. The results show that the proposed concepts are promising.

Sustainable Road Management in Texas : network-level flexible pavement structural condition analysis using data mining techniques

The research team recognized the value of network-level Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) testing to evaluate the structural condition trends of flexible pavements. However, practical limitations due to the cost of testing, traffic control and safety concerns and the ability to test a large network may discourage some agencies from conducting the network-level FWD testing. For this reason, the surrogate measure of the Structural Condition Index (SCI) is suggested for use. The main purpose of the research presented in this paper is to investigate data mining strategies and to develop a prediction method of the structural condition trends for network-level applications which does not require FWD testing. The research team first evaluated the existing and historical pavement condition, distress, ride, traffic and other data attributes in the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Pavement Maintenance Information System (PMIS), applied data mining strategies to the data, discovered useful patterns and knowledge for SCI value prediction, and finally provided a reasonable measure of pavement structural condition which is correlated to the SCI. To evaluate the performance of the developed prediction approach, a case study was conducted using the SCI data calculated from the FWD data collected on flexible pavements over a 5-year period (2005 – 09) from 354 PMIS sections representing 37 pavement sections on the Texas highway system. The preliminary study results showed that the proposed approach can be used as a supportive pavement structural index in the event when FWD deflection data is not available and help pavement managers identify the timing and appropriate treatment level of preventive maintenance activities.

Strategizing public sector human resource management : the implications of working network

Networks have come to the fore as a means by which government can achieve its strategic objectives, particularly when addressing complex or “wicked” issues. Such joined-up arrangements differ in their operations from other forms of organizing as they require collaborative effort to deliver the collaborative advantage. Strategic Human Resource Management is concerned with the matching of human resource practices to the strategic direction of organizations. It is argued that the strategic direction of government has been towards network involvement and that, as a result, a reconfiguration of Human Resource Management practices is needed to support this new direction. Drawing on eight network case studies findings are presented in relation to the roles government is expected to play in networks and conclusions are drawn about what types of human resource management practices would best support those roles. Implications for Strategic Human Resource Management are posited.

Enhancing and promoting Indigenous women's wellness

The term "Social and Emotional Wellbeing" (SEWB) was coined through the noted inability of conventional psychiatric terminology when addressing Indigenous holistic connections and opposes the Anglo-Saxon terminology that often boxes "mental health" as a diagnosis, disease or illness into separate origins from that of other personal holistic existence, which in turn directly objects to Indigenous thinking and perceptions of wellbeing. Purpose: This study's aim was to explore what Indigenous Women's Social and Emotional Wellbeing is, through Indigenous perceptions, beliefs and knowledge of Indigenous women's wellbeing experiences. Methods: Data was derived from semi-structured focus groups incorporating Indigenous specific Yarning, where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who have experienced or were at risk of developing social and emotional wellness problems came together. Results: The women identified many factors underpinning social and emotional wellness and what it means for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. The major themes centred around wellness and health, autonomy, Indigenous women being heard, historical factors, support and Indigenous women's group development and continuation. Conclusion: These issues where then explored and compared to the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women's Health Strategy Action Areas.

Measuring the apparent size of the Moon with a digital camera

The Moon appears to be much larger closer to the horizon than when higher in the sky. This is called the ‘Moon Illusion’ since the observed size of the Moon is not actually larger when the Moon is just above the horizon. This article describes a technique for verifying that the observed size of the Moon in not larger on the horizon. The technique can be easily performed in a high school teaching environment. Moreover, the technique demonstrates the surprising fact that the observed size of the Moon is actually smaller on the horizon due to atmospheric refraction. For the purposes of this paper, several images of the moon were taken with the Moon close to the horizon and close to the zenith. Images were processed using a free program called ImageJ. The Moon was found to be 5.73 ±0.04% smaller in area on the horizon then at the zenith.

Assessing the representativeness of a groundwater quality monitoring network

The monitoring sites comprising a state of the environment (SOE) network must be carefully selected to ensure that they will be representative of the broader resource. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) is a data-driven technique that can potentially be employed to assess the representativeness of a SOE monitoring network. The objective of this paper is to explore the use of HCA as an approach for assessing the representativeness of the New Zealand National Groundwater Monitoring Programme (NGMP), which is comprised of 110 monitoring sites across the country.

Neural network-based detection of virtual environment anomalies

The increasingly widespread use of large-scale 3D virtual environments has translated into an increasing effort required from designers, developers and testers. While considerable research has been conducted into assisting the design of virtual world content and mechanics, to date, only limited contributions have been made regarding the automatic testing of the underpinning graphics software and hardware. In the work presented in this paper, two novel neural network-based approaches are presented to predict the correct visualization of 3D content. Multilayer perceptrons and self-organizing maps are trained to learn the normal geometric and color appearance of objects from validated frames and then used to detect novel or anomalous renderings in new images. Our approach is general, for the appearance of the object is learned rather than explicitly represented. Experiments were conducted on a game engine to determine the applicability and effectiveness of our algorithms. The results show that the neural network technology can be effectively used to address the problem of automatic and reliable visual testing of 3D virtual environments.

Development of network-level project screening methods supporting the 4-Year pavement management plan in Texas

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is concerned about the widening gap between pavement preservation needs and available funding. Thus, the TxDOT Austin District Pavement Engineer (DPE) has investigated methods to strategically allocate available pavement funding to potential projects that improve the overall performance of the District and Texas highway systems. The primary objective of the study presented in this paper is to develop a network-level project screening and ranking method that supports the Austin District 4-year pavement management plan development. The study developed candidate project selection and ranking algorithms that evaluated pavement conditions of each project candidate using data contained in the Pavement Management Information system (PMIS) database and incorporated insights from Austin District pavement experts; and implemented the developed method and supporting algorithm. This process previously required weeks to complete, but now requires about 10 minutes including data preparation and running the analysis algorithm, which enables the Austin DPE to devote more time and resources to conducting field visits, performing project-level evaluation and testing candidate projects. The case study results showed that the proposed method assisted the DPE in evaluating and prioritizing projects and allocating funds to the right projects at the right time.

Journalists and Twitter : how Australian news organisations adapt to a new medium

Twitter has developed an increasingly visible presence in Australian journalism, and in the discussion of news. Many journalists have begun to explore manageable approaches to incorporating Twitter into their work practices, and for some – like the ABC’s ‘star recruits’ Annabel Crabb and Latika Bourke – it has already become a career driver. This article examines the positioning of journalists as ‘personal brands’ on Twitter, by documenting the visibility of leading personal and institutional accounts during two major political events in Australia: the Rudd/Gillard leadership spill on 23 June 2010, and the day of the subsequent federal election on 21 August 2010. It highlights the fact that in third-party networks such as Twitter, journalists and news organisations no longer operate solely on their own terms, as they do on their own Websites, but gain and maintain prominence in the network and reach for their messages only in concert with other users. It places these observations in a wider context of journalist/audience relations, a decade after the emergence of the first citizen journalism Websites.

Energy-efficient virtual machine placement in data centers by genetic algorithm

Server consolidation using virtualization technology has become an important technology to improve the energy efficiency of data centers. Virtual machine placement is the key in the server consolidation. In the past few years, many approaches to the virtual machine placement have been proposed. However, existing virtual machine placement approaches to the virtual machine placement problem consider the energy consumption by physical machines in a data center only, but do not consider the energy consumption in communication network in the data center. However, the energy consumption in the communication network in a data center is not trivial, and therefore should be considered in the virtual machine placement in order to make the data center more energy-efficient. In this paper, we propose a genetic algorithm for a new virtual machine placement problem that considers the energy consumption in both the servers and the communication network in the data center. Experimental results show that the genetic algorithm performs well when tackling test problems of different kinds, and scales up well when the problem size increases.

Does occupational aggregation matter in determining the size of the gender wage gap?

The traditional decomposition of the gender wage gap distinguishes between a component attributable to gender differences in productivity-related characteristics and a residual component that is often taken as a measure of discrimination. This study of data from the 1989 Canadian Labour Market Activity Survey shows that when occupation is treated as a productivity-related characteristic, the proportion of the gender wage gap labeled explained increases with the number of occupational classifications distinguished. However, on the basis of evidence that occupational differences reflect the presence of barriers faced by women attempting to enter male-dominated occupations, the authors conclude that occupation should not be treated as a productivity-related characteristic; and in a decomposition of the gender wage gap that treats occupation as endogenously determined, they find that the level of occupational aggregation has little effect on the size of the "explained" component of the gap.

The effect of screen size on mission commander's situation awareness

Situation awareness lost is a common factor leading to human error in the aviation industry. However, few studies have investigated the effect on situation awareness where the control interface is a touch-screen device that supports simultaneous multi-touch input and information output. This research aims to conduct an experiment to evaluate the difference in situation awareness on a large screen device, DiamondTouch (DT107), and a small screen device, iPad, both with multi-touch interactive functions. The Interface Operation and Situation Awareness Testing Simulator (IOSATS), is a simulator to test the three basis interface operations (Search Target, Information Reading, and Change Detection) by implementing a simplified search and rescue scenario. The result of this experiment will provide reliable data for future research for improving operator's situation awareness in the avionic domain.

Towards visualising people’s ecology of hybrid personal learning environments

Ambient media architecture can provide place-based collaborative learning experiences and pathways for social interactions that would not be otherwise possible. This paper is concerned with ways of enhancing peer-to-peer learning affordances in library spaces; how can the library facilitate the community of library users to learn from each other? We report on the findings of a study that employed a participatory design method where participants were asked to reflect and draw places, social networks, and activities that they use to work (be creative, productive), play (have fun, socialize, be entertained), and learn (acquire new information, knowledge, or skills). The results illustrate how informal learning – learning outside the formal education system – is facilitated by a personal selection of physical and socio-cultural environments, as well as online tools, platforms, and networks. This paper sheds light on participants’ individually curated ecologies of their work, play, and learning related networks and the hybrid (physical and digital) nature of these places. These insights reveal opportunities for ambient media architecture to increase awareness of and connections between people’s hybrid personal learning environments.

Large body size in an island-dwelling bird : a microevolutionary analysis

Island races of passerine birds display repeated evolution towards larger body size compared with their continental ancestors. The Capricorn silvereye (Zosterops lateralis chlorocephalus) has become up to six phenotypic standard deviations bigger in several morphological measures since colonization of an island approximately 4000 years ago. We estimated the genetic variance-covariance (G) matrix using full-sib and 'animal model' analyses, and selection gradients, for six morphological traits under field conditions in three consecutive cohorts of nestlings. Significant levels of genetic variance were found for all traits. Significant directional selection was detected for wing and tail lengths in one year and quadratic selection on culmen depth in another year. Although selection gradients on many traits were negative, the predicted evolutionary response to selection of these traits for all cohorts was uniformly positive. These results indicate that the G matrix and predicted evolutionary responses are consistent with those of a population evolving in the manner observed in the island passerine trend, that is, towards larger body size.

School children’s personal exposure to ultrafine particles in urban environments

This work was motivated by the limited knowledge on personal exposure to ultrafine (UF) particles, and it quantifies school children’s personal exposure to UF particles, in terms of number, using Philips Aerasense Nano Tracers (NTs). This study is being conducted in conjunction with the “Ultrafine Particles from Traffic Emissions and Children’s Health (UPTECH)” project, which aims to determine the relationship between exposure to traffic related UF particles and children’s health (http://www.ilaqh.qut.edu.au/Misc/UPTECH%20 Home.htm). To achieve this, air quality and some health data are being collected at 25 schools within the Brisbane Metropolitan Area in Australia over two years. The school children’s personal exposure to UF particles in the first 17 schools are presented here. These schools were tested between Oct 2010 and Dec 2011. Data collection is expected to be complete by mid 2012.