Anthropometry and body composition of Indonesian adults : an evaluation of body image, eating behaviours, and physical activity

This thesis examines the characteristics of anthropometry and body composition in Indonesian adults and some of the risk factors including body image, eating behaviours, and physical activity. Examination on body image, eating behaviours, and physical activity demonstrates significant correlations with anthropometry and body composition in Indonesian adults. The study also identified body image distortion in some of the participants and provides suggestions for intervention development addressed to the groups of participants which have been identified as having a distorted body image.

Refined plastic hinge analysis of steel frame structures comprising non-compact sections : II : verification

Application of "advanced analysis" methods suitable for non-linear analysis and design of steel frame structures permits direct and accurate determination of ultimate system strengths, without resort to simplified elastic methods of analysis and semi-empirical specification equations. However, the application of advanced analysis methods has previously been restricted to steel frames comprising only compact sections that are not influenced by the effects of local buckling. A refined plastic hinge method suitable for practical advanced analysis of steel frame structures comprising non-compact sections is presented in a companion paper. The method implicitly accounts for the effects of gradual cross-sectional yielding, longitudinal spread of plasticity, initial geometric imperfections, residual stresses, and local buckling. The accuracy and precision of the method for the analysis of steel frames comprising non-compact sections is established in this paper by comparison with a comprehensive range of analytical benchmark frame solutions. The refined plastic hinge method is shown to be more accurate and precise than the conventional individual member design methods based on elastic analysis and specification equations.

Analytical benchmark solutions for steel frame structures subject to local buckling effects

Application of "advanced analysis" methods suitable for non-linear analysis and design of steel frame structures permits direct and accurate determination of ultimate system strengths, without resort to simplified elastic methods of analysis and semi-empirical specification equations. However, the application of advanced analysis methods has previously been restricted to steel frames comprising only compact sections that are not influenced by the effects of local buckling. A research project has been conducted with the aim of developing concentrated plasticity methods suitable for practical advanced analysis of steel frame structures comprising non-compact sections. This paper contains a comprehensive set of analytical benchmark solutions for steel frames comprising non-compact sections, which can be used to verify the accuracy of simplified concentrated plasticity methods of advanced analysis. The analytical benchmark solutions were obtained using a distributed plasticity shell finite element model that explicitly accounts for the effects of gradual cross-sectional yielding, longitudinal spread of plasticity, initial geometric imperfections, residual stresses, and local buckling. A brief description and verification of the shell finite element model is provided in this paper.

Impacts of plug-in electric vehicles on distribution networks

As a good solution to the shortage and environmental unfriendliness of fossil fuels, plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) attract much interests of the public. To investigate the problems caused by the integration of numerous PEVs, a lot of research work has been done on the grid impacts of PEVs in aspects including thermal loading, voltage regulation, transformer loss of life, unbalance, losses, and harmonic distortion levels. This paper surveys the-state-of-the-art of the research in this area and outline three possible measures for a power grid company to make full use of PEVs.

Error and uncertainty of adult age estimation of the pubic symphysis in an Australian sub-population using computed tomography

After attending this presentation, attendees will gain awareness of: (1) the error and uncertainty associated with the application of the Suchey-Brooks (S-B) method of age estimation of the pubic symphysis to a contemporary Australian population; (2) the implications of sexual dimorphism and bilateral asymmetry of the pubic symphysis through preliminary geometric morphometric assessment; and (3) the value of three-dimensional (3D) autopsy data acquisition for creating forensic anthropological standards. This presentation will impact the forensic science community by demonstrating that, in the absence of demographically sound skeletal collections, post-mortem autopsy data provides an exciting platform for the construction of large contemporary ‘virtual osteological libraries’ for which forensic anthropological research can be conducted on Australian individuals. More specifically, this study assesses the applicability and accuracy of the S-B method to a contemporary adult population in Queensland, Australia, and using a geometric morphometric approach, provides an insight to the age-related degeneration of the pubic symphysis. Despite the prominent use of the Suchey-Brooks (1990) method of age estimation in forensic anthropological practice, it is subject to intrinsic limitations, with reports of differential inter-population error rates between geographical locations1-4. Australian forensic anthropology is constrained by a paucity of population specific standards due to a lack of repositories of documented skeletons. Consequently, in Australian casework proceedings, standards constructed from predominately American reference samples are applied to establish a biological profile. In the global era of terrorism and natural disasters, more specific population standards are required to improve the efficiency of medico-legal death investigation in Queensland. The sample comprises multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT) scans of the pubic symphysis (slice thickness: 0.5mm, overlap: 0.1mm) on 195 individuals of caucasian ethnicity aged 15-70 years. Volume rendering reconstruction of the symphyseal surface was conducted in Amira® (v.4.1) and quantitative analyses in Rapidform® XOS. The sample was divided into ten-year age sub-sets (eg. 15-24) with a final sub-set of 65-70 years. Error with respect to the method’s assigned means were analysed on the basis of bias (directionality of error), inaccuracy (magnitude of error) and percentage correct classification of left and right symphyseal surfaces. Morphometric variables including surface area, circumference, maximum height and width of the symphyseal surface and micro-architectural assessment of cortical and trabecular bone composition were quantified using novel automated engineering software capabilities. The results of this study demonstrated correct age classification utilizing the mean and standard deviations of each phase of the S-B method of 80.02% and 86.18% in Australian males and females, respectively. Application of the S-B method resulted in positive biases and mean inaccuracies of 7.24 (±6.56) years for individuals less than 55 years of age, compared to negative biases and mean inaccuracies of 5.89 (±3.90) years for individuals greater than 55 years of age. Statistically significant differences between chronological and S-B mean age were demonstrated in 83.33% and 50% of the six age subsets in males and females, respectively. Asymmetry of the pubic symphysis was a frequent phenomenon with 53.33% of the Queensland population exhibiting statistically significant (χ2 - p<0.01) differential phase classification of left and right surfaces of the same individual. Directionality was found in bilateral asymmetry, with the right symphyseal faces being slightly older on average and providing more accurate estimates using the S-B method5. Morphometric analysis verified these findings, with the left surface exhibiting significantly greater circumference and surface area than the right (p<0.05). Morphometric analysis demonstrated an increase in maximum height and width of the surface with age, with most significant changes (p<0.05) occurring between the 25-34 and 55-64 year age subsets. These differences may be attributed to hormonal components linked to menopause in females and a reduction in testosterone in males. Micro-architectural analysis demonstrated degradation of cortical composition with age, with differential bone resorption between the medial, ventral and dorsal surfaces of the pubic symphysis. This study recommends that the S-B method be applied with caution in medico-legal death investigations of unknown skeletal remains in Queensland. Age estimation will always be accompanied by error; therefore this study demonstrates the potential for quantitative morphometric modelling of age related changes of the pubic symphysis as a tool for methodological refinement, providing a rigor and robust assessment to remove the subjectivity associated with current pelvic aging methods.

Quantitative morphometric examination of the human pubic symphyseal surface of Australian individuals with age using computed tomography

Current forensic practice in age estimation relies on the application of morphological standards as a means to characterize complex threedimensional skeletal surfaces. Research in our laboratory has demonstrated that the application of the morphologically based Suchey-Brooks method to a contemporary Queensland, Australian population demonstrated significant inaccuracy in age-estimation. Consequently, this study presents preliminary results to quantify age-related skeletal changes of the pubic symphysis in Queensland individuals using novel geometric and micro-architectural protocols that have the potential of improving age estimation in the forensic context. Computed tomography scans of the right and left pubis were obtained from Caucasian individuals aged 15–70 years (n=195) from the Queensland Health Forensic and Scientific Services. Morphometric variables including surface area, circumference, maximum height and width of the symphyseal surface, and micro-architectural assessment of cortical and trabecular bone structure were conducted in Rapidform XOS and Osteomeasure, respectively. Morphometric analysis demonstrated increases in maximum height and width of the surface with age independent of gender, with most significant (P<0.05) changes between the 25–34 and 55–64 year subsets. Sexual dimorphism and bilateral asymmetry were prominent features in the Queensland population. Micro-architectural analysis demonstrated degradation of cortical composition with age, with differential bone resorption between the medial, ventral and dorsal aspects of the symphysis. The ability to quantitatively model age-related changes to the pubic symphysis provides potential for future methodological refinement, where rigor and robust geometric assessment of the surface may remove the subjectivity associated with aging the pubic symphysis.

Infrared and Raman spectroscopic characterization of the carbonate mineral huanghoite - and in comparison with selected rare earth carbonates

Raman spectroscopy complimented with infrared spectroscopy has been used to study the rare earth based mineral huanghoite with possible formula given as BaCe(CO3)2F and compared with the Raman spectra of a series of selected natural halogenated carbonates from different origins including bastnasite, parisite and northupite. The Raman spectrum of huanghoite displays three bands are at 1072, 1084 and 1091 cm−1 attributed to the symmetric stretching vibration. The observation of three symmetric stretching vibrations is very unusual. The position of symmetric stretching vibration varies with mineral composition. Infrared spectroscopy of huanghoite show bands at 1319, 1382, 1422 and 1470 cm−1. No Raman bands of huanghoite were observed in these positions. Raman spectra of bastnasite, parisite and northupite show a single band at 1433, 1420 and 1554 cm−1 assigned to the ν3 (CO3)2− antisymmetric stretching mode. The observation of additional Raman bands for the ν3 modes for some halogenated carbonates is significant in that it shows distortion of the carbonate anion in the mineral structure. Four Raman bands for huanghoite are observed at 687, 704, 718 and 730 cm−1and assigned to the (CO3)2− ν2 bending modes. Raman bands are observed for huanghoite at around 627 cm−1 and are assigned to the (CO3)2− ν4 bending modes. Raman bands are observed for the carbonate ν4 in phase bending modes at 722 cm−1 for bastnasite, 736 and 684 cm−1 for parisite, 714 cm−1 for northupite. Raman bands for huanghoite observed at 3259, 3484 and 3589 cm−1 are attributed to water stretching bands. Multiple bands are observed in the OH stretching region for bastnasite and parisite indicating the presence of water and OH units in their mineral structure. Vibrational spectroscopy enables new information on the structure of huanghoite to be assessed.

Harmonic quality of multilevel cascade inverters with random carrier phase pulse width modulation

The output harmonic quality of N series connected full-bridge dc-ac inverters is investigated. The inverters are pulse width modulated using a common reference signal but randomly phased carrier signals. Through analysis and simulation, probability distributions for inverter output harmonics and vector representations of N carrier phases are combined and assessed. It is concluded that a low total harmonic distortion is most likely to occur and will decrease further as N increases.

A class B switch-mode assisted linear amplifier

A switch-mode assisted linear amplifier (SMALA) combining a linear (Class B) and a switch-mode (Class D) amplifier is presented. The usual single hysteretic controlled half-bridge current dumping stage is replaced by two parallel buck converter stages, in a parallel voltage controlled topology. These operate independently: one buck converter sources current to assist the upper Class B output device, and a complementary converter sinks current to assist the lower device. This topology lends itself to a novel control approach of a dead-band at low power levels where neither class D amplifier assists, allowing the class B amplifier to supply the load without interference, ensuring high fidelity. A 20 W implementation demonstrates 85% efficiency, with distortion below 0.08% measured across the full audio bandwidth at 15 W. The class D amplifier begins assisting at 2 W, and below this value, the distortion was below 0.03%. Complete circuitry is given, showing the simplicity of the additional class D amplifier and its corresponding control circuitry.

Digitally-implemented naturally sampled PWM suitable for multilevel converter control

For dynamic closed loop control of a multilevel converter with a low pulse number (ratio of switching frequency to synthesized fundamental), natural sampled pulse-width modulation (PWM) is the best form of modulation. Natural sampling does not introduce distortion or a delayed response to the modulating signal. However previous natural sampled PWM implementations have generally been analog. For a modular multilevel converter, a digital implementation has advantages of accuracy and flexibility. Re-sampled uniform PWM is a novel digital modulation technique which approaches the performance of natural PWM. Both hardware and software implementations for a five level multilevel converter phase are presented, demonstrating the improvement over uniform PWM.

Utilizing least significant bit-planes of RONI pixels for medical image watermarking

We propose a computationally efficient image border pixel based watermark embedding scheme for medical images. We considered the border pixels of a medical image as RONI (region of non-interest), since those pixels have no or little interest to doctors and medical professionals irrespective of the image modalities. Although RONI is used for embedding, our proposed scheme still keeps distortion at a minimum level in the embedding region using the optimum number of least significant bit-planes for the border pixels. All these not only ensure that a watermarked image is safe for diagnosis, but also help minimize the legal and ethical concerns of altering all pixels of medical images in any manner (e.g, reversible or irreversible). The proposed scheme avoids the need for RONI segmentation, which incurs capacity and computational overheads. The performance of the proposed scheme has been compared with a relevant scheme in terms of embedding capacity, image perceptual quality (measured by SSIM and PSNR), and computational efficiency. Our experimental results show that the proposed scheme is computationally efficient, offers an image-content-independent embedding capacity, and maintains a good image quality

A typical migraine susceptibility region localizes to chromosome 1q31

Migraine (with and without aura) is a prevalent neurovascular disease that shows strong familial aggregation, although the number of genes involved and the mode of inheritance is not clear. Some insight into the disease has been gained from genetic studies into a rare and very severe migraine subtype known as familial hemiplegic migraine (FHM). In this study, we took a family-based linkage and association approach to investigate the FHM susceptibility region on chromosome 1q31 for involvement in typical migraine susceptibility in affected Australian pedigrees. Initial multipoint ALLEGRO analysis provided strong evidence for linkage of Chrlq31 markers to typical migraine in a large multigenerational pedigree. The 1-LOD* unit support interval for suggestive linkage spanned approximately 18 cM with a maximum allele sharing LOD* score of 3.36 obtained for marker D1S2782 (P=0.00004). Subsequent analysis of an independent sample of 82 affected pedigrees added support to the initial findings with a maximum LOD* of 1.24 (P=0.008). Utilising the independent sample of 82 pedigrees, we also performed a family-based association test. Results of this analysis indicated distortion of allele transmission at marker D1S249 [global chi2 (5) of 15.00, P=0.010] in these pedigrees. These positive linkage and association results will need further confirmation by independent researchers. However, overall they provide good evidence for the existence of a typical migraine locus near these markers on Chrlq3l, and reinforce the idea that an FHM gene in this genomic region may also contribute to susceptibility to the more common forms of migraine.

Evidence for allelic association of the dopamine β-hydroxylase gene (DBH) with susceptibility to typical migraine

Migraine is a debilitating neurological disorder characterized by recurrent attacks of severe headache. The disorder is highly prevalent, affecting approximately 12% of Caucasian populations. It is well known that migraine has a strong genetic component, although the type and number of genes involved is not yet clear. However, the calcium channel gene, CACNA1A, on chromosome 19 contains mutations responsible for familial hemiplegic migraine, a rare and severe subtype of migraine. There is also evidence to suggest that serotonin- and dopamine-related genes may be involved in the pathogenesis of migraine. This study employed a linkage and association approach to investigate neurotransmitter-related migraine candidate genes. Polymorphisms within the dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DBH) gene, serotonin transporter gene (SERT), and dopamine receptor gene (DRD2) were tested in 177 unrelated Caucasian migraineurs and 182 control individuals. In addition, an independent sample of 82 families affected with migraine was examined. Unrelated case-control association analysis of a DBH intragenic dinucleotide polymorphism indicated altered allelic distribution between migraine and control groups (L2=16.53, P=0.019). Furthermore, the transmission/disequilibrium test, which was implemented on the family data, also indicated distortion of allele transmission for the same DBH marker (L2=4.44, P=0.035). Together, these results provide evidence for allelic association of the DBH gene with typical migraine susceptibility (Fisher's combined P value=0.006) and indicate that further research into the role of the DBH gene in the etiology of migraine is warranted.

Distributed low-power image processing in wireless sensor networks for intelligent video surveillance applications

Distributed Wireless Smart Camera (DWSC) network is a special type of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) that processes captured images in a distributed manner. While image processing on DWSCs sees a great potential for growth, with its applications possessing a vast practical application domain such as security surveillance and health care, it suffers from tremendous constraints. In addition to the limitations of conventional WSNs, image processing on DWSCs requires more computational power, bandwidth and energy that presents significant challenges for large scale deployments. This dissertation has developed a number of algorithms that are highly scalable, portable, energy efficient and performance efficient, with considerations of practical constraints imposed by the hardware and the nature of WSN. More specifically, these algorithms tackle the problems of multi-object tracking and localisation in distributed wireless smart camera net- works and optimal camera configuration determination. Addressing the first problem of multi-object tracking and localisation requires solving a large array of sub-problems. The sub-problems that are discussed in this dissertation are calibration of internal parameters, multi-camera calibration for localisation and object handover for tracking. These topics have been covered extensively in computer vision literatures, however new algorithms must be invented to accommodate the various constraints introduced and required by the DWSC platform. A technique has been developed for the automatic calibration of low-cost cameras which are assumed to be restricted in their freedom of movement to either pan or tilt movements. Camera internal parameters, including focal length, principal point, lens distortion parameter and the angle and axis of rotation, can be recovered from a minimum set of two images of the camera, provided that the axis of rotation between the two images goes through the camera's optical centre and is parallel to either the vertical (panning) or horizontal (tilting) axis of the image. For object localisation, a novel approach has been developed for the calibration of a network of non-overlapping DWSCs in terms of their ground plane homographies, which can then be used for localising objects. In the proposed approach, a robot travels through the camera network while updating its position in a global coordinate frame, which it broadcasts to the cameras. The cameras use this, along with the image plane location of the robot, to compute a mapping from their image planes to the global coordinate frame. This is combined with an occupancy map generated by the robot during the mapping process to localised objects moving within the network. In addition, to deal with the problem of object handover between DWSCs of non-overlapping fields of view, a highly-scalable, distributed protocol has been designed. Cameras that follow the proposed protocol transmit object descriptions to a selected set of neighbours that are determined using a predictive forwarding strategy. The received descriptions are then matched at the subsequent camera on the object's path using a probability maximisation process with locally generated descriptions. The second problem of camera placement emerges naturally when these pervasive devices are put into real use. The locations, orientations, lens types etc. of the cameras must be chosen in a way that the utility of the network is maximised (e.g. maximum coverage) while user requirements are met. To deal with this, a statistical formulation of the problem of determining optimal camera configurations has been introduced and a Trans-Dimensional Simulated Annealing (TDSA) algorithm has been proposed to effectively solve the problem.

Harmonic quality of multilevel cascade inverters with random carrier phase pulse width modulation

The output harmonic quality of N series connected full-bridge dc-ac inverters is investigated. The inverters are pulse width modulated using a common reference signal but randomly phased carrier signals. Through analysis and simulation, probability distributions for inverter output harmonics and vector representations of N carrier phases are combined and assessed. It is concluded that a low total harmonic distortion is most likely to occur and will decrease further as N increases.