Conceptual framework for understanding the demand for emergency health services

Background & Objectives Emergency health services (EHS) throughout the world are increasingly congested. As more people use EHS, factors such as population growth and aging cannot fully explain this increase. Also, focus on patients’ clinical characteristics ignores the role that attitudinal and perceptual factors and motivations play in directing their decisions and actions. The aim of this study is to review and synthesize an integrated conceptual framework for understanding social psychological factors underpinning demand for EHS. Methodology A comprehensive search and review of empirical and theoretical studies about the utilization of EHS was conducted using major medical, health, social and behavioral sciences databases. Results A small number of studies used a relevant conceptual framework (e.g. Health Services Utilization Model or Health Belief Model) or their components to analyze patients’ decision to use EHS. The studies evidenced that demand was affected by perceived severity of the condition; perceived costs and benefits (e.g. availability, accessibility and affordability of alternative services); experience, preference and knowledge; perceived and actual social support; and demographic characteristics (e.g. age, sex, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, marital and living circumstances, place of residence). Conclusions Conceptual models that are commonly used in areas like social and behavioral sciences have rarely been applied in the EHS utilization field. Understanding patients’ decision-making and associated factors will lay the groundwork for identification of the evidence to inform improved policy responses and the development of demand management strategies. An integrated conceptual framework will be introduced as part of this study.

Improving US airport taxicab services through governance arrangements

Most airports internationally have implemented customer satisfaction programs into their operations to increase non-aeronautical revenues. In the US, taxicabs are an essential airport transport mode given the limited public transport options available. Effective airport taxicab planning can increase airport customer satisfaction levels, as well as facilitate handling increased airport passenger volumes. However, little is known on how US airports have adapted their governance practices from a traditional hierarchical to a network approach in their efforts to undertake airport taxicab planning initiatives since the deregulation of the transportation industry. Data acquired from 51 US hub airports is used to examine their existing taxicab planning practices. The findings offer how US airports can modify governance processes in their airport taxicab planning processes to better support increases in the customer satisfaction levels of airport taxicab patrons.

From prototype to exploitation : mobile services for patients with chronic lower back pain

Many research and development projects that are carried out by firms and research institutes are technology-oriented. There is a large gap between research results, for instance in the form of prototypes, and the actual service offerings to customers. This becomes problematic when an organization wants to bring the results from such a project to the market, which will be particularly troublesome when the research results do not readily fit traditional offerings, roles and capabilities in the industry, nor the financial arrangements. In this chapter, we discuss the design of a business model for a mobile health service, starting with a research prototype that was developed for patients with chronic lower back pain, using the STOF model and method. In a number of design sessions, an initial business model was developed that identifies critical design issues that play a role in moving from prototype toward market deployment. The business model serves as a starting-point to identify and commit relevant stakeholders, and to draw up a business plan and case. This chapter is structured as follows. We begin by discussing the need for mobile health business models. Next, the research and development project on mobile health and the prototype for chronic lower back pain patients are introduced, after which the approach used to develop the business model is described, followed by a discussion of the developed mobile health business model for each of the STOF domains. We conclude with a discussion regarding the lessons that were learned with respect to the development of a business model on the basis of a prototype.

Построение автоматической навигационной системы малогабаритного беспилотного летательного аппарата многократного применения = Development of automatic navigation management system for small unmanned aerial vehicle

Современный этап развития комплексов автоматического управления и навигации малогабаритными БЛА многократного применения предъявляет высокие требования к автономности, точности и миниатюрности данных систем. Противоречивость требований диктует использование функционального и алгоритмического объединения нескольких разнотипных источников навигационной информации в едином вычислительном процессе на основе методов оптимальной фильтрации. Получили широкое развитие бесплатформенные инерциальные навигационные системы (БИНС) на основе комплексирования данных микромеханических датчиков инерциальной информации и датчиков параметров движения в воздушном потоке с данными спутниковых навигационных систем (СНС). Однако в современных условиях такой подход не в полной мере реализует требования к помехозащищённости, автономности и точности получаемой навигационной информации. Одновременно с этим достигли значительного прогресса навигационные системы, использующие принципы корреляционно экстремальной навигации по оптическим ориентирам и цифровым картам местности. Предлагается схема построения автономной автоматической навигационной системы (АНС) для БЛА многоразового применения на основе объединения алгоритмов БИНС, спутниковой навигационной системы и оптической навигационной системы. The modern stage of automatic control and guidance systems development for small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) is determined by advanced requirements for autonomy, accuracy and size of the systems. The contradictory of the requirements dictates novel functional and algorithmic tight coupling of several different onboard sensors into one computational process, which is based on methods of optimal filtering. Nowadays, data fusion of micro-electro mechanical sensors of inertial measurement units, barometric pressure sensors, and signals of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) receivers is widely used in numerous strap down inertial navigation systems (INS). However, the systems do not fully comply with such requirements as jamming immunity, fault tolerance, autonomy, and accuracy of navigation. At the same time, the significant progress has been recently demonstrated by the navigation systems, which use the correlation extremal principle applied for optical data flow and digital maps. This article proposes a new architecture of automatic navigation management system (ANMS) for small UAV, which combines algorithms of strap down INS, satellite navigation and optical navigation system.

Исследования и испытания алгоритмов автоматической пилотажно-навигационной системы малогабаритного беспилотного летательного аппарата = Research and testing of automatic navigation management system’s algorithms for small unmanned aerial vehicle

В статье представлено развитие принципа построения автоматической пилотажно-навигационной системы (АПНС) для беспилотного летательного аппарата (БЛА). Принцип заключается в синтезе комплексных систем управления БПЛА не только на основе использования алгоритмов БИНС, но и алгоритмов, объединяющих в себе решение задач формирования и отработки сформированной траектории резервированной системой управления и навигации. Приведены результаты аналитического исследования и данные летных экспериментов разработанных алгоритмов АПНС БЛА, обеспечивающих дополнительное резервирование алгоритмов навигации и наделяющих БЛА новым функциональной способностью по выходу в заданную точку пространства с заданной скоростью в заданный момент времени с учетом атмосферных ветровых возмущений. Предложена и испытана методика идентификации параметров воздушной атмосферы: направления и скорости W ветра. Данные летных испытаний полученного решения задачи терминальной навигации демонстрируют устойчивую работу синтезированных алгоритмов управления в различных метеоусловиях. The article presents a progress in principle of development of automatic navigation management system (ANMS) for small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The principle defines a development of integrated control systems for UAV based on tight coupling of strap down inertial navigation system algorithms and algorithms of redundant flight management system to form and control flight trajectory. The results of the research and flight testing of the developed ANMS UAV algorithms are presented. The system demonstrates advanced functional redundancy of UAV guidance. The system enables new UAV capability to perform autonomous multidimensional navigation along waypoints with controlled speed and time of arrival taking into account wind. The paper describes the technique for real-time identification of atmosphere parameters such as wind direction and wind speed. The flight test results demonstrate robustness of the algorithms in diverse meteorological conditions.

Dino De Laurentiis and Australia: Creating a film industry on the Gold Coast

When Dino De Laurentiis died in October 2010, most media outlets, including Australian based publications and services reported the news and most newspapers carried obituaries. Obituarists described Dino’s many failures in great detail; as film historian David Thomson wrote in The Guardian ‘there were enough bombs from Dino to level a large city’ (Thomson 2010). But Dino was also responsible in no small way for the building of new media cities in Rome, in North Carolina, and in Queensland. In this article, we draw on some of our research for that book to outline in more detail the importance of Dino De Laurentiis’s involvement to the Gold Coast studios and to film and television production in Queensland.

Advanced in-vehicle applications to mitigate driver aggression

Aggressive behavior at the steering wheel has been indicated as a contributing factor in a majority of crashes and anger has been compared to alcohol impairment in terms of probability to cause a crash. It has been shown that being in a state of anger or excitement while driving can decrease the drivers’ performances. . This paper reports the evaluation of 6 novel design alternatives of In-Vehicle Information Systems (IVIS) aimed at mitigating driver aggression. Each application presented was designed to tackle the following contributing factors to driver aggression: competitiveness, anonymity, territoriality, stress as well as social and emotional isolation. The 6 applications were simulated using computer vision algorithm to automatically overlay the real traffic conditions with ‘Head-Up Display’ visualizations. Two applications emerged over the others from participant’s evaluation: shared music combined the known calming effect of music with the sense of sympathy and intimacy caused by hearing other drivers’ music. The Shared Snapshot application provided an immediate gratification and was evaluated as a potential prevention of roadside quarrels. The paper presents Theoretical foundation, participant’s evaluations, implications and limitations of the study.

The Number Crunch game : a simple vehicle for building algebraic reasoning skills

A newspaper numbers game based on simple arithmetic relationships is discussed. Its potential to give students of elementary algebra practice in semi-ad hoc reasoning and to build general arithmetic reasoning skills is explored.

Gratuitous services - Civil Liability Act 2003 s59

The article considers the decision of the Queensland Court of Appeal in Kritz v King [2006] QCA 351, which examined for the first time s59 of the Civil Liability Act 2003 (Qld) in relation to claims for damages for gratuitous services.

In-vehicle railway level crossing warning systems : can intelligent transport systems deliver?

Intelligent Transport System (ITS) technology is seen as a cost-effective way to increase the conspicuity of approaching trains and the effectiveness of train warnings at level crossings by providing an in-vehicle warning of an approaching train. The technology is often seen as a potential low-cost alternative to upgrading passive level crossings with traditional active warning systems (flashing lights and boom barriers). ITS platforms provide sensor, localization and dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) technologies to support cooperative applications such as collision avoidance for road vehicles. In recent years, in-vehicle warning systems based on ITS technology have been trialed at numerous locations around Australia, at level crossing sites with active and passive controls. While significant research has been conducted on the benefits of the technology in nominal operating modes, little research has focused on the effects of the failure modes, the human factors implications of unreliable warnings and the technology adoption process from the railway industry’s perspective. Many ITS technology suppliers originate from the road industry and often have limited awareness of the safety assurance requirements, operational requirements and legal obligations of railway operators. This paper aims to raise awareness of these issues and start a discussion on how such technology could be adopted. This paper will describe several ITS implementation cenarios and discuss failure modes, human factors considerations and the impact these scenarios are likely to have in terms of safety, railway safety assurance requirements and the practicability of meeting these requirements. The paper will identify the key obstacles impeding the adoption of ITS systems for the different implementation scenarios and a possible path forward towards the adoption of ITS technology.

Bike share's impact on car use : evidence from the United States, Great Britain, and Australia

There are currently more than 700 cities operating bike share programs. Purported benefits of bike share include flexible mobility, physical activity, reduced congestion, emissions and fuel use. Implicit or explicit in the calculation of program benefits are assumptions regarding the modes of travel replaced by bike share journeys. This paper examines the degree to which car trips are replaced by bike share, through an examination of survey and trip data from bike share programs in Melbourne, Brisbane, Washington, D.C., London, and Minneapolis/St. Paul. A secondary and unique component of this analysis examines motor vehicle support services required for bike share fleet rebalancing and maintenance. These two components are then combined to estimate bike share’s overall contribution to changes in vehicle kilometers traveled. The results indicate an estimated reduction in motor vehicle use due to bike share of approx. 90,000 km per annum in Melbourne and Minneapolis/St. Paul and 243,291 km for Washington, D.C. London’s bike share program however recorded an additional 766,341 km in motor vehicle use. This was largely due to a low car mode substitution rate and substantial truck use for rebalancing of bicycles. As bike share programs mature, evaluation of their effectiveness in reducing car use may become increasingly important. Researchers can adapt the analytical approach proposed in this paper to assist in the evaluation of current and future bike share programs.

On governance structures for the cloud computing services and assessing their effectiveness

This research suggests information technology (IT) governance structures to manage the cloud computing services. The interest in acquiring IT resources as a utility from the cloud computing environment is gaining momentum. The cloud computing services present organizations with opportunities to manage their IT expenditure on an ongoing basis, and access to modern IT resources to innovate and manage their continuity. However, the cloud computing services are no silver bullet. Organizations would need to have appropriate governance structures and policies in place to manage the cloud computing services. The subsequent decisions from these governance structures will ensure the effective management of the cloud computing services. This management will facilitate a better fit of the cloud computing services into organizations’ existing processes to achieve the business (process-level) and the financial (firm-level) objectives. Using a triangulation approach, we suggest four governance structures for managing the cloud computing services. These structures are a chief cloud officer, a cloud management committee, a cloud service facilitation centre, and a cloud relationship centre. We also propose that these governance structures would relate directly to organizations cloud computing services-related business objectives, and indirectly to cloud computing services-related financial objectives. Perceptive field survey data from actual and prospective cloud computing service adopters suggest that the suggested governance structures would contribute directly to cloud computing-related business objectives and indirectly to cloud computing-related financial objectives.

The impact of nurse practitioner services on cost, quality of care, satisfaction and wait times in the emergency department: A systematic review

Aims To provide the best available evidence to determine the impact of nurse practitioner services on cost, quality of care, satisfaction and waiting times in the emergency department for adult patients. Background The delivery of quality care in the emergency department is one of the most important service indicators in health delivery. Increasing service pressures in the emergency department have resulted in the adoption of service innovation models: the most common and rapidly expanding of these is emergency nurse practitioner services. The rapid uptake of emergency nurse practitioner service in Australia has outpaced the capacity to evaluate this service model in terms of outcomes related to safety and quality of patient care. Previous research is now outdated and not commensurate with the changing domain of delivering emergency care with nurse practitioner services. Data A comprehensive search of four electronic databases from 2006-­‐2013 was conducted to identify research evaluating nurse practitioner service impact in the emergency department. English language articles were sought using MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase and Cochrane and included two previous systematic reviews completed five and seven years ago. Methods A three step approach was used. Following a comprehensive search, two reviewers assessed identified studies against the inclusion criteria. From the original 1013 studies, 14 papers were retained for critical appraisal on methodological quality by two independent reviewers and data extracted using standardised tools. Results Narrative synthesis was conducted to summarise and report the findings as insufficient data was available for meta-­‐analysis of results. This systematic review has shown that emergency nurse practitioner service has a positive impact on quality of care, patient satisfaction and waiting times. There was insufficient evidence to draw conclusions regarding impact on costs. Conclusion Synthesis of the available research attempts to provide an evidence base for emergency nurse practitioner service to guide healthcare leaders, policy makers and clinicians in reforming emergency department service provision. The findings suggest that further quality research is required for comparative measures of clinical and service effectiveness of emergency nurse practitioner service. In the context of increased health service demand and the need to provide timely and effective care to patients, such measures will assist in delivering quality patient care.

Department of Social Services Options Paper : Options for Replacement Arrangements Following the Abolition of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission : Response

Submission in response to government options paper regarding arrangements for regulation of charities following abolition of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.

Security and Privacy in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks : Survey and the Road Ahead

Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) can make roads safer, cleaner, and smarter. It can offer a wide range of services, which can be safety and non-safety related. Many safety-related VANETs applications are real-time and mission critical, which would require strict guarantee of security and reliability. Even non-safety related multimedia applications, which will play an important role in the future, will require security support. Lack of such security and privacy in VANETs is one of the key hindrances to the wide spread implementations of it. An insecure and unreliable VANET can be more dangerous than the system without VANET support. So it is essential to make sure that “life-critical safety” information is secure enough to rely on. Securing the VANETs along with appropriate protection of the privacy drivers or vehicle owners is a very challenging task. In this work we summarize the attacks, corresponding security requirements and challenges in VANETs. We also present the most popular generic security policies which are based on prevention as well detection methods. Many VANETs applications require system-wide security support rather than individual layer from the VANETs’ protocol stack. In this work we will review the existing works in the perspective of holistic approach of security. Finally, we will provide some possible future directions to achieve system-wide security as well as privacy-friendly security in VANETs.