park(ing) day

Walking through the city, passersby are occasionally jolted out of the mundane by surprises that seem out of place or incongruous with the expected urban function––a hidden cafe, or an unknown public art project. If you happen to be wandering through a major city on the third Friday of September each year, you might encounter a parking space that has been temporarily transformed into a "park" with green grass, a bench and an umbrella, perhaps a lemonade stand, a nursery, or an interactive space with a survey about local issues.

Nutrition care practices in hospital wards : results from the Nutrition Care Day Survey 2010.

Background & aim: This paper describes nutrition care practices in acute care hospitals across Australia and New Zealand. Methods: A survey on nutrition care practices in Australian and New Zealand hospitals was completed by Directors of dietetics departments of 56 hospitals that participated in the Australasian Nutrition Care Day Survey 2010. Results: Overall 370 wards representing various specialities participated in the study. Nutrition risk screening was conducted in 64% (n=234) of the wards. Seventy nine percent(n=185) of these wards reported using the Malnutrition Screening Tool, 16% using the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (n=37), and 5% using local tools (n=12). Nutrition risk rescreening was conducted in 14% (n=53) of the wards. More than half the wards referred patients at nutrition risk to dietitians and commenced a nutrition intervention protocol. Feeding assistance was provided in 89% of the wards. “Protected” meal times were implemented in 5% of the wards. Conclusion: A large number of acute care hospital wards in Australia and New Zealand do not comply with evidence-based practice guidelines for nutritional management of malnourished patients. This study also provides recommendations for practice.

Nutritional status and dietary intake of acute care patients : results from the Nutrition Care Day Survey 2010

Background & aims: One aim of the Australasian Nutrition Care Day Survey was to determine the nutritional status and dietary intake of acute care hospital patients. Methods: Dietitians from 56 hospitals in Australia and New Zealand completed a 24-h survey of nutritional status and dietary intake of adult hospitalised patients. Nutritional risk was evaluated using the Malnutrition Screening Tool. Participants ‘at risk’ underwent nutritional assessment using Subjective Global Assessment. Based on the International Classification of Diseases (Australian modification), participants were also deemed malnourished if their body mass index was <18.5 kg/m2. Dietitians recorded participants’ dietary intake at each main meal and snacks as 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% of that offered. Results: 3122 patients (mean age: 64.6 ± 18 years) participated in the study. Forty-one percent of the participants were “at risk” of malnutrition. Overall malnutrition prevalence was 32%. Fifty-five percent of malnourished participants and 35% of well-nourished participants consumed ≤50% of the food during the 24-h audit. “Not hungry” was the most common reason for not consuming everything offered during the audit. Conclusion: Malnutrition and sub-optimal food intake is prevalent in acute care patients across hospitals in Australia and New Zealand and warrants appropriate interventions.

Malnutrition and poor food intake are associated with prolonged hospital stay, frequent readmissions, and greater in-hospital mortality: Results from the Nutrition Care Day Survey 2010

Background & aims The Australasian Nutrition Care Day Survey (ANCDS) ascertained if malnutrition and poor food intake are independent risk factors for health-related outcomes in Australian and New Zealand hospital patients. Methods Phase 1 recorded nutritional status (Subjective Global Assessment) and 24-h food intake (0, 25, 50, 75, 100% intake). Outcomes data (Phase 2) were collected 90-days post-Phase 1 and included length of hospital stay (LOS), readmissions and in-hospital mortality. Results Of 3122 participants (47% females, 65 ± 18 years) from 56 hospitals, 32% were malnourished and 23% consumed ≤ 25% of the offered food. Malnourished patients had greater median LOS (15 days vs. 10 days, p < 0.0001) and readmissions rates (36% vs. 30%, p = 0.001). Median LOS for patients consuming ≤ 25% of the food was higher than those consuming ≤ 50% (13 vs. 11 days, p < 0.0001). The odds of 90-day in-hospital mortality were twice greater for malnourished patients (CI: 1.09–3.34, p = 0.023) and those consuming ≤ 25% of the offered food (CI: 1.13–3.51, p = 0.017), respectively. Conclusion The ANCDS establishes that malnutrition and poor food intake are independently associated with in-hospital mortality in the Australian and New Zealand acute care setting.

I sang Amazing Grace for about 3 hours that day : understanding Indigenous Australians’ experience of seclusion

Research shows that Indigenous Australians suspicion and fear of being ‘locked up’ may influence mental health service avoidance. Given this, the aim of this study was to explore, by qualitative analysis of in depth interviews (N = 3), how three Indigenous people experienced the controversial practice of seclusion Hans-Georg Gadamer’s phenomenology guided analysis of the material, and allowed narrated experiences to be understood within their cultural and historical context. Participants viewed seclusion negatively: police involvement in psychiatric care; perceptions of being punished and powerless; occasions of extreme use of force; and lack of care were prominent themes throughout the interviews. While power imbalances inherent in seclusion are problematic for all mental health clients, the distinguishing factor in the Indigenous clients’ experience is that seclusion is continuous with the discriminatory and degrading treatment by governments, police and health services that many Indigenous people have experienced since colonisation. The participants’ experiences echoed Goffman’s (1961) findings that institutional practices act to degrade and dehumanise clients whose resulting conformity eases the work of nursing staff. While some nurses perceive that seclusion reduces clients’ agitation (Meehan, Bergen & Fjeldsoe, 2004; Wynaden et al., 2001), one must ask at what cost to clients’ dignity, humanity and basic human rights.

Featureless visual processing for SLAM in changing outdoor environments

Vision-based SLAM is mostly a solved problem providing clear, sharp images can be obtained. However, in outdoor environments a number of factors such as rough terrain, high speeds and hardware limitations can result in these conditions not being met. High speed transit on rough terrain can lead to image blur and under/over exposure, problems that cannot easily be dealt with using low cost hardware. Furthermore, recently there has been a growth in interest in lifelong autonomy for robots, which brings with it the challenge in outdoor environments of dealing with a moving sun and lack of constant artificial lighting. In this paper, we present a lightweight approach to visual localization and visual odometry that addresses the challenges posed by perceptual change and low cost cameras. The approach combines low resolution imagery with the SLAM algorithm, RatSLAM. We test the system using a cheap consumer camera mounted on a small vehicle in a mixed urban and vegetated environment, at times ranging from dawn to dusk and in conditions ranging from sunny weather to rain. We first show that the system is able to provide reliable mapping and recall over the course of the day and incrementally incorporate new visual scenes from different times into an existing map. We then restrict the system to only learning visual scenes at one time of day, and show that the system is still able to localize and map at other times of day. The results demonstrate the viability of the approach in situations where image quality is poor and environmental or hardware factors preclude the use of visual features.

Every One, Every Day

Creative Statement: “There are those who see Planet Earth as a gigantic living being, one that feeds and nurtures humanity and myriad other species – an entity that must be cared for. Then there are those who see it as a rock full of riches to be pilfered heedlessly in a short-term quest for over-abundance. This ‘cradle to grave’ mentality, it would seem, is taking its toll (unless you’re a virulent disbeliever in climate change). Why not, ask artists Priscilla Bracks and Gavin Sade, take a different approach? To this end they have set out on a near impossible task; to visualise the staggering quantity of carbon produced by Australia every year. Their eerie, glowing plastic cube resembles something straight out of Dr Who or The X Files. And, like the best science fiction, it has technical realities at its heart. Every One, Every Day tangibly illustrates our greenhouse gas output – its 27m3 volume is approximately the amount of green-house gas emitted per capita, daily. Every One, Every Dayis lit by an array of LED’s displaying light patterns representing energy use generated by data from the Australian Energy Market. Every One, Every Day was formed from recycled, polyethylene – used milk bottles – ‘lent’ to the artists by a Visy recycling facility. At the end of the Vivid Festival this plastic will be returned to Visy, where it will re-enter the stream of ‘technical nutrients.’ Could we make another world? One that emulates the continuing cycles of nature? One that uses our ‘technical nutrients’ such as plastic and steel in continual cycles, just like a deciduous tree dropping leaves to compost itself and keep it’s roots warm and moist?” (Ashleigh Crawford. Melbourne – April, 2013) Artistic Research Statement: The research focus of this work is on exploring how to represent complex statistics and data at a human scale, and how produce a work where a large percentage of the materials could be recycled. The surface of Every One, Every Day is clad in tiles made from polyethylene, from primarily recycled milk bottles, ‘lent’ to the artists by the Visy recycling facility in Sydney. The tiles will be returned to Visy for recycling. As such the work can be viewed as an intervention in the industrial ecology of polyethylene, and in the process demonstrates how to sustain cycles of technical materials – by taking the output of a recycling facility back to a manufacturer to produce usable materials. In terms of data visualisation, Every One, Every Day takes the form of a cube with a volume of 27 cubic meters. The annual per capita emissions figures for Australia are cited as ranging between 18 to 25 tons. Assuming the lower figure, 18tons per capital annually, the 27 cubic meters represents approximately one day per capita of CO2 emissions – where CO2 is a gas at 15C and 1 atmosphere of pressure. The work also explores real time data visualisation by using an array of 600 controllable LEDs inside the cube. Illumination patterns are derived from a real time data from the Australian Energy Market, using the dispatch interval price and demand graph for New South Wales. The two variables of demand and price are mapped to properties of the illumination - hue, brightness, movement, frequency etc. The research underpinning the project spanned industrial ecology to data visualization and public art practices. The result is that Every One, Every Day is one of the first public artworks that successfully bring together materials, physical form, and real time data representation in a unified whole.

Are we there yet? Early years reform in Queensland : stakeholder perspectives on the introduction of funded preschool programs in long day care services

Australian educators are currently engaging with wide-ranging, national early childhood reform that is reshaping early childhood education and care. The Australian reform agenda reflects many of the early childhood policy directions championed by bodies such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the United Nations Children's Education Fund, and is based on the dual discourse of (i) starting strong and (ii) investing in the early years. However, despite its traction in policy rhetoric and policy there is little empirical evidence of how reform is being played out. This paper reports on research undertaken in collaboration with the Queensland Office for Early Childhood Education and Care to generate sector feedback on one element of the reform agenda, the implementation of universal preschool in Queensland. The study aimed to determine the efficacy of the new policy in supporting the provision of 'approved preschool programs' within long day care services. Drawing together the views and experiences of a range of stakeholders, including peak organisations, service providers, directors, preschool teachers and government policy officers, it provides a situated case study of the implementation of universal preschool, and offers empirical evidence of how this policy is being played out at the local level. The paper identifies the opportunities and challenges in implementing universal preschool in Queensland that may have bearing on early childhood reform in Australia as well as other countries. Discussion of key findings is set within an overview of the ECEC policy agenda in Australia, with a particular focus on the commitment to universal preschool. Les éducateurs australiens s’engagent présentement dans une vaste réforme nationale de la petite enfance qui remodèle l'éducation et l’accueil de la petite enfance. Le programme de la réforme australienne reflète plusieurs des orientations en politique de la petite enfance soutenues par des organismes comme l'Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques (OCDE) et le Fonds des Nations Unies pour les enfants (UNICEF). Il s’appuie sur le double discours de (i) un bon départ et de (ii) l’investissement dans les premières années. Cependant, en dépit de son attrait en rhétorique de politique et en politique il y a peu de données empiriques sur la façon dont la réforme se déroule. Cet article rend compte de la recherche entreprise en collaboration avec le bureau de l'éducation et l’accueil à la petite enfance du Queensland afin d’obtenir une rétroaction du secteur sur un élément de la réforme, la mise sur pied du préscolaire universel dans le Queensland. L'étude visait à déterminer l'efficacité de la nouvelle politique pour soutenir la disposition «programmes préscolaires approuvés» dans les services de garde à temps plein. En regroupant les perspectives et les expériences d'une gamme d’intervenants, y compris d’importantes organisations, des prestataires de service, des directeurs, des enseignants du préscolaire et des fonctionnaires de politique gouvernementale, elle constitue une étude de cas localisée de l'exécution la mise sur pied du préscolaire universel, et fournit des données empiriques sur la façon dont cette politique se met en place au niveau local. L’article identifie les opportunités et les défis liés à l’implantation du préscolaire universel au Queensland, qui pourraient avoir une portée sur la réforme de petite enfance en Australie ainsi que dans d'autres pays. La discussion des principaux résultats est faite en lien avec un aperçu global de la politique d'éducation et d’accueil de la petite enfance en Australie, avec un accent particulier sur l'engagement envers le préscolaire universel. Los educadores australianos actualmente están involucrados en una amplia reforma de la educación temprana nacional que está revolucionando la educación preescolar y los servicios de cuidado. El programa de reforma Australiana refleja muchas de las direcciones políticas relacionadas con la infancia temprana incitadas por organismos como la Organización de Cooperación y Desarrollo Económicos y el Fondo Educacional Infantil de las Naciones Unidas, y se basa en el doble discurso de (i) empezando fuertemente e (ii) invertir en los primeros años. Sin embargo, a pesar de su política de tracción en retórica y política, hay pocos datos empíricos de cómo la reforma se está llevando a cabo. Este documento informa sobre las investigaciones llevadas a cabo en colaboración con la Oficina de Queensland de Educación tempana y cuidados, para generar comentarios del sector, sobre uno de los elementos de la agenda de reforma, la aplicación del preescolar universal en Queensland. El estudio tiene como objetivo determinar la eficacia de la nueva política para apoyar la prestación de "programas preescolares aprovados" dentro se los servicios de guardería y cuidado. Reuniendo los puntos de vista y las experiencias de una serie de interesados, entre ellos algunas organizaciones cumbre, proveedores de servicios, los directores, los maestros preescolares y oficiales de política y gobierno, se logra un estudio simulado de la implementación del preescolar universal, y ofrece evidencia empírica de cómo esta política se está llevando a cabo en el plano local. El documento identifica las oportunidades y desafíos en la implementación del preescolar universal en Queensland, que puede repercutir en la reforma de la indancia temprana en Australia, así como en otros países. La discusión de los resultados claves se encuentra en el interior de una visión de la agenda política de ECEC en Australia, con un enfoque particular en el compromiso con el preescolar universal.

Development and validation of a ultra performance LC-ESI/MS method for analysis of metabolic phenotypes of healthy men in day and night urine samples

Ultra-performance LC coupled to quadrupole TOF/MS (UPLC-QTOF/MS) in positive and negative ESI was developed and validated to analyze metabolite profiles for urine from healthy men during the day and at night. Data analysis using principal components analysis (PCA) revealed differences between metabolic phenotypes of urine in healthy men during the day and at night. Positive ions with mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) 310.24 (5.35 min), 286.24 (4.74 min) and 310.24 (5.63 min) were elevated in the urine from healthy men at night compared to that during the day. Negative ions elevated in day urine samples of healthy men included m/z 167.02 (0.66 min), 263.12 (2.55 min) and 191.03 (0.73 min), whilst ions m/z 212.01 (4.77 min) were at a lower concentration in urine of healthy men during the day compared to that at night. The ions m/z 212.01 (4.77 min), 191.03 (0.73 min) and 310.24 (5.35 min) preliminarily correspond to indoxyl sulfate, citric acid and N-acetylneuraminic acid, providing further support for an involvement of phenotypic difference in urine of healthy men in day and night samples, which may be associated with notably different activities of gut microbiota, velocity of tricarboxylic acid cycle and activity of sialic acid biosynthesis in healthy men as regulated by circadian rhythm of the mammalian bioclock.

Integrating early childhood teachers into long day care : building respectful relationships

Amongst the current reforms in early childhood in Australia is the requirement for four year university degree-qualified teachers to be employed to provide a kindergarten program for four-year-old children in the year prior to school entry. The possibility for long day care to provide a funded kindergarten program, with an early childhood teacher (ECT) presents a change for the field. With this change come challenges, though also opportunities to think in new and different ways about what long day care and working in long day care might look like.

Control, shift, insert : living and enacting policy in teachers' day/night work

This thesis investigates the experiences of teachers who trialled an electronic curriculum and assessment tool in the wider context of text-mediated ruling relations organising their work. Problematised as policy and text, this tool is interrogated as a 'solution' to problems perceived in teachers' work in an era of increased accountability. It provides evidence that teachers' work is shaped by forces operating outside their control and mediated by the policy discourses and subjectivities available to them.

Validating a novel, low cost, automated malnutrition screening system as a predictor of nutritional risk in the Oncology Day Care Unit

Background Cancer-related malnutrition is associated with increased morbidity, poorer tolerance of treatment, decreased quality of life, increased hospital admissions, and increased health care costs (Isenring et al., 2013). This study’s aim was to determine whether a novel, automated screening system was a useful tool for nutrition screening when compared against a full nutrition assessment using the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) tool. Methods A single site, observational, cross-sectional study was conducted in an outpatient oncology day care unit within a Queensland tertiary facility, with three hundred outpatients (51.7% male, mean age 58.6 ± 13.3 years). Eligibility criteria: ≥18 years, receiving anticancer treatment, able to provide written consent. Patients completed the Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST). Nutritional status was assessed using the PG-SGA. Data for the automated screening system was extracted from the pharmacy software program Charm. This included body mass index (BMI) and weight records dating back up to six months. Results The prevalence of malnutrition was 17%. Any weight loss over three to six weeks prior to the most recent weight record as identified by the automated screening system relative to malnutrition resulted in 56.52% sensitivity, 35.43% specificity, 13.68% positive predictive value, 81.82% negative predictive value. MST score 2 or greater was a stronger predictor of nutritional risk relative to PG-SGA classified malnutrition (70.59% sensitivity, 69.48% specificity, 32.14% positive predictive value, 92.02% negative predictive value). Conclusions Both the automated screening system and the MST fell short of the accepted professional standard for sensitivity (80%) or specificity (60%) when compared to the PG-SGA. However, although the MST remains a better predictor of malnutrition in this setting, uptake of this tool in the Oncology Day Care Unit remains challenging.

The incidence and predictors of lower limb split skin graft failure and primary closure dehiscence in day case surgical patients

This project was an observational study of outpatients following lower limb surgical procedures for removal of skin cancers. Findings highlight a previously unreported high surgical site failure rate. Results also identified four potential risk factors (increasing age, presence of leg pain, split skin graft and haematoma) which negatively impact on surgical site healing in this population.

A randomised, concentration-controlled, comparison of standard (5-day) vs. prolonged (15-day) infusions of etoposide phosphate in small-cell lung cancer

Purpose: This randomised trial was designed to investigate the activity and toxicity of continuous infusion etoposide phosphate (EP), targeting a plasma etoposide concentration of either 3 μg/ml for five days (5d) or 1 μg/ml for 15 days (15d), in previously untreated SCLC patients with extensive disease. Patients and methods: EP was used as a single agent. Plasma etoposide concentration was monitored on days 2 and 4 in patients receiving 5d EP and on days 2, 5, 8 and 11 in patients receiving 15d EP, with infusion modification to ensure target concentrations were achieved. Treatment was repeated every 21 days for up to six cycles, with a 25% reduction in target concentration in patients with toxicity. Results: The study has closed early after entry of 29 patients (14 with 5d EP, 15 with 15d EP). Objective responses were seen in seven of 12 (58%, confidence interval (CI): 27%-85%) evaluable patients after 5d EP, and two of 14 (14%, CI: 4%42%) evaluable patients after 15d EP (P = 0.038). Grade 3 or 4 neutropenia or leucopenia during the first cycle of treatment was observed in six of 12 patients after 5d EP and 0/14 patients after 15d EP (P = 0.004), with median nadir WBC count of 2.6 x 109/1 after 5d and 5.0 x 109/1 after 15d EP (P = 0.017). Only one of 49 cycles of 15d EP was associated with grade 3 or worse haematological toxicity, compared to 14 of 61 cycles of 5d EP. Conclusions: Although the number of patients entered into this trial was small, the low activity seen at 1 μg/ml in the 15d arm suggests that this concentration is below the therapeutic window in this setting. Further concentration- controlled studies with prolonged EP infusions are required.

How 50 years of TV has become Groundhog Day

All the whiz-bang gadgets of television have struggled to turn on the lightbulb of creativity.