Risk control in transmission system expansion planning with wind generators

With the advent of large-scale wind farms and their integration into electrical grids, more uncertainties, constraints and objectives must be considered in power system development. It is therefore necessary to introduce risk-control strategies into the planning of transmission systems connected with wind power generators. This paper presents a probability-based multi-objective model equipped with three risk-control strategies. The model is developed to evaluate and enhance the ability of the transmission system to protect against overload risks when wind power is integrated into the power system. The model involves: (i) defining the uncertainties associated with wind power generators with probability measures and calculating the probabilistic power flow with the combined use of cumulants and Gram-Charlier series; (ii) developing three risk-control strategies by specifying the smallest acceptable non-overload probability for each branch and the whole system, and specifying the non-overload margin for all branches in the whole system; (iii) formulating an overload risk index based on the non-overload probability and the non-overload margin defined; and (iv) developing a multi-objective transmission system expansion planning (TSEP) model with the objective functions composed of transmission investment and the overload risk index. The presented work represents a superior risk-control model for TSEP in terms of security, reliability and economy. The transmission expansion planning model with the three risk-control strategies demonstrates its feasibility in the case study using two typical power systems

DRD2/ANKK1 Taq1A (rs 1800497 C>T) genotypes are associated with susceptibility to second generation antipsychotic-induced akathisia

Rationale Although the advent of atypical, second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) has resulted in reduced likelihood of akathisia, this adverse effect remains a problem. Extrapyramidal adverse effects are associated with increased drug occupancy of dopamine 2 receptors (DRD2). The A1 allele of the DRD2/ANKK1,rs1800497, is associated with decreased striatal DRD2 density. Objectives The aim of this study was to identify whether the A1(T) allele of the DRD2/ANKK1 was associated with akathisia (measured with the Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale) in a clinical sample of 234 patients treated with antipsychotics. Results Definite akathisia (a score≥ 2 for the global clinical assessment of akathisia) was significantly less common in subjects prescribed SGAs (16.8 %) than those prescribed FGAs (47.6%), p<0.0001. Overall, 24.1% of A1+ (A1A2/A1A1) patients treated with SGAs had akathisia compared to 10.8% of A1- (A2A2) patients. A1+ (A1A2/A1A1) patients administered SGAs also had higher global clinical assessment of akathisia scores than A1- subjects (p=0.01). SGAs maintained their advantage over FGAs regarding akathisia even in A1+ patients treated with SGAs. Conclusions These results strongly suggest that A1+ variants of the DRD2/ANKK1 Taq1A allele confer risk for akathisia in patients treated with SGAs and may explain inconsistencies across prior studies comparing FGAs and SGAs.

Craving : a research update [Editorial to a special issue]

Craving has long been associated with addictive disorders. It has received much attention over the last two decades, partly through the advent of pharmacotherapies that attempt to address it (Jonson, 2008; Yahyavi-Firouz-Abadi & See, 2009). More recently, craving for substances has attained increased prominence, with the inclusion of “Craving or a strong desire or urge” in the draft of DSM-5 (APA, 2012). Studies generally support craving as occurring on a single diagnostic dimension alongside existing dependence criteria (Hasin, et al., 2012; Keyes, et al., 2011). Some (e.g. Keyes, et al., 2011) demonstrate that the addition of craving to DSM-IV alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence criteria contributes novel variance in predicting severity, and improves discrimination above that offered by existing DSM-IV criteria. Within the current volume, the paper by Agrawal et al. confirms that craving strongly loads on a single dimension that also incorporates DSM-IV alcohol dependence criteria. Craving was a relatively severe symptom: It was least often endorsed, and did not exceed 50% endorsement until 6 of the remaining 7 criteria were present...

Bilingual asynchronous online discussion groups : design and delivery of an e-Learning distance study module for nurse academics in a developing country

The advent of eLearning has seen online discussion forums widely used in both undergraduate and postgraduate nursing education. This paper reports an Australian university experience of design, delivery and redevelopment of a distance education module developed for Vietnamese nurse academics. The teaching experience of Vietnamese nurse academics is mixed and frequently limited. It was decided that the distance module should attempt to utilise the experience of senior Vietnamese nurse academics - asynchronous online discussion groups were used to facilitate this. Online discussion occurred in both Vietnamese and English and was moderated by an Australian academic working alongside a Vietnamese translator. This paper will discuss the design of an online learning environment for foreign correspondents, the resources and translation required to maximise the success of asynchronous online discussion groups, as well as the rationale of delivering complex content in a foreign language. While specifically addressing the first iteration of the first distance module designed, this paper will also address subsequent changes made for the second iteration of the module and comment on their success. While a translator is clearly a key component of success, the elements of simplicity and clarity combined with supportive online moderation must not be overlooked.

Microbeam analyses of stratospheric particles

Collections of solid particles from the Earth's stratosphere by high-flying aircraft have been reported since 1965, with the initial primary objective of understanding the nature of the aerosol layer that occurs in the lower stratosphere. With the advent of efficient collection procedures and sophisticated electron- and ion-beam techniques, the primary aim of current stratospheric collections has been to study specific particle types that are extraterrestrial in origin and have survived atmospheric entry processes. The collection program provided by NASA at Johnson Space Center (JSC) has conducted many flights over the past 4 years and retrieved a total of 99 collection surfaces (flags) suitable for detailed study. Most of these collections are part of dedicated flights and have occurred during volcanically quiescent periods, although solid particles from the El Chichon eruptions have also been collected. Over 800 individual particles (or representative samples from larger aggregates) have been picked from these flags, examined in a preliminary fashion by SEM and EDS, and cataloged in a manner suitable for selection and study by the wider scientific community.

Learning beyond books : strategies for ambient media to improve libraries and collaboration spaces as interfaces for social learning

With the advent of digital media and online information resources, public libraries as physical destinations for information access are being increasingly challenged. As a response, many libraries follow the trend of removing bookshelves in order to provide more floorspace for social interaction and collaboration. Such spaces follow a Commons 2.0 model: they are designed to support collaborative work and social learning. The acquisition of skills and knowledge is facilitated as a result of being surrounded by and interacting with a community of likeminded others. Based on the results of a case study on a Commons 2.0 library space, this paper describes several issues of collaboration and social learning in public library settings. Acknowledging the significance of the architectural characteristics of the physical space, we discuss opportunities for ambient media to better reflect the social attributes of the library as a place; i.e. amplify the sense of other co-present library visitors and provide opportunities for shared encounters and conversations, which would remain invisible otherwise. We present the design of a user check-in system for improving the library as a physical destination for social learning, sharing, and inspiration for and by the community.

Procuring OSM : base-line models of off-site manufacture business processes in Australia

A pressing cost issue facing construction is the procurement of off-site pre-manufactured assemblies. In order to encourage Australian adoption of off-site manufacture (OSM), a new approach to underlying processes is required. The advent of object oriented digital models for construction design assumes intelligent use of data. However, the construction production system relies on traditional methods and data sources and is expected to benefit from the application of well-established business process management techniques. The integration of the old and new data sources allows for the development of business process models which, by capturing typical construction processes involving OSM, provides insights into such processes. This integrative approach is the foundation of research into the use of OSM to increase construction productivity in Australia. The purpose of this study is to develop business process models capturing the procurement, resources and information flow of construction projects. For each stage of the construction value chain, a number of sub-processes are identified. Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN), a mainstream business process modelling standard, is used to create base-line generic construction process models. These models identify OSM decision-making points that could provide cost reductions in procurement workflow and management systems. This paper reports on phase one of an on-going research aiming to develop a proto-type workflow application that can provide semi-automated support to construction processes involving OSM and assist in decision-making in the adoption of OSM thus contributing to a sustainable built environment.

Using static analysis for automatic assessment and mitigation of unwanted and malicious activities within Android applications

In the last decade, smartphones have gained widespread usage. Since the advent of online application stores, hundreds of thousands of applications have become instantly available to millions of smart-phone users. Within the Android ecosystem, application security is governed by digital signatures and a list of coarse-grained permissions. However, this mechanism is not fine-grained enough to provide the user with a sufficient means of control of the applications' activities. Abuse of highly sensible private information such as phone numbers without users' notice is the result. We show that there is a high frequency of privacy leaks even among widely popular applications. Together with the fact that the majority of the users are not proficient in computer security, this presents a challenge to the engineers developing security solutions for the platform. Our contribution is twofold: first, we propose a service which is able to assess Android Market applications via static analysis and provide detailed, but readable reports to the user. Second, we describe a means to mitigate security and privacy threats by automated reverse-engineering and refactoring binary application packages according to the users' security preferences.

Ubiquitous customer relationship management : unforeseen issues and benefits

Convergence of pervasive technologies, techno-centric customers and the emergence of digitized channels, overabundance of user friendly retail applications are having a profound impact on retail experience, leading to the advent of ‘everywhere retailing’. With the rapid uptake of digital complimentary assets and smart mobile applications are revolutionizing the relationship of retailers with their customers and suppliers. Retail firms are increasingly investing substantial resources on dynamic Customer Relationship Management systems (D-CRM / U-CRM) to better engage with customers to sense and respond quickly (Agility of the firm) to their demands. However, unlike traditional CRM systems, engagement with U-CRM systems requires that firms be hyper sensitive to volatile customer needs and wants. Following the notions of firm agility, this study attempts to develop a framework to understand such unforeseen benefits and issues of U-CRM. This research-in-progress paper reports an a-priory framework including 62 U-CRM benefits derived through an archival analysis of literature.

Immigrant wage differentials and the role of self-employment in Australia

Immigration has played an important role in the historical development of Australia. Thus, it is no surprise that a large body of empirical work has developed, which focuses upon how migrants fare in the land of opportunity. Much of the literature is comparatively recent, i.e. the last ten years or so, encouraged by the advent of public availability of Australian crosssection micro data. Several different aspects of migrant welfare have been addressed, with major emphasis being placed upon earnings and unemployment experience. For recent examples see Haig (1980), Stromback (1984), Chiswick and Miller (1985), Tran-Nam and Nevile (1988) and Beggs and Chapman (1988). The present paper contributes to the literature by providing additional empirical evidence on the native/migrant earnings differential. The data utilised are from the rather neglected Australian Bureau of Statistics, ABS Special Supplementary Survey No.4. 1982, otherwise known as the Family Survey. The paper also examines the importance of distinguishing between the wage and salary sector and the self-employment sector when discussing native/migrant differentials. Separate earnings equations for the two labour market groups are estimated and the native/migrant earnings differential is broken down by employment status. This is a novel application in the Australian context and provides some insight into the earnings of the selfemployed, a group that despite its size (around 20 per cent of the labour force) is frequently ignored by economic research. Most previous empirical research fails to examine the effect of employment status on earnings. Stromback (1984) includes a dummy variable representing self-employment status in an earnings equation estimated over a pooled sample of paid and self-employed workers. The variable is found to be highly significant, which leads Stromback to question the efficacy of including the self-employed in the estimation sample. The suggestion is that part of self-employed earnings represent a return to non-human capital investment, i.e. investments in machinery, buildings etc, the structural determinants of earnings differ significantly from those for paid employees. Tran-Nam and Nevile (1988) deal with differences between paid employees and the selfemployed by deleting the latter from their sample. However, deleting the self-employed from the estimation sample may lead to bias in the OLS estimation method (see Heckman 1979). The desirable properties of OLS are dependent upon estimation on a random sample. Thus, the 'Ran-Nam and Nevile results are likely to suffer from bias unless individuals are randomly allocated between self-employment and paid employment. The current analysis extends Tran-Nam and Nevile (1988) by explicitly treating the choice of paid employment versus self-employment as being endogenously determined. This allows an explicit test for the appropriateness of deleting self-employed workers from the sample. Earnings equations that are corrected for sample selection are estimated for both natives and migrants in the paid employee sector. The Heckman (1979) two-step estimator is employed. The paper is divided into five major sections. The next section presents the econometric model incorporating the specification of the earnings generating process together with an explicit model determining an individual's employment status. In Section 111 the data are described. Section IV draws together the main econometric results of the paper. First, the probit estimates of the labour market status equation are documented. This is followed by presentation and discussion of the Heckman two-stage estimates of the earnings specification for both native and migrant Australians. Separate earnings equations are estimated for paid employees and the self-employed. Section V documents estimates of the nativelmigrant earnings differential for both categories of employees. To aid comparison with earlier work, the Oaxaca decomposition of the earnings differential for paid-employees is carried out for both the simple OLS regression results as well as the parameter estimates corrected for sample selection effects. These differentials are interpreted and compared with previous Australian findings. A short section concludes the paper.

Towards tacit knowledge sharing over social web tools

Purpose - Researchers debate whether tacit knowledge sharing through Information Technology (IT) is actually possible. However, with the advent of social web tools, it has been argued that most shortcomings of tacit knowledge sharing are likely to disappear. This paper has two purposes: firstly, to demonstrate the existing debates in the literature regarding tacit knowledge sharing using IT, and secondly, to identify key research gaps that lay the foundations for future research into tacit knowledge sharing using social web. Design/methodology/approach - This paper reviews current literature on IT-mediated tacit knowledge sharing and opens a discussion on tacit knowledge sharing through the use of social web. Findings - First, the existing schools of thoughts in regards to IT ability for tacit knowledge sharing are introduced. Next, difficulties of sharing tacit knowledge through the use of IT are discussed. Then, potentials and pitfalls of social web tools are presented. Finally, the paper concludes that whilst there are significant theoretical arguments supporting that the social web facilitates tacit knowledge sharing there is a lack of empirical evidence to support these arguments and further work is required. Research limitations/implications - The limitations of the review includes: covering only papers that were published in English, issues of access to full texts of some resources, possibility of missing some resources due to search strings used or limited coverage of databases searched. Originality/value - The paper contributes to the fast growing literature on the intersection of KM and IT particularly by focusing on tacit knowledge sharing in social media space. The paper highlights the need for further studies in this area by discussing the current situation in the literature and disclosing the emerging questions and gaps for future studies.

Configuring processes and business documents : an integrated approach to enterprise systems collaboration

Enterprise Systems (ES) provide standardized, off-theshelf support for operations and management within organizations. With the advent of ES based on a serviceoriented architecture (SOA) and an increasing demand of IT-supported interorganizational collaboration, implementation projects face paradigmatically new challenges. The configuration of ES is costly and error-prone. Dependencies between business processes and business documents are hardly explicit and foster component proliferation instead of reuse. Configurative modeling can support the problem in two ways: First, conceptual modeling abstracts from technical details and provides more intuitive access and overview. Second, configuration allows the projection of variants from master models providing manageable variants with controlled flexibility. We aim at tackling the problem by proposing an integrated model-based framework for configuring both, processes and business documents, on an equal basis; as together, they constitute the core business components of an ES.

Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation for the 21st century

Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is efficacious in reducing mortality and hospital admissions; however it remains inaccessible to large proportions of the patient population. Removal of attendance barriers for hospital or centre-based CR has seen the promotion of home-based CR. Delivery of safe and appropriately prescribed exercise in the home was first documented 25 years ago, with the utilisation of fixed land-line telecommunications to monitor ECG. The advent of miniature ECG sensors, in conjunction with smartphones, now enables CR to be delivered with greater flexibility with regard to location, time and format, while retaining the capacity for real-time patient monitoring. A range of new systems allow other signals including speed, location, pulse oximetry, and respiration to be monitored and these may have application in CR. There is compelling evidence that telemonitored-based CR is an effective alternative to traditional CR practice. The long-standing barrier of access to centre-based CR, combined with new delivery platforms, raises the question of when telemonitored-based CR could replace conventional approaches as the standard practice.

The influence of fatty acid methyl ester profiles on inter-cycle variability in a heavy duty compression ignition engine

With the advent of alternative fuels, such as biodiesels and related blends, it is important to develop an understanding of their effects on inter-cycle variability which, in turn, influences engine performance as well as its emission. Using four methanol trans-esterified biomass fuels of differing carbon chain length and degree of unsaturation, this paper provides insight into the effect that alternative fuels have on inter-cycle variability. The experiments were conducted with a heavy-duty Cummins, turbo-charged, common-rail compression ignition engine. Combustion performance is reported in terms of the following key in-cylinder parameters: indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP), net heat release rate (NHRR), standard deviation of variability (StDev), coefficient of variation (CoV), peak pressure, peak pressure timing and maximum rate of pressure rise. A link is also established between the cyclic variability and oxygen ratio, which is a good indicator of stoichiometry. The results show that the fatty acid structures did not have a significant effect on injection timing, injection duration, injection pressure, StDev of IMEP, or the timing of peak motoring and combustion pressures. However, a significant effect was noted on the premixed and diffusion combustion proportions, combustion peak pressure and maximum rate of pressure rise. Additionally, the boost pressure, IMEP and combustion peak pressure were found to be directly correlated to the oxygen ratio. The emission of particles positively correlates with oxygen content in the fuel as well as in the air-fuel mixture resulting in a higher total number of particles per unit of mass.

Cytogenetics of primary skin tumors

Skin tumors can arise as a result of cumulative genetic abnormalities, including chromosomal ­aberrations that can be described as either morphological (structural rearrangements) or molecular (copy number variations). Cytogenetic techniques have been used to examine both large and small chromosomal aberrations, and include karyotyping, comparative genomic hybridization, and fluorescence in situ hybridization. This chapter describes the recurrent aberrations associated with skin tumors, such as benign melanocytic nevi, melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, actinic (solar) keratosis, Bowen’s disease, keratoacanthoma, Merkel cell carcinoma, dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans, and cutaneous lymphomas, as detected by cytogenetic methodologies. A significant number of genomic aberrations are shared across different subtypes of skin tumors, including structural and numerical alterations of chromosome 1, −3p, +3q, +6, +7, +8q, −9p, +9q, −10, −17p, +17q and +20. Aberrations specific to certain skin cancers have also been detected, and include: loss of 18q in squamous cell carcinoma, but not its precursor, actinic keratosis; loss of 9q22 in sporadic basal cell carcinoma; and translocation involving 17q22 and 22q13 in dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans. These regions contain a number of potential candidate genes that are involved in aspects of cell signaling, proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. Cytogenetic methodologies continue to evolve with the advent of array-based comparative genomic hybridization, copy number variation microarrays, and next-generation sequencing. It is envisioned that cytogenetic analysis will continue to be employed for identification and further exploration of novel chromosomal regions and associated genes that drive skin tumorigenesis.