Benefit analysis of airborne GPS occultation approach : a case study for the Australian region

This paper aims to present a preliminary benefit analysis for airborne GPS occultation technique for the Australian region. The simulation studies are based on current domestic commercial flights between major Australian airports. With the knowledge of GPS satellite ephemeris data, occultation events for for any particular flight can be determined. Preliminary analysis shows a high resolution occultation observations can be achieved with this approach, for instance, about 15 occultation events for a Perth-to-Sydney flight. The simulation result agrees to the results published by other researchers for a different region. Of course, occultation observation during off-peak hours might be affected due to the limited flight activities. --------- High resolution occultation observations obtainable from airborne GPS occultation system provides an opportunity to improve the current global numerical weather prediction (NWP) models and ultimately improves the accuracy in weather forecasting. More intensive research efforts and experimental demonstrations are required in order to demonstrate the technical feasibility of the airborne GPS technology.

Professions without borders : global ethics and the international rule of law

The emergence of strong sovereign states after the Treaty of Westphalia turned two of the most cosmopolitan professions (law and arms) into two of the least cosmopolitan. Sovereign states determined the content of the law within their borders – including which, if any, ecclesiastical law was to be applied; what form of economic regulation was adopted; and what, if any, international law applied. Similarly, states sought to ensure that all military force was at their disposal in national armies. The erosion of sovereignty in a post-Westphalian world may significantly reverse these processes. The erosion of sovereignty is likely to have profound consequences for the legal profession and the ethics of how, and for what ends, it is practised. Lawyers have played a major role in the civilization of sovereign states through the articulation and institutionalisation of key governance values – starting with the rule of law. An increasingly global profession must take on similar tasks. The same could be said of the military. This essay will review the concept of an international rule of law and its relationship to domestic conceptions and outline the task of building the international rule of law and the role that lawyers can and should play in it.

Performing design analysis: game design creativity and the theatre of the impressed

We report and reflect upon the early stages of a research project that endeavours to establish a culture of critical design thinking in a tertiary game design course. We first discuss the current state of the Australian game industry and consider some perceived issues in game design courses and graduate outcomes. The second sec-tion presents our response to these issues: a project in progress which uses techniques originally exploited by Augusto Boal in his work, Theatre of the Oppressed. We appropriate Boal’s method to promote critical design thinking in a games design class. Finally, we reflect on the project and the ontology of design thinking from the perspective of Bruce Archer’s call to reframe design as a ‘third academic art’.

The psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Foot Health Status Questionnaire

Purpose: Clinical studies suggest that foot pain may be problematic in one-third of patients in early disease. The Foot Health Status Questionnaire (FHSQ) was developed and validated to evaluate the effectiveness of conservative (orthoses, taping, stretching) and surgery interventions. Despite this fact, there are few validated instruments that measure foot health status in Spanish. Thus, the primary aim of the current study was to translate and evaluate psychometrically a Spanish version of FHSQ. Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed in a university community-based podiatric clinic located in south of Spain. All participants (n = 107) recruited consecutively completed a Spanish version of FHSQ and EuroQoL Health Questionnaire 5 dimensions, and 29 participants repeated these same measures 48 h later. Data analysis included test–retest reliability, construct and criterion-related validity and factor analyses. Results: Construct validity was appropriate with moderate-to-high corrected item–subscale correlations (α = ≥0.739) for all subscales. Test–retest reliability was satisfactory (ICC > 0.932). Factor analysis revealed four dimensions with 86.6 % of the common variance explained. The confirmatory factor analysis findings demonstrated that the proposed structure was well supported (comparative fit index = 0.92, standardized root mean square = 0.09). The Spanish EuroQoL 5D score negatively correlated with the FHSQ pain (r = −0.445) and positively with general foot health and function (r = 0.261 − 0.579), confirming criterion-related validity. Conclusion: The clinimetric properties of the Spanish version of FHSQ were satisfactory.

Exploring the ethical implications of the late discovery of adoptive and donor-insemination offspring status

Some children adopted under the now discredited period of closed adoption were never told of their adoptive status until it was revealed to them in adulthood. Yet to date, this ‘late-discovery’ experience has received little research attention. Now a new generation of ‘late discoverers’ is emerging as a result of (heterosexual couple) donor insemination (DI) practices. This study of 25 late-discovery participants of either adoptive or (heterosexual couple) DI offspring status reveals ethical concerns particular to the lateness of discovery. Most of the participants were Australian, with the remainder from the UK, USA and Canada. All were asked to give an ‘open’ account of their experience, with four themes or suggestions provided on request. These accounts were added to those available in relevant publications. The analysis employed a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology and all accounts were analysed using an ethical perspective developed by Walker (2006, 2007). The main themes that emerged were: disrupted personal autonomy, betrayal of deep levels of trust and feelings of injustice and diminished self-worth. The lack of recognition of concerns particular to late discovery has resulted in late discoverers (i) feeling unable to regain a sense of personal control, (ii) significantly disrupted relationships with those closest to them and others, including community and institutions, and (iii) feelings of diminished value and self-worth.

Novel channel tracking and equalization methods in MU-MIMO-OFDM systems

The methodology undertaken, the channel model and the system model created for developing a novel adaptive equalization method and a novel channel tracking method for uplink of MU-MIMO-OFDM systems is presented in this paper. The results show that the channel tracking method works with 97% accuracy, while the training-based initial channel estimation method shows poor performance in estimating the actual channel comparatively.

A phase II study of the modulation of 5-fluorouracil and folinic acid with high-dose infusional hydroxyurea in metastatic colorectal carcinoma

Background: Hydroxyurea (HU), an inhibitor of ribonucleotide reductase, may potentiate the activity of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and folinic acid (FA) by reducing the deoxyribonucleotide pool available for DNA synthesis and repair. However as HU may inhibit the formation of 5-fluoro-2-deoxyuridine-5- monophosphate (FdUMP), one of the principal active metabolites of 5-FU, the scheduling of HU may be critical. In vitro experiments suggest that administration of HU following 5-FU, maintaining the concentration in the region of I mM for six or more hours, significantly enhances the efficacy of 5-FU. Patients and methods: 5-FU/FA was given as follows: days 1 and 2 - FA 250 mg/m 2 (max. 350 mg) over two hours followed by 5-FU 400 mg/m 2 by intravenous bolus (ivb) over 15 minutes and subsequently 5-FU 400 mg/m 2 infusion (ivi) over 22 hours. HU was administered on day 3 immediately after the 5-FU with 3 g ivb over 15 minutes followed by 12 g ivi over 12 hours. Results: Thirty patients were entered into the study. Median survival was nine months (range 1-51 + months). There were eight partial responses (28%, 95% CI: 13%-47%). The median duration of response was 6.5 (range 4-9 months). Grade 3-4 toxicities included neutropenia (grade 3 in eight patients and grade 4 in five), anaemia (grade 3 in one patient) and diarrhoea (grade 3 in two patients). Neutropenia was associated with pyrexia in two patients. Phlebitis at the infusion site occurred in five patients. The treatment was complicated by pulmonary embolism in one patient and deep venous thrombosis in another. Conclusion: HU administered in this schedule is well tolerated. Based on these results and those of other phase II studies, a randomised phase III study of 5-FU, FA and HU versus 5-FU and FA using the standard de Gramont schedule is recommended.

The potential of combining phenomenography, variation theory and threshold concepts to inform curriculum design in higher education

This chapter describes an innovative method of curriculum design that is based on combining phenomenographic research, and the associated variation theory of learning, with the notion of disciplinary threshold concepts to focus specialised design attention on the most significant and difficult parts of the curriculum. The method involves three primary stages: (i) identification of disciplinary concepts worthy of intensive curriculum design attention, using the criteria for threshold concepts; (ii) action research into variation in students’ understandings/misunderstandings of those concepts, using phenomenography as the research approach; (iii) design of learning activities to address the poorer understandings identified in the second stage, using variation theory as a guiding framework. The curriculum design method is inherently theory and evidence based. It was developed and trialed during a two-year project funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, using physics and law disciplines as case studies. Disciplinary teachers’ perceptions of the impact of the method on their teaching and understanding of student learning were profound. Attempts to measure the impact on student learning were less conclusive; teachers often unintentionally deviated from the design when putting it into practice for the first time. Suggestions for improved implementation of the method are discussed.

Aha! The return of Alan Partridge

Throughout a long and occasionally distinguished career first as a television sports correspondent, then chat show host (dramatically ended by the accidental homicide of a guest live on air), then rebirth as a radio presenter at North Norfolk Digital, Alan Partridge has navigated the stormy waters of the British media landscape, now achieving mainstream success on the big screen with a starring role in Steve Coogan’s Alpha Papa (Declan Lowney, 2013). A man who in his desperation for a television series of his own once sank so low as to pitch a show called Monkey Tennis to the BBC finally finds his inner hero in a film which, while presenting mainly as comedy, also contains a biting critique of trends in the British media with which all journalists and media practitioners in general will be familiar. Alpha Papa is a nostalgic, elegiac riff on the pleasures and values of local radio the way it used to be, exemplified by North Norfolk Digital’s stable of flawed, but endearing jocks – Wally Banter, Bruno Brooks, Dave Clifton (who in one scene recounts the depths to which he sank as an alcoholic, drug addicted wreck—“I woke up in a skip with someone else’s underpants in my mouth. I can laugh about it now …”), and Pat Farrell. 50- something Pat is sacked by the new owners of North Norfolk Digital, who in their efforts to transform the station into a “multiplatform content provider” going by the more Gen Yfriendly name of Shape (“the way you want it to be”), wish to replace him with a younger, brattish model lacking in taste and manners. Out go records by the likes of Glen Campbell and Neil Diamond (“You can keep Jesus Christ”, observes Partridge after playing Diamond’s Sweet Caroline in a demonstration of the crackling radio repartee for which he is by now renowned, “that was the king of the Jews”), in comes Roachford. Pat, grieving his dead wife Molly, finally snaps and turns the glitzy media launch of Shape into a hostage siege. Only Alan Partridge, it seems, can step in and talk Pat out of a looming catastrophe.

Isolation and characterization of charge-tagged phenylperoxyl radicals in the gas phase : direct evidence for products and pathways in low temperature benzene oxidation

The phenylperoxyl radical has long been accepted as a critical intermediate in the oxidation of benzene and an archetype for arylperoxyl radicals in combustion and atmospheric chemistry. Despite being central to many contemporary mechanisms underpinning these chemistries, reports of the direct detection or isolation of phenylperoxyl radicals are rare and there is little experimental evidence connecting this intermediate with expected product channels. We have prepared and isolated two charge-tagged phenyl radical models in the gas phase [i.e., 4-(N,N,N-trimethylammonium) phenyl radical cation and 4-carboxylatophenyl radical anion] and observed their reactions with dioxygen by ion-trap mass spectrometry. Measured reaction rates show good agreement with prior reports for the neutral system (k(2)[(Me3N+)C6H4 center dot + O-2] = 2.8 x 10(-11) cm(3) molecule(-1) s(-1), Phi = 4.9%; k(2)[(-O2C)C6H4 center dot + O-2] = 5.4 x 10(-1)1 cm(3) molecule(-1) s(-1), Phi = 9.2%) and the resulting mass spectra provide unequivocal evidence for the formation of phenylperoxyl radicals. Collisional activation of isolated phenylperoxyl radicals reveals unimolecular decomposition by three pathways: (i) loss of dioxygen to reform the initial phenyl radical; (ii) loss of atomic oxygen yielding a phenoxyl radical; and (iii) ejection of the formyl radical to give cyclopentadienone. Stable isotope labeling confirms these assignments. Quantum chemical calculations for both charge-tagged and neutral phenylperoxyl radicals confirm that loss of formyl radical is accessible both thermodynamically and entropically and competitive with direct loss of both hydrogen atom and carbon dioxide.

The ways of things: Objects in the studio

Conventions of the studio presuppose the artist as the active agent, imposing his/her will upon and through objects that remain essentially inert. However, this characterisation of practice overlooks the complex object dynamics that underpin the art-making process. Far from passive entities, objects are resistant, ‘speaking back’ to the artist, impressing their will upon their surroundings. Objects stick to one another, fall over, drip, spill, spatter and chip one another. Objects support, dismantle, cover and transform one another. Objects are both the apparatus of the studio and its products. It can be argued that the work of art is as much shaped by objects as it is by human impulse. Within this alternate ontology, the artist becomes but one element in a constellation of objects. Drawing upon Graham Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology and a selection of photographs of my studio processes, this practice-led paper will explore the notion of agentive objects and the ways in which the contemporary art studio can be reconsidered as a primary site for the production of new object relationships.