Understanding the abnormal brain activity in epilepsy as a potential predictor of the onset of an epileptic seizure

The Brain Research Institute (BRI) uses various types of indirect measurements, including EEG and fMRI, to understand and assess brain activity and function. As well as the recovery of generic information about brain function, research also focuses on the utilisation of such data and understanding to study the initiation, dynamics, spread and suppression of epileptic seizures. To assist with the future focussing of this aspect of their research, the BRI asked the MISG 2010 participants to examine how the available EEG and fMRI data and current knowledge about epilepsy should be analysed and interpreted to yield an enhanced understanding about brain activity occurring before, at commencement of, during, and after a seizure. Though the deliberations of the study group were wide ranging in terms of the related matters considered and discussed, considerable progress was made with the following three aspects. (1) The science behind brain activity investigations depends crucially on the quality of the analysis and interpretation of, as well as the recovery of information from, EEG and fMRI measurements. A number of specific methodologies were discussed and formalised, including independent component analysis, principal component analysis, profile monitoring and change point analysis (hidden Markov modelling, time series analysis, discontinuity identification). (2) Even though EEG measurements accurately and very sensitively record the onset of an epileptic event or seizure, they are, from the perspective of understanding the internal initiation and localisation, of limited utility. They only record neuronal activity in the cortical (surface layer) neurons of the brain, which is a direct reflection of the type of electrical activity they have been designed to record. Because fMRI records, through the monitoring of blood flow activity, the location of localised brain activity within the brain, the possibility of combining fMRI measurements with EEG, as a joint inversion activity, was discussed and examined in detail. (3) A major goal for the BRI is to improve understanding about ``when'' (at what time) an epileptic seizure actually commenced before it is identified on an eeg recording, ``where'' the source of this initiation is located in the brain, and ``what'' is the initiator. Because of the general agreement in the literature that, in one way or another, epileptic events and seizures represent abnormal synchronisations of localised and/or global brain activity the modelling of synchronisations was examined in some detail. References C. M. Michel, G. Thut, S. Morand, A. Khateb, A. J. Pegna, R. Grave de Peralta, S. Gonzalez, M. Seeck and T. Landis, Electric source imaging of human brain functions, Brain Res. Rev. , 36 (2--3), 2001, 108--118. doi:10.1016/S0165-0173(01)00086-8 S. Ogawa, R. S. Menon, S. G. Kim and K. Ugurbil, On the characteristics of functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, Annu. Rev. Bioph. Biom. , 27 , 1998, 447--474. doi:10.1146/annurev.biophys.27.1.447 C. D. Binnie and H. Stefan, Modern electroencephalography: its role in epilepsy management, Clin. Neurophysiol. , 110 (10), 1999, 1671--1697. doi:10.1016/S1388-2457(99)00125-X J. X. Tao, A. Ray, S. Hawes-Ebersole and J. S. Ebersole, Intracranial eeg substrates of scalp eeg interictal spikes, Epilepsia , 46 (5), 2005, 669--76. doi:10.1111/j.1528-1167.2005.11404.x S. Ogawa, D. W. Tank, R. Menon, J. M. Ellermann, S. G. Kim, H. Merkle and K. Ugurbil, Intrinsic signal changes accompanying sensory stimulation: Functional brain mapping with magnetic resonance imaging, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA , 89 (13), 1992, 5951--5955. doi:10.1073/pnas.89.13.5951 J. Engel Jr., Report of the ilae classification core group, Epilepsia , 47 (9), 2006, 1558--1568. doi:10.1111/j.1528-1167.2006.00215.x L. Lemieux, A. Salek-Haddadi, O. Josephs, P. Allen, N. Toms, C. Scott, K. Krakow, R. Turner and D. R. Fish, Event-related fmri with simultaneous and continuous eeg: description of the method and initial case r port, NeuroImage , 14 (3), 2001, 780--7. doi:10.1006/nimg.2001.0853 P. Federico, D. F. Abbott, R. S. Briellmann, A. S. Harvey and G. D. Jackson, Functional mri of the pre-ictal state, Brain , 128 (8), 2005, 1811-7. doi:10.1093/brain/awh533 C. S. Hawco, A. P. Bagshaw, Y. Lu, F. Dubeau and J. Gotman, bold changes occur prior to epileptic spikes seen on scalp eeg, NeuroImage , 35 (4), 2007, 1450--1458. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.12.042 F. Moeller, H. R. Siebner, S. Wolff, H. Muhle, R. Boor, O. Granert, O. Jansen, U. Stephani and M. Siniatchkin, Changes in activity of striato-thalamo-cortical network precede generalized spike wave discharges, NeuroImage , 39 (4), 2008, 1839--1849. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.10.058 V. Osharina, E. Ponchel, A. Aarabi, R. Grebe and F. Wallois, Local haemodynamic changes preceding interictal spikes: A simultaneous electrocorticography (ecog) and near-infrared spectroscopy (nirs) analysis in rats, NeuroImage , 50 (2), 2010, 600--607. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.01.009 R. S. Fisher, W. Boas, W. Blume, C. Elger, P. Genton, P. Lee and J. Engel, Epileptic seizures and epilepsy: Definitions proposed by the international league against epilepsy (ilae) and the international bureau for epilepsy (ibe), Epilepsia , 46 (4), 2005, 470--472. doi:10.1111/j.0013-9580.2005.66104.x H. Berger, Electroencephalogram in humans, Arch. Psychiat. Nerven. , 87 , 1929, 527--570. C. M. Michel, M. M. Murray, G. Lantz, S. Gonzalez, L. Spinelli and R. G. de Peralta, eeg source imaging, Clin. Neurophysiol. , 115 (10), 2004, 2195--2222. doi:10.1016/j.clinph.2004.06.001 P. L. Nunez and R. B. Silberstein, On the relationship of synaptic activity to macroscopic measurements: Does co-registration of eeg with fmri make sense?, Brain Topogr. , 13 (2), 2000, 79--96. doi:10.1023/A:1026683200895 S. Ogawa, T. M. Lee, A. R. Kay and D. W. Tank, Brain magnetic resonance imaging with contrast dependent on blood oxygenation, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA , 87 (24), 1990, 9868--9872. doi:10.1073/pnas.87.24.9868 J. S. Gati, R. S. Menon, K. Ugurbil and B. K. Rutt, Experimental determination of the bold field strength dependence in vessels and tissue, Magn. Reson. Med. , 38 (2), 1997, 296--302. doi:10.1002/mrm.1910380220 P. A. Bandettini, E. C. Wong, R. S. Hinks, R. S. Tikofsky and J. S. Hyde, Time course EPI of human brain function during task activation, Magn. Reson. Med. , 25 (2), 1992, 390--397. K. K. Kwong, J. W. Belliveau, D. A. Chesler, I. E. Goldberg, R. M. Weisskoff, B. P. Poncelet, D. N. Kennedy, B. E. Hoppelm, M. S. Cohen and R. Turner, Dynamic magnetic resonance imaging of human brain activity during primary sensory stimulation, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA , 89 (12), 1992, 5675--5679. doi:10.1073/pnas.89.12.5675 J. Frahm, K. D. Merboldt and W. Hnicke, Functional mri of human brain activation at high spatial resolution, Magn. Reson. Med. , 29 (1), 1993, 139--144. P. A. Bandettini, A. Jesmanowicz, E. C. Wong and J. S. Hyde, Processing strategies for time-course data sets in functional MRI of the human brain, Magn. Reson. Med. , 30 (2), 1993, 161--173. K. J. Friston, P. Jezzard and R. Turner, Analysis of functional MRI time-series, Hum. Brain Mapp. , 1 (2), 1994, 153--171. B. Biswal, F. Z. Yetkin, V. M. Haughton and J. S. Hyde, Functional connectivity in the motor cortex of resting human brain using echo-planar mri, Mag. Reson. Med. , 34 (4), 1995, 537--541. doi:10.1002/mrm.1910340409 K. J. Friston, J. Ashburner, C. D. Frith, J. Poline, J. D. Heather and R. S. J. Frackowiak, Spatial registration and normalization of images, Hum. Brain Mapp. , 3 (3), 1995, 165--189. K. J. Friston, S. Williams, R. Howard, R. S. Frackowiak and R. Turner, Movement-related effects in fmri time-series, Magn. Reson. Med. , 35 (3), 1996, 346--355. G. H. Glover, T. Q. Li and D. Ress, Image-based method for retrospective correction of physiological motion effects in fmri: Retroicor, Magn. Reson. Med. , 44 (1), 2000, 162--167. doi:10.1002/1522-2594(200007)44:13.0.CO;2-E K. J. Friston, O. Josephs, G. Rees and R. Turner, Nonlinear event-related responses in fmri, Magn. Reson. Med. , 39 (1), 1998, 41--52. doi:10.1002/mrm.1910390109 K. Ugurbil, L. Toth and D. Kim, How accurate is magnetic resonance imaging of brain function?, Trends Neurosci. , 26 (2), 2003, 108--114. doi:10.1016/S0166-2236(02)00039-5 D. S. Kim, I. Ronen, C. Olman, S. G. Kim, K. Ugurbil and L. J. Toth, Spatial relationship between neuronal activity and bold functional mri, NeuroImage , 21 (3), 2004, 876--885. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.10.018 A. Connelly, G. D. Jackson, R. S. Frackowiak, J. W. Belliveau, F. Vargha-Khadem and D. G. Gadian, Functional mapping of activated human primary cortex with a clinical mr imaging system, Radiology , 188 (1), 1993, 125--130. L. Allison, Hidden Markov Models, Technical Report , School of Computer and Software Engineering, Monash University, 2000. R. J. Elliott, L. Aggoun and J.B. Moore, Hidden Markov Models: Estimation and Control, Appl. Math.-Czech. , 2004. B. Bhavnagri, Discontinuities of plane functions projected from a surface with methods for finding these , Technical Report, 2009. B. Bhavnagri, Computer Vision using Shape Spaces , Technical Report,1996, University of Adelaide. B. Bhavnagri, A method for representing shape based on an equivalence relation on polygons, Pattern Recogn. , 27 (2), 1994, 247--260. doi:10.1016/0031-3203(94)90057-4 D. F. Abbott, A. B. Waites, A. S. Harvey and G. D. Jackson, Exploring epileptic seizure onset with fmri, NeuroImage , 36(S1) (344TH-PM), 2007. M. C. Mackey and L. Glass, Oscillation and chaos in physiological control systems, Science , 197 , 1977, 287--289. S. H. Strogatz, SYNC - The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order , Theia, New York, 2003. J. W. Kim, J. A. Roberts and P. A. Robinson, Dynamics of epileptic seizures: Evolution, spreading, and suppression, J. Theor. Biol. , 257 (4), 2009, 527--532. doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2008.12.009 Y. Kuramoto, T. Aoyagi, I. Nishikawa, T. Chawanya T and K. Okuda, Neural network model carrying phase information with application to collective dynamics, J. Theor. Phys. , 87 (5), 1992, 1119--1126. V. B. Mountcastle, The columnar organization of the neocortex, Brain , 120 (4), 1997, 701. doi:10.1093/brain/120.4.701 F. L. Silva, W. Blanes, S. N. Kalitzin, J. Parra, P. Suffczynski and D. N. Velis, Epilepsies as dynamical diseases of brain systems: Basic models of the transition between normal and epileptic activity, Epilepsia , 44 (12), 2003, 72--83. F. H. Lopes da Silva, W. Blanes, S. N. Kalitzin, J. Parra, P. Suffczynski and D. N. Velis, Dynamical diseases of brain systems: different routes to epileptic seizures, ieee T. Bio-Med. Eng. , 50 (5), 2003, 540. L.D. Iasemidis, Epileptic seizure prediction and control, ieee T. Bio-Med. Eng. , 50 (5), 2003, 549--558. L. D. Iasemidis, D. S. Shiau, W. Chaovalitwongse, J. C. Sackellares, P. M. Pardalos, J. C. Principe, P. R. Carney, A. Prasad, B. Veeramani, and K. Tsakalis, Adaptive epileptic seizure prediction system, ieee T. Bio-Med. Eng. , 50 (5), 2003, 616--627. K. Lehnertz, F. Mormann, T. Kreuz, R.G. Andrzejak, C. Rieke, P. David and C. E. Elger, Seizure prediction by nonlinear eeg analysis, ieee Eng. Med. Biol. , 22 (1), 2003, 57--63. doi:10.1109/MEMB.2003.1191451 K. Lehnertz, R. G. Andrzejak, J. Arnhold, T. Kreuz, F. Mormann, C. Rieke, G. Widman and C. E. Elger, Nonlinear eeg analysis in epilepsy: Its possible use for interictal focus localization, seizure anticipation, and prevention, J. Clin. Neurophysiol. , 18 (3), 2001, 209. B. Litt and K. Lehnertz, Seizure prediction and the preseizure period, Curr. Opin. Neurol. , 15 (2), 2002, 173. doi:10.1097/00019052-200204000-00008 B. Litt and J. Echauz, Prediction of epileptic seizures, Lancet Neurol. , 1 (1), 2002, 22--30. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(02)00003-0 M. M{a}kiranta, J. Ruohonen, K Suominen, J. Niinim{a}ki, E. Sonkaj{a}rvi, V. Kiviniemi, T. Sepp{a}nen, S. Alahuhta, V. J{a}ntti and O. Tervonen, {bold} signal increase preceeds eeg spike activity--a dynamic penicillin induced focal epilepsy in deep anesthesia, NeuroImage , 27 (4), 2005, 715--724. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.05.025 K. Lehnertz, F. Mormann, H. Osterhage, A. M{u}ller, J. Prusseit, A. Chernihovskyi, M. Staniek, D. Krug, S. Bialonski and C. E. Elger, State-of-the-art of seizure prediction, J. Clin. Neurophysiol. , 24 (2), 2007, 147. doi:10.1097/WNP.0b013e3180336f16 F. Mormann, T. Kreuz, C. Rieke, R. G. Andrzejak, A. Kraskov, P. David, C. E. Elger and K. Lehnertz, On the predictability of epileptic seizures, Clin. Neurophysiol. , 116 (3), 2005, 569--587. doi:10.1016/j.clinph.2004.08.025 F. Mormann, R. G. Andrzejak, C. E. Elger and K. Lehnertz, Seizure prediction: the long and winding road, Brain , 130 (2), 2007, 314--333. doi:10.1093/brain/awl241 Z. Rogowski, I. Gath and E. Bental, On the prediction of epileptic seizures, Biol. Cybern. , 42 (1), 1981, 9--15. Y. Salant, I. Gath, O. Henriksen, Prediction of epileptic seizures from two-channel eeg, Med. Biol. Eng. Comput. , 36 (5), 1998, 549--556. doi:10.1007/BF02524422 J. Gotman and D.J. Koffler, Interictal spiking increases after seizures but does not after decrease in medication, Evoked Potential , 72 (1), 1989, 7--15. J. Gotman and M. G. Marciani, Electroencephalographic spiking activity, drug levels, and seizure occurence in epileptic patients, Ann. Neurol. , 17 (6), 1985, 59--603. A. Katz, D. A. Marks, G. McCarthy and S. S. Spencer, Does interictal spiking change prior to seizures?, Electroen. Clin. Neuro. , 79 (2), 1991, 153--156. A. Granada, R. M. Hennig, B. Ronacher, A. Kramer and H. Herzel, Phase Response Curves: Elucidating the dynamics of couples oscillators, Method Enzymol. , 454 (A), 2009, 1--27. doi:10.1016/S0076-6879(08)03801-9 doi:10.1016/S0076-6879(08)03801-9 H. Kantz and T. Schreiber, Nonlinear time series analysis , 2004, Cambridge Univ Press. M. V. L. Bennett and R. S Zukin, Electrical coupling and neuronal synchronization in the mammalian brain, Neuron , 41 (4), 2004, 495 --511. doi:10.1016/S0896-6273(04)00043-1 L.D. Iasemidis, J. Chris Sackellares, H. P. Zaveri and W. J. Williams, Phase space topography and the Lyapunov exponent of electrocorticograms in partial seizures, Brain Topogr. , 2 (3), 1990, 187--201. doi:10.1007/BF01140588 M. Le Van Quyen, J. Martinerie, V. Navarro, M. Baulac and F. J. Varela, Characterizing neurodynamic changes before seizures, J. Clin. Neurophysiol. , 18 (3), 2001, 191. J. Martinerie, C. Adam, M. Le Van Quyen, M. Baulac, S. Clemenceau, B. Renault and F. J. Varela, Epileptic seizures can be anticipated by non-linear analysis, Nat. Med. , 4 (10), 1998, 1173--1176. doi:10.1038/2667 A. Pikovsky, M. Rosenblum, J. Kurths and R. C. Hilborn, Synchronization: A universal concept in nonlinear science, Amer. J. Phys. , 70 , 2002, 655. H. R. Wilson and J. D. Cowan, Excitatory and inhibitory interactions in localized populations of model neurons, Biophys. J. , 12 (1), 1972, 1--24. D. Cumin and C. P. Unsworth, Generalising the Kuramoto model for the study of neuronal synchronisation in the brain, Physica D , 226 (2), 2007, 181--196. doi:10.1016/j.physd.2006.12.004 F. K. Skinner, H. Bazzazi and S. A. Campbell, Two-cell to N-cell heterogeneous, inhibitory networks: Precise linking of multistable and coherent properties, J. Comput. Neurosci. , 18 (3), 2005, 343--352. doi:10.1007/s10827-005-0331-1 W. W. Lytton, Computer modelling of epilepsy, Nat. Rev. Neurosci. , 9 (8), 2008, 626--637. doi:10.1038/nrn2416 R. D. Traub, A. Bibbig, F. E. N. LeBeau, E. H. Buhl and M. A. Whittington, Cellular mechanisms of neuronal population oscillations in the hippocampus in vitro, Ann. Rev. , 2004. R. D. Traub, A. Draguhn, M. A. Whittington, T. Baldeweg, A. Bibbig, E. H. Buhl and D. Schmitz, Axonal gap junc ions between principal neurons: A novel source of network oscillations, and perhaps epileptogenesis., Rev. Neuroscience , 13 (1), 2002, 1. doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.27.070203.144303 M. Scheffer, J. Bascompte, W. A. Brock, V. Brovkin, S. R. Carpenter, V. Dakos, H. Held, E. H. van Nes, M. Rietkerk and G. Sugihara, Early-warning signals for critical transitions, Nature , 461 (7260), 2009, 53--59. doi:10.1038/nature08227 K. Murphy, A Brief Introduction to Graphical Models and Bayesian Networks , 2008, http://www.cs.ubc.ca/murphyk/Bayes/bnintro.html . R. C. Bradley, An elementary

Setting water quality objectives for the health of freshwater fish

An important responsibility of the Environment Protection Authority, Victoria, is to set objectives for levels of environmental contaminants. To support the development of environmental objectives for water quality, a need has been identified to understand the dual impacts of concentration and duration of a contaminant on biota in freshwater streams. For suspended solids contamination, information reported by Newcombe and Jensen [ North American Journal of Fisheries Management , 16(4):693--727, 1996] study of freshwater fish and the daily suspended solids data from the United States Geological Survey stream monitoring network is utilised. The study group was requested to examine both the utility of the Newcombe and Jensen and the USA data, as well as the formulation of a procedure for use by the Environment Protection Authority Victoria that takes concentration and duration of harmful episodes into account when assessing water quality. The extent to which the impact of a toxic event on fish health could be modelled deterministically was also considered. It was found that concentration and exposure duration were the main compounding factors on the severity of effects of suspended solids on freshwater fish. A protocol for assessing the cumulative effect on fish health and a simple deterministic model, based on the biology of gill harm and recovery, was proposed. References D. W. T. Au, C. A. Pollino, R. S. S Wu, P. K. S. Shin, S. T. F. Lau, and J. Y. M. Tang. Chronic effects of suspended solids on gill structure, osmoregulation, growth, and triiodothyronine in juvenile green grouper epinephelus coioides . Marine Ecology Press Series , 266:255--264, 2004. J.C. Bezdek, S.K. Chuah, and D. Leep. Generalized k-nearest neighbor rules. Fuzzy Sets and Systems , 18:237--26, 1986. E. T. Champagne, K. L. Bett-Garber, A. M. McClung, and C. Bergman. {Sensory characteristics of diverse rice cultivars as influenced by genetic and environmental factors}. Cereal Chem. , {81}:{237--243}, {2004}. S. G. Cheung and P. K. S. Shin. Size effects of suspended particles on gill damage in green-lipped mussel perna viridis. Marine Pollution Bulletin , 51(8--12):801--810, 2005. D. H. Evans. The fish gill: site of action and model for toxic effects of environmental pollutants. Environmental Health Perspectives , 71:44--58, 1987. G. C. Grigg. The failure of oxygen transport in a fish at low levels of ambient oxygen. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. , 29:1253--1257, 1969. G. Holmes, A. Donkin, and I.H. Witten. {Weka: A machine learning workbench}. In Proceedings of the Second Australia and New Zealand Conference on Intelligent Information Systems , volume {24}, pages {357--361}, {Brisbane, Australia}, {1994}. {IEEE Computer Society}. D. D. Macdonald and C. P. Newcombe. Utility of the stress index for predicting suspended sediment effects: response to comments. North American Journal of Fisheries Management , 13:873--876, 1993. C. P. Newcombe. Suspended sediment in aquatic ecosystems: ill effects as a function of concentration and duration of exposure. Technical report, British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks, Habitat Protection branch, Victoria, 1994. C. P. Newcombe and J. O. T. Jensen. Channel suspended sediment and fisheries: A synthesis for quantitative assessment of risk and impact. North American Journal of Fisheries Management , 16(4):693--727, 1996. C. P. Newcombe and D. D. Macdonald. Effects of suspended sediments on aquatic ecosystems. North American Journal of Fisheries Management , 11(1):72--82, 1991. K. Schmidt-Nielsen. Scaling. Why is animal size so important? Cambridge University Press, NY, 1984. J. S. Schwartz, A. Simon, and L. Klimetz. Use of fish functional traits to associate in-stream suspended sediment transport metrics with biological impairment. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment , 179(1--4):347--369, 2011. E. Al Shaw and J. S. Richardson. Direct and indirect effects of sediment pulse duration on stream invertebrate assemb ages and rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ) growth and survival. Canadian Journal of Fish and Aquatic Science , 58:2213--2221, 2001. P. Tiwari and H. Hasegawa. {Demand for housing in Tokyo: A discrete choice analysis}. Regional Studies , {38}:{27--42}, {2004}. Y. Tramblay, A. Saint-Hilaire, T. B. M. J. Ouarda, F. Moatar, and B Hecht. Estimation of local extreme suspended sediment concentrations in california rivers. Science of the Total Environment , 408:4221--

Introduction to the special issue on next generation network architectures, protocols, theory, systems and applications

This special issue of Networking Science focuses on Next Generation Network (NGN) that enables the deployment of access independent services over converged fixed and mobile networks. NGN is a packet-based network and uses the Internet protocol (IP) to transport the various types of traffic (voice, video, data and signalling). NGN facilitates easy adoption of distributed computing applications by providing high speed connectivity in a converged networked environment. It also makes end user devices and applications highly intelligent and efficient by empowering them with programmability and remote configuration options. However, there are a number of important challenges in provisioning next generation network technologies in a converged communication environment. Some preliminary challenges include those that relate to QoS, switching and routing, management and control, and security which must be addressed on an urgent or emergency basis. The consideration of architectural issues in the design and pro- vision of secure services for NGN deserves special attention and hence is the main theme of this special issue.

Crowdsourcing interactions : using crowdsourcing for evaluating interactive information retrieval systems

In the field of information retrieval (IR), researchers and practitioners are often faced with a demand for valid approaches to evaluate the performance of retrieval systems. The Cranfield experiment paradigm has been dominant for the in-vitro evaluation of IR systems. Alternative to this paradigm, laboratory-based user studies have been widely used to evaluate interactive information retrieval (IIR) systems, and at the same time investigate users’ information searching behaviours. Major drawbacks of laboratory-based user studies for evaluating IIR systems include the high monetary and temporal costs involved in setting up and running those experiments, the lack of heterogeneity amongst the user population and the limited scale of the experiments, which usually involve a relatively restricted set of users. In this paper, we propose an alternative experimental methodology to laboratory-based user studies. Our novel experimental methodology uses a crowdsourcing platform as a means of engaging study participants. Through crowdsourcing, our experimental methodology can capture user interactions and searching behaviours at a lower cost, with more data, and within a shorter period than traditional laboratory-based user studies, and therefore can be used to assess the performances of IIR systems. In this article, we show the characteristic differences of our approach with respect to traditional IIR experimental and evaluation procedures. We also perform a use case study comparing crowdsourcing-based evaluation with laboratory-based evaluation of IIR systems, which can serve as a tutorial for setting up crowdsourcing-based IIR evaluations.

Exploring a biomimicry based approach and key barriers to evolving water infrastructure systems

Access to clean water is essential for human life and a critical issue facing much of modern society, especially as a result of the 21st Century triad of challenges – population growth, resource scarcity and pollution – which contribute to the rising complexity of providing adequate access to this essential resource for large parts of society. As such, there is now an increasing need for innovative solutions to source, treat and distribute water to cities across the globe. This position paper explores biomimicry – emulating natural form, function, process and systems – as an alternative and sustainable design approach to traditional water infrastructure systems. The key barriers to innovations such as biomimicry are summarised, indicating that regulatory and economic grounds are some of the major hindrances to integrating alternative design approaches in the water sector in developed countries. This paper examines some of the benefits of moving past these barriers to develop sustainable, efficient and resilient solutions that provide adequate access to water in the face of contemporary challenges.

Anionic migration reactions in aromatic systems effected by collisional activation : Deprotonated anilides containing methoxycarbonyl substituents

Long-range cross-ring reactions are of minor importance in the collision-induced mass spectra (MS/MS) of [M - H]- ions of CH2OCO-C6H4-NHCOR systems: e.g. the loss of 'CD3CO2CH3' from CH3OCO-C6H4-(N) over bar COCD3. Major processes involve (i) losses of radicals to form stable radical anions, e.g. loss of a ring hydrogen atom and losses from the ester (CH3 ., CH3O . and . CO2CH3), (ii) losses of neutral molecules from the amide moiety [e.g. CO (R = H) and CH2CO (R = CH3), and proximity effects when the two substituents are ortho [e.g. loss of (CH3OD+CO2) from o-CH3OCO-C6H4 (N) over bar COCD3].

A method for risk analysis across governance systems : a great barrier reef case study

Healthy governance systems are key to delivering sound environmental management outcomes from global to local scales. There are, however, surprisingly few risk assessment methods that can pinpoint those domains and sub-domains within governance systems that are most likely to influence good environmental outcomes at any particular scale, or those if absent or dysfunctional, most likely to prevent effective environmental management. This paper proposes a new risk assessment method for analysing governance systems. This method is then tested through its preliminary application to a significant real-world context: governance as it relates to the health of Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR). The GBR exists at a supra-regional scale along most of the north eastern coast of Australia. Brodie et al (2012 Mar. Pollut. Bull. 65 81-100) have recently reviewed the state and trend of the health of the GBR, finding that overall trends remain of significant concern. At the same time, official international concern over the governance of the reef has recently been signalled globally by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). These environmental and political contexts make the GBR an ideal candidate for use in testing and reviewing the application of improved tools for governance risk assessment. © 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd.

Viewpoint : social and economic dimensions of involving savanna communities in carbon management systems

In this paper we discuss the social, economic and institutional aspects of the development of carbon management systems within Australia's tropical savannas. Land-use values in savanna landscapes are changing as a result of changing economic markets, greater recognition of native title, and growing social demands and expectations for tourism, recreation and conservation. In addition, there is increasing interest in developing markets and policy arrangements for greenhouse gas abatement, carbon sequestration and carbon trade in savannas. We argue that for carbon management to lead to national greenhouse outcomes, attention must be paid to social, economic and institutional issues in environmental planning and policy arrangements. From an economic perspective, the financial impact of carbon management on savanna enterprises will depend on appropriate and available policy mechanisms, unit price for carbon, landscape condition, existing management strategies and abatement measurements used. Local social and cultural features of communities and regions may enhance or constrain the implementation of carbon abatement strategies, depending on how they are perceived. In terms of institutional arrangements, policies and plans must support and enable carbon management. We identify three areas that require priority investigation and adjustment: regional planning arrangements, property rights, and rules for accounting at enterprise and regional scales. We conclude that the best potential for managing for carbon will be achieved while managing for range of other natural resource management outcomes, especially where managing for carbon delivers collateral benefits to enterprises.

Response to “Comment on ‘Indications of energetic consequences of decoherence at short times for scattering from open quantum systems’” [AIP Advances 1, 049101 (2011)]

The Comment by Mayers and Reiter criticizes our work on two counts. Firstly, it is claimed that the quantum decoherence effects that we report in consequence of our experimental analysis of neutron Compton scattering from H in gaseous H2 are not, as we maintain, outside the framework of conventional neutron scatteringtheory. Secondly, it is claimed that we did not really observe such effects, owing to a faulty analysis of the experimental data, which are claimed to be in agreement with conventional theory. We focus in this response on the critical issue of the reliability of our experimental results and analysis. Using the same standard Vesuvio instrument programs used by Mayers et al., we show that, if the experimental results for H in gaseous H2 are in agreement with conventional theory, then those for D in gaseous D2 obtained in the same way cannot be, and vice-versa. We expose a flaw in the calibration methodology used by Mayers et al. that leads to the present disagreement over the behaviour of H, namely the ad hoc adjustment of the measured H peak positions in TOF during the calibration of Vesuvio so that agreement is obtained with the expectation of conventional theory. We briefly address the question of the necessity to apply the theory of open quantum systems.

Indications of energetic consequences of decoherence at short times for scattering from open quantum systems

Decoherence of quantum entangled particles is observed in most systems, and is usually caused by system-environment interactions. Disentangling two subsystems A and B of a quantum systemAB is tantamount to erasure of quantum phase relations between A and B. It is widely believed that this erasure is an innocuous process, which e.g. does not affect the energies of A and B. Surprisingly, recent theoretical investigations by different groups showed that disentangling two systems, i.e. their decoherence, can cause an increase of their energies. Applying this result to the context of neutronCompton scattering from H2 molecules, we provide for the first time experimental evidence which supports this prediction. The results reveal that the neutron-proton collision leading to the cleavage of the H-H bond in the sub-femtosecond timescale is accompanied by larger energy transfer (by about 3%) than conventional theory predicts. It is proposed to interpreted the results by considering the neutron-proton collisional system as an entangled open quantum system being subject to decoherence owing to the interactions with the “environment” (i.e., two electrons plus second proton of H2).

High pressure in situ diffraction studies of metal–hydrogen systems

“Hybrid” hydrogen storage, where hydrogen is stored in both the solid material and as a high pressure gas in the void volume of the tank can improve overall system efficiency by up to 50% compared to either compressed hydrogen or solid materials alone. Thermodynamically, high equilibrium hydrogen pressures in metal–hydrogen systems correspond to low enthalpies of hydrogen absorption–desorption. This decreases the calorimetric effects of the hydride formation–decomposition processes which can assist in achieving high rates of heat exchange during hydrogen loading—removing the bottleneck in achieving low charging times and improving overall hydrogen storage efficiency of large hydrogen stores. Two systems with hydrogenation enthalpies close to −20 kJ/mol H2 were studied to investigate the hydrogenation mechanism and kinetics: CeNi5–D2 and ZrFe2−xAlx (x = 0.02; 0.04; 0.20)–D2. The structure of the intermetallics and their hydrides were studied by in situ neutron powder diffraction at pressures up to 1000 bar and complementary X-ray diffraction. The deuteration of the hexagonal CeNi5 intermetallic resulted in CeNi5D6.3 with a volume expansion of 30.1%. Deuterium absorption filled three different types of interstices, Ce2Ni2 and Ni4 tetrahedra, and Ce2Ni3 half-octahedra and was accompanied by a valence change for Ce. Significant hysteresis was observed between deuterium absorption and desorption which profoundly decreased on a second absorption cycle. For the Al-modified Laves-type C15 ZrFe2−xAlx intermetallics, deuteration showed very fast kinetics of H/D exchange and resulted in a volume increase of the FCC unit cells of 23.5% for ZrFe1.98Al0.02D2.9(1). Deuterium content, hysteresis of H/D uptake and release, unit cell expansion and stability of the hydrides systematically change with the amount of Al content. In the deuteride D atoms exclusively occupy the Zr2(Fe,Al)2 tetrahedra. Observed interatomic distances are Zr–D = 1.98–2.11; (Fe, Al)–D = 1.70–1.75A˚ . Hydrogenation slightly increases the magnetic moment of the Fe atoms in ZrFe1.98Al0.02 and ZrFe1.96Al0.04 from 1.9 �B at room temperature for the alloy to 2.2 �B for its deuteride.

A Triple Bottom Line Planning Tool for Measuring Sustainability : A Systems Approach to Sustainability Using the Australian Dairy Industry as a Case Study

Sustainability is a key driver for decisions in the management and future development of organisations and industries. However, quantifying and comparing sustainability across the triple bottom line (TBL) of economy, environment and social impact, has been problematic. There is a need for a tool which can measure the complex interactions within and between the environmental, economic and social systems which affect the sustainability of an industry in a transparent, consistent and comparable way. The authors acknowledge that there are currently numerous ways in which sustainability is measured and multiple methodologies in how these measurement tools were designed. The purpose of this book is to showcase how Bayesian network modelling can be used to identify and measure environmental, economic and social sustainability variables and to understand their impact on and interaction with each other. This book introduces the Sustainability Scorecard, and describes it through a case study on sustainability of the Australian dairy industry. This study was conducted in collaboration with the Australian dairy industry.

On the maturity of open source BPM systems

In this Article, Petia Wohed, Arthur H. M. ter Hofstede, Nick Russell, Birger Andersson, and Wil M. P. van der Aalst present the results of their examination of existing open source BPM systems. Their conclusions are illuminating for both Open Source developers as well as the user community. Read their Article for the details of their study.

On power minimisation and SNR maximisation of distributed beamforming in cooperative communication systems

A comparison of relay power minimisation subject to received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the receiver and SNR maximisation subject to the total transmitted power of relays for a typical wireless network with distributed beamforming is presented. It is desirable to maximise receiver quality-of-service (QoS) and also to minimise the cost of transmission in terms of power. Hence, these two optimisation problems are very common and have been addressed separately in the literature. It is shown that SNR maximisation subject to power constraint and power minimisation subject to SNR constraint yield the same results for a typical wireless network. It proves that either one of the optimisation approaches is sufficient.

Flexible service systems

Service science combines scientific, management, and engineering disciplines to improve the understanding of how service systems cooperate to create business value. Service systems are complex configurations of people, technologies, and resources that coexist in a common environment of service provisioning. While the general concepts of service science are understood and agreed upon, the representation of service systems using models is still in its infancy. In this chapter, we look at business processes and their role in properly representing service systems. We propose flexible process graphs, a high-level process modeling language, and extend it in order to specify service systems and their compositions within shared environments in a flexible way. The discussion in this chapter is the first step towards a formal description of service science environment, including service systems, networks, and whole ecology.