Injuries leading to hospitalisation in the first year of life : analysis by trimester of age using coded data and textual description

Objective: To describe unintentional injuries to children aged less than one year, using coded and textual information, in three-month age bands to reflect their development over the year. Methods: Data from the Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit was used. The Unit collects demographic, clinical and circumstantial details about injured persons presenting to selected emergency departments across the State. Only injuries coded as unintentional in children admitted to hospital were included for this analysis. Results: After editing, 1,082 children remained for analysis, 24 with transport-related injuries. Falls were the most common injury, but becoming proportionately less over the year, whereas burns and scalds and foreign body injuries increased. The proportion of injuries due to contact with persons or objects varied little, but poisonings were relatively more common in the first and fourth three-month periods. Descriptions indicated that family members were somehow causally involved in 16% of injuries. Our findings are in qualitative agreement with comparable previous studies. Conclusion: The pattern of injuries varies over the first year of life and is clearly linked to the child's increasing mobility. Implications: Injury patterns in the first year of life should be reported over shorter intervals. Preventive measures for young children need to be designed with their rapidly changing developmental stage in mind, using a variety of strategies, one of which could be opportunistic developmentally specific education of parents. Injuries in young children are of abiding concern given their immediate health and emotional effects, and potential for long-term adverse sequelae. In Australia, in the financial year 2006/07, 2,869 children less than 12 months of age were admitted to hospital for an unintentional injury, a rate of 10.6 per 1,000, representing a considerable economic and social burden. Given that many of these injuries are preventable, this is particularly concerning. Most epidemiologic studies analyse data in five-year age bands, so children less than five years of age are examined as a group. This study includes only those children younger than one year of age to identify injury detail lost in analyses of the larger group, as we hypothesised that the injury pattern varied with the developmental stage of the child. The authors of several North American studies have commented that in dealing with injuries in pre-school children, broad age groupings are inadequate to do justice to the rapid developmental changes in infancy and early childhood, and have in consequence analysed injuries in shorter intervals. To our knowledge, no similar analysis of Australian infant injuries has been published to date. This paper describes injury in children less than 12 months of age using data from the Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit (QISU).

Rates of attendance at a smoking cessation clinic within a cardiac rehabilitation service

Objectives: Smoking cessation has been shown to be an important intervention for preventing cardiovascular events and improving the health of patients with heart disease. However, unaided quit attempts in these patients often leads to high rates of failure and a return to smoking. Outpatient smoking cessation clinics using face-to-face counseling, ongoing behavioral support, advice on smoking pharmacotherapy and objective monitoring, have been found to be one of the most effective interventions for improving quit smoking rates. An outpatient smoking cessation clinic was trialed within a cardiac rehabilitation service in order to explore its effects on smoking rates for patients with or at risk of heart disease. Attendance rates to the clinic were also monitored. Methods: A descriptive exploratory design was used for this newly developed clinic. Patients who currently smoked tobacco and who had a history of either coronary artery disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation or those seen under a chest pain assessment service were invited to an outpatient ‘Cardiac Patients Smokers Clinic’. Initially patients were offered up to 10 clinic visits over a 3 month period. Follow-up clinic visits were conducted at 3, 6 and 12 months. A portable carbon monoxide meter was used to objectively measure levels of smoking and validate smoking abstinence. Primary outcomes included rates of attendance. Results: Preliminary findings showed 24 per cent of participants (N = 6) completed all their clinic visits and remained smoke free as measured by their ongoing expired carbon monoxide readings. Clinic attendance rates appeared lowest for those with significant mental health issues such as schizophrenia or substance abuse. However, rates of attendance were improved by having an administration officer make reminder telephone calls prior to clinic visits. Conclusions: Early findings indicate the feasibility of providing a specialist smoking cessation clinic within a cardiac rehabilitation service. Further, that reminder telephone calls prior to appointments improved attendance rates in patients with heart disease to this type of clinic. However, future investigations are warranted.

One-stop government portals : transformation or navigation?

E-government is seen as a promising approach for governments to improve their service towards citizens and become more cost-efficient in service delivery. This is often combined with one-stop government, which is a citizen-oriented approach stressing integrated provision of services from multiple departments via a single access point, the one-stop government portal. While the portal concept is gaining prominence in practice, there is little know about its status in academic literature. This hinders academics in building an accumulated body of knowledge around the concept and makes it hard for practitioners to access relevant academic insights on the topic. The objective of this study is to identify and understand the key themes of the one-stop government portal concept in academic, e-government research. A holistic analysis is provided by addressing different viewpoints: social-political, legal, organizational, user, security, service, data & information, and technical. As overall finding we conclude that there are two different approaches: a more pragmatic approach focuses on quick wins in particular related to usability and navigation and a more ambitious, transformational approach having far reaching social-political, legal, organizational implications.

A microscopic simulation model to estimate Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) station service capacity with mixed stopping and non-stopping bus operation

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) station is the interface between passenger and service. The station is crucial to line operation as it is typically the only location where buses can pass each other. Congestion may occur here when buses maneuvering into and out of the platform lane interfere with bus flow, or when a queue of buses forms upstream of the platform lane blocking the passing lane. However, some systems include operation where express buses pass the critical station, resulting in a proportion of non stopping buses. It is important to understand the operation of the critical busway station under this type of operation, as it affects busway line capacity. This study uses micro simulation to treat the BRT station operation and to analyze the relationship between station Limit state bus capacity (B_ls), Total Bus Capacity (B_ttl). First, the simulation model is developed for Limit state scenario and then a mathematical model is defined, calibrated for a specified range of controlled scenarios of mean and coefficient of variation of dwell time. Thereafter, the proposed B_ls model is extended to consider non stopping buses and B_ttlmodel is defined. The proposed models provides better understanding to the BRT line capacity and is useful for transit authorities for designing better BRT operation.

Risk-taking, harm and help-seeking : reported by young people in treatment at a youth alcohol and drug counselling service

Regarded as a normative component of development, risk-taking by young people is a well-researched subject, and some risk-taking behaviours, such as substance use, are particularly well covered because of their potential to adversely affect health and wellbeing. What has remained unclear is the extent of young people's risk-taking while engaged in alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment, their awareness of the related harms of risk-taking behaviours, and their prior help-seeking for these harms - information which may have a significant impact on the quality and relevance of the care they receive. This paper reports the findings from a brief pilot study exploring those factors in a clinical sample of young people engaged in ongoing AOD counselling.

A description of the Mei2-like protein family; structure, phylogenetic distribution and biological context

The Schizosaccharomyces pombe Mei2 gene encodes an RNA recognition motif (RRM) protein that stimulates meiosis upon binding a specific non-coding RNA and subsequent accumulation in a “mei2-dot” in the nucleus. We present here the first systematic characterization of the family of proteins with characteristic Mei2-like amino acid sequences. Mei2-like proteins are an ancient eukaryotic protein family with three identifiable RRMs. The C-terminal RRM (RRM3) is unique to Mei2-like proteins and is the most highly conserved of the three RRMs. RRM3 also contains conserved sequence elements at its C-terminus not found in other RRM domains. Single copy Mei2-like genes are present in some fungi, in alveolates such as Paramecium and in the early branching eukaryote Entamoeba histolytica, while plants contain small families of Mei2-like genes. While the C-terminal RRM is highly conserved between plants and fungi, indicating conservation of molecular mechanisms, plant Mei2-like genes have changed biological context to regulate various aspects of developmental pattern formation.

Core principles of CSR approaches

CSR is increasingly an essential issue for business enterprises. It is a company and multidimensional organizational ...

Cultural impact on e-service use in Saudi Arabia : results from questionnaire

This paper reports the results of a mixed method approach to answer: what are the cultural values that impact on e-service use in Saudi Arabia? Cultural theories, dimensions, and models previously identified in the literature, in addition to individual interviews and focus groups, test the current identified uncovered elements of Saudi culture. This paper will firstly, introduce the importance of culture and define the aspects of Saudi culture. It will then describe the method used and present the questionnaire findings. All of the tested hypotheses were found consistent with their predicted outcomes except hypotheses 4 and 8 were partially consistent. It is evidenced that consideration of the impact of the cultural values will mainly contribute to the enhancement of social and organisational aspects of e-society research and practices, by deeply understanding them as of the influntials to e-service implementation.

Cultural impact on e-service use in Saudi Arabia : the role of nepotism

This paper reports the results of a mixed method approach to answer: To what extent do cultural values impact on e-service use in Saudi Arabia, and if so how? This paper will firstly, introduce the importance of culture and define the aspects of Saudi culture. It will then describe the method used and present the questionnaire findings related to the role of nepotism. The review of the literature on nepotism indicates there is still much to be studied and learned. The legal aspects of nepotism, in addition to its impact on human resource management appear to be the more reported issues. However, nepotism’s impact on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has not been studied. This research aims to cover this gap by investigating to what extent nepotism, as one of Saudi Arabia’s cultural values, impacts on e-service use in Saudi Arabia. The tested hypothesis was found consistent with its predicted outcome: nepotism is a negative predictor of intention to use e- services in Saudi Arabia. It is evidenced that consideration of the impact of the cultural values will mainly contribute to the enhancement of social and organisational aspects of e-society research and practices, by deeply understanding them as of the influntials to e-service implementation.

Cultural impact on e-service use in Saudi Arabia : the need for interaction with other humans

This paper reports the results of a mixed method approach to answer: To what extent do cultural values impact on e-service use in Saudi Arabia, and if so how? This paper will firstly, introduce the importance of culture and define the aspects of Saudi culture with focus on our scope: the fear of a lack of Interaction with other Humans. It will then describe the method used and present the qualitative and quantitative findings related to the need for Interactions with other Humans. Much of the written literature about human interaction aims at Information Systems design or design improvement. Yet, this is different to what is being investigated in this study. One of the factors this study will consider is the perceived lack of interaction with other humans or the anxiety people may feel in missing the physical interaction with other people by fully moving business interaction to the virtual world. The review of the literature indicates that the impact of such factor on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) use has not been studied. This research aims to cover this gap by investigating to what extent the fear of a lack of Interaction with other Humans, as one of Saudi Arabia’s cultural values, impacts on e-service use in Saudi Arabia. The tested hypothesis was found consistent with its predicted outcome: the fear of a lack of Interaction with other Humans is a negative predictor of intention to use e-services in Saudi Arabia. It is evidenced that consideration of the impact of the cultural values will mainly contribute to the enhancement of ICTs implementation and use.

AR Services Video

Video presented as part of the USECA 2011 workshop at WISE 2011. Real-time sales assistant service is a problematic component of remote delivery of sales support for customers. Solutions involving web pages, telephony and video support prove problematic when seeking to remotely guide customers in their sales processes, especially with transactions revolving around physically complex artefacts. This process involves a number of services that are often complex in nature, ranging from physical compatibility and configuration factors, to availability and credit services. We propose the application of a combination of virtual worlds and augmented reality to create synthetic environments suitable for remote sales of physical artefacts, right in the home of the purchaser. A high level description of the service structure involved is shown, along with a use case involving the sale of electronic goods and services within an example augmented reality application. We expect this work to have application in many sales domains involving physical objects needing to be sold over the Internet.

Aliens, borders and social citizens : Health and community services for trafficked women

Australian policy makers recognise women who are trafficked to Australia (and these are largely for the purposes of sexual exploitation) primarily as victims of crime. The main public mechanism by which the "problem" of trafficked people in Australia is managed is the criminal law. At the same time, however, as a signatory to the UN Protocol on Trafficking and the Declaration of Human Rights, the Australian Government also recognises the rights of women trafficked to Australia to access health and community services in the wake of the health damage and trauma they often incur as a consequence of their experience. Current evidence suggests that trafficked women in Australia face considerable barriers in being able to avail themselves of such a right and of the services that accompany it. This paper explores the tensions posed by Australian policy and service approaches to trafficked women in light of the concept of social citizenship and the ways in which it is mediated in the Australian context by national border protection policy.

Embodying multiplicity : the independent dancer's moving identity

In this article, I argue for an acknowledgement of the significance of the dancer’s role in the creation of independent contemporary dance. I propose the term ‘moving identity’ to outline the independent contemporary dancer’s ‘way of moving’ which could be perceived as the accumulation of various factors including training approaches, choreographic movement traces and anatomical structures. The concept of the moving identity allows us to appreciate the dancer’s unique signature movement style as the collation of embodied experiences into a unique way of moving. However, the moving identity is also open to change when the dancer encounters new choreography and the choreographer. Professional dance training produces particular types of dancers, depending on the techniques with which they engage. I demonstrate how the independent contemporary dancer troubles this distinctiveness by engaging with a multitude of movement styles and approaches throughout a career. This leads me to a fresh description of the dancer’s activity through the lens of Deleuzean concepts of multiplicity and de-stratification. Finally, I propose a definition of the dancer as a fluid and mutable body-in-flux with the creative potential to significantly influence the outcome of the choreographic process.

Developing national level informatics competencies for undergraduate nurses : methodological approaches from Australia and Canada

Health information systems are being implemented in countries by governments and regional health authorities in an effort to modernize healthcare. With these changes, there has emerged a demand by healthcare organizations for nurses graduating from college and university programs to have acquired nursing informatics competencies that would allow them to work in clinical practice settings (e.g. hospitals, clinics, home care etc). In this paper we examine the methods employed by two different countries in developing national level nursing informatics competencies expected of undergraduate nurses prior to graduation (i.e. Australia, Canada). This work contributes to the literature by describing the science and methods of nursing informatics competency development at a national level.

Transcriptomics approaches to identify genes and markers for production traits in giant freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii

This study used next generation sequencing technologies to investigate growth in a cultured crustacean. The objective was to identify and characterise specific gene loci that contribute important phenotypic variation to growth as well as to develop a large set of SNP markers in candidate genes for assessing correlations between specific mutations and individual growth performance. The genomic dataset generated provides a fundamental resource for application in future crustacean stock improvement programs. Ultimately, the data can be applied to development of culture lines with improved growth performance.