Data warehousing model for integrating fragmented electronic health records from disparate and heterogeneous clinical data stores

This research was a step forward in developing a data integration framework for Electronic Health Records. The outcome of the research is a conceptual and logical Data Warehousing model for integrating Cardiac Surgery electronic data records. This thesis investigated the main obstacles for the healthcare data integration and proposes a data warehousing model suitable for integrating fragmented data in a Cardiac Surgery Unit.

Knowledge is not power, but it’s a start : what young people know about their rights and obligations in employment

Scholarship addressing the employment concerns of school age workers has identified a number of areas of vulnerability. Prominent among these is that young workers have insufficient knowledge of their rights in employment, yet the extent of this knowledge has not previously been quantified. This study explores areas of strength and deficit in awareness of employment rights and obligations in a sample of 892 young people in Australian high schools. The findings demonstrate that, despite part-time work being a majority experience for school students, young Australians know relatively little of their employment rights. The conclusions underscore the need for education strategies that inform young people prior to and in the very early stages of their working lives.

Climatic records over the past 30 ka from temperate Australia – a synthesis from the Oz-INTIMATE workgroup

Temperate Australia sits between the heat engine of the tropics and the cold Southern Ocean, encompassing a range of rainfall regimes and falling under the influence of different climatic drivers. Despite this heterogeneity, broad-scale trends in climatic and environmental change are evident over the past 30 ka. During the early glacial period (∼30–22 ka) and the Last Glacial Maximum (∼22–18 ka), climate was relatively cool across the entire temperate zone and there was an expansion of grasslands and increased fluvial activity in regionally important Murray–Darling Basin. The temperate region at this time appears to be dominated by expanded sea ice in the Southern Ocean forcing a northerly shift in the position of the oceanic fronts and a concomitant influx of cold water along the southeast (including Tasmania) and southwest Australian coasts. The deglacial period (∼18–12 ka) was characterised by glacial recession and eventual disappearance resulting from an increase in temperature deduced from terrestrial records, while there is some evidence for climatic reversals (e.g. the Antarctic Cold Reversal) in high resolution marine sediment cores through this period. The high spatial density of Holocene terrestrial records reveals an overall expansion of sclerophyll woodland and rainforest taxa across the temperate region after ∼12 ka, presumably in response to increasing temperature, while hydrological records reveal spatially heterogeneous hydro-climatic trends. Patterns after ∼6 ka suggest higher frequency climatic variability that possibly reflects the onset of large scale climate variability caused by the El Niño/Southern Oscillation.

Institutional specifics and unemployment insurance eligibility in Canada : how sensitive are employment duration effects?

The paper examines the influence of unemployment insurance on the duration of employment spells in Canada using the 1988–90 Labour Market Activity Survey. The primary focus of the paper is to evaluate whether estimated UI effects are sensitive to the degree to which institutional rules and regulations governing UI eligibility and entitlement are explicitly modelled. The key result of the paper is that it is indeed important to allow for institutional detail when estimating unemployment insurance effects. Estimates using simple proxies for eligibility indicate small, often insignificant UI effects. The size and significance of the effects rise as more realistic versions of the variables are adopted. The estimates using the eligibility variables incorporating the greatest level of institutional detail suggest that a jump in the hazard rate by a factor of 2.3 may not be an unreasonable estimate of the effect.

The employment effects of gender discrimination in Australia 1994-95

Interpreting the unexplained component of the gender wage gap as indicative of discrimination, the empirical literature to date has tended to ignore the potential impact wage discrimination may have on employment. Clearly, employment effects will arise if discrimination lowers the female offered wage and the labour supply curve is upward sloping. The empirical analysis employs the ABS Income Distribution Survey 1994–95 and finds evidence of both wage and associated employment effects. The analysis is replicated for the earlier period 1989–90. A comparison across time is of interest given the substantial deregulation of the Australian labour market over the period.

Are employment effects of gender discrimination important? Some evidence from Great Britain

Interpreting the unexplained component of the gender wage gap as indicative of discrimination, the empirical literature to date has tended to ignore the potential impact wage discrimination may have on employment. Employment effects may arise if discrimination lowers the female offered wage and the labour supply curve is upward sloping. The empirical analysis employs the British Household Panel Study and finds evidence of both wage and associated employment effects.

Identify disorders in health records using Conditional Random Fields and Metamap: AEHRC at ShARe/CLEF 2013 eHealth Evaluation Lab Task 1

The Australian e-Health Research Centre (AEHRC) recently participated in the ShARe/CLEF eHealth Evaluation Lab Task 1. The goal of this task is to individuate mentions of disorders in free-text electronic health records and map disorders to SNOMED CT concepts in the UMLS metathesaurus. This paper details our participation to this ShARe/CLEF task. Our approaches are based on using the clinical natural language processing tool Metamap and Conditional Random Fields (CRF) to individuate mentions of disorders and then to map those to SNOMED CT concepts. Empirical results obtained on the 2013 ShARe/CLEF task highlight that our instance of Metamap (after ltering irrelevant semantic types), although achieving a high level of precision, is only able to identify a small amount of disorders (about 21% to 28%) from free-text health records. On the other hand, the addition of the CRF models allows for a much higher recall (57% to 79%) of disorders from free-text, without sensible detriment in precision. When evaluating the accuracy of the mapping of disorders to SNOMED CT concepts in the UMLS, we observe that the mapping obtained by our ltered instance of Metamap delivers state-of-the-art e ectiveness if only spans individuated by our system are considered (`relaxed' accuracy).

Equal employment opportunity and its links to the participation of women in the construction industry : the case of Australia

Australia is currently experiencing a resources boom and jobs in the male dominated fields of construction and engineering are at a premium. Employment in the construction industry, historically and today, is overwhelmingly male and, with an ageing population this predominately older male workforce will be retiring in greater numbers in the coming decade. Despite more that 25 years of anti- discrimination legislation and equal opportunity legislation these industries still employ few women in operational roles. This paper investigates the issue of the low representation of women in the construction industry. Our investigation involves the analysis of 95 organisation progress reports on the equal opportunity strategic programs in the construction industry. Findings indicate that this industry is not engaging with equal employment opportunity programs and further that equity outcomes for women in the industry are not evident.

Education higher degree research students writing for publication

Higher Degree Research (HDR) student publications are increasingly valued by students, by professional communities and by research institutions. Peer-reviewed publications form the HDR student writer's publication track record and increase competitiveness in employment and research funding opportunities. These publications also make the results of HDR student research available to the community in accessible formats. HDR student publications are also valued by universities because they provide evidence of institutional research activity within a field and attract a return on research performance. However, although publications are important to multiple stakeholders, many Education HDR students do not publish the results of their research. Hence, an investigation of Education HDR graduates who submitted work for publication during their candidacy was undertaken. This multiple, explanatory case study investigated six recent Education HDR graduates who had submitted work to peer-reviewed outlets during their candidacy. The conceptual framework supported an analysis of the development of Education HDR student writing using Alexander's (2003, 2004) Model of Domain Learning which focuses on expertise, and Lave and Wenger's (1991) situated learning within a community of practice. Within this framework, the study investigated how these graduates were able to submit or publish their research despite their relative lack of writing expertise. Case data were gathered through interviews and from graduate publication records. Contextual data were collected through graduate interviews, from Faculty and university documents, and through interviews with two Education HDR supervisors. Directed content analysis was applied to all data to ascertain the support available in the research training environment. Thematic analysis of graduate and supervisor interviews was then undertaken to reveal further information on training opportunities accessed by the HDR graduates. Pattern matching of all interview transcripts provided information on how the HDR graduates developed writing expertise. Finally, explanation building was used to determine causal links between the training accessed by the graduates and their writing expertise. The results demonstrated that Education HDR graduates developed publications and some level of expertise simultaneously within communities of practice. Students were largely supported by supervisors who played a critical role. They facilitated communities of practice and largely mediated HDR engagement in other training opportunities. However, supervisor support alone did not ensure that the HDR graduates developed writing expertise. Graduates who appeared to develop the most expertise, and produce a number of publications reported experiencing both a sustained period of engagement within one community of practice, and participation in multiple communities of practice. The implications for the MDL theory, as applied to academic writing, suggests that communities of practice can assist learners to progress from initial contact with a new domain of interest through to competence. The implications for research training include the suggestion that supervisors as potentially crucial supporters of HDR student writing for publication should themselves be active publishers. Also, Faculty or university sponsorship of communities of practice focussed on HDR student writing for publication could provide effective support for the development of HDR student writing expertise and potentially increase the number of their peer-reviewed publications.

Privacy oriented access control for electronic health records

Information privacy is a critical success/failure factor in information technology supported healthcare (eHealth). eHealth systems utilise electronic health records (EHR) as the main source of information, thus, implementing appropriate privacy preserving methods for EHRs is vital for the proliferation of eHealth. Whilst information privacy may be a fundamental requirement for eHealth consumers, healthcare professionals demand non-restricted access to patient information for improved healthcare delivery, thus, creating an environment where stakeholder requirements are contradictory. Therefore, there is a need to achieve an appropriate balance of requirements in order to build successful eHealth systems. Towards achieving this balance, a new genre of eHealth systems called Accountable-eHealth (AeH) systems has been proposed. In this paper, an access control model for EHRs is presented that can be utilised by AeH systems to create information usage policies that fulfil both stakeholders’ requirements. These policies are used to accomplish the aforementioned balance of requirements creating a satisfactory eHealth environment for all stakeholders. The access control model is validated using a Web based prototype as a proof of concept.

Creative Work Beyond the Creative Industries : Innovation, Employment and Education

Creative workers are employed in sectors outside the Creative Industries often in greater numbers than within. This is the first book to explore the phenomena of the embedded creative and creative services through a range of sectors, disciplines, and perspectives. Despite the emergence of these creative workers, very little is known about their work life, and why companies seek to employ them. This book asks: how does creative work actually ‘embed’ into a service or product supply chain? What are creative services? What work are embedded creatives doing? Which industries are they working in? This collection explores these questions in relation to innovation, employment and education, using various methods and theoretical approaches, in order to examine the value of the embedded creative and creative services and to discover the implications of education and training for these creative workers. This book will be of interest to practitioners, policy makers and industry leaders in the Creative Industries, in particular digital media, application development, design, journalism, media and communication. It will also appeal to academics and scholars of innovation, Cultural Studies, business management and Labour Studies.

The effect of employment while in high school on educational attainment : a conditional difference-in-differences approach

Using American panel data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, this article investigates the effect of working during grade 12 on attainment.We employ, for the first time in the related literature, a semiparametric propensity score matching approach combined with difference-in-differences. We address selection on both observables and unobservables associated with part-time work decisions, without the need for instrumental variable. Once such factors are controlled for, little to no effects on reading and math scores are found. Overall, our results therefore suggest a negligible academic cost from part-time working by the end of high school.

Footprints to pathways : reconciliation action planning in industry to sustain Indigenous employment in Queensland

This paper provides an introductory discussion to a study focusing on industry Reconciliation Action Plans (RAP) and sustaining Indigenous employment in Queensland. Indigenous people continue to experience deep and persistent disadvantage in employment, which limits their life prospects (McLachlan, Gilgillan & Gordon, 2013). A major contributing factor to this detriment is irregular employment and or unemployment. A reasonable standard of living has been found to be determined by access to economic resources such as income and wealth. Denial of this access, denies access to income streams, social status, and engagement in meaningful activities. Hence, job loss and joblessness are triggers of disadvantage (McLachlan, et al., 2013). For young Indigenous people, lack of access has lasting effects particularly if they have multiple characteristics that place them at risk of disadvantage. The project aims to develop knowledge and understanding of Industry RAPs mediate employment opportunities for Indigenous people and how young Indigenous people conceive of their employment options and the processes by which employers can best support Indigenous people. It adopts two theoretical frameworks to investigate the aim of the study : (1) Lave and Wenger’s (1991) theory of communities of practice and, (2) Sen’s (1993) capability approach which provides a structure for examining individual well-being in the context of societal inequality. This paper discusses the first research question of the study: What are Industry Reconciliation Action Plans? What is included in RAPs? Why do Industries develop RAPs? How do RAPs attract, recruit, retain, and tenure Indigenous people? The project’s significance rests with its focus on Industry, employers, policies and practices that aid the attraction and retention of Indigenous people in employment.

Front-line workers as intermediaries : the changing landscape of disability and employment services in Australia

Recent welfare reform in Australia has been constructed around the now-familiar principle of paid work and willingness to work as the fundamental marker of social citizenship. Beginning with the long-term unemployed in Australia in the mid 1990s, the scope of welfare reform has now extended to include people with a disability – which is a category of income support that has been growing in Australia. From the national government’s point of view this growth is a financial concern as it seeks to move as many people as possible into paid work to support the costs of an ageing population (DEWR, 2005). In doing so, the government has changed the meaning of disability in terms of eligibility for financial support from the state, and at the same time redefined the role of people with a disability with regard to work, and the role of the state with regard to the disabled. This has been a matter of some political contention in Australia.