Showing items 101 - 120 of 14728

Your selections:

An empirical study into the use of 7 quality control tools in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)

- Mathur, Swati, Antony, Jiju, Olivia, McDermott, Fabiane Letícia, Lizarelli, Shreeranga, Bhat, Raja, Jayaraman, Ayon, Chakraborty

  • Authors: Mathur, Swati , Antony, Jiju , Olivia, McDermott , Fabiane Letícia, Lizarelli , Shreeranga, Bhat , Raja, Jayaraman , Ayon, Chakraborty
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: TQM Journal Vol. 35, no. 7 (2023), p. 1777-1798
  • Full Text:
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to revisit Ishikawa's statement: “95% of problems in processes can be accomplished using the original 7 Quality Control (QC) tools”. The paper critically investigates the validity of this statement in higher education institutions (HEIs). It involves analysis of the usage of the 7 QC tools and identifying the barriers, benefits, challenges and critical success factors (CSFs) for the application of the 7 QC tools in a HEI setting. Design/methodology/approach: An online survey instrument was developed, and as this is a global study, survey participants were contacted via social networks such as LinkedIn. Target respondents were HEIs educators or professionals who are knowledgeable about the 7 QC tools promulgated by Dr Ishikawa. Professionals who work in administrative sectors, such as libraries, information technology and human resources were included in the study. A number of academics who teach the 7 basic tools of QC were also included in the study. The survey link was sent to over 200 educators and professionals and 76 complete responses were obtained. Findings: The primary finding of this study shows that the diffusion of seven QC tools is not widespread in the context of HEIs. Less than 8% of the respondents believe that more than 90% of process problems can be solved by applying the 7 QC tools. These numbers show that modern-quality problems may need more than the 7 basic QC basic tools and there may be a need to revisit the role and contribution of these tools to solve problems in the higher education sector. Tools such as Pareto chart and cause and effect diagram have been widely used in the context of HEIs. The most important barriers highlighted are related to the lack of knowledge about the benefits and about how and when to apply these tools. Among the challenges are the “lack of knowledge of the tools and their applications” and “lack of training in the use of the tools”. The main benefits mentioned by the respondents were “the identification of areas for improvement, problem definition, measurement, and analysis”. According to this study, the most important factors critical for the success of the initiative were “management support”, “widespread training” and “having a continuous improvement program in place”. Research limitations/implications: The exploratory study provides an initial understanding about the 7 QC tools application in HEIs, and their benefits, challenges and critical success factors, which can act as guidelines for implementation in HEIs. Surveys alone cannot provide deeper insights into the status of the application of 7 QC tools in HEIs, and therefore qualitative studies in the form of semi-structured interviews should be carried out in the future. Originality/value: This article contributes with an exploratory empirical study on the extent of the use of 7 QC tools in the university processes. The authors claim that this is the first empirical study looking into the use of the 7 QC tools in the university sector. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

An evaluation of low and high intensity digital mental health treatment models for anxiety and depression : an adaptive treatment randomized clinical trial

- Andrews, Brooke

  • Authors: Andrews, Brooke
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
  • Full Text:
  • Description: Doctor of Philsophy

An evidence theoretic approach for traffic signal intrusion detection

- Chowdhury, Abdullahi, Karmakar, Gour, Kamruzzaman, Joarder, Das, Rajkumar, Newaz, Shah

  • Authors: Chowdhury, Abdullahi , Karmakar, Gour , Kamruzzaman, Joarder , Das, Rajkumar , Newaz, Shah
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Sensors Vol. 23, no. 10 (2023), p. 4646
  • Full Text:
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: The increasing attacks on traffic signals worldwide indicate the importance of intrusion detection. The existing traffic signal Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) that rely on inputs from connected vehicles and image analysis techniques can only detect intrusions created by spoofed vehicles. However, these approaches fail to detect intrusion from attacks on in-road sensors, traffic controllers, and signals. In this paper, we proposed an IDS based on detecting anomalies associated with flow rate, phase time, and vehicle speed, which is a significant extension of our previous work using additional traffic parameters and statistical tools. We theoretically modelled our system using the Dempster-Shafer decision theory, considering the instantaneous observations of traffic parameters and their relevant historical normal traffic data. We also used Shannon's entropy to determine the uncertainty associated with the observations. To validate our work, we developed a simulation model based on the traffic simulator called SUMO using many real scenarios and the data recorded by the Victorian Transportation Authority, Australia. The scenarios for abnormal traffic conditions were generated considering attacks such as jamming, Sybil, and false data injection attacks. The results show that the overall detection accuracy of our proposed system is 79.3% with fewer false alarms.

An examination of physical exercise therapy on quality of life (QoL) and mortality in men diagnosed with Prostate Cancer (PCa)

- Khan, Nazib

  • Authors: Khan, Nazib
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
  • Full Text:
  • Description: Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most frequent malignancy in men worldwide, accounting for 27% of new cancer cases in men and responsible for 3.8% of worldwide male cancer deaths (2018). This risk is projected to double before 204, so it is surprising that there are no well- established modifiable risk factors for PCa diagnosis orr progression. Considering this, the following thesis consists of three original research studies that examined; (1) the moderating effect of physical activity and muscular strength on prostate cancer mortality; (2) the magnitude of effect from pooled therapeutic exercise studies to impact quality of life and adverse events in PCa patients following surgery; (3) the head-to-head comparative efficacy of individual exercise therapies to impact quality of life and adverse events following surgery. The sum of works presented in this thesis lead to the conclusion that 1) when PCa is the only lifetime cancer diagnosis, life expectancy is similar to lifetime cancer free counterparts whereas diagnosis of PCa with any other lifetime cancer is associated with a 30.2% lower life expectancy during 10-year follow-up. Physical activity has negligible effect on life-expectancy whereas handgrip strength accounts for ~4% of the difference in life-expectancy between PCa with any other lifetime cancer compared with controls; 2) Pooled evidence from randomised controlled trials (n=999 participants) identifies that perioperative exercise therapy (aerobic, resistance, pelvic floor, mind-body exercise, or mixed exercise (combined aerobic and resistance) has a positive impact on patient quality of life and adverse events in PCa patients undergoing surgery which is predominant in perceptions of symptom related QoL (SMD: 0.56, 111 95% CI’s [0.22-0.89]) more so than health related quality of life (HRQoL) (SMD: 0.02, 95% 112 CI’s [-0.16-0.20]; 3) Comparison of head-to-head efficacy of different therapeutic exercise interventions [Aerobic, resistance, pelvic floor, mind-body exercise or mixed exercise (combined aerobic and resistance)] identified pelvic floor muscle exercise to be the most favorable exercise therapy to maintain QoL in PCa patients undergoing surgery, partly due to the current lack of evidence to support other exercise therapies. These findings provide new knowledge to support the effective treatment of PCa patients.
  • Description: Doctor of Philosophy

An examination of tourists’ pre-trip motivational model using push–pull theory : Melbourne as a case study

- Soldatenko, Daria, Zentveld, Elisa, Morgan, Damian

  • Authors: Soldatenko, Daria , Zentveld, Elisa , Morgan, Damian
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: International Journal of Tourism Cities Vol. 9, no. 3 (2023), p. 572-597
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Purpose: To succeed in a competitive tourist market and attract more foreign tourists, it is essential to have a clear understanding of what travellers are seeking and endeavour to meet those needs, as well as key influential factors in their travel decision-making process. The purpose of the study is to develop and examine tourists’ pre-trip motivational model using the push–pull theory. Design/methodology/approach: A tourists’ pre-trip motivational model was developed and then tested based on a sample of 320 Chinese and non-Chinese visitors to Melbourne, Australia, to assess the suitability of the new model. Data were analysed by descriptive and inferential statistical techniques, such as principal component analysis and independent T-tests. Findings: The analysis revealed statistically significant differences between studied samples in terms of the push and pull factors. In comparison with non-Chinese tourists, Chinese visitors to Melbourne assigned higher importance to resting and relaxing opportunities, family-oriented activities, as well as safety and a high level of service. The identified differences should be reflected in marketing and promotional activities provided to Chinese and non-Chinese travellers. Practical implications: The study provides useful information for Destination Marketing Organisations in tourism cities wanting to develop specifically customised tourist products, services and promotion programs tailored to each market. Originality/value: The proposed extended push–pull model represents a holistic and complex model of the travel decision-making process with the multiple linkages between motivations for travelling, preferences of destination attributes, information source usage, trip expectations, possible constraints for travelling and evaluation of destination choice criteria. Understanding all these factors, their relationship and their influence on the final destination choice is a prerequisite for effective and successful actions on attraction and retention of visitors for all tourist destinations. The developed tourists’ pre-trip motivational model may be used as a conceptual framework to guide subsequent motivational studies in tourism. © 2023, International Tourism Studies Association.

An exploration into early childhood physical literacy programs : a systematic literature review

- Porter, Joanne, Dabkowski, Elissa, Prokopiv, Val, Missen, Karen, Barbagallo, Michael, James, Michelle

  • Authors: Porter, Joanne , Dabkowski, Elissa , Prokopiv, Val , Missen, Karen , Barbagallo, Michael , James, Michelle
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article , Review
  • Relation: Australasian Journal of Early Childhood Vol. 48, no. 1 (2023), p. 34-49
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: This review explored the impact of physical literacy programs designed to engage two- to five-year-old preschool children. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) was used. Six EBSCO host databases were searched for the period 2011 to April 2021 using the search terms “physical literacy,” “early childhood,” and “impact.” Articles were excluded if physical literacy was not the focal intervention. The final data set consisted of seven-peer reviewed articles meeting the eligibility criteria and quality assessment for this review. Three themes were created using Braun and Clark’s (2006) approach to thematic analysis: Holistic benefits of physical literacy, Barriers to physical literacy and Education begins at home. Early childhood physical literacy programs provide holistic benefits for children; however, further research is needed in an Australian context. Families and community members working in the early childhood sector could benefit from further education and training to improve physical literacy awareness. © The Author(s) 2022.

An exploration of trolling behaviours in Australian adolescents : an online survey

- Marrington, Jessica, March, Evita, Murray, Sarah, Jeffries, Carla, Machin, Tanya, March, Sonja

  • Authors: Marrington, Jessica , March, Evita , Murray, Sarah , Jeffries, Carla , Machin, Tanya , March, Sonja
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: PLoS ONE Vol. 18, no. 4 April (2023), p.
  • Full Text:
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: To understand why people “troll” (i.e., engage in disruptive online behaviour intended to provoke and distress for one’s own amusement), researchers have explored a range of individual differences. These studies have primarily been conducted in adult samples, despite adolescents being a particularly vulnerable group with regards to both being trolled and trolling others. In this study we aimed to (1) explore Australian adolescents’ experiences of trolling, and (2) replicate adult research that has constructed a psychological profile of the Internet troll by examining the utility of personality traits (psychopathy and sadism), self-esteem, empathy (cognitive and affective), and social rewards (negative social potency) to predict adolescents’ trolling behaviours. A sample of 157 Australian adolescents (40.8% male, 58% female, 0.6% non-binary) aged 13–18 years (M = 15.58, SD = 1.71) completed the Global Assessment of Internet Trolling-Revised, Adolescent Measure of Empathy and Sympathy, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Youth Psychopathy Traits Inventory-Short Version, Social Rewards Questionnaire, Short Sadistic Impulse Scale, and a series of questions related to the experience of trolling. Results showed in the past year, 24.2% of Australian adolescents reported being trolled and 13.4% reported having trolled others. Gender, psychopathy, sadism, self-esteem, cognitive empathy, affective empathy, and “negative social potency” (i.e., enjoyment of antisocial rewards) combined, explained 30.7% of variance in adolescents’ trolling behaviours (p < .001). When accounting for shared variance, gender (male), high psychopathy, and high negative social potency were significant predictors of trolling, aligning with findings of adult samples. Contrary to adult samples, sadism was not a unique predictor of adolescents’ trolling. For adolescents, the variance in trolling explained by sadism was nonsignificant when controlling for negative social potency. These similarities, and differences, in predictors of trolling across adult and adolescent samples may play a critical role in the development of targeted interventions to prevent or manage trolling. © 2023 Marrington et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

An in silico assessment on the potential of using saline infusion to overcome non-confluent coagulation zone during two-probe, no-touch bipolar radiofrequency ablation of liver cancer

- Yip, Wai, Kho, Antony, Ooi, Ean, Ooi, Ean Tat

  • Authors: Yip, Wai , Kho, Antony , Ooi, Ean , Ooi, Ean Tat
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Medical Engineering and Physics Vol. 112, no. (2023), p.
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: No-touch bipolar radiofrequency ablation (bRFA) is known to produce incomplete tumour ablation with a ‘butterfly-shaped’ coagulation zone when the interelectrode distance exceeds a certain threshold. Although non-confluent coagulation zone can be avoided by not implementing the no-touch mode, doing so exposes the patient to the risk of tumour track seeding. The present study investigates if prior infusion of saline into the tissue can overcome the issues of non-confluent or butterfly-shaped coagulation. A computational modelling approach based on the finite element method was carried out. A two-compartment model comprising the tumour that is surrounded by healthy liver tissue was developed. Three cases were considered; i) saline infusion into the tumour centre; ii) one-sided saline infusion outside the tumour; and iii) two-sided saline infusion outside the tumour. For each case, three different saline volumes were considered, i.e. 6, 14 and 22 ml. Saline concentration was set to 15% w/v. Numerical results showed that saline infusion into the tumour centre can overcome the butterfly-shaped coagulation only if the infusion volume is sufficient. On the other hand, one-sided infusion outside the tumour did not overcome this. Two-sided infusion outside the tumour produced confluent coagulation zone with the largest volume. Results obtained from the present study suggest that saline infusion, when carried out correctly, can be used to effectively eradicate liver cancer. This presents a practical solution to address non-confluent coagulation zone typical of that during two-probe bRFA treatment. © 2023 IPEM

An intelligent heart disease prediction system based on swarm-artificial neural network

- Nandy, Sudarshan, Adhikari, Mainak, Balasubramanian, Venki, Menon, Varun, Li, Xingwang, Zakarya, Muhammad

  • Authors: Nandy, Sudarshan , Adhikari, Mainak , Balasubramanian, Venki , Menon, Varun , Li, Xingwang , Zakarya, Muhammad
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Neural Computing and Applications Vol. 35, no. 20 (2023), p. 14723-14737
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: The accurate prediction of cardiovascular disease is an essential and challenging task to treat a patient efficiently before occurring a heart attack. In recent times, various intelligent healthcare frameworks have been designed with different machine learning and swarm optimization techniques for cardiovascular disease prediction. However, most of the existing strategies failed to achieve higher accuracy for cardiovascular disease prediction due to the lack of data-recognized techniques and proper prediction methodology. Motivated by the existing challenges, in this paper, we propose an intelligent healthcare framework for predicting cardiovascular heart disease based on Swarm-Artificial Neural Network (Swarm-ANN) strategy. Initially, the proposed Swarm-ANN strategy randomly generates predefined numbers of Neural Networks (NNs) for training and evaluating the framework based on their solution consistency. Additionally, the NN populations are trained by two stages of weight changes and their weight is adjusted by a newly designed heuristic formulation. Finally, the weight of the neurons is modified by sharing the global best weight with other neurons and predicts the accuracy of cardiovascular disease. The proposed Swarm-ANN strategy achieves 95.78% accuracy while predicting the cardiovascular disease of the patients from a benchmark dataset. The simulation results exhibit that the proposed Swarm-ANN strategy outperforms the standard learning techniques in terms of various performance matrices. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature.

An introduction to the Ramsar Convention on wetlands

- Gell, Peter, Finlayson, C., Davidson, Nick

  • Authors: Gell, Peter , Finlayson, C. , Davidson, Nick
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Ramsar Wetlands: Values, Assessment, Management Chapter 1 p. 1-36
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: The Ramsar Convention on the conservation and wise use of the World’s wetlands was agreed in response to widespread recognition of the declining condition of wetlands and the impact of this on wetland habitats and associated fauna. Since 1971, over 2000 wetlands have been listed as internationally important by 172 countries and covering more than 2,000,000km2. There have been considerable advances in the scientific understanding of wetlands, and today, the monitoring of these systems draws on multiple disciplinary approaches. The Convention itself has responded to these advances and the ongoing challenge to conserve the world’s wetlands. Importantly, signatory nations regularly report on the condition of wetlands, update listings, and have adopted a framework to ensure wise use of all wetlands. In turn, healthy wetlands are increasingly seen to afford considerable ecosystem services to human communities that rely on them for the provision of food and water and recreation and for their cultural and aesthetic values. Whilst the Convention has now passed its 50th anniversary, it is increasingly recognised that wetlands continually change over many time scales and that direct human pressures are merely one of the drivers that affect wetlands. The monitoring of these changes continues to allow the Convention and signatory nations to amend the framework to reflect emerging understanding of wetland change. These advances enable the Convention to encourage, and better allow, signatory nations to pursue social and economic outcomes whilst continuing to contribute to the pursuit of conserving the natural assets accommodated within the global network of significant wetlands. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An optimal scheduling method in iot-fog-cloud network using combination of aquila optimizer and african vultures optimization

- Liu, Qing, Kosarirad, Houman, Meisami, Sajad, Alnowibet, Khalid, Hoshyar, Azadeh

  • Authors: Liu, Qing , Kosarirad, Houman , Meisami, Sajad , Alnowibet, Khalid , Hoshyar, Azadeh
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Processes Vol. 11, no. 4 (2023), p.
  • Full Text:
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Today, fog and cloud computing environments can be used to further develop the Internet of Things (IoT). In such environments, task scheduling is very efficient for executing user requests, and the optimal scheduling of IoT task requests increases the productivity of the IoT-fog-cloud system. In this paper, a hybrid meta-heuristic (MH) algorithm is developed to schedule the IoT requests in IoT-fog-cloud networks using the Aquila Optimizer (AO) and African Vultures Optimization Algorithm (AVOA) called AO_AVOA. In AO_AVOA, the exploration phase of AVOA is improved by using AO operators to obtain the best solution during the process of finding the optimal scheduling solution. A comparison between AO_AVOA and methods of AVOA, AO, Firefly Algorithm (FA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and Harris Hawks Optimization (HHO) according to performance metrics such as makespan and throughput shows the high ability of AO_AVOA to solve the scheduling problem in IoT-fog-cloud networks. © 2023 by the authors.

An optimized hybrid deep intrusion detection model (HD-IDM) for enhancing network security

- Ahmad, Iftikhar, Imran, Muhammad, Qayyum, Abdul, Ramzan, Muhammad, Alassafi, Madini

  • Authors: Ahmad, Iftikhar , Imran, Muhammad , Qayyum, Abdul , Ramzan, Muhammad , Alassafi, Madini
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Mathematics Vol. 11, no. 21 (2023), p.
  • Full Text:
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Detecting cyber intrusions in network traffic is a tough task for cybersecurity. Current methods struggle with the complexity of understanding patterns in network data. To solve this, we present the Hybrid Deep Learning Intrusion Detection Model (HD-IDM), a new way that combines GRU and LSTM classifiers. GRU is good at catching quick patterns, while LSTM handles long-term ones. HD-IDM blends these models using weighted averaging, boosting accuracy, especially with complex patterns. We tested HD-IDM on four datasets: CSE-CIC-IDS2017, CSE-CIC-IDS2018, NSL KDD, and CIC-DDoS2019. The HD-IDM classifier achieved remarkable performance metrics on all datasets. It attains an outstanding accuracy of 99.91%, showcasing its consistent precision across the dataset. With an impressive precision of 99.62%, it excels in accurately categorizing positive cases, crucial for minimizing false positives. Additionally, maintaining a high recall of 99.43%, it effectively identifies the majority of actual positive cases while minimizing false negatives. The F1-score of 99.52% emphasizes its robustness, making it the top choice for classification tasks requiring precision and reliability. It is particularly good at ROC and precision/recall curves, discriminating normal and harmful network activities. While HD-IDM is promising, it has limits. It needs labeled data and may struggle with new intrusion methods. Future work should find ways to handle unlabeled data and adapt to emerging threats. Also, making HD-IDM work faster for real-time use and dealing with scalability challenges is key for its broader use in changing network environments. © 2023 by the authors.

An overview of Australian exercise and sport science degrees

- Kittel, Aden, Stevens, Christopher, Lindsay, Riki, Spittle, Sharna, Spittle, Michael

  • Authors: Kittel, Aden , Stevens, Christopher , Lindsay, Riki , Spittle, Sharna , Spittle, Michael
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Frontiers in Education Vol. 8, no. (2023), p.
  • Full Text:
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Exercise and Sport Science (EXSS) is a common degree offered at Australian universities, yet there is no systematic overview of this multidisciplinary field of study. This study aimed to determine the broad curriculum content of Australian EXSS degrees by summarizing the units offered, identify most commonly delivered content areas, and capture course information such as work-integrated learning (WIL) requirements and majors offered. Data were gathered through publicly available university course pages, with 30 EXSS courses included and only core units identified. The most common Australian EXSS units were “Exercise Physiology,” “Biomechanics,” “Research Methods and Data Analysis,” “Exercise Prescription and Delivery,” and “Exercise and Sport Psychology.” WIL requirements ranged from 140 to 300 h per course, and five courses offered majors. This study provides an overview of Australian EXSS courses, with the focus on exercise-related components reflecting accreditation requirements. Future research should examine how these courses equip students for the multidisciplinary EXSS industry. Copyright © 2023 Kittel, Stevens, Lindsay, Spittle and Spittle.

An overview of long covid support services in australia and international clinical guidelines, with a proposed care model in a global context

- Luo, Shiqi, Zheng, Zhen, Bird, Stephen, Plebanski, Magdalena, Figueiredo, Bernardo, Jessup, Rebecca, Stelmach, Wanda, Robinson, Jennifer, Xenos, Sophia, Olasoji, Micheal, Wan, Dawn, Sheahan, Jacob, Itsiopoulos, Catherine

  • Authors: Luo, Shiqi , Zheng, Zhen , Bird, Stephen , Plebanski, Magdalena , Figueiredo, Bernardo , Jessup, Rebecca , Stelmach, Wanda , Robinson, Jennifer , Xenos, Sophia , Olasoji, Micheal , Wan, Dawn , Sheahan, Jacob , Itsiopoulos, Catherine
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article , Review
  • Relation: Public Health Reviews Vol. 44, no. (2023), p.
  • Full Text:
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Objective: To identify gaps among Australian Long COVID support services and guidelines alongside recommendations for future health programs. Methods: Electronic databases and seven government health websites were searched for Long COVID-specific programs or clinics available in Australia as well as international and Australian management guidelines. Results: Five Long COVID specific guidelines and sixteen Australian services were reviewed. The majority of Australian services provided multidisciplinary rehabilitation programs with service models generally consistent with international and national guidelines. Most services included physiotherapists and psychologists. While early investigation at week 4 after contraction of COVID-19 is recommended by the Australian, UK and US guidelines, this was not consistently implemented. Conclusion: Besides Long COVID clinics, future solutions should focus on early identification that can be delivered by General Practitioners and all credentialed allied health professions. Study findings highlight an urgent need for innovative care models that address individual patient needs at an affordable cost. We propose a model that focuses on patient-led self-care with further enhancement via multi-disciplinary care tools. Copyright © 2023 Luo, Zheng, Bird, Plebanski, Figueiredo, Jessup, Stelmach, Robinson, Xenos, Olasoji, Wan, Sheahan and Itsiopoulos.

An update on the influence of natural climate variability and anthropogenic climate change on tropical cyclones

- Camargo, Suzana, Murakami, Hiroyuki, Bloemendaal, Nadia, Chand, Savin, Deshpande, Medha, Dominguez-Sarmiento, Christian, González-Alemán, Juan, Knutson, Thomas, Lin, I., Moon, Il-Ju, Patricola, Christian, Reed, Kevin, Roberts, Malcolm, Scoccimarro, Enrico, Tam, Chi, Wallace, Elizabeth, Wu, Liguang, Yamada, Yohei, Zhang, Wei, Zhao, Haikun

  • Authors: Camargo, Suzana , Murakami, Hiroyuki , Bloemendaal, Nadia , Chand, Savin , Deshpande, Medha , Dominguez-Sarmiento, Christian , González-Alemán, Juan , Knutson, Thomas , Lin, I. , Moon, Il-Ju , Patricola, Christian , Reed, Kevin , Roberts, Malcolm , Scoccimarro, Enrico , Tam, Chi , Wallace, Elizabeth , Wu, Liguang , Yamada, Yohei , Zhang, Wei , Zhao, Haikun
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Tropical Cyclone Research and Review Vol. 12, no. 3 (2023), p. 216-239
  • Full Text:
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: A substantial number of studies have been published since the Ninth International Workshop on Tropical Cyclones (IWTC-9) in 2018, improving our understanding of the effect of climate change on tropical cyclones (TCs) and associated hazards and risks. These studies have reinforced the robustness of increases in TC intensity and associated TC hazards and risks due to anthropogenic climate change. New modeling and observational studies suggested the potential influence of anthropogenic climate forcings, including greenhouse gases and aerosols, on global and regional TC activity at the decadal and century time scales. However, there are still substantial uncertainties owing to model uncertainty in simulating historical TC decadal variability in the Atlantic, and the limitations of observed TC records. The projected future change in the global number of TCs has become more uncertain since IWTC-9 due to projected increases in TC frequency by a few climate models. A new paradigm, TC seeds, has been proposed, and there is currently a debate on whether seeds can help explain the physical mechanism behind the projected changes in global TC frequency. New studies also highlighted the importance of large-scale environmental fields on TC activity, such as snow cover and air-sea interactions. Future projections on TC translation speed and medicanes are new additional focus topics in our report. Recommendations and future research are proposed relevant to the remaining scientific questions and assisting policymakers. © 2023 The Shanghai Typhoon Institute of China Meteorological Administration

Analysis and design of a cost-effective single-input and regulatable multioutput WPT system

- Li, Xiaofei, Zheng, Fan, Wang, Heshou, Dai, Xin, Sun, Yue, Hu, Jiefeng

  • Authors: Li, Xiaofei , Zheng, Fan , Wang, Heshou , Dai, Xin , Sun, Yue , Hu, Jiefeng
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics Vol. 38, no. 6 (2023), p. 6939-6944
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: In this letter, a single-input and regulatable multioutput wireless power transfer system is presented. In particular, the system uses positive and negative half-wave rectifiers and a synchronous rectifier to realize multiple output channels. Each output channel is controllable, providing a flexible wireless charger to meet various charging requirements. Moreover, this system utilizes the inherent half-wave-rectifier channels (#B and #C) to detect synchronous signals for the rectifiers rather than using additional synchronous detection circuits, thereby leading to a cost-effective system. Finally, a 300 W laboratory prototype is contrasted with three voltage levels, i.e., 48, 30, and 24 V. With the help of the control logic, this system shows excellent robustness against different occasions, such as load variations, input disturbance, and misalignment. The overall efficiency ranges from 86.7% to 90.6%. © 1986-2012 IEEE.

Analysis of microalgal density estimation by using lasso and image texture features

- Nguyen, Linh, Nguyen, Dung, Nguyen, Thang, Nguyen, Binh, Nghiem, Truong

  • Authors: Nguyen, Linh , Nguyen, Dung , Nguyen, Thang , Nguyen, Binh , Nghiem, Truong
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Sensors Vol. 23, no. 5 (2023), p.
  • Full Text:
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Monitoring and estimating the density of microalgae in a closed cultivation system is a critical task in culturing algae since it allows growers to optimally control both nutrients and cultivating conditions. Among the estimation techniques proposed so far, image-based methods, which are less invasive, nondestructive, and more biosecure, are practically preferred. Nevertheless, the premise behind most of those approaches is simply averaging the pixel values of images as inputs of a regression model to predict density values, which may not provide rich information of the microalgae presenting in the images. In this work, we propose to exploit more advanced texture features extracted from captured images, including confidence intervals of means of pixel values, powers of spatial frequencies presenting in images, and entropies accounting for pixel distribution. These diverse features can provide more information of microalgae, which can lead to more accurate estimation results. More importantly, we propose to use the texture features as inputs of a data-driven model based on L1 regularization, called least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), where their coefficients are optimized in a manner that prioritizes more informative features. The LASSO model was then employed to efficiently estimate the density of microalgae presenting in a new image. The proposed approach was validated in real-world experiments monitoring the Chlorella vulgaris microalgae strain, where the obtained results demonstrate its outperformance compared with other methods. More specifically, the average error in the estimation obtained by the proposed approach is 1.54, whereas those obtained by the Gaussian process and gray-scale-based methods are 2.16 and 3.68, respectively © 2023 by the authors.

Animal population decline and recovery after severe fire: Relating ecological and life history traits with expert estimates of population impacts from the Australian 2019-20 megafires

- Ensbey, Michelle, Legge, Sarah, Jolly, Chris, Garnett, Stephen, Gallagher, Rachael, Lintermans, Mark, Nimmo, Dale, Rumpff, Libby, Scheele, Ben, Whiterod, Nick, Woinarski, John, Ahyong, Shane, Blackmore, Caroline, Bower, Deborah, Burbidge, Allan, Burns, Phoebe, Butler, Gavin, Catullo, Renee, Chapple, David, Dickman, Christopher, Doyle, Katie, Ferris, Jason, Fisher, Diana, Geyle, Hayley, Gillespie, Graeme, Greenlees, Matt, Hohnen, Rosemary, Hoskin, Conrad, Kennard, Mark, King, Alison, Kuchinke, Diana, Law, Brad, Lawler, Ivan, Lawler, Susan, Loyn, Richard, Lunney, Daniel, Lyon, Jarod, MacHunter, Josephine, Mahony, Michael, Mahony, Stephen, McCormack, Rob, Melville, Jane, Menkhorst, Peter, Michael, Damian, Mitchell, Nicola, Mulder, Eridani, Newell, David, Pearce, Luke, Raadik, Tarmo, Rowley, Jodi, Sitters, Holly, Southwell, Darren, Spencer, Ricky, West, Matt, Zukowski, Sylvia

Anti-aliasing deep image classifiers using novel depth adaptive blurring and activation function

- Hossain, Md Tahmid, Teng, Shyh, Lu, Guojun, Rahman, Mohammad Arifur, Sohel, Ferdous

  • Authors: Hossain, Md Tahmid , Teng, Shyh , Lu, Guojun , Rahman, Mohammad Arifur , Sohel, Ferdous
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Neurocomputing Vol. 536, no. (2023), p. 164-174
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Deep convolutional networks are vulnerable to image translation or shift, partly due to common down-sampling layers, e.g., max-pooling and strided convolution. These operations violate the Nyquist sampling rate and cause aliasing. The textbook solution is low-pass filtering (blurring) before down-sampling, which can benefit deep networks as well. Even so, non-linearity units, such as ReLU, often re-introduce the problem, suggesting that blurring alone may not suffice. In this work, first, we analyse deep features with Fourier transform and show that Depth Adaptive Blurring is more effective, as opposed to monotonic blurring. To this end, we propose a novel Depth Adaptive Blur-pool (DAB-pool) module to replace existing down-sampling methods. Second, we introduce a novel activation function – with a built-in low pass filter, as an additional measure, to keep the problem from reappearing. From experiments, we observe generalisation on other forms of transformations and corruptions as well, e.g., rotation, scale, and noise. We evaluate our method under three challenging settings: (1) a variety of image translations; (2) adversarial attacks – both

Antisocial and prosocial online behaviour : exploring the roles of the dark and light triads

- March, Evita, Marrington, Jessica