Out on a limb : applying the person-environment-occupation-performance model to examine injury-linked factors among light rail drivers
- Naweed, Anjum, Bowditch, Lorelle, Trigg, Joshua, Unsworth, Carolyn
- Authors: Naweed, Anjum , Bowditch, Lorelle , Trigg, Joshua , Unsworth, Carolyn
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Safety Science Vol. 127, no. (2020), p.
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- Description: Work-related injuries and musculoskeletal disorders are a workplace problem within and across organisations, particularly in rail, where they tend to be treated as non-significant and localised health issues. While physical ergonomics and interface-design issues invariably contribute to the incidence of such injuries, contemporary socio-technical systems theories suggest that wider system factors and complex interrelationships between them may also play a role. The Person-Environment-Occupation-Performance (PEOP) model was applied to identify, map and examine injury-linked factors in light rail vehicle (i.e. tram) drivers. Two connected studies were undertaken in a mixed methods research design involving direct (e.g. interviews, observations) and indirect (e.g. cross-sectional surveys) methods of data capture within an Australian light rail organisation. Analysis of data and triangulation of findings revealed that impacts to work-related musculoskeletal disorders are not only local and physical, but psychosocial and distal, such as in driving behaviours engendered by knowledge and levels of interpersonal support received. Application of the PEOP model enabled determination of the complexity around the systems factors contributing to driver injury in the context of rail driving and identification of specific strategies and implications for policy, education and practice. This paper presents the first use of the PEOP model to examine and better understand work-related injuries and musculoskeletal disorders in the rail industry and provides an adaptation of the model as a template for future use in rail and to assist in the understanding of complex injury scenarios within a socio-technical systems approach. © 2020 The Authors
- Authors: Naweed, Anjum , Bowditch, Lorelle , Trigg, Joshua , Unsworth, Carolyn
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Safety Science Vol. 127, no. (2020), p.
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Work-related injuries and musculoskeletal disorders are a workplace problem within and across organisations, particularly in rail, where they tend to be treated as non-significant and localised health issues. While physical ergonomics and interface-design issues invariably contribute to the incidence of such injuries, contemporary socio-technical systems theories suggest that wider system factors and complex interrelationships between them may also play a role. The Person-Environment-Occupation-Performance (PEOP) model was applied to identify, map and examine injury-linked factors in light rail vehicle (i.e. tram) drivers. Two connected studies were undertaken in a mixed methods research design involving direct (e.g. interviews, observations) and indirect (e.g. cross-sectional surveys) methods of data capture within an Australian light rail organisation. Analysis of data and triangulation of findings revealed that impacts to work-related musculoskeletal disorders are not only local and physical, but psychosocial and distal, such as in driving behaviours engendered by knowledge and levels of interpersonal support received. Application of the PEOP model enabled determination of the complexity around the systems factors contributing to driver injury in the context of rail driving and identification of specific strategies and implications for policy, education and practice. This paper presents the first use of the PEOP model to examine and better understand work-related injuries and musculoskeletal disorders in the rail industry and provides an adaptation of the model as a template for future use in rail and to assist in the understanding of complex injury scenarios within a socio-technical systems approach. © 2020 The Authors
Prevention focus and prior investment failure in financial decision making
- Ewe, Soo, Lee, Christina, Watabe, Motoki
- Authors: Ewe, Soo , Lee, Christina , Watabe, Motoki
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance Vol. 26, no. (2020), p.
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- Description: This research demonstrates, across four experiments, that investors behave differently when a prior investment is perceived as a failure rather than as a loss. The research shows that individuals consistently prefer a conservative investment option in the condition of failure rather than a loss even though the risky option offers a chance to break even (Study 1 & 2). The same result was obtained even when the risky option offers a higher expected return (i.e. should be selected if the decision makers are rational) than the conservative option (Study 3). The tendency to be more risk-averse in the failure condition is due to the activation of situational prevention focus (Study 4). The research findings highlight the importance of understanding investors’ perceptions of their prior negative investment decision outcomes since risk-seeking behavior and buying behavior could be different when a prior investment is perceived as a failure or as a loss. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.
- Authors: Ewe, Soo , Lee, Christina , Watabe, Motoki
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance Vol. 26, no. (2020), p.
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- Description: This research demonstrates, across four experiments, that investors behave differently when a prior investment is perceived as a failure rather than as a loss. The research shows that individuals consistently prefer a conservative investment option in the condition of failure rather than a loss even though the risky option offers a chance to break even (Study 1 & 2). The same result was obtained even when the risky option offers a higher expected return (i.e. should be selected if the decision makers are rational) than the conservative option (Study 3). The tendency to be more risk-averse in the failure condition is due to the activation of situational prevention focus (Study 4). The research findings highlight the importance of understanding investors’ perceptions of their prior negative investment decision outcomes since risk-seeking behavior and buying behavior could be different when a prior investment is perceived as a failure or as a loss. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.
Real-time dissemination of emergency warning messages in 5G enabled selfish vehicular social networks
- Ullah, Noor, Kong, Xiangjie, Lin, Limei, Alrashoud, Mubarak, Tolba, Amr, Xia, Feng
- Authors: Ullah, Noor , Kong, Xiangjie , Lin, Limei , Alrashoud, Mubarak , Tolba, Amr , Xia, Feng
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Computer Networks Vol. 182, no. (2020), p.
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- Description: This paper addresses the issues of selfishness, limited network resources, and their adverse effects on real-time dissemination of Emergency Warning Messages (EWMs) in modern Autonomous Moving Platforms (AMPs) such as Vehicular Social Networks (VSNs). For this purpose, we propose a social intelligence based identification mechanism to differentiate between a selfish and a cooperative node in the network. Therefore, we devise a crowdsensing based mechanism to calculate a tie-strength value based on several social metrics. Moreover, we design a recursive evolutionary algorithm for each node's reputation calculation and update. Given that, then we estimate each node's state-transition probability to select a super-spreader for rapid dissemination. In order to ensure a seamless and reliable dissemination process, we incorporate 5G network structure instead of conventional short range communication which is used in most vehicular networks at present. Finally, we design a real-time dissemination algorithm for EWMs and evaluate its performance in terms of network parameters such as delivery-ratio, delay, hop-count, and message-overhead for varying values of vehicular density, speed, and selfish nodes’ density based on realistic vehicular mobility traces. In addition, we present a comparative analysis of the performance of the proposed scheme with state-of-the-art dissemination schemes in VSNs. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.
- Authors: Ullah, Noor , Kong, Xiangjie , Lin, Limei , Alrashoud, Mubarak , Tolba, Amr , Xia, Feng
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Computer Networks Vol. 182, no. (2020), p.
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- Description: This paper addresses the issues of selfishness, limited network resources, and their adverse effects on real-time dissemination of Emergency Warning Messages (EWMs) in modern Autonomous Moving Platforms (AMPs) such as Vehicular Social Networks (VSNs). For this purpose, we propose a social intelligence based identification mechanism to differentiate between a selfish and a cooperative node in the network. Therefore, we devise a crowdsensing based mechanism to calculate a tie-strength value based on several social metrics. Moreover, we design a recursive evolutionary algorithm for each node's reputation calculation and update. Given that, then we estimate each node's state-transition probability to select a super-spreader for rapid dissemination. In order to ensure a seamless and reliable dissemination process, we incorporate 5G network structure instead of conventional short range communication which is used in most vehicular networks at present. Finally, we design a real-time dissemination algorithm for EWMs and evaluate its performance in terms of network parameters such as delivery-ratio, delay, hop-count, and message-overhead for varying values of vehicular density, speed, and selfish nodes’ density based on realistic vehicular mobility traces. In addition, we present a comparative analysis of the performance of the proposed scheme with state-of-the-art dissemination schemes in VSNs. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.
Understanding the pathways from biodiversity to agro-ecological outcomes : a new, interactive approach
- González-Chang, Mauricio, Wratten, Stephen, Shields, Morgan, Costanza, Robert, Sandhu, Harpinder
- Authors: González-Chang, Mauricio , Wratten, Stephen , Shields, Morgan , Costanza, Robert , Sandhu, Harpinder
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment Vol. 301, no. (2020), p.
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- Description: The adoption of agro-ecological practices in agricultural systems worldwide can contribute to increased food production without compromising future food security, especially under the current biodiversity loss and climate change scenarios. Despite the increase in publications on agro-ecological research and practices during the last 35 years, a weak link between that knowledge and changed farmer practices has led to few examples of agro-ecological protocols and effective delivery systems to agriculturalists. In an attempt to reduce this gap, we synthesised the main concepts related to biodiversity and its functions by creating a web-based interactive spiral (www.biodiversityfunction.com). This tool explains and describes a pathway for achieving agro-ecological outcomes, starting from the basic principle of biodiversity and its functions to enhanced biodiversity on farms. Within this pathway, 11 key steps are identified and sequentially presented on a web platform through which key players (farmers, farmer networks, policy makers, scientists and other stakeholders) can navigate and learn. Because in many areas of the world the necessary knowledge needed for achieving the adoption of particular agro-ecological techniques is not available, the spiral approach can provide the necessary conceptual steps needed for obtaining and understanding such knowledge by navigating through the interactive pathway. This novel approach aims to improve our understanding of the sequence from the concept of biodiversity to harnessing its power to improve prospects for ‘sustainable intensification’ of agricultural systems worldwide. © 2020 The Authors. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Harpinder Sandhu” is provided in this record**
- Authors: González-Chang, Mauricio , Wratten, Stephen , Shields, Morgan , Costanza, Robert , Sandhu, Harpinder
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment Vol. 301, no. (2020), p.
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: The adoption of agro-ecological practices in agricultural systems worldwide can contribute to increased food production without compromising future food security, especially under the current biodiversity loss and climate change scenarios. Despite the increase in publications on agro-ecological research and practices during the last 35 years, a weak link between that knowledge and changed farmer practices has led to few examples of agro-ecological protocols and effective delivery systems to agriculturalists. In an attempt to reduce this gap, we synthesised the main concepts related to biodiversity and its functions by creating a web-based interactive spiral (www.biodiversityfunction.com). This tool explains and describes a pathway for achieving agro-ecological outcomes, starting from the basic principle of biodiversity and its functions to enhanced biodiversity on farms. Within this pathway, 11 key steps are identified and sequentially presented on a web platform through which key players (farmers, farmer networks, policy makers, scientists and other stakeholders) can navigate and learn. Because in many areas of the world the necessary knowledge needed for achieving the adoption of particular agro-ecological techniques is not available, the spiral approach can provide the necessary conceptual steps needed for obtaining and understanding such knowledge by navigating through the interactive pathway. This novel approach aims to improve our understanding of the sequence from the concept of biodiversity to harnessing its power to improve prospects for ‘sustainable intensification’ of agricultural systems worldwide. © 2020 The Authors. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Harpinder Sandhu” is provided in this record**
Unmanned aerial vehicle for internet of everything : opportunities and challenges
- Liu, Yalin, Dai, Hong-Ning, Wang, Qubeijian, Shukla, Mahendra, Imran, Muhammad
- Authors: Liu, Yalin , Dai, Hong-Ning , Wang, Qubeijian , Shukla, Mahendra , Imran, Muhammad
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article , Review
- Relation: Computer Communications Vol. 155, no. (2020), p. 66-83
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- Description: The recent advances in information and communication technology (ICT) have further extended Internet of Things (IoT) from the sole “things” aspect to the omnipotent role of “intelligent connection of things”. Meanwhile, the concept of internet of everything (IoE) is presented as such an omnipotent extension of IoT. However, the IoE realization meets critical challenges including the restricted network coverage and the limited resource of existing network technologies. Recently, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have attracted significant attentions attributed to their high mobility, low cost, and flexible deployment. Thus, UAVs may potentially overcome the challenges of IoE. This article presents a comprehensive survey on opportunities and challenges of UAV-enabled IoE. We first present three critical expectations of IoE: (1) scalability requiring a scalable network architecture with ubiquitous coverage, (2) intelligence requiring a global computing plane enabling intelligent things, (3) diversity requiring provisions of diverse applications. Thereafter, we review the enabling technologies to achieve these expectations and discuss four intrinsic constraints of IoE (i.e., coverage constraint, battery constraint, computing constraint, and security issues). We then present an overview of UAVs. We next discuss the opportunities brought by UAV to IoE. Additionally, we introduce a UAV-enabled IoE (Ue-IoE) solution by exploiting UAVs's mobility, in which we show that Ue-IoE can greatly enhance the scalability, intelligence and diversity of IoE. Finally, we outline the future directions in Ue-IoE. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.
- Authors: Liu, Yalin , Dai, Hong-Ning , Wang, Qubeijian , Shukla, Mahendra , Imran, Muhammad
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article , Review
- Relation: Computer Communications Vol. 155, no. (2020), p. 66-83
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: The recent advances in information and communication technology (ICT) have further extended Internet of Things (IoT) from the sole “things” aspect to the omnipotent role of “intelligent connection of things”. Meanwhile, the concept of internet of everything (IoE) is presented as such an omnipotent extension of IoT. However, the IoE realization meets critical challenges including the restricted network coverage and the limited resource of existing network technologies. Recently, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have attracted significant attentions attributed to their high mobility, low cost, and flexible deployment. Thus, UAVs may potentially overcome the challenges of IoE. This article presents a comprehensive survey on opportunities and challenges of UAV-enabled IoE. We first present three critical expectations of IoE: (1) scalability requiring a scalable network architecture with ubiquitous coverage, (2) intelligence requiring a global computing plane enabling intelligent things, (3) diversity requiring provisions of diverse applications. Thereafter, we review the enabling technologies to achieve these expectations and discuss four intrinsic constraints of IoE (i.e., coverage constraint, battery constraint, computing constraint, and security issues). We then present an overview of UAVs. We next discuss the opportunities brought by UAV to IoE. Additionally, we introduce a UAV-enabled IoE (Ue-IoE) solution by exploiting UAVs's mobility, in which we show that Ue-IoE can greatly enhance the scalability, intelligence and diversity of IoE. Finally, we outline the future directions in Ue-IoE. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.
Breeding home range movements of pre-fledged brolga chicks, Antigone rubicunda (Gruidae) in Victoria, Australia - Implications for wind farm planning and conservation
- Veltheim, Inka, Cook, Simon, Palmer, Grant, Hill, F.A. Richard, McCarthy, Michael
- Authors: Veltheim, Inka , Cook, Simon , Palmer, Grant , Hill, F.A. Richard , McCarthy, Michael
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Global Ecology and Conservation Vol. 20, no. (Oct 2019), p. 17
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- Description: Built infrastructure, such as wind farms and power lines, can impair wildlife movement. These barriers may displace individuals from important habitats due to direct mortality or disturbance. Understanding animal movement patterns can help avoid such impacts and manage population level effects. Avoiding impacts and implementing mitigation strategies is difficult when movement and home range information is lacking. Impact at breeding sites may negatively affect population recruitment. The number of wind farm developments is increasing in southern Australia within the core range of the south-eastern brolga (Antigone rubicunda) population. The main threats to this wetland bird include habitat loss, chick predation and collisions with power lines and fences. Wind farms may increase collision and mortality risk, and habitat displacement but the impact is difficult to assess or mitigate, as movement patterns and home range size are unknown. We deployed 11 GPS transmitters on pre-fledged brolga chicks at breeding sites in 2010-2012, including one at a wind farm, to investigate movement and home range use of brolga chicks. Brolga chicks moved 442m on average, to and from night roost wetlands (range: 0m-1964 m). The average breeding home range was 232 ha, estimated with a Brownian bridge movement model at 95% UD, but varied greatly between individuals (70 ha-523 ha). Brolgas used either single or multiple wetlands, and those using multiple wetlands either switched between them or relocated permanently. Information from this study can be used to design turbine-free buffers at brolga breeding sites and to manage breeding wetlands. (c) 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
- Authors: Veltheim, Inka , Cook, Simon , Palmer, Grant , Hill, F.A. Richard , McCarthy, Michael
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Global Ecology and Conservation Vol. 20, no. (Oct 2019), p. 17
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Built infrastructure, such as wind farms and power lines, can impair wildlife movement. These barriers may displace individuals from important habitats due to direct mortality or disturbance. Understanding animal movement patterns can help avoid such impacts and manage population level effects. Avoiding impacts and implementing mitigation strategies is difficult when movement and home range information is lacking. Impact at breeding sites may negatively affect population recruitment. The number of wind farm developments is increasing in southern Australia within the core range of the south-eastern brolga (Antigone rubicunda) population. The main threats to this wetland bird include habitat loss, chick predation and collisions with power lines and fences. Wind farms may increase collision and mortality risk, and habitat displacement but the impact is difficult to assess or mitigate, as movement patterns and home range size are unknown. We deployed 11 GPS transmitters on pre-fledged brolga chicks at breeding sites in 2010-2012, including one at a wind farm, to investigate movement and home range use of brolga chicks. Brolga chicks moved 442m on average, to and from night roost wetlands (range: 0m-1964 m). The average breeding home range was 232 ha, estimated with a Brownian bridge movement model at 95% UD, but varied greatly between individuals (70 ha-523 ha). Brolgas used either single or multiple wetlands, and those using multiple wetlands either switched between them or relocated permanently. Information from this study can be used to design turbine-free buffers at brolga breeding sites and to manage breeding wetlands. (c) 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Extension of MIH for FPMIPv6 (EMIH-FPMIPv6) to support optimized heterogeneous handover
- Guan, Jianfeng, Sharma, Vishal, You, Ilsun, Atiquzzaman, Mohammed, Imran, Muhammad
- Authors: Guan, Jianfeng , Sharma, Vishal , You, Ilsun , Atiquzzaman, Mohammed , Imran, Muhammad
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Future Generation Computer Systems Vol. 97, no. (2019), p. 775-791
- Full Text:
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- Description: Fast handover for Proxy Mobile IPv6 (FPMIPv6) can optimize the handover performance compared with PMIPv6 in terms of handover delay and packet loss. However, FPMIPv6 cannot handle heterogeneous handovers due to the lack of unified Layer 2 triggering mechanism. While Media Independent Handover (MIH) can provide heterogeneous handover support, and a lot of MIH-based integration solutions have been proposed. However, most of these solutions are based on the integration of MIH and PMIPv6, and require additional mechanisms such as L2 scanning, handover coordinator or neighbor discovery, which are out of the scope of MIH and difficult to be standardized. Furthermore, the direct integration of MIH and FPMIPv6 will cause redundant signaling cost due to the similar functions such as MIH handover commit procedure in MIH and inter-MAG (Mobility Access Gateway) tunnel setup in FPMIPv6. This paper provides a comprehensive survey on these solutions and compares each solution's functionality and characteristic, and then proposes an integration scheme based on Extension of MIH for FPMIPv6 (EMIH-FPMIPv6) to support optimized heterogeneous handover, which extends the existing MIH standard and reduces the redundant messages interaction caused by FPMIPv6 and MIH. This paper adopts the city section mobility model and heterogeneous networks model to analyze and compare the performance of EMIH-FPMIPv6 under different heterogeneous handover scenarios. The analytical results show that EMIH-FPMIPv6 is capable of reducing the handover delay and the signaling cost compared to the solution specified in MIH standard (noted as standard handover solution) and FPMIPv6. © 2019
- Authors: Guan, Jianfeng , Sharma, Vishal , You, Ilsun , Atiquzzaman, Mohammed , Imran, Muhammad
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Future Generation Computer Systems Vol. 97, no. (2019), p. 775-791
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Fast handover for Proxy Mobile IPv6 (FPMIPv6) can optimize the handover performance compared with PMIPv6 in terms of handover delay and packet loss. However, FPMIPv6 cannot handle heterogeneous handovers due to the lack of unified Layer 2 triggering mechanism. While Media Independent Handover (MIH) can provide heterogeneous handover support, and a lot of MIH-based integration solutions have been proposed. However, most of these solutions are based on the integration of MIH and PMIPv6, and require additional mechanisms such as L2 scanning, handover coordinator or neighbor discovery, which are out of the scope of MIH and difficult to be standardized. Furthermore, the direct integration of MIH and FPMIPv6 will cause redundant signaling cost due to the similar functions such as MIH handover commit procedure in MIH and inter-MAG (Mobility Access Gateway) tunnel setup in FPMIPv6. This paper provides a comprehensive survey on these solutions and compares each solution's functionality and characteristic, and then proposes an integration scheme based on Extension of MIH for FPMIPv6 (EMIH-FPMIPv6) to support optimized heterogeneous handover, which extends the existing MIH standard and reduces the redundant messages interaction caused by FPMIPv6 and MIH. This paper adopts the city section mobility model and heterogeneous networks model to analyze and compare the performance of EMIH-FPMIPv6 under different heterogeneous handover scenarios. The analytical results show that EMIH-FPMIPv6 is capable of reducing the handover delay and the signaling cost compared to the solution specified in MIH standard (noted as standard handover solution) and FPMIPv6. © 2019
Factor Structure of the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children (SDSC) in those with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Mancini, Vincent, Rudaizky, Daniel, Pearcy, Benjamin, Marriner, Angela, Pestell, Carmela, Gomez, Rapson, Bucks, Romola, Chen, Wai
- Authors: Mancini, Vincent , Rudaizky, Daniel , Pearcy, Benjamin , Marriner, Angela , Pestell, Carmela , Gomez, Rapson , Bucks, Romola , Chen, Wai
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Sleep Medicine: X Vol. 1, no. (2019), p.
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- Description: Objective: To examine the factor structure of the Sleep Disorder Scale for Children (SDSC) in children and adolescents with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Method: The caregivers of 307 children with ADHD completed the SDSC. Standard and bifactor confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) evaluated the goodness-of-fit of competing factor structures. Results: The original and unidimensional factor structure produced sub-optimal fit. Bifactor exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to examine the underlying structure of the SDSC. A revised bifactor solution comprising six-specific factors and a general factor was identified. A nested version of this model was deemed to be the preferred model, which also demonstrated good psychometric properties. Conclusion: There is evidence of a ‘general sleep difficulties’ factor in children with ADHD. Four of the six original factors were replicated in this study. However, the revised factor structure suggests that clinicians should be cautious of the utility of subscale scores pending further validation in ADHD samples. © 2019
- Authors: Mancini, Vincent , Rudaizky, Daniel , Pearcy, Benjamin , Marriner, Angela , Pestell, Carmela , Gomez, Rapson , Bucks, Romola , Chen, Wai
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Sleep Medicine: X Vol. 1, no. (2019), p.
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Objective: To examine the factor structure of the Sleep Disorder Scale for Children (SDSC) in children and adolescents with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Method: The caregivers of 307 children with ADHD completed the SDSC. Standard and bifactor confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) evaluated the goodness-of-fit of competing factor structures. Results: The original and unidimensional factor structure produced sub-optimal fit. Bifactor exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to examine the underlying structure of the SDSC. A revised bifactor solution comprising six-specific factors and a general factor was identified. A nested version of this model was deemed to be the preferred model, which also demonstrated good psychometric properties. Conclusion: There is evidence of a ‘general sleep difficulties’ factor in children with ADHD. Four of the six original factors were replicated in this study. However, the revised factor structure suggests that clinicians should be cautious of the utility of subscale scores pending further validation in ADHD samples. © 2019
Higher-taxon and functional group responses of ant and bird assemblages to livestock grazing : a test of an explicit surrogate concept
- Barton, Philip, Evans, Maldwyn, Sato, Chloe, O'Loughlin, Luke, Foster, Claire
- Authors: Barton, Philip , Evans, Maldwyn , Sato, Chloe , O'Loughlin, Luke , Foster, Claire
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ecological Indicators Vol. 96, no. (2019), p. 458-465
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Biodiversity monitoring programs are routinely established to quantify changes in biotic communities in response to land management. Surrogacy is implicitly used in many such monitoring programs whereby the measurement of a component of biodiversity is used to infer responses of broader biodiversity. Yet rarely is this surrogacy validated by demonstrating that measured variables and the target variable of interest have matching responses to management treatments. Here we examined the responses of higher-taxon and functional groupings of ants and birds (our surrogate variables) two years after the implementation of experimental livestock grazing treatments, and compared these with the responses of total ant and bird species richness (our target variables) to the same treatments. We found significant and strong correlations between surrogate and target variables, but this did not predict corresponding similar response to treatments. For ants, we found that the genus Monomorium had a negative response to the grazing exclusion treatment, but there was no matching response of species richness, and so no surrogacy was identified. For birds, total species richness had a weak positive response to spring/summer grazing exclusion, and the abundance of honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) showed a similar positive response, suggesting surrogacy. Our study highlights that correlations among variables do not necessarily lead to surrogacy, and indeed that different sub-components of biotic assemblages can respond in ways that contrast with overall species richness. Careful assessment of the matched responses of surrogate and target variables to management can provide a simple and robust way to critically assess biodiversity surrogacy. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Philip Barton” is provided in this record**
- Authors: Barton, Philip , Evans, Maldwyn , Sato, Chloe , O'Loughlin, Luke , Foster, Claire
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ecological Indicators Vol. 96, no. (2019), p. 458-465
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Biodiversity monitoring programs are routinely established to quantify changes in biotic communities in response to land management. Surrogacy is implicitly used in many such monitoring programs whereby the measurement of a component of biodiversity is used to infer responses of broader biodiversity. Yet rarely is this surrogacy validated by demonstrating that measured variables and the target variable of interest have matching responses to management treatments. Here we examined the responses of higher-taxon and functional groupings of ants and birds (our surrogate variables) two years after the implementation of experimental livestock grazing treatments, and compared these with the responses of total ant and bird species richness (our target variables) to the same treatments. We found significant and strong correlations between surrogate and target variables, but this did not predict corresponding similar response to treatments. For ants, we found that the genus Monomorium had a negative response to the grazing exclusion treatment, but there was no matching response of species richness, and so no surrogacy was identified. For birds, total species richness had a weak positive response to spring/summer grazing exclusion, and the abundance of honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) showed a similar positive response, suggesting surrogacy. Our study highlights that correlations among variables do not necessarily lead to surrogacy, and indeed that different sub-components of biotic assemblages can respond in ways that contrast with overall species richness. Careful assessment of the matched responses of surrogate and target variables to management can provide a simple and robust way to critically assess biodiversity surrogacy. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Philip Barton” is provided in this record**
Livestock grazing effects on riparian bird breeding behaviour in agricultural landscapes
- Hansen, Birgita, Fraser, Hannah, Jones, Christopher
- Authors: Hansen, Birgita , Fraser, Hannah , Jones, Christopher
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment Vol. 270-271, no. (2019), p. 93-102
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Globally, many bird species that rely on native woodland or forest environments are declining due to vegetation clearing for livestock pastures and cereal cropping. In many landscapes, woodland remnants are restricted to waterways and roadsides in narrow, sometimes degraded patches, and not all patches can necessarily provide the resources required to support bird populations. This study investigated the influence of livestock grazing and vegetation characteristics on bird breeding activity in riparian zones in northern Victoria, Australia, where much of the landscape is used for production and has experienced significant loss of woodland. Birds were broadly categorised as ‘woodland’ or ‘non-woodland’ species, based on dependency on woodlands for breeding. The majority of woodland species detected were relatively common, and where riparian zones were heavily grazed, there was significantly lower woodland bird breeding activity compared to non-woodland bird breeding activity (the latter increasing with grazing intensity). Woodland and non-woodland birds had consistently opposite responses to grazing intensity, vegetation and landscape characteristics, suggesting that the factors influencing breeding differ markedly between these two groups. Thus, where riparian zones are intensively grazed, the bird community shifts from predominantly woodland to largely non-woodland species. This has implications for the conservation of both rare and common woodland bird species in southern Australia. Simple changes in land management, for example, livestock exclusion from important breeding habitat, may confer large gains for population persistence of woodland bird species.
- Authors: Hansen, Birgita , Fraser, Hannah , Jones, Christopher
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment Vol. 270-271, no. (2019), p. 93-102
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Globally, many bird species that rely on native woodland or forest environments are declining due to vegetation clearing for livestock pastures and cereal cropping. In many landscapes, woodland remnants are restricted to waterways and roadsides in narrow, sometimes degraded patches, and not all patches can necessarily provide the resources required to support bird populations. This study investigated the influence of livestock grazing and vegetation characteristics on bird breeding activity in riparian zones in northern Victoria, Australia, where much of the landscape is used for production and has experienced significant loss of woodland. Birds were broadly categorised as ‘woodland’ or ‘non-woodland’ species, based on dependency on woodlands for breeding. The majority of woodland species detected were relatively common, and where riparian zones were heavily grazed, there was significantly lower woodland bird breeding activity compared to non-woodland bird breeding activity (the latter increasing with grazing intensity). Woodland and non-woodland birds had consistently opposite responses to grazing intensity, vegetation and landscape characteristics, suggesting that the factors influencing breeding differ markedly between these two groups. Thus, where riparian zones are intensively grazed, the bird community shifts from predominantly woodland to largely non-woodland species. This has implications for the conservation of both rare and common woodland bird species in southern Australia. Simple changes in land management, for example, livestock exclusion from important breeding habitat, may confer large gains for population persistence of woodland bird species.
Pervasive blood pressure monitoring using Photoplethysmogram (PPG) sensor
- Riaz, Farhan, Azad, Muhammad, Arshad, Junaid, Imran, Muhammad, Hassan, Ali, Rehman, Saad
- Authors: Riaz, Farhan , Azad, Muhammad , Arshad, Junaid , Imran, Muhammad , Hassan, Ali , Rehman, Saad
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Future Generation Computer Systems Vol. 98, no. (2019), p. 120-130
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Preventive healthcare requires continuous monitoring of the blood pressure (BP) of patients, which is not feasible using conventional methods. Photoplethysmogram (PPG) signals can be effectively used for this purpose as there is a physiological relation between the pulse width and BP and can be easily acquired using a wearable PPG sensor. However, developing real-time algorithms for wearable technology is a significant challenge due to various conflicting requirements such as high accuracy, computationally constrained devices, and limited power supply. In this paper, we propose a novel feature set for continuous, real-time identification of abnormal BP. This feature set is obtained by identifying the peaks and valleys in a PPG signal (using a peak detection algorithm), followed by the calculation of rising time, falling time and peak-to-peak distance. The histograms of these times are calculated to form a feature set that can be used for classification of PPG signals into one of the two classes: normal or abnormal BP. No public dataset is available for such study and therefore a prototype is developed to collect PPG signals alongside BP measurements. The proposed feature set shows very good performance with an overall accuracy of approximately 95%. Although the proposed feature set is effective, the significance of individual features varies greatly (validated using significance testing) which led us to perform weighted voting of features for classification by performing autoregressive modeling. Our experiments show that the simplest linear classifiers produce very good results indicating the strength of the proposed feature set. The weighted voting improves the results significantly, producing an overall accuracy of about 98%. Conclusively, the PPG signals can be effectively used to identify BP, and the proposed feature set is efficient and computationally feasible for implementation on standalone devices. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.
- Authors: Riaz, Farhan , Azad, Muhammad , Arshad, Junaid , Imran, Muhammad , Hassan, Ali , Rehman, Saad
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Future Generation Computer Systems Vol. 98, no. (2019), p. 120-130
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Preventive healthcare requires continuous monitoring of the blood pressure (BP) of patients, which is not feasible using conventional methods. Photoplethysmogram (PPG) signals can be effectively used for this purpose as there is a physiological relation between the pulse width and BP and can be easily acquired using a wearable PPG sensor. However, developing real-time algorithms for wearable technology is a significant challenge due to various conflicting requirements such as high accuracy, computationally constrained devices, and limited power supply. In this paper, we propose a novel feature set for continuous, real-time identification of abnormal BP. This feature set is obtained by identifying the peaks and valleys in a PPG signal (using a peak detection algorithm), followed by the calculation of rising time, falling time and peak-to-peak distance. The histograms of these times are calculated to form a feature set that can be used for classification of PPG signals into one of the two classes: normal or abnormal BP. No public dataset is available for such study and therefore a prototype is developed to collect PPG signals alongside BP measurements. The proposed feature set shows very good performance with an overall accuracy of approximately 95%. Although the proposed feature set is effective, the significance of individual features varies greatly (validated using significance testing) which led us to perform weighted voting of features for classification by performing autoregressive modeling. Our experiments show that the simplest linear classifiers produce very good results indicating the strength of the proposed feature set. The weighted voting improves the results significantly, producing an overall accuracy of about 98%. Conclusively, the PPG signals can be effectively used to identify BP, and the proposed feature set is efficient and computationally feasible for implementation on standalone devices. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.
Protection of records and data authentication based on secret shares and watermarking
- Ali, Zulfiqar, Imran, Muhammad, McClean, Sally, Khan, Naveed, Shoaib, Muhammad
- Authors: Ali, Zulfiqar , Imran, Muhammad , McClean, Sally , Khan, Naveed , Shoaib, Muhammad
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Future Generation Computer Systems Vol. 98, no. (2019), p. 331-341
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: The rapid growth in communication technology facilitates the health industry in many aspects from transmission of sensor's data to real-time diagnosis using cloud-based frameworks. However, the secure transmission of data and its authenticity become a challenging task, especially, for health-related applications. The medical information must be accessible to only the relevant healthcare staff to avoid any unfortunate circumstances for the patient as well as for the healthcare providers. Therefore, a method to protect the identity of a patient and authentication of transmitted data is proposed in this study. The proposed method provides dual protection. First, it encrypts the identity using Shamir's secret sharing scheme without the increase in dimension of the original identity. Second, the identity is watermarked using zero-watermarking to avoid any distortion into the host signal. The experimental results show that the proposed method encrypts, embeds and extracts identities reliably. Moreover, in case of malicious attack, the method distorts the embedded identity which provides a clear indication of fabrication. An automatic disorder detection system using Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients and Gaussian mixture model is also implemented which concludes that malicious attacks greatly impact on the accurate diagnosis of disorders. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.
- Authors: Ali, Zulfiqar , Imran, Muhammad , McClean, Sally , Khan, Naveed , Shoaib, Muhammad
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Future Generation Computer Systems Vol. 98, no. (2019), p. 331-341
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: The rapid growth in communication technology facilitates the health industry in many aspects from transmission of sensor's data to real-time diagnosis using cloud-based frameworks. However, the secure transmission of data and its authenticity become a challenging task, especially, for health-related applications. The medical information must be accessible to only the relevant healthcare staff to avoid any unfortunate circumstances for the patient as well as for the healthcare providers. Therefore, a method to protect the identity of a patient and authentication of transmitted data is proposed in this study. The proposed method provides dual protection. First, it encrypts the identity using Shamir's secret sharing scheme without the increase in dimension of the original identity. Second, the identity is watermarked using zero-watermarking to avoid any distortion into the host signal. The experimental results show that the proposed method encrypts, embeds and extracts identities reliably. Moreover, in case of malicious attack, the method distorts the embedded identity which provides a clear indication of fabrication. An automatic disorder detection system using Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients and Gaussian mixture model is also implemented which concludes that malicious attacks greatly impact on the accurate diagnosis of disorders. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.
Stakeholder engagement in late-stage translation phase 4 research for noncommunicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries : what works and why—the Vietnam experience (UMMS–Vietnam Team)
- Ha, Duc, Tran, Oanh, Nguyen, Hoa, Nguyen, Hien, Nguyen, Huy
- Authors: Ha, Duc , Tran, Oanh , Nguyen, Hoa , Nguyen, Hien , Nguyen, Huy
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Global Heart Vol. 14, no. 2 (2019), p. 143-147
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Background: Stakeholder engagement is crucial for conducting high-quality implementation research as well as for the incorporation and adoption of health interventions and policies in the community. Objectives: This study sought to build a mutually rewarding collaboration between stakeholders in Vietnam and investigators in the United States. Methods: A collaboration was established between investigators from several institutions in Vietnam and the University of Massachusetts Medical School that was built on mutual trust, cross-cultural learning, and shared experiences. This collaborative arrangement has led to sustainable stakeholder engagement in Vietnam. We formed a multidisciplinary transnational research team and maintained regular contact both online and in person. We also conducted a needs assessment study, in which several focus group discussions and in-depth interviews of stakeholders in Vietnam were carried out. Results: The formal collaboration between investigators in Vietnam and the University of Massachusetts Medical School began in 2011 and has strengthened over time. The U.S. team provided expertise in study and intervention design, data collection and analysis, and trial implementation, whereas the team in Vietnam brought a deep understanding of local health care delivery systems and expertise in the delivery of health care interventions at the grassroots level. Our initial partnership has now grown to include committed individuals at the government, academic, and community levels including the Vietnam Ministry of Health, key governmental and nongovernmental research institutions and agencies, medical and public health universities, and communities in rural settings. The needs assessment study found that there are important gaps in the delivery of hypertension management practices in many rural communities in Vietnam and that stakeholders are fully engaged in our ongoing, community-based, hypertension-control project. Conclusions: Multiple layers of stakeholders and communities in Vietnam are fully engaged with, and have contributed significantly to, our ongoing hypertension control research project in Northern Vietnam. © 2019 World Heart Federation (Geneva). **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Huy Nguyen” is provided in this record**
- Authors: Ha, Duc , Tran, Oanh , Nguyen, Hoa , Nguyen, Hien , Nguyen, Huy
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Global Heart Vol. 14, no. 2 (2019), p. 143-147
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Background: Stakeholder engagement is crucial for conducting high-quality implementation research as well as for the incorporation and adoption of health interventions and policies in the community. Objectives: This study sought to build a mutually rewarding collaboration between stakeholders in Vietnam and investigators in the United States. Methods: A collaboration was established between investigators from several institutions in Vietnam and the University of Massachusetts Medical School that was built on mutual trust, cross-cultural learning, and shared experiences. This collaborative arrangement has led to sustainable stakeholder engagement in Vietnam. We formed a multidisciplinary transnational research team and maintained regular contact both online and in person. We also conducted a needs assessment study, in which several focus group discussions and in-depth interviews of stakeholders in Vietnam were carried out. Results: The formal collaboration between investigators in Vietnam and the University of Massachusetts Medical School began in 2011 and has strengthened over time. The U.S. team provided expertise in study and intervention design, data collection and analysis, and trial implementation, whereas the team in Vietnam brought a deep understanding of local health care delivery systems and expertise in the delivery of health care interventions at the grassroots level. Our initial partnership has now grown to include committed individuals at the government, academic, and community levels including the Vietnam Ministry of Health, key governmental and nongovernmental research institutions and agencies, medical and public health universities, and communities in rural settings. The needs assessment study found that there are important gaps in the delivery of hypertension management practices in many rural communities in Vietnam and that stakeholders are fully engaged in our ongoing, community-based, hypertension-control project. Conclusions: Multiple layers of stakeholders and communities in Vietnam are fully engaged with, and have contributed significantly to, our ongoing hypertension control research project in Northern Vietnam. © 2019 World Heart Federation (Geneva). **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Huy Nguyen” is provided in this record**
The role of big data analytics in industrial internet of things
- Rehman, Muhammad, Yaqoob, Ibrar, Salah, Khaled, Imran, Muhammad, Jayaraman, Prem, Perera, Charith
- Authors: Rehman, Muhammad , Yaqoob, Ibrar , Salah, Khaled , Imran, Muhammad , Jayaraman, Prem , Perera, Charith
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Future Generation Computer Systems Vol. 99, no. (2019), p. 247-259
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Big data production in industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is evident due to the massive deployment of sensors and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. However, big data processing is challenging due to limited computational, networking and storage resources at IoT device-end. Big data analytics (BDA) is expected to provide operational- and customer-level intelligence in IIoT systems. Although numerous studies on IIoT and BDA exist, only a few studies have explored the convergence of the two paradigms. In this study, we investigate the recent BDA technologies, algorithms and techniques that can lead to the development of intelligent IIoT systems. We devise a taxonomy by classifying and categorising the literature on the basis of important parameters (e.g. data sources, analytics tools, analytics techniques, requirements, industrial analytics applications and analytics types). We present the frameworks and case studies of the various enterprises that have benefited from BDA. We also enumerate the considerable opportunities introduced by BDA in IIoT. We identify and discuss the indispensable challenges that remain to be addressed, serving as future research directions. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.
- Authors: Rehman, Muhammad , Yaqoob, Ibrar , Salah, Khaled , Imran, Muhammad , Jayaraman, Prem , Perera, Charith
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Future Generation Computer Systems Vol. 99, no. (2019), p. 247-259
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Big data production in industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is evident due to the massive deployment of sensors and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. However, big data processing is challenging due to limited computational, networking and storage resources at IoT device-end. Big data analytics (BDA) is expected to provide operational- and customer-level intelligence in IIoT systems. Although numerous studies on IIoT and BDA exist, only a few studies have explored the convergence of the two paradigms. In this study, we investigate the recent BDA technologies, algorithms and techniques that can lead to the development of intelligent IIoT systems. We devise a taxonomy by classifying and categorising the literature on the basis of important parameters (e.g. data sources, analytics tools, analytics techniques, requirements, industrial analytics applications and analytics types). We present the frameworks and case studies of the various enterprises that have benefited from BDA. We also enumerate the considerable opportunities introduced by BDA in IIoT. We identify and discuss the indispensable challenges that remain to be addressed, serving as future research directions. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.
Uncovering genetic mechanisms of kidney aging through transcriptomics, genomics, and epigenomics
- Rowland, Joshua, Akbarov, Artur, Eales, James, Xu, Xiaoguang, Dormer, John, Guo, Hui, Denniff, Matthew, Jiang, Xiao, Ranjzad, Parisa, Nazgiewicz, Alicja, Prestes, Priscilla, Antczak, Andrzej, Szulinska, Monika, Wise, Ingrid, Zukowska-Szczechowska, Ewa, Bogdanski, Pawel, Woolf, Adrian, Samani, Nilesh, Charchar, Fadi, Tomaszewski, Maciej
- Authors: Rowland, Joshua , Akbarov, Artur , Eales, James , Xu, Xiaoguang , Dormer, John , Guo, Hui , Denniff, Matthew , Jiang, Xiao , Ranjzad, Parisa , Nazgiewicz, Alicja , Prestes, Priscilla , Antczak, Andrzej , Szulinska, Monika , Wise, Ingrid , Zukowska-Szczechowska, Ewa , Bogdanski, Pawel , Woolf, Adrian , Samani, Nilesh , Charchar, Fadi , Tomaszewski, Maciej
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Kidney International Vol. 95, no. 3 (2019), p. 624-635
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Nephrons scar and involute during aging, increasing the risk of chronic kidney disease. Little is known, however, about genetic mechanisms of kidney aging. We sought to define the signatures of age on the renal transcriptome using 563 human kidneys. The initial discovery analysis of 260 kidney transcriptomes from the TRANScriptome of renaL humAn TissuE Study (TRANSLATE) and the Cancer Genome Atlas identified 37 age-associated genes. For 19 of those genes, the association with age was replicated in 303 kidney transcriptomes from the Nephroseq resource. Surveying 42 nonrenal tissues from the Genotype–Tissue Expression project revealed that, for approximately a fifth of the replicated genes, the association with age was kidney-specific. Seventy-three percent of the replicated genes were associated with functional or histological parameters of age-related decline in kidney health, including glomerular filtration rate, glomerulosclerosis, interstitial fibrosis, tubular atrophy, and arterial narrowing. Common genetic variants in four of the age-related genes, namely LYG1, PPP1R3C, LTF and TSPYL5, correlated with the trajectory of age-related changes in their renal expression. Integrative analysis of genomic, epigenomic, and transcriptomic information revealed that the observed age-related decline in renal TSPYL5 expression was determined both genetically and epigenetically. Thus, this study revealed robust molecular signatures of the aging kidney and new regulatory mechanisms of age-related change in the kidney transcriptome.
- Authors: Rowland, Joshua , Akbarov, Artur , Eales, James , Xu, Xiaoguang , Dormer, John , Guo, Hui , Denniff, Matthew , Jiang, Xiao , Ranjzad, Parisa , Nazgiewicz, Alicja , Prestes, Priscilla , Antczak, Andrzej , Szulinska, Monika , Wise, Ingrid , Zukowska-Szczechowska, Ewa , Bogdanski, Pawel , Woolf, Adrian , Samani, Nilesh , Charchar, Fadi , Tomaszewski, Maciej
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Kidney International Vol. 95, no. 3 (2019), p. 624-635
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Nephrons scar and involute during aging, increasing the risk of chronic kidney disease. Little is known, however, about genetic mechanisms of kidney aging. We sought to define the signatures of age on the renal transcriptome using 563 human kidneys. The initial discovery analysis of 260 kidney transcriptomes from the TRANScriptome of renaL humAn TissuE Study (TRANSLATE) and the Cancer Genome Atlas identified 37 age-associated genes. For 19 of those genes, the association with age was replicated in 303 kidney transcriptomes from the Nephroseq resource. Surveying 42 nonrenal tissues from the Genotype–Tissue Expression project revealed that, for approximately a fifth of the replicated genes, the association with age was kidney-specific. Seventy-three percent of the replicated genes were associated with functional or histological parameters of age-related decline in kidney health, including glomerular filtration rate, glomerulosclerosis, interstitial fibrosis, tubular atrophy, and arterial narrowing. Common genetic variants in four of the age-related genes, namely LYG1, PPP1R3C, LTF and TSPYL5, correlated with the trajectory of age-related changes in their renal expression. Integrative analysis of genomic, epigenomic, and transcriptomic information revealed that the observed age-related decline in renal TSPYL5 expression was determined both genetically and epigenetically. Thus, this study revealed robust molecular signatures of the aging kidney and new regulatory mechanisms of age-related change in the kidney transcriptome.
XSnippets : exploring semi-structured data via snippets
- Naseriparsa, Mehdi, Islam, Md Saiful, Liu, Chengfei, Chen, Lu
- Authors: Naseriparsa, Mehdi , Islam, Md Saiful , Liu, Chengfei , Chen, Lu
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Data and Knowledge Engineering Vol. 124, no. (2019), p.
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Users are usually not familiar with the content and structure of the data when they explore the data source. However, to improve the exploration usability, they need some primary hints about the data source. These hints should represent the overall picture of the data source and include the trending issues that can be extracted from the query log. In this paper, we propose a two-phase interactive exploratory search framework for the clueless users that exploits the snippets for conducting the search on the XML data. In the first phase, we present the primary snippets that are generated from the keywords of the query log to start the exploration. To retrieve the primary snippets, we develop an A* search-based technique on the keyword space of the query log. To improve the performance of computations, we store the primary snippet computations in an index data structure to reuse it for the next steps. In the second phase, we exploit the co-occurring content of the snippets to generate more specific snippets with the user interaction. To expedite the performance, we design two pruning techniques called inter-snippet and intra-snippet pruning to stop unnecessary computations. Finally, we discuss a termination condition that checks the cardinality of the snippets to stop the interactive phase and present the final Top-l snippets to the user. Our experiments on real datasets verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed framework. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.
- Authors: Naseriparsa, Mehdi , Islam, Md Saiful , Liu, Chengfei , Chen, Lu
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Data and Knowledge Engineering Vol. 124, no. (2019), p.
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Users are usually not familiar with the content and structure of the data when they explore the data source. However, to improve the exploration usability, they need some primary hints about the data source. These hints should represent the overall picture of the data source and include the trending issues that can be extracted from the query log. In this paper, we propose a two-phase interactive exploratory search framework for the clueless users that exploits the snippets for conducting the search on the XML data. In the first phase, we present the primary snippets that are generated from the keywords of the query log to start the exploration. To retrieve the primary snippets, we develop an A* search-based technique on the keyword space of the query log. To improve the performance of computations, we store the primary snippet computations in an index data structure to reuse it for the next steps. In the second phase, we exploit the co-occurring content of the snippets to generate more specific snippets with the user interaction. To expedite the performance, we design two pruning techniques called inter-snippet and intra-snippet pruning to stop unnecessary computations. Finally, we discuss a termination condition that checks the cardinality of the snippets to stop the interactive phase and present the final Top-l snippets to the user. Our experiments on real datasets verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed framework. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.
A zero-watermarking algorithm for privacy protection in biomedical signals
- Ali, Zulfiqar, Imran, Muhammad, Alsulaiman, Mansour, Zia, Tanveer, Shoaib, Muhammad
- Authors: Ali, Zulfiqar , Imran, Muhammad , Alsulaiman, Mansour , Zia, Tanveer , Shoaib, Muhammad
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Future Generation Computer Systems Vol. 82, no. (2018), p. 290-303
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Confidentiality of health information is indispensable to protect privacy of an individual. However, recent advances in electronic healthcare systems allow transmission of sensitive information through the Internet, which is prone to various vulnerabilities, attacks and may leads to unauthorized disclosure. Such situations may not only create adverse effects for individuals but may also cause severe consequences such as hefty regulatory fines, bad publicity, legal fees, and forensics. To avoid such predicaments, a privacy protected healthcare system is proposed in this study that protects the identity of an individual as well as detects vocal fold disorders. The privacy of the developed healthcare system is based on the proposed zero-watermarking algorithm, which embeds a watermark in a secret key instead of the signals to avoid the distortion in an audio sample. The identity is protected by the generation of its secret shares through visual cryptography. The generated shares are embedded by finding the patterns into the audio with the application of one-dimensional local binary pattern. The proposed zero-watermarking algorithm is evaluated by using audio samples taken from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary voice disorder database. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves imperceptibility and is reliable in its extraction of identity. In addition, the proposed algorithm does not affect the results of disorder detection and it is robust against noise attacks of various signal-to-noise ratios. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.
- Authors: Ali, Zulfiqar , Imran, Muhammad , Alsulaiman, Mansour , Zia, Tanveer , Shoaib, Muhammad
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Future Generation Computer Systems Vol. 82, no. (2018), p. 290-303
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Confidentiality of health information is indispensable to protect privacy of an individual. However, recent advances in electronic healthcare systems allow transmission of sensitive information through the Internet, which is prone to various vulnerabilities, attacks and may leads to unauthorized disclosure. Such situations may not only create adverse effects for individuals but may also cause severe consequences such as hefty regulatory fines, bad publicity, legal fees, and forensics. To avoid such predicaments, a privacy protected healthcare system is proposed in this study that protects the identity of an individual as well as detects vocal fold disorders. The privacy of the developed healthcare system is based on the proposed zero-watermarking algorithm, which embeds a watermark in a secret key instead of the signals to avoid the distortion in an audio sample. The identity is protected by the generation of its secret shares through visual cryptography. The generated shares are embedded by finding the patterns into the audio with the application of one-dimensional local binary pattern. The proposed zero-watermarking algorithm is evaluated by using audio samples taken from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary voice disorder database. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves imperceptibility and is reliable in its extraction of identity. In addition, the proposed algorithm does not affect the results of disorder detection and it is robust against noise attacks of various signal-to-noise ratios. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.
Antimicrobial sensitivity trends and virulence genes in Shigella spp. from the Oceania region
- Malau, Elisheba, Ford, Rebecca, Valcanis, Mary, Jennison, Amy, Mosse, Jenny, Bean, David, Yoannes, Mition, Pomat, William, Horwood, Paul, Greenhill, Andrew
- Authors: Malau, Elisheba , Ford, Rebecca , Valcanis, Mary , Jennison, Amy , Mosse, Jenny , Bean, David , Yoannes, Mition , Pomat, William , Horwood, Paul , Greenhill, Andrew
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Infection, Genetics and Evolution Vol. 64, no. (2018), p. 52-56
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Shigella is a common cause of diarrhoea in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and other Oceania countries. However, little is known about the strains causing infection. Archived Shigella isolates (n = 72) were obtained from research laboratories in PNG and reference laboratories in Australia. Shigella virulence genes were detected by PCR, and antimicrobial susceptibility was determined by disk diffusion. The ipaH virulence gene was present in all 72 isolates. The prevalence of other virulence genes was variable, with ial, invE, ipaBCD, sen/ospD3 and virF present in 60% of isolates and set1A and set1B genes present in 42% of isolates. Most S. flexneri isolates contained genes encoding enterotoxin 1 and/or enterotoxin 2. Resistance to antibiotics was common, with 51/72 isolates resistant to 2–4 antimicrobials. A greater proportion of bacteria isolated since 2010 (relative to pre-2010 isolates) were resistant to commonly used antibiotics such as ampicillin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole; suggesting that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Shigella is increasing over time in the Oceania region. There is a need for improved knowledge regarding Shigella circulation in the Oceania region and further monitoring of AMR patterns. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.
- Authors: Malau, Elisheba , Ford, Rebecca , Valcanis, Mary , Jennison, Amy , Mosse, Jenny , Bean, David , Yoannes, Mition , Pomat, William , Horwood, Paul , Greenhill, Andrew
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Infection, Genetics and Evolution Vol. 64, no. (2018), p. 52-56
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Shigella is a common cause of diarrhoea in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and other Oceania countries. However, little is known about the strains causing infection. Archived Shigella isolates (n = 72) were obtained from research laboratories in PNG and reference laboratories in Australia. Shigella virulence genes were detected by PCR, and antimicrobial susceptibility was determined by disk diffusion. The ipaH virulence gene was present in all 72 isolates. The prevalence of other virulence genes was variable, with ial, invE, ipaBCD, sen/ospD3 and virF present in 60% of isolates and set1A and set1B genes present in 42% of isolates. Most S. flexneri isolates contained genes encoding enterotoxin 1 and/or enterotoxin 2. Resistance to antibiotics was common, with 51/72 isolates resistant to 2–4 antimicrobials. A greater proportion of bacteria isolated since 2010 (relative to pre-2010 isolates) were resistant to commonly used antibiotics such as ampicillin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole; suggesting that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Shigella is increasing over time in the Oceania region. There is a need for improved knowledge regarding Shigella circulation in the Oceania region and further monitoring of AMR patterns. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.
Chaos-based robust method of zero-watermarking for medical signals
- Ali, Zulfiqar, Imran, Muhammad, Alsulaiman, Mansour, Shoaib, Muhammad, Ullah, Sana
- Authors: Ali, Zulfiqar , Imran, Muhammad , Alsulaiman, Mansour , Shoaib, Muhammad , Ullah, Sana
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Future Generation Computer Systems Vol. 88, no. (2018), p. 400-412
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: The growing use of wireless health data transmission via Internet of Things is significantly beneficial to the healthcare industry for optimal usage of health-related facilities. However, at the same time, the use raises concern of privacy protection. Health-related data are private and should be suitably protected. Several pathologies, such as vocal fold disorders, indicate high risks of prevalence in individuals with voice-related occupations, such as teachers, singers, and lawyers. Approximately, one-third of the world population suffers from the voice-related problems during the life span and unauthorized access to their data can create unavoidable circumstances in their personal and professional lives. In this study, a zero-watermarking method is proposed and implemented to protect the identity of patients who suffer from vocal fold disorders. In the proposed method, an image for a patient's identity is generated and inserted into secret keys instead of a host medical signal. Consequently, imperceptibility is naturally achieved. The locations for the insertion of the watermark are determined by a computation of local binary patterns from the time–frequency spectrum. The spectrum is calculated for low frequencies such that it may not be affected by noise attacks. The experimental results suggest that the proposed method has good performance and robustness against noise, and it is reliable in the recovery of an individual's identity. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.
- Authors: Ali, Zulfiqar , Imran, Muhammad , Alsulaiman, Mansour , Shoaib, Muhammad , Ullah, Sana
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Future Generation Computer Systems Vol. 88, no. (2018), p. 400-412
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: The growing use of wireless health data transmission via Internet of Things is significantly beneficial to the healthcare industry for optimal usage of health-related facilities. However, at the same time, the use raises concern of privacy protection. Health-related data are private and should be suitably protected. Several pathologies, such as vocal fold disorders, indicate high risks of prevalence in individuals with voice-related occupations, such as teachers, singers, and lawyers. Approximately, one-third of the world population suffers from the voice-related problems during the life span and unauthorized access to their data can create unavoidable circumstances in their personal and professional lives. In this study, a zero-watermarking method is proposed and implemented to protect the identity of patients who suffer from vocal fold disorders. In the proposed method, an image for a patient's identity is generated and inserted into secret keys instead of a host medical signal. Consequently, imperceptibility is naturally achieved. The locations for the insertion of the watermark are determined by a computation of local binary patterns from the time–frequency spectrum. The spectrum is calculated for low frequencies such that it may not be affected by noise attacks. The experimental results suggest that the proposed method has good performance and robustness against noise, and it is reliable in the recovery of an individual's identity. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.
Defining and classifying aggression and violence in health care work
- Authors: Hills, Danny
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Collegian Vol. 25, no. 6 (2018), p. 607-612
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Background: There is considerable contention in defining workplace aggression, especially in health care. This can lead to challenges in effectively researching workplace aggression, and ensuring a sound basis for developing strategies to prevent and minimise its likelihood and consequences. Aim: The aim of this discussion paper is to provide a pragmatic definition of workplace aggression, based on a contemporary conceptualisation of human aggression, followed by a discussion on key classifications of workplace aggression. Methods: The argument presented draws on theoretical and applied literature to develop a case for adopting a pragmatic definition of aggression, with key classification components. Findings and Discussion: A highly practical conceptualisation of workplace aggression differentiates two main forms – verbal or written and physical aggression – and two main source groups – internal (co-workers) and external (patients, their relatives or carers and others external to the workplace). Conclusion: Clarity and consensus on defining and classifying workplace aggression, should provide a sound and coherent basis for researchers, policy makers, clinicians and health care organisations to successfully prevent and minimise this challenging and serious work health and safety concern. © 2018 Australian College of Nursing Ltd
- Authors: Hills, Danny
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Collegian Vol. 25, no. 6 (2018), p. 607-612
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Background: There is considerable contention in defining workplace aggression, especially in health care. This can lead to challenges in effectively researching workplace aggression, and ensuring a sound basis for developing strategies to prevent and minimise its likelihood and consequences. Aim: The aim of this discussion paper is to provide a pragmatic definition of workplace aggression, based on a contemporary conceptualisation of human aggression, followed by a discussion on key classifications of workplace aggression. Methods: The argument presented draws on theoretical and applied literature to develop a case for adopting a pragmatic definition of aggression, with key classification components. Findings and Discussion: A highly practical conceptualisation of workplace aggression differentiates two main forms – verbal or written and physical aggression – and two main source groups – internal (co-workers) and external (patients, their relatives or carers and others external to the workplace). Conclusion: Clarity and consensus on defining and classifying workplace aggression, should provide a sound and coherent basis for researchers, policy makers, clinicians and health care organisations to successfully prevent and minimise this challenging and serious work health and safety concern. © 2018 Australian College of Nursing Ltd