A new image dissimilarity measure incorporating human perception
- Shojanazeri, Hamid, Teng, Shyh, Aryal, Sunil, Zhang, Dengsheng, Lu, Guojun
- Authors: Shojanazeri, Hamid , Teng, Shyh , Aryal, Sunil , Zhang, Dengsheng , Lu, Guojun
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Unpublished work
- Full Text:
- Description: Pairwise (dis) similarity measure of data objects is central to many applications of image anlaytics, such as image retrieval and classification. Geometric distance, particularly Euclidean distance ((
- Authors: Shojanazeri, Hamid , Teng, Shyh , Aryal, Sunil , Zhang, Dengsheng , Lu, Guojun
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Unpublished work
- Full Text:
- Description: Pairwise (dis) similarity measure of data objects is central to many applications of image anlaytics, such as image retrieval and classification. Geometric distance, particularly Euclidean distance ((
Adverse life events and the onset of anxiety disorders
- Miloyan, Beyon, Bienvenu, Oscar, Brilot, Ben, Eaton, William
- Authors: Miloyan, Beyon , Bienvenu, Oscar , Brilot, Ben , Eaton, William
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Psychiatry Research Vol. 259, no. (2018), p. 488-492
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: This study tested the hypothesis that adverse events are associated with increased risk of onset of anxiety disorders. Data from Waves 1 (N = 43,093; 2001–2002) and 2 (N = 34,653; 2004–2005) of the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) were used to assess whether adverse events at baseline are associated with increased risk of anxiety disorder onset over three years of follow up. Sixty-six percent (SE: 1.0) of respondents with an anxiety disorder in the intervening period between Waves 1 and 2 had experienced an adverse life event in the year prior to the Wave 1 interview. In logistic regression models adjusted for sociodemographic and psychiatric characteristics, adverse life events at baseline were associated with anxiety disorder onset within the three-year follow up period. The pattern of association between adverse events and anxiety disorder onset was similar across sub-types, and injury, illness or death of family or close friends consistently had the strongest association with anxiety disorder onset. These findings suggest that adverse life events play a role in the onset of anxiety disorders.
- Miloyan, Beyon, Bulley, Adam, Suddendorf, Thomas
- Authors: Miloyan, Beyon , Bulley, Adam , Suddendorf, Thomas
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Emotion Review Vol. , no. (2018), p.
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: The future harbours the potential for myriad threats to the fitness of organisms, and many species prepare accordingly based on indicators of hazards. Here, we distinguish between defensive responses on the basis of sensed cues and those based on autocues generated by mental simulations of the future in humans. Whereas sensed threat cues usually induce specific responses with reference to particular features of the environment or generalized responses to protect against diffuse threats, autocues generated by mental simulations of the future enable strategic preparation for hazards that may not require an immediate response. The overlap of these mechanisms makes defence effective and versatile, yet can manifest as contemporary anxiety disorders in humans.
- Barua, Bipasha, Barua, Suborna, Hasan Rana, Rezwanul
- Authors: Barua, Bipasha , Barua, Suborna , Hasan Rana, Rezwanul
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: The Journal of Developing Areas Vol. 52, no. 3 (2018), p. 153-168
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Non-life insurance companies are an important part of the financial system in any country. Constant development and financial sustainability of these institutions is key to foster the rapidly growing economic activities of emerging economies like Bangladesh. This study made an attempt to establish the impact of different firm-specific factors on profitability using the non-life insurance sector in Bangladesh. A thriving insurance industry, especially in the non-life sector, can accelerate economic growth by mobilizing large funds and providing risk-hedging services to economic activities. This paper investigates the temporary and permanent impact of different firm-specific factors on financial performance, using the case of the non-life insurance sector in Bangladesh: one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Using panel data on 16 non-life insurance companies from 1999 to 2014, this paper utilizes both Static Panel Data (SPD) and Dynamic Panel Data (DPD) estimation techniques. For DPD estimation, a Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimator built on an ARDL Framework that can produce short run and long run impacts separately has been employed. In addition to the average impact generated from static estimations, this paper identifies the significant impact of all variables on profitability in the long-term (those of a permanent nature) while the investment ratio shows some impact in the short-term (those of a temporary nature). The results of the study indicate that the average impact is predominantly derived from the long-term and thus appear to be permanent in nature. Moreover, investment ratio contributes positively to profitability, mostly in the short-term (temporarily) with some effects in the long-term. The findings on liquidity and investment ratio suggest the permanent nature of their impact on profitability in the long-term and, hence, insurers are probably better served investing funds in short-term opportunities (e.g. investing in securities) rather than in long-term ones. Lastly, the empirical results regarding the impact of leverage is not clear, as it shows mixed impact in two different estimations, including the permanent nature of negative impact in the long-term. The non-life insurance companies of Bangladesh should implement strong policies to reduce the faulty underwriting procedures to improve the profitability. This paper offers significant contributions to the literature by separately identifying the 'temporary' and 'permanent' impact of several determinants, thereby producing novel estimations for Bangladesh that may have implications for other emerging economies.
- Abraham, Joji, Dowling, Kim, Florentine, Singarayer
- Authors: Abraham, Joji , Dowling, Kim , Florentine, Singarayer
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Chemosphere Vol. 190, no. (2018), p. 144-153
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Prescribed fire conducted in fire-prone areas is a cost-effective choice for forest management, but it also affects many of the physicochemical and bio-geological properties of the forest soil, in a similar manner to wild fires. The aim of this study is to investigate the nature of the mercury mobilization after a prescribed fire and the subsequent temporal changes in concentration. A prescribed fire was conducted in a legacy mine site in Central Victoria, Australia, in late August 2015 and soil sample collection and analyses were carried out two days before and two days after the fire, followed by collection at the end of each season and after an intense rainfall event in September 2016. Results revealed the occurrence of mercury volatilization (8.3–97%) during the fire, and the mercury concentration displayed a significant difference (p < 0.05) before and immediately after the fire. Integrated assessment with number of pollution indices has shown that the study site is extremely contaminated with mercury during all the sampling events, and this poses a serious ecological risk due to the health impacts of mercury on human and ecosystems. In times of climate fluctuation with concomitant increase in forest fire (including prescribed fire), and subsequent precipitation and runoff, the potential for an increased amount of mercury being mobilized is of heighted significance. Therefore, it is recommended that prescribed fire should be cautiously considered as a forest management strategy in any mercury affected landscapes. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd
Ekeland's inverse function theorem in graded Fréchet spaces revisited for multifunctions
- Huynh, Van Ngai, Théra, Michel
- Authors: Huynh, Van Ngai , Théra, Michel
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications Vol. 457, no. 2 (2018), p. 1403-1421
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: In this paper, we present some inverse function theorems and implicit function theorems for set-valued mappings between Fréchet spaces. The proof relies on Lebesgue's Dominated Convergence Theorem and on Ekeland's variational principle. An application to the existence of solutions of differential equations in Fréchet spaces with non-smooth data is given.
Estimating the international burden of sport-related death : A review of data sources
- Kucera, Kristen, Fortington, Lauren, Wolff, Catherine, Marshall, Stephen, Finch, Caroline
- Authors: Kucera, Kristen , Fortington, Lauren , Wolff, Catherine , Marshall, Stephen , Finch, Caroline
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Injury Prevention Vol. , no. (2018), p.
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Introduction Despite detailed recommendations for sports injury data capture provided since the mid-1990s, international data collection efforts for sport-related death remains limited in scope. The purpose of this paper was to review the data sources available for studying sport-related death and describe their key features, coverage, accessibility and strengths and limitations. Methods The outcomes of interest for this review was death occurring as a result of participation in organised sport-related activity. Data sources used to enumerate death in sport were identified, drawing from the authors’ knowledge/experience and review of key references from international organisations. The general purpose, case identification, structure, strengths and limitations of each source in relation to collection of data for sport-related death were summarised, drawing on examples from the international published literature to illustrate this application. Results Seven types of resources were identified for capturing deaths in sport. Data sources varied considerably in their ability to identify: participant status, sport relatedness of the death, types of sport-related deaths they capture, level of detail provided about the circumstances and medical care received. The most detailed sources were those that were dedicated to sports surveillance. Sport relatedness and type of sport may not be reliably captured by systems not dedicated to sports injury surveillance. Only one source permitted international comparisons and was limited to one sport (soccer). Conclusion Data on sport-related death are currently collected across a wide variety of data sources. This review highlights the need for robust, comprehensive approaches with standardised methodologies enabling linkage between sources and international comparisons.
- O'Connor, Siobhán, Hitchens, Peta, Fortington, Lauren
- Authors: O'Connor, Siobhán , Hitchens, Peta , Fortington, Lauren
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine Vol. 4, no. 1 (2018), p.
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Background The most recent report on hospital-treated horse-riding injuries in Victoria was published 20 years ago. Since then, injury countermeasures and new technology have aimed to make horse riding safer for participants. This study provides an update of horse-riding injuries that required hospital treatment in Victoria and examines changes in injury patterns compared with the earlier study. Methods Horse-riding injuries that required hospital treatment (hospital admission (HA) or emergency department (ED) presentations) were extracted from routinely collected data from public and private hospitals in Victoria from 2002–2003 to 2015–2016. Injury incidence rates per 100 000 Victorian population per financial year and age-stratified and sex-stratified injury incidence rates are presented. Poisson regression was used to examine trends in injury rates over the study period. Results ED presentation and HA rates were 31.1 and 6.6 per 100 000 person-years, increasing by 28.8% and 47.6% from 2002 to 2016, respectively. Female riders (47.3 ED and 10.1 HA per 100 000 person-years) and those aged between 10 and 14 years (87.8 ED and 15.7 HA per 100 000 person-years) had the highest incidence rates. Fractures (ED 29.4%; HA 56.5%) and head injuries (ED 15.4%; HA 18.9%) were the most common injuries. HA had a mean stay of 2.6±4.1 days, and the mean cost per HA was $A5096±8345. Conclusion Horse-riding injuries have remained similar in their pattern (eg, types of injuries) since last reported in Victoria. HA and ED incidence rates have increased over the last 14 years. Refocusing on injury prevention countermeasures is recommended along with a clear plan for implementation and evaluation of their effectiveness in reducing injury.
Identifying attendance motives for an international league fixture
- Reimers, Vaughan, Chao, Chih‐Wei (Fred), Speechley, Kim
- Authors: Reimers, Vaughan , Chao, Chih‐Wei (Fred) , Speechley, Kim
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics Vol. 30, no. 1 (2018), p. 121-138
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Purpose – Whilst the impact of motives on sports attendance has received due scholarly attention, one context that appears to have been overlooked is the growing trend towards playing domestic league fixtures in an international setting. The purpose of this paper is to address this oversight by exploring how four different categories of motives distinguished attendees from non-attendees for an Australian Rules football game played in New Zealand. Design/methodology/approach – A stadium-intercept method at a St Kilda home game was used for the purposes of data collection. In total, 2,000 survey invitations had been distributed. Of these, 381 usable online surveys were received. The resulting data were analysed using structural equation modelling. Findings – This study found that the lower fans’ expectations of their team winning, the less likely they were to travel internationally to watch their team play. Furthermore, it also support that sport tourism is influenced not only by the event itself but also non-event attractions offered by the host destination image. Research limitations/implications – The limitation applies to the research context in which the respondents were selected from one of the two competing teams. Practical implications – This study confirms the importance of “special occasion” and highlights that an Australian Football League game played in New Zealand on ANZAC Day should continue to serve as a special occasion due to the historical significance of that day. Originality/value – The results from this study confirm the importance of adding a fourth category of motives – contextual factors – to the existing list of push, pull and sports motives. The findings also support the obvious distinction between attending a domestic event vs attending an international one.
Long-term dynamic behaviour of Coode Island Silt (CIS) containing different sand content
- Jamali, Hassan, Tolooiyan, Ali, Dehghani, Masoud, Asakereh, Adel, Kalantari, Behzad
- Authors: Jamali, Hassan , Tolooiyan, Ali , Dehghani, Masoud , Asakereh, Adel , Kalantari, Behzad
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Applied Ocean Research Vol. 73, no. (2018), p. 59-69
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: The foundations of nearshore and offshore structures are always subjected to long-term cyclic loading which is often a one-way, with low amplitude and a large number of cycles. Hence, the long-term dynamic behaviour of shoreline soils and sediments should be understood to avoid excessive deformation and liquefaction. As one of the most problematic soft soils in Melbourne, Coode Island Silt (CIS) at the northern shoreline of Port Phillip Bay contains a considerable but variable amount of sand. This paper explores the dynamic response of CIS containing different sand content subjected to a large number of cycles. To determine the liquefaction potential, and the effect of sand content on the resilient modulus and permanent strain of CIS, a series of long-term cyclic triaxial tests at a sinusoidal loading frequency of 1 Hz is performed. Based on the test results, it is found that CIS with varying sand content up to 30%, does not liquefy under the cyclic stress ratios and frequency applied in this study. Also, a sand content of 10% causes CIS to degrade more under cyclic loading. In the end, an empirical model to predict the permanent strain of CIS with a variable sand content is calibrated.
Michael Fried and philosophy : Modernism, intention, and theatricality
- Authors: Abbott, Mathew
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book
- Relation: Routledge Research in Aesthetics series Vol. 1
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: This volume brings philosophers, art historians, intellectual historians, and literary scholars together to argue for the philosophical significance of Michael Fried’s art history and criticism. It demonstrates that Fried’s work on modernism, artistic intention, the ontology of art, theatricality, and anti-theatricality can throw new light on problems in and beyond philosophical aesthetics. Featuring an essay by Fried and articles from world-leading scholars, this collection engages with philosophical themes from Fried’s texts, and clarifies the relevance to his work of philosophers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein, Stanley Cavell, Morris Weitz, Elizabeth Anscombe, Arthur Danto, George Dickie, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schiller, G. W. F. Hegel, Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Denis Diderot, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Roland Barthes, Jacques Rancière, and Søren Kierkegaard. As it makes a case for the importance of Fried for philosophy, this volume contributes to current debates in analytic and continental aesthetics, philosophy of action, philosophy of history, political philosophy, modernism studies, literary studies, and art theory.
Negotiating policy - renegotiating practice : Understanding language, literacy and numeracy teachers' professional identities within discursive weather systems
- Authors: Krusche, Julianne
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis examines the professional identities of teachers in light of Australian vocational educational policy reform since the late 1980s. Although the reform has been national, this study is located within Victoria. It is specifically interested in the professional identities of Language, Literacy and Numeracy (LLN) teachers who work within the Vocational Education and Training sector. This study brings the voices of LLN specialists to the forefront. Poststructural theory, with particular emphasis on the work of Michel Foucault and narrative inquiry, is used to make sense of these voices, collectively known as the ‘voice of practice’. This study treats professional identity as a multiple term encompassing a range of assigned roles and chosen identities; as such, it argues that professional identity should be seen as fluid and dynamic and as something that continues to evolve. The teachers involved in this study actively negotiated various discourses related to the shaping of professional identity. The effects of this were threefold: LLN teachers ascribed to certain identity positions in line with government policy and institute directives; they preserved other identities; and they forged new identities based on opportunism and a resistance to policy discourse. While there has been a decline in the Adult and Community Education voice in policy development, within practice, this study found that teachers have retained a voice through the maintenance and creation of teaching practices that sit outside policy. Further, this study found that although numerous stakeholders invest in the provision of LLN, it is learners who hold a lot of the power; indeed, the needs of learners, feedback from learners and their transformative learning experiences are the primary drivers in teacher motivation and identity. Finally, this study found a misalignment between policy discourse and the voice of practice that requires attention if LLN policies are to be successfully implemented.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Krusche, Julianne
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis examines the professional identities of teachers in light of Australian vocational educational policy reform since the late 1980s. Although the reform has been national, this study is located within Victoria. It is specifically interested in the professional identities of Language, Literacy and Numeracy (LLN) teachers who work within the Vocational Education and Training sector. This study brings the voices of LLN specialists to the forefront. Poststructural theory, with particular emphasis on the work of Michel Foucault and narrative inquiry, is used to make sense of these voices, collectively known as the ‘voice of practice’. This study treats professional identity as a multiple term encompassing a range of assigned roles and chosen identities; as such, it argues that professional identity should be seen as fluid and dynamic and as something that continues to evolve. The teachers involved in this study actively negotiated various discourses related to the shaping of professional identity. The effects of this were threefold: LLN teachers ascribed to certain identity positions in line with government policy and institute directives; they preserved other identities; and they forged new identities based on opportunism and a resistance to policy discourse. While there has been a decline in the Adult and Community Education voice in policy development, within practice, this study found that teachers have retained a voice through the maintenance and creation of teaching practices that sit outside policy. Further, this study found that although numerous stakeholders invest in the provision of LLN, it is learners who hold a lot of the power; indeed, the needs of learners, feedback from learners and their transformative learning experiences are the primary drivers in teacher motivation and identity. Finally, this study found a misalignment between policy discourse and the voice of practice that requires attention if LLN policies are to be successfully implemented.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Pillay, Manikam, Tuck, Michael
- Authors: Pillay, Manikam , Tuck, Michael
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings , Conference Paper
- Relation: AHFE 2017 International Conference on Human Error, Reliability, Resilience, and Performance, 2017 : Advances in Human Error, Reliability, Resilience, and Performance; Los Angeles, USA; 17th-21st July 2017; published in Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing Vol. 589, p. 145-154
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Mining is an important contributor to the social and economic fabric of our society. However, it is also considered to be one of the most dangerous industries. Compared to manufacturing, mining is generally regarded as a more complex industry to work in, creating additional challenges for policy makers, researchers and practitioners. This paper first discusses the state of mining health and safety in Australia, followed by an examination of some of the complexities that characterizes the industry. Next one contemporary approach, permit-to-work systems (PTW), is introduced, followed by a review of the literature relating to its use as a health and safety risk control strategy. This is followed by a discussion of Resilience engineering (RE) as an innovation in health and safety management, and a case made for investigating RE as a safety management strategy using PTW systems. The paper concludes by suggesting a pragmatism research framework and two organizational theories upon which such research can be advanced. © Her Majesty the Queen in Right of United Kingdom 2018.
Prospection and natural selection
- Suddendorf, Thomas, Bulley, Adam, Miloyan, Beyon
- Authors: Suddendorf, Thomas , Bulley, Adam , Miloyan, Beyon
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences Vol. 24, no. (2018), p. 26-31
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Prospection refers to thinking about the future, a capacity that has become the subject of increasing research in recent years. Here we first distinguish basic prospection, such as associative learning, from more complex prospection commonly observed in humans, such as episodic foresight, the ability to imagine diverse future situations and organize current actions accordingly. We review recent studies on complex prospection in various contexts, such as decision-making, planning, deliberate practice, information gathering, and social coordination. Prospection appears to play many important roles in human survival and reproduction. Foreseeing threats and opportunities before they arise, for instance, drives attempts at avoiding future harm and obtaining future benefits, and recognizing the future utility of a solution turns it into an innovation, motivating refinement and dissemination. Although we do not know about the original contexts in which complex prospection evolved, it is increasingly clear through research on the emergence of these capacities in childhood and on related disorders in various clinical conditions, that limitations in prospection can have profound functional consequences.
Review of the roadmap for sustainable development in timor-leste : An economic policy report
- Courvisanos, Jerry, Boavida, Matias
- Authors: Courvisanos, Jerry , Boavida, Matias
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Technical report
- Full Text: false
Self-care for academics : A poetic invitation to reflect and resist
- O’Dwyer, Siobhan, Pinto, Sarah, McDonough, Sharon
- Authors: O’Dwyer, Siobhan , Pinto, Sarah , McDonough, Sharon
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Reflective Practice Vol. , no. (2018), p.
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: In newspapers and blogs, on Twitter, and in academic papers, stories of struggling academics abound. Substance abuse, depression, failed relationships, and chronic illness are the casualties of a neoliberal university sector that values quantity over quality and demands ever more for ever less. Within the academic literature a growing counter-movement has called for resistance, collective action, and slow scholarship. Much of this work, however, has focused on strategies that can be applied within academia. Little has been written about the activities that academics do outside the university; activities that have no purpose other than enjoyment, rest, and renewal; activities that represent the valuing of the self as a human being, rather than a means of production; activities that could best be defined as self-care. Using reflective practice to construct a poem comprising three voices, this paper explores those activities. This poetic representation is an effort to create time and space for the authors, and a manifesto to encourage other academics to demand and protect the time, space, and reflective practice that are essential to both personal wellbeing and quality research and education.
Strong metric subregularity of mappings in variational analysis and optimization
- Cibulka, Radek, Dontchev, Asen, Kruger, Alex
- Authors: Cibulka, Radek , Dontchev, Asen , Kruger, Alex
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications Vol. 457, no. 2 (2018), p. 1247-1287
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Although the property of strong metric subregularity of set-valued mappings has been present in the literature under various names and with various (equivalent) definitions for more than two decades, it has attracted much less attention than its older “siblings”, the metric regularity and the strong (metric) regularity. The purpose of this paper is to show that the strong metric subregularity shares the main features of these two most popular regularity properties and is not less instrumental in applications. We show that the strong metric subregularity of a mapping F acting between metric spaces is stable under perturbations of the form f+F, where f is a function with a small calmness constant. This result is parallel to the Lyusternik–Graves theorem for metric regularity and to the Robinson theorem for strong regularity, where the perturbations are represented by a function f with a small Lipschitz constant. Then we study perturbation stability of the same kind for mappings acting between Banach spaces, where f is not necessarily differentiable but admits a set-valued derivative-like approximation. Strong metric q-subregularity is also considered, where q is a positive real constant appearing as exponent in the definition. Rockafellar's criterion for strong metric subregularity involving injectivity of the graphical derivative is extended to mappings acting in infinite-dimensional spaces. A sufficient condition for strong metric subregularity is established in terms of surjectivity of the Fréchet coderivative, and it is shown by a counterexample that surjectivity of the limiting coderivative is not a sufficient condition for this property, in general. Then various versions of Newton's method for solving generalized equations are considered including inexact and semismooth methods, for which superlinear convergence is shown under strong metric subregularity. As applications to optimization, a characterization of the strong metric subregularity of the KKT mapping is obtained, as well as a radius theorem for the optimality mapping of a nonlinear programming problem. Finally, an error estimate is derived for a discrete approximation in optimal control under strong metric subregularity of the mapping involved in the Pontryagin principle.
- Falah, Mahroo, Pouya, Kaveh Ranjbar, Tolooiyan, Ali, Mackenzie, Kenneth
- Authors: Falah, Mahroo , Pouya, Kaveh Ranjbar , Tolooiyan, Ali , Mackenzie, Kenneth
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Applied Clay Science Vol. 157, no. (2018), p. 198-203
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: A microstructural study of Coode Island Silt (CIS), a soft silty clay from the Melbourne area of Australia, stabilised with slag lime is reported. Slag lime is a blend of 80–85 wt% slag, 15 wt% hydrated lime, Ca(OH)2 and 3–8 wt% gypsum CaSO4.2H2O, and is typically used for soil stabilisation in roading applications. The morphologies of several homogeneous mixtures of slag lime and CIS were studied by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), which indicated the formation of the cementitious phases calcium carbonate, calcium silicate hydrate, calcium aluminium silicate hydrate, and calcium aluminium silicate carbonate. The progress of the CIS-slag lime reactions was also investigated by pH measurements. Slag lime was found to very actively promote pozzolanic reactions with CIS, shown by SEM to form crystalline reticular calcium silicate hydrate and other cementitious products. The most effective pozzolanic reactions occurred in a composite containing 12.5 wt% slag lime with CIS and contained the cement mineral ettringite, contributing to its high strength. These composites constitute a new class of materials with excellent potential for construction applications.
The association between physical activity and social isolation in community-dwelling older adults
- Robins, Lauren, Hill, Keith, Finch, Caroline, Clemson, Lindy, Haines, Terry
- Authors: Robins, Lauren , Hill, Keith , Finch, Caroline , Clemson, Lindy , Haines, Terry
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article , Article
- Relation: Aging and Mental Health Vol. 22, no. 2 (2018), p. 175-182
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Objectives: Social isolation is an increasing concern in older community-dwelling adults. There is growing need to determine effective interventions addressing social isolation. This study aimed to determine whether a relationship exists between physical activity (recreational and/or household-based) and social isolation. An examination was conducted for whether group- or home-based falls prevention exercise was associated with social isolation. Methods: Cross-sectional analysis of telephone survey data was used to investigate relationships between physical activity, health, age, gender, living arrangements, ethnicity and participation in group- or home-based falls prevention exercise on social isolation. Univariable and multivariable ordered logistic regression analyses were conducted. Results: Factors found to be significantly associated with reduced social isolation in multivariable analysis included living with a partner/spouse, reporting better general health, higher levels of household-based physical activity (OR = 1.03, CI = 1.01–1.05) and feeling less downhearted/depressed. Being more socially isolated was associated with symptoms of depression and a diagnosis of congestive heart failure (pseudo R2 = 0.104). Discussion: Findings suggest that household-based physical activity is related to social isolation in community-dwelling older adults. Further research is required to determine the nature of this relationship and to investigate the impact of group physical activity interventions on social isolation.
- Zhalehjoo, Negin, Tolooiyan, Ali, Mackay, Rae, Bodin, Didier
- Authors: Zhalehjoo, Negin , Tolooiyan, Ali , Mackay, Rae , Bodin, Didier
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article , Article
- Relation: Transportation Geotechnics Vol. 14, no. (2018), p. 190-201
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Unbound Granular Materials (UGMs) are used in the base/subbase layers of flexible pavement structures for the vast majority of the main roads around the world. The resilient modulus of UGMs is a key input parameter for the design and analysis of flexible pavement structures. In the present study, four road base UGMs with a range of moisture contents are used to evaluate each material's resilient deformation behaviour using laboratory repeated load triaxial tests. The triaxial system for the tests is instrumented with four axial deformation gauges: an on-specimen axial Hall-Effect transducer, an internal Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT), an external LVDT, and the actuator LVDT. The application of a Hall-Effect transducer directly mounted on the specimen and the three LVDTs permits the comparative study of alternative deformation measurements for the determination of an accurate and reliable resilient modulus value. By comparing tests results obtained with each transducer, the relative capability of each measurement is determined and a reference transducer for deformation measurement is identified. A constitutive model is then used to carry out a regression analysis and to predict the resilient modulus of the four tested materials.