Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Help-Negation Among Telephone Crisis Support Workers: Impact On Personal Wellbeing And Worker Performance, Taneile Kitchingman, Coralie J. Wilson, Peter Caputi, Alan Woodward

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Paper presented at the National Suicide Prevention Conference, 24-26 July 2013, Melbourne, Australia.

Telephone counsellors (TCs) provide front line mental health support to callers in crisis. TCs often support callers with suicidal thoughts, depression and anxiety, and the caller's experience of the call will influence whether they will seek help from a helpline in the future. Despite their important role, little information on TCs' mental health and help-seeking behaviours exists - a structured literature search returned 2 papers. This paper presents the results of a study that answered three research questions: 1. Do telephone counsellors experience symptoms of suicidal ideation, …

Acute Effects Of Different Multivitamin Mineral Preparations With And Without Guaraná On Mood, Cognitive Performance And Functional Brain Activation, Andrew Scholey, Isabelle Bauer, Chris Neale, Karen Savage, David Camfield, David White, Silvia Maggini, Andrew Pipingas, Con Stough, Matthew Hughes

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Previous work has identified the positive effects of the acute administration of a multivitamin-guaraná preparation during an effortful executive/working memory task. Here, we aimed to differentiate the effects of multivitamins with and without guaraná and to examine the neural substrates of such effects using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Following a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised, balanced crossover design, 20 participants (mean age 29 ± 5.54 years) consumed multivitamin preparations with or without guaraná (Berocca® Performance and Boost, respectively) and a placebo. Thirty minutes post-treatment, they underwent neurocognitive assessment, consisting of a 10 min Cognitive Demand Battery, with mood ratings taken immediately …

Estimation Of Dietary Flavonoid Intake And Cognitive Performance In Older Adults With Alzheimer's Type Dementia, Katherine Caldwell, Karen E. Charlton, Steven J. Roodenrys

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Abstract presented at The Nutrition Society of Australia and Nutrition Society of New Zealand 2013 Joint Annual Scientific Meeting, 4-6 December 2013, Brisbane, Australia

Comparison Between Traditional And Reverse Periodization: Swimming Performance And Specific Strength Values, J J. Arroyo-Toledo, Vicente J. Clemente, Jose M. Gonzalez-Rave, Domingo J. Ramos Campo, Andrew Sortwell

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

International Journal of Swimming Kinetics 2(1): 87-96, 2013. Periodization of athletic training is conceptualized as a pedagogical process, which involves varying volume, intensity and frequency of training in attempt to optimize sporting performance. The primary purpose of this research was to compare changes in 100m swim performance (t100c), specific swim power output (SSP) and maximum drag charge (MDC), after 14 weeks of training traditional periodization (control) and reverse periodization (treatment). There were 26 volunteer swimmers (16.02±0.6 yrs. 1.72±9.3 cm 64.1±9.3 kg) divided in two groups traditional periodization (TP) and reverse periodization (RP). Results at the 14th week showed significant improvements …

Teaching About Diverse Families Through Case Studies And Authentic Performance Assessment, Amy Conley Wright

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Authentic performance assessment connects active learning pedagogy with assessment of student learning. For family sciences, authentic performance assessment presents an opportunity to evaluate knowledge and skills related to working with families within the classroom context. This form of assessment can be combined with popular teaching strategies, like using family case studies, to provide application and context for course content. This article reviews the literature on authentic performance assessment and its application in the family science literature, and provides an example of an authentic performance assessment in a course on understanding and working with diverse families. The discussion provides suggestions for …

Event-Rate Effects In The Flanker Task: Erps And Task Performance In Children With And Without Ad/Hd, Stuart J. Johnstone, Daniel Galletta

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Demanding tasks require a greater amount of effort, in which case individuals are required to alter their energetic-state to a level appropriate to perform the task. According to the Cognitive-Energetic Model (CEM), children with AD/HD are unable to effectively modulate their energetic state, leading to task underperformance. Using an Eriksen flanker task with varying event-rates, the current study compared the ability of typically-developing children and children with AD/HD to modulate their energetic state. In line with the CEM, it was predicted that children with AD/HD would underperform in the fast and slow event-rates. Results indicated that the groups did not …

Measurement Of Mental Attention: Assessing A Cognitive Component Underlying Performance On Standardized Intelligence Tests, Steven J. Howard, Janice Johnson, Juan Pascual-Leone

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Despite the widespread use of standardized IQ tests to measure human intelligence, problems with such measures have led some to suggest that better indices may derive from measurement of cognitive processes underlying performance on IQ tests (e.g., working memory capacity). However, measures from both approaches may exhibit performance biases in favour of majority groups, due to the influence of prior learning and experience. Mental attentional (M-) capacity is proposed to be a causal factor underlying developmental growth in working memory. Measures of M-capacity index important cognitive variance underlying performance on standardized intelligence tests. These measures appear to be reasonably culture-fair …

A General Performance Model For Mac Layer Cooperative Retransmission Contention Protocols, Brett Hagelstein, Mehran Abolhasan, Daniel Franklin, Farzad Safaei

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Cooperative retransmission schemes can significantly improve transmission reliability and performance over high loss and time-varying links. However, analytically comparing performance between retransmission strategies is challenging and generally requires simplistic assumptions. This paper presents a general model for the performance of distributed, slot-based contention algorithms for opportunistic decode and forward retransmission algorithms. The model is independent of specific modulation or coding schemes and may be adapted to suit state-based transmission probability models. The model is validated through QualNet simulations.

Performance Uniformity Evaluation Of Two Sensl's Sipm Modules, Lachlan Chartier, Yujin Qi, Marco Petasecca, Peter Ihnat, Michael L. F Lerch, Anatoly B. Rosenfeld, Benjamin Tsui

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Minimization of the channel-to-channel variation of silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) array is of great importance in achieving high performance for SiPM based imaging detectors. The purpose of this study was to characterize the operating parameters of a large-area SiPM based detector module with 12x12 pixel array (SensL's ArraySM-4P9) in order to develop an optimal multiplexing readout for high-resolution SPECT imaging. Two versions of SensL's SiPM arrays were investigated in this study. The previous ArraySL-4 version has an array of 4x4 pixels with 3x3mm2 pixel size and the new AarraySM-4p9 version consists of a 3x3 matrix of the 4x4 pixels SiPM modules. …

Effects Of Geosynthetic Reinforcement On Performance Of Ballasted Rail Track, Pongpipat Anantanasakul, Buddhima Indraratna, Sanjay S. Nimbalkar, Tim Neville

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The 'field' performance of different geosynthetics to reinforce ballasted rail tracks was investigated. An extensive monitoring program was undertaken on fully instrumented track sections constructed near Singleton, New South Wales. Four types of geosynthetics were installed at the ballast-subballast interface of track sections located on subgrades with three distinctly different values of stiffness. It was found that geogrids could decrease vertical settlements of the ballast layer with obvious benefits of improved track stability and decreased maintenance cost. It was also found that the effectiveness of reinforcing geogrids increased when the subgrade stiffness decreased. Keywords: Geosynthetic, Reinforcement, Rail track, Ballast.

Multi-Objective Reactive Power Support From Wind Farms For Network Performance Enhancement, Lasantha Meegahapola, Brendan Fox, Tim Littler, Damian Flynn

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This paper examines the ability of the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) to deliver multiple reactive power objectives during variable wind conditions. The reactive power requirement is decomposed based on various control objectives (e.g. power factor control, voltage control, loss minimisation, and flicker mitigation) defined around different time frames (i.e. seconds, minutes, and hourly), and the control reference is generated by aggregating the individual reactive power requirement for each control strategy. A novel coordinated controller is implemented for the rotor-side converter and the grid-side converter considering their capability curves and illustrating that it can effectively utilise the aggregated DFIG reactive …

Enhanced Rate Performance Of Cobalt Oxide/Nitrogen Doped Graphene Composite For Lithium Ion Batteries, Dan Li, Dongqi Shi, Zhixin Chen, Hua-Kun Liu, Dianzeng Jia, Zaiping Guo

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Ultrafine Co3O4 nanocrystals homogeneously attached to nitrogen doped reduced graphene oxide (rGO) by the hydrothermal reaction method are demonstrated as anode materials for lithium ion batteries. Transmission electron microscope images revealed that the crystal size of Co3O4 in Co3O4/N-rGO and Co3O4/rGO is 5-10 nm, much smaller than that of bare Co3O4, indicating that the reduced graphene oxide sheets with Co3O4 nanocrystals attached could hinder the growth and aggregation of Co3O4 crystals during synthesis. The graphene sheets can also effectively buffer the volume change of Co3O4 upon lithium insertion/extraction, thus improving the cycling performance of the composite electrodes. The doped nitrogen …

A High Performance Peer To Cloud And Peer Model Augmented With Hierarchical Secure Communications, Zhe Sun, Jun Shen

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This paper presents a secure storage model named Peer to Cloud and Peer (P2CP). P2CP uses the cloud storage system as a backbone storage system. However, when data transmission occurs, the data nodes, cloud user, and the non-cloud user are involved to complete the transaction all together. The users, typically the client peers, can communicate with each other directly, thus bypassing servers on the cloud. Similarly, cloud servers can communicate with each other in a P2P mode. We also introduce a "hierarchy security" method to guarantee the data security in the proposed P2CP storage model. A key feature of our …

Smart Multifunctional Fluids For Lithium Ion Batteries: Enhanced Rate Performance And Intrinsic Mechanical Protection, Jie Ding, Tongfei Tian, Qing Meng, Zaiping Guo, Weihua Li, Peng Zhang, Fabio T. Ciacchi, Jewel Huang, Wenrong Yang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Lithium ion batteries are attractive power sources for the consumer electronics market and are being aggressively developed for road transportation. Nevertheless, issues with safety and reliability need to be solved prior to the large-scale uptake of these batteries. There have recently been significant development and assessment of materials with resistance to mechanical abuse, with the aims of reinforcing the battery and preventing puncturing during a crash. Most of the work on battery mechanical safety has concentrated on the external packaging of batteries, with little attention being paid to the enclosed electrolyte. We report on smart multifunctional fluids that act as …

Teamwork As A Service: A Cloud-Based System For Enhancing Teamwork Performance In Mobile Learning, Geng Sun, Jun Shen

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Although cloud computing helps learners to access online learning content through commonly used devices, it can be difficult to collaborate in the mobile environment. We develop a service-oriented system, ‘Teamwork as a Service’ (TaaS), to facilitate learners’ team learning activities. The five main services of TaaS facilitate a teamwork-enhanced learning flow associated with the theory of Kolb’s team learning experience, providing learners with an introduction, a ‘jigsaw classroom’, schedule planning, and mutual supervision during the whole process. Specifically, TaaS enables a rational grouping mechanism that allocates learners to their appropriate tasks in order to give their best performance. TaaS is …

Facilitating Collaborative Learning In Taas: A Mobile Cloud System For Enhancing Teamwork Performance, Geng Sun, Jun Shen

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Mobile cloud-based learning is a novel trend that brings many advantages to distributed learners to achieve collaborative learning, but it still lacks of mechanisms to enhance their teamwork performances. To make up that shortcoming, combining the features of cloud environment, we have identified a learning flow, a specification of workflow, based on Kolb team learning experience. This novel learning flow can be executed by our newly designed system, Teamwork as a Service (TaaS), in conjunction with cloud-hosting learning management systems, following which learners benefit from functions given by cloudbased services, separately for organizing cloud jigsaw classroom, planning and publishing tasks, …

Impact Of Humic Acid Fouling On Membrane Performance And Transport Of Pharmaceutically Active Compounds In Forward Osmosis, Ming Xie, Long D. Nghiem, William E. Price, Menachem Elimelech

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The impact of humic acid fouling on the membrane transport of two pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) - namely carbamazepine and sulfamethoxazole - in forward osmosis (FO) was investigated. Deposition of humic acid onto the membrane surface was promoted by the complexation with calcium ions in the feed solution and the increase in ionic strength at the membrane surface due to the reverse transport of NaCl draw solute. The increase in the humic acid deposition on the membrane surface led to a substantial decrease in the membrane salt (NaCl) permeability coefficient but did not result in a significant decrease in the …

Performance Evaluation Of Cooperative Communications For Stfc Mb-Ofdm Uwb, Zixuan Lin, Le Chung Tran, Farzad Safaei

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Recently, the combination of cooperative communication, Space-Time-Frequency Codes (STFCs) and Multiband OFDM Ultra-Wideband (MB-OFDM UWB) has been proposed to improve the data rate, system capacity and reliability. This paper provides insightful performance evaluation for our previous proposed cooperative communication schemes for MBOFDM UWB systems. In particular, this paper shows that the usefulness of cooperative communication schemes is decided by the mutual relation between the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the inter-node links, referred to as inter-node SNR, and that of the uplinks, which is referred to as uplink SNR. For a certain uplink SNR value, cooperative communication becomes useful when the …

Performance Evaluation Of Bioethanol Production Through Continuous Fermentation With A Settling Unit, Mark I. Nelson, Norhayati Hamzah

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This paper analyses a model for the production of bioethanol that has been calibrated against laboratory data by previous researchers. The authors investigate the improvement in productivity that can be obtained when a centrifuge is used to recycle cells that would otherwise leave the reactor system in the efficient stream. The authors compare the performance of a double reactor cascade, possible employing a settling unit, against that of a single reactor. For the former case, this paper considers the reactor configuration in which the settling unit recycles from the effluent stream of a reactor back in the influent of the …

Performance And Prediction Of Marine Clay Treated With Vacuum And Surcharge Consolidation At Port Of Brisbane, Buddhima Indraratna, A S. Balasubramaniam, Harry Poulos, Cholachat Rujikiatkamjorn, Jayantha Ameratunga

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

During the past decade, the application of vacuum preloading for stabilising soft coastal clay and other low-lying estuarine soils has become popular in Australia. The cost-effectiveness isa major factor in most projects in view of the significantly reduced time for achieving high degree of consolidation. Due to an increase in trade activities at the Port of Brisbane, new facilities on Fisherman Islands at the mouth of the Brisbane River will be constructed on the new outer area (235 ha) adjacent to the existing port facilities via land reclamation. A vacuum assited surcharge load and conventional surcharge scheme in conjunction with …

Tuning Performance Of E-Business Applications Through Automatic Transformation Of Persistent Database Structures, Janusz R. Getta

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Performance of e-business applications strongly depends on internal implementations of persistent database structures and on effective algorithms processing these structures. Commercial database systems, which are the basis of e-business applications typically implement logical database structures with one-size-fits-all persistent storage structure. This work investigates a new class of database systems where a conceptual and logical view of a database can be implemented in many different ways depending on the performance requirements of database applications. We consider the improvements to performance of e-business applications through automatic changes of the persistent database structures in the ways indicated by the performance statistics obtained from …

Performance Of Cfrp Wrapped Square Reinforced Concrete Columns Subjected To Eccentric Loading, Ida Bagus Rai Widiarsa, Muhammad N. S Hadi

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Strengthening concrete columns with fibre-reinforced polymers (FRP) has been studied extensively, but the majority of published studies have focused on circular columns. Most concrete columns in the field have square or rectangular cross sections and resist eccentric loading as well. The objective of this study is to investigate the performance of square reinforced concrete (RC) columns wrapped with carbon FRP subjected to eccentric loading. The influence of two parameters was studied including the number of FRP layers and the magnitude of eccentricity. Compression testing was conducted on twelve short square RC columns wrapped with CFRP composites. The columns had a …

A Forward Osmosis-Membrane Distillation Hybrid Process For Direct Sewer Mining: System Performance And Limitations, Ming Xie, Long D. Nghiem, William E. Price, Menachem Elimelech

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This study demonstrates the robustness and treatment capacity of a forward osmosis (FO)-membrane distillation (MD) hybrid system for small-scale decentralized sewer mining. A stable water flux was realized using a laboratory-scale FO-MD hybrid system operating continuously with raw sewage as the feed at water recovery up to 80%. The hybrid system also showed an excellent capacity for the removal of trace organic contaminants (TrOCs), with removal rates ranging from 91 to 98%. The results suggest that TrOC transport through the FO membrane is governed by "solute-membrane" interaction, whereas that through the MD membrane is strongly correlated to TrOC volatility. Concentrations …

Performance Monitoring Of Rail Tracks Stabilized By Geosynthetics And Shock Mats: Case Studies At Bulli And Singleton In Australia, Buddhima Indraratna, Sanjay Nimbalkar, Pongpipat Anantanasakul, Cholachat Rujikiatkamjorn, Tim Neville

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Rail tracks are conventionally built on compacted ballast and structural fill embankments overlying the natural subsoil. Ballast plays an important role in providing track stiffness to support heavy traffic loads, and providing rapid drainage. However, ballast deforms and degrades progressively under the heavy cyclic loading of passenger and freight trains, which may lead to a loss of track geometry, and require costly regular maintenance. In particular, track construction requires appropriate stabilization techniques for ballast, the extent of which depends also on the type of subgrade. Comprehensive field trials were carried out on two rail lines in Bulli and recently in …

Counterfactual Thinking And Anticipated Emotions Enhance Performance In Computer Skills Training, Amy Y.C Chan, Peter Caputi, Rohan Jayasuriya, J L. Browne

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The present study examined the relationship between novice learners' counterfactual thinking (i.e. generating what if and if only thoughts) about their initial training experience with a computer application and subsequent improvement in task performance. The role of anticipated emotions towards goal attainment in task performance was also assessed. Undergraduate students (N = 42) with minimal experience in using computer spreadsheets underwent basic training in using Microsoft Excel. All participants were assessed on their anticipated positive and negative emotions regarding goal attainment at the outset. After completing their first task, participants allocated to a counterfactual condition received instructions to generate counterfactual …