Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Osspal: Finding And Evaluating Open Source Software, Anthony Wasserman

Tony Wasserman

Animal Model Research: The Apples And Oranges Quandary, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Kenneth J. Shapiro, PhD

In this paper, I explore the premises underlying the problem of the evaluation of animal models. I argue that the presence of similarities and differences between the model and the modelled, although historically and currently a dominant antinomy framing evaluation, is not a bottom-line consideration. What is critical is 1) whether we learn and 2) whether we improve treatment through the animal model research. Similarity between model and modelled and the closely related concept of validity are not coterminus with these critical evaluative measures. In fact, differences between the model and modelled also can provide impetus to new understanding and …

A Utility-Driven Approach To Supplier Evaluation And Selection: Empirical Validation Of An Integrated Solution Framework, Alptekin Ulutas, Nagesh Shukla, Senevi Kiridena, Peter Gibson

Nagesh Shukla

Supplier evaluation and selection (SES) problems have long been studied, leading to the development of a wide range of individual and hybrid models for solving them. However, the lack of widespread diffusion of existing SES models in the industry points to a need for simpler models that can systematically evaluate both qualitative and quantitative attributes of potential suppliers while enhancing the flexibility decision-makers need to account for relevant situational factors. Furthermore, empirical validations of existing models in SES have been few and far between. With a view to addressing these issues, this paper proposes an integrated solution framework that can …

A Comparison Of Laboratory And Vulnerability Evaluation Methods For The Testing Security Equipment, Benjamin Beard, David J. Brooks

David J Brooks Dr.

A facility wide security system cannot be tested without causing disruption or creating vulnerabilities within the system. To overcome this issue, individual components or equipment may be evaluated to a priori performance standard. The two common approaches to security equipment evaluations are vulnerability attacks and laboratory testing. Laboratory testing of security equipment can reduce the costs and time associated with evaluations, as well as limiting the subjectivity of the tests. Vulnerability attacks will produce more realistic evaluation results of the whole security system; nevertheless, the data obtained is dependent on the physical attributes and skill of the attackers. This study …

Assessing Vulnerabilities Of Biometric Readers Using An Applied Defeat Evaluation Methodology, David Brooks

David J Brooks Dr.

Access control systems using biometric identification readers are becoming common within critical infrastructure and other high security applications. There is a perception that biometric, due to their ability to identify and validate the user, are more secure. However, biometric systems are vulnerable to many categories of attack vectors and there has been restricted research into such defeat vulnerabilities. This study expands on a past article (Brooks, 2009) that presented a defeat evaluation methodology applied to high-security biometric readers. The defeat methodology is represented, but applied to both fingerprint and back-of-hand biometric readers. Defeat evaluation included both physical and technical integrity …

Detector Prototype Evaluation At Spallation Neutron Sources, Robert W. Pattie Jr.

Robert W. Pattie Jr.

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Encapsulating Coatings On The Performance Of Polypyrrole Actuators, Sina Naficy, Nicholas Stoboi, Philip G. Whitten, Geoffrey M. Spinks, Gordon G. Wallace

Gordon Wallace

Conjugated polymer actuators are electroactive materials capable of generating force and movement in response to an applied external voltage. Many potential biomedical and industrial applications require these actuators to operate in a liquid environment. However, immersion of uncoated conducting polymer actuators in non-electrolyte liquids greatly reduces their operating lifetime. Here, we demonstrate the use of spray coating as an effective and simple method to encapsulate polypyrrole (PPy) tri-layer bending actuators. Poly(styrene-b-isobutylene-b-styrene) (SIBS) was used as an encapsulating, compliant spray coating on PPy actuators. A significant enhancement in actuator lifetime in both air and water was observed by encapsulating the actuators. …

Evaluating Emergency Management After An Event: Gaps And Suggestions, Neil Dufty

Neil Dufty

Post-event evaluations of emergency management are critical to help emergency service providers and communities learn to build disaster resilience. This paper identifies five main types of formal post-event evaluations of emergency management that are used in Australia. It argues that these evaluations should be more consistent in their conduct and approach, more comprehensive in scope, and better timed. The paper also suggests that post-event evaluation reports should be released particularly to the affected communities.

Development And Performance Evaluation Of A Flexible, Low Cost Manet, Mehran Abolhasan, Brett Hagelstein, Jerry Chun-Ping Wang, D. Franklin, Farzad Safaei, Tadeusz A. Wysocki

Professor Farzad Safaei

Performance evaluations of multi-hop ad hoc network routing protocols have been primarily conducted through analytic and simulation-based studies, which frequently fail to accurately predict real-world performance and behaviour. One reason for this is the challenge in developing low cost, representative test beds with the degree of flexibility and mobility required. We have developed a Portable Wireless Ad hoc Node (PWAN) device which establishes multi-hop routes using the OLSR routing protocol. The PWAN’s performance has been investigated using two test bed configurations to evaluate its capacity under conditions of high node density in a short-range, multi-hop environment. Our results illustrate that …

Reviewing Total Flood Warning Systems, Neil Dufty, Steven Molino

Neil Dufty

No abstract provided.

Electronic Health Record System Evaluation Based On Patient Safety, Yung-Yu Su, Khin Than Win, John A. Fulcher

Dr Khin Win

After describing the general characteristics of Electronic Health Records (EHRs), we consider patient safety. We then proceed to discuss IS evaluation in general terms, followed by HIS system evaluation in particular. The D&M IS Success model, Technology Acceptance model and Task-Technology Fit model are considered as potential candidates for EHR System evaluation. Based upon a critical review of the available literature, we draw some conclusions about the appropriateness of current HIS/EHR evaluation approaches. Finally, we suggest that by incorporating patient safety attributes in any EHR System evaluation framework, then this could lead to improved accuracy, and in turn improved patient …

Evaluation Of Human Gait Through Observing Body Movements, Amir S. Hesami, Fazel Naghdy, David A. Stirling, Harold C. Hill

Dr David Stirling

A new modelling and classification approach for human gait evaluation is proposed. The body movements are obtained using a sensor suit recording inertial signals that are subsequently modelled on a humanoid frame with 23 degrees of freedom (DOF). Measured signals include position, velocity, acceleration, orientation, angular velocity and angular acceleration. Using the features extracted from the sensory signals, a system with induced symbolic classification models, such as decision trees or rule sets, based on a range of several concurrent features has been used to classify deviations from normal gait. It is anticipated that this approach will enable the evaluation of …

Performance Evaluation Of Ethanol Production Through Continuous Fermentation, Harvinder S. Sidhu, John M. Kavanagh, Simon D. Watt, Mark I. Nelson

Associate Professor Mark Nelson

We investigate the production of ethanol through continuous fermentation using Saccharomyces cerevisiae in a single reactor and cascades of two or three reactors. We use path following methods to investigate how the ethanol yield varies with the residence time in each reactor configuration of the cascade. Yields currently obtained in industry using yeast are approximately 0.48. We find reactor designs where the product yield approaches the stoichiometric limit of 0.51. We also estimate the financial benefits that can be achieved in typical US ethanol plants through increasing the product yield from 0.48 to 0.51.

An Examination Of The Efficiency Of Australian Crop Variety Evaluation Programmes, Brian R. Cullis, A B. Smith, C Hunt, Arthur R. Gilmour

Dr Arthur Gilmour

In this paper we present the analysis of yield data from a broad cross-section of crop variety evaluation programmes (CVEP) conducted in Australia. The main sources of variety by environment interaction are ` non-static ' interactions, namely those linked to seasonal influences. These contributed an average of 41.3% of the total variance. In contrast the static component accounts for only 5.3% of the total. We develop methods for determining the relative accuracy of CVEP based on selection of newly promoted entries. The accuracy of the current testing regimes for the Australian CVEP under study is determined. The accuracy of alternative …

Output Quality Evaluation Of Photovoltaic Systems With Different Current Control Methods Of Switch-Mode Converters, K. N. Hasan, Md Enamul Haque, Michael Negnevitsky, Kashem Muttaqi

Associate Professor Kashem Muttaqi

This paper presents a comparative assessment of the current control methods (CCM) of switch-mode converters for photovoltaic (PV) applications. In this paper, average current control, current programmed control, hysteresis current control and nonlinear carrier control methods are addressed considering input fluctuations and load variations for PV systems. Dynamic responses of PV systems are investigated and harmonic analysis is performed. Performances of the above current controllers are examined through simulation and the results are presented. The results show that the selection of different current control techniques depends on the working conditions and the area of applications.

Electronic Health Record System Evaluation Based On Patient Safety, Yung-Yu Su, Khin Than Win, John A. Fulcher

Professor John Fulcher

After describing the general characteristics of Electronic Health Records (EHRs), we consider patient safety. We then proceed to discuss IS evaluation in general terms, followed by HIS system evaluation in particular. The D&M IS Success model, Technology Acceptance model and Task-Technology Fit model are considered as potential candidates for EHR System evaluation. Based upon a critical review of the available literature, we draw some conclusions about the appropriateness of current HIS/EHR evaluation approaches. Finally, we suggest that by incorporating patient safety attributes in any EHR System evaluation framework, then this could lead to improved accuracy, and in turn improved patient …

An Examination Of The Efficiency Of Australian Crop Variety Evaluation Programmes, Brian R. Cullis, A B. Smith, C Hunt, Arthur R. Gilmour

Professor Brian Cullis

In this paper we present the analysis of yield data from a broad cross-section of crop variety evaluation programmes (CVEP) conducted in Australia. The main sources of variety by environment interaction are ` non-static ' interactions, namely those linked to seasonal influences. These contributed an average of 41.3% of the total variance. In contrast the static component accounts for only 5.3% of the total. We develop methods for determining the relative accuracy of CVEP based on selection of newly promoted entries. The accuracy of the current testing regimes for the Australian CVEP under study is determined. The accuracy of alternative …

Report Of The 2012 North East Flood Review (Report), Neil Dufty

Neil Dufty

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Human Gait Through Observing Body Movements, Amir S. Hesami, Fazel Naghdy, David A. Stirling, Harold C. Hill

Harold Hill

A new modelling and classification approach for human gait evaluation is proposed. The body movements are obtained using a sensor suit recording inertial signals that are subsequently modelled on a humanoid frame with 23 degrees of freedom (DOF). Measured signals include position, velocity, acceleration, orientation, angular velocity and angular acceleration. Using the features extracted from the sensory signals, a system with induced symbolic classification models, such as decision trees or rule sets, based on a range of several concurrent features has been used to classify deviations from normal gait. It is anticipated that this approach will enable the evaluation of …

Examination Of The Total Flood Warning System In Victoria (Report), Neil Dufty

Neil Dufty

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Human Gait Through Observing Body Movements, Amir S. Hesami, Fazel Naghdy, David A. Stirling, Harold C. Hill

Professor Fazel Naghdy

A new modelling and classification approach for human gait evaluation is proposed. The body movements are obtained using a sensor suit recording inertial signals that are subsequently modelled on a humanoid frame with 23 degrees of freedom (DOF). Measured signals include position, velocity, acceleration, orientation, angular velocity and angular acceleration. Using the features extracted from the sensory signals, a system with induced symbolic classification models, such as decision trees or rule sets, based on a range of several concurrent features has been used to classify deviations from normal gait. It is anticipated that this approach will enable the evaluation of …

Review Of Community Bushfire Warnings (Report), Neil Dufty

Neil Dufty

No abstract provided.

Social Learning: A Knowledge And Capacity Building Approach For Adaptive Co-Management Of Contested Landscapes, Andrea J. Leys, Jerome K. Vanclay

Professor Jerome K Vanclay

There is increasing recognition in the field of natural resource management that transformative adaptation to climate and policy change requires cross industry learning and cooperation at the landscape scale. This can be supported by the development of systematic methodology on learning models for adaptive co-management between diverse and conflicting landscape managers. Our example of land-use change to hardwood plantation forestry in sub-tropical Australia illustrates an innovative implementation framework for a social learning process that helped build knowledge and community capacity for adaptive co-management of dynamic and shared landscapes. The action research methodology relied on deliberation over local knowledge, existing and …

Are Warnings Working? Achievements And Challenges In Getting Communities To Respond, Neil Dufty, Steven Molino, Geoff Crapper, Alison Karwaj

Neil Dufty

No abstract provided.

Strategy-Based Interactive Cluster Visualization For Information Retrieval, Anton Leuski, James Allan

James Allan

In this paper we investigate a general purpose interactive information organization system. The system organizes documents by placing them into 1-, 2-, or 3- dimensional space based on their similarity and a springembedding algorithm. We begin by developing a method for estimating the quality of the organization when it is applied to a set of documents returned in response to a query. We show how the relevant documents tend to clump together in space. We proceed by presenting amethod for measuring the amount of structure in the organization and explain how this knowledge can be used to refine the system. …

Incremental Test Collections, Ben Carterette, James Allan

James Allan

Corpora and topics are readily available for information retrieval research. Relevance judgments, which are necessary for system evaluation, are expensive; the cost of obtaining them prohibits in-house evaluation of retrieval systems on new corpora or new topics. We present an algorithm for cheaply constructing sets of relevance judgments. Our method intelligently selects documents to be judged and decides when to stop in such a way that with very little work there can be a high degree of con#12;dence in the result of the evaluation. We demonstrate the algorithm's e#11;ectiveness by showing that it produces small sets of relevance judgments that …

Development And Evaluation Of A Chemistry Educational Software For Learning Organic Reactions Using Qualitative Reasoning, Rukaini Abdullah

Rukaini Abdullah

In science education, it is believed that students should understand the qualitative principles that govern the subject including the cause-effect relationships in processes before they are immersed in complex problem solving. Traditional educational programs for teaching organic chemistry do not usually explain or justify an observed chemical phenomenon. These programs do not “explain” simply because the results are obtained through chaining the rules or by searching the reaction routes that have been pre-coded in software. This paper discusses the development techniques, simulation results, and student evaluation of a software tool that aimed to help chemistry students learn organic processes through …

May 2009 East Coast Low Flood Warning Community Feedback Report, Neil Dufty

Neil Dufty

No abstract provided.

Knowledge Management Enterprise Services (Kmes): Concepts And Implementation Principles, Jens G. Pohl

Jens G. Pohl

The purpose of this paper is to present concepts and implementation principles related to the design and development of reusable software services that are capable of assisting users at the operational level. Knowledge Management Enterprise Services (KMES) are an implementation of the service-oriented architecture paradigm, with a focus on the exchange of data within the meaningful context of a particular application (i.e., knowledge) domain. This requires a KMES service to incorporate a high level representation of this knowledge domain in the form of an ontology that is shared among all collaborating services within the application environment and at the same …

Evaluation Of The Floodsmart And Stormsmart Pilot Programs And Their Transferability To The Urban Environment (Report), Neil Dufty

Neil Dufty

No abstract provided.