Evidence-based lean logic profiles for conceptual data modelling languages

Multiple logic-based reconstruction of conceptual data modelling languages such as EER, UML Class Diagrams, and ORM exists. They mainly cover various fragments of the languages and none are formalised such that the logic applies simultaneously for all three modelling language families as unifying mechanism. This hampers interchangeability, interoperability, and tooling support. In addition, due to the lack of a systematic design process of the logic used for the formalisation, hidden choices permeate the formalisations that have rendered them incompatible. We aim to address these problems, first, by structuring the logic design process in a methodological way. We generalise and extend the DSL design process to apply to logic language design more generally and, in particular, by incorporating an ontological analysis of language features in the process. Second, availing of this extended process, of evidence gathered of language feature usage, and of computational complexity insights from Description Logics (DL), we specify logic profiles taking into account the ontological commitments embedded in the languages. The profiles characterise the minimum logic structure needed to handle the semantics of conceptual models, enabling the development of interoperability tools. There is no known DL language that matches exactly the features of those profiles and the common core is small (in the tractable ALNI). Although hardly any inconsistencies can be derived with the profiles, it is promising for scalable runtime use of conceptual data models

Can diagnosis-based capital allocation facilitate more appropriate, sustainable and innovative acute care?

Australians value access to public hospitals with technologically-appropriate clinical care. However, the Australian system of capital funding for public hospitals is not appropriate, effective, equitable, clinically-responsive, patient-centred, evidence-based or sustainable. A new model to effectively fund patient access to efficient public hospitals was developed from international evidence, Australian standards, clinical guidelines and expert clinical interviews. Capital was costed by patient diagnosis group to enable comprehensive funding for public hospital clinical care, for the first time

The Chrysalid Crown: An un-national history of the Crown in Australia 1808 – 1986

This thesis set out to answer a deceptively simple question: why did the 1999 referendum to abolish the Australian Crowns fail? It focuses on the evolving civic personalities, communal identities and popular representations of the Crown in Australia, and how those representations and agents changed over 180 years. Capacities for the Crown’s continuing mutability, especially its divisibility, are at the heart of these imaginings. The answer to the question lies partly in emotions, in passion and the heart rather than in reason and the mind, along with a complex historical mix of other factors. Each chapter focuses on a single event or artefact: a usurpation of vice-regal authority, a proposal for a cadet kingdom of Australia, a mystic royal response to anti-German persecution, a State’s attempt to secede under the Crown and the invention of a chivalric order. The thesis posits a complex, iterative and changing network of social relationships rather than a simple metropole-periphery binary or hierarchy. It disaggregates ideas of crown, Britishness, empire, nation and Australianess, and concludes on the eve of the 1988 bicentennial celebrations when the Crown in Australia appeared splendid, popular, modern, federal, natural and regenerative. They were characteristics that, with hindsight, girded an Australian institution at once ancient and contemporary for the challenges of the 1990s when it stared-down what appeared to be an existential threat from Australian republicanism

Toward a digital future of curriculum, pedagogy & assessment

In the last three decades, digital technologies have become an integral part of our lives, societies and education systems worldwide. Hence it is essential that educators can teach and incorporate technologies in their teaching practices (Yadav & Lachney, 2022). By doing so, we can ‘future-proof’ the upcoming generations who will learn with the aid of constantly evolving technologies, need to understand the impact of technologies on society, and must use technologies to showcase creativity and innovation in all aspects of life. The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns since early 2020 have accelerated the incorporation of technology in education. Webmediated education has been introduced to replace or supplement traditional offline modes of teaching and learning. The willingness to adopt and experiment with digital technologies in education, including online learning software, video conferencing tools, virtual tutoring, and learning apps, continues to grow. We have chosen the following blog posts for this edition of BERA Bites because they provide valuable insights into curriculum, pedagogy and assessment, and suggest further lines of inquiry for research and practice. The authors address important issues impacting education and offer ideas for developing a shared vision for the digital future of education

The effective and ethical development of artificial intelligence: An opportunity to improve our wellbeing

This project has been supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (project number CS170100008); the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science; and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. ACOLA collaborates with the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and the New Zealand Royal Society Te Apārangi to deliver the interdisciplinary Horizon Scanning reports to government. The aims of the project which produced this report are: 1. Examine the transformative role that artificial intelligence may play in different sectors of the economy, including the opportunities, risks and challenges that advancement presents. 2. Examine the ethical, legal and social considerations and frameworks required to enable and support broad development and uptake of artificial intelligence. 3. Assess the future education, skills and infrastructure requirements to manage workforce transition and support thriving and internationally competitive artificial intelligence industries

A human-centered systematic literature review of the computational approaches for online sexual risk detection

In the era of big data and artificial intelligence, online risk detection has become a popular research topic. From detecting online harassment to the sexual predation of youth, the state-of-the-art in computational risk detection has the potential to protect particularly vulnerable populations from online victimization. Yet, this is a high-risk, high-reward endeavor that requires a systematic and human-centered approach to synthesize disparate bodies of research across different application domains, so that we can identify best practices, potential gaps, and set a strategic research agenda for leveraging these approaches in a way that betters society. Therefore, we conducted a comprehensive literature review to analyze 73 peer-reviewed articles on computational approaches utilizing text or meta-data/multimedia for online sexual risk detection. We identified sexual grooming (75%), sex trafficking (12%), and sexual harassment and/or abuse (12%) as the three types of sexual risk detection present in the extant literature. Furthermore, we found that the majority (93%) of this work has focused on identifying sexual predators after-the-fact, rather than taking more nuanced approaches to identify potential victims and problematic patterns that could be used to prevent victimization before it occurs. Many studies rely on public datasets (82%) and third-party annotators (33%) to establish ground truth and train their algorithms. Finally, the majority of this work (78%) mostly focused on algorithmic performance evaluation of their model and rarely (4%) evaluate these systems with real users. Thus, we urge computational risk detection researchers to integrate more human-centered approaches to both developing and evaluating sexual risk detection algorithms to ensure the broader societal impacts of this important work.Accepted manuscrip

Discovering Smeaton : people, trade and finance, a study of imperialism and its heritage

Using Anderson’s Mill in the Victorian goldfield township of Smeaton as a case study, this thesis examines how the process of colonisation can be understood through the study of local history in the context of its imperial heritage. It also examines the transition of Crown sovereignty to colonial sovereignty in Victoria during the second half of the nineteenth century. This thesis explores the proposition that by discovering the history of Smeaton through the era of John Anderson, it is possible to trace how the Victorian gold rushes and the imperial legacy shaped the emerging Australian nation and constructions of identity during the era when the doctrine of terra nullius prevailed. The thesis sets out the argument that the history of Anderson's Mill and the township of Smeaton provides an original perspective into the Australian colonisation process, particularly in the colony of Victorian. It also contends that the Victorian gold rushes altered the balance of an imperial power struggle that influenced the colonial foundations of notions of sovereignty. This was underpinned by finance and trade, which were the driving forces that transferred the notion of empire through to local colonial communities. What emerges in this thesis is a critical narrative of colonial Victoria, which highlights the particular dynamic tension that was present between the colony and the imperial centre through a sharp focus on Anderson’s Mill and Smeaton, its associated townships.Doctor of Philosoph