Culture results at pancreatic necrosectomy: the microbiology of infected pancreatic necrosis

Introduction: Necrotizing pancreatitis occurs in 5-10% of patients with acute pancreatitis. Infected pancreatic necrosis (IPN) is a feared complication. Historically, causative organisms were Gramnegative bacteria, but recent international studies now report a predominance of Gram-positive bacteria. Not all the literature is consistent, and there may be regional variation. There is very limited Australian data. This study aims to report causative organisms in IPN in the Australian setting. Materials and Methods: Retrospective medical record review of all patients who underwent pancreatic necrosectomy at a single centre (tertiary referral center in Adelaide, South Australia) between January 2005 and December 2015. Intraoperative culture specimens were reviewed and the Gram-status and antimicrobial sensitivities noted. Discussion and Results: A total of 1296 patients were admitted for acute pancreatitis in the study period. 28 patients underwent pancreatic necrosectomy. Mean age 55.71 years (range 30-79), including twenty males and eight females. All patients had intraoperative cultures taken. 20 cultures demonstrated growth. There were 12 Gram-negative isolates (34.3%), 20 Gram-positive isolates (57.1%) and three fungal isolates (8.6%). Two bacterial isolates were antibiotic resistant organisms (one MRSA and one VRE). Conclusion: The findings were consistent with the majority of recent international studies demonstrating a predominance of Gram-positive organisms

Limits of the cylindrical absorber design for a sodium receiver

The applicability of the cylindrical arrangement of vertical tube banks is evaluated for liquid sodium concentrating solar thermal receivers and compared with a molten salt reference case through a series of parametric studies. It is shown that sodium receivers experience less thermo-elastic stress load and can operate under higher flux which presents advantages in terms of size reduction and efficiency. While the cylindrical receiver configuration cannot reach the efficiency target of 91% in a high temperature configuration (480 °C to 640 °C), there is potential to improve efficiency by improving heliostat field optics. Flux limitations due to thermo-elastic stresses are less stringent due for sodium receivers due to the better heat transfer properties, and consequently better heliostat field optics would benefit sodium receiver concepts more than molten salts ones

Addressing consumerisation of IT risks with nudging

In this work we address the main issues of Information Technology (IT) consumerisation that are related to security risks, and vulnerabilities of devices used within Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy in particular. We propose a ‘soft’ mitigation strategy for user actions based on nudging, widely applied to health and social behaviour influence. In particular, we propose a complementary, less strict, more flexible Information Security policies, based on risk assessment of device vulnerabilities and threats to corporate data and devices, combined with a strategy of influencing security behaviour by nudging. We argue that nudging, by taking into account the context of the decision-making environment, and the fact that the employee may be in better position to make a more appropriate decision, may be more suitable than strict policies in situations of uncertainty of security-related decisions. Several examples of nudging are considered for different tested and potential scenarios in security context

Addressing consumerisation of IT risks with nudging

In this work we address the main issues of Information Technology (IT) consumerisation that are related to security risks, and vulnerabilities of devices used within Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy in particular. We propose a ‘soft’ mitigation strategy for user actions based on nudging, widely applied to health and social behaviour influence. In particular, we propose a complementary, less strict, more flexible Information Security policies, based on risk assessment of device vulnerabilities and threats to corporate data and devices, combined with a strategy of influencing security behaviour by nudging. We argue that nudging, by taking into account the context of the decision-making environment, and the fact that the employee may be in better position to make a more appropriate decision, may be more suitable than strict policies in situations of uncertainty of security-related decisions. Several examples of nudging are considered for different tested and potential scenarios in security context

Addressing consumerization of IT risks with nudging

In this work we address the main issues of Information Technology (IT) consumerization that are related to security risks, and vulnerabilities of devices used within Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy in particular. We propose a ‘soft’ mitigation strategy for user actions based on nudging, widely applied to health and social behavior influence. In particular, we propose a complementary, less strict, more flexible Information Security policies, based on risk assessment of device vulnerabilities and threats to corporate data and devices, combined with a strategy of influencing security behavior by nudging. We argue that nudging, by taking into account the context of the decision-making environment, and the fact that the employee may be in better position to make a more appropriate decision, may be more suitable than strict policies in situations of uncertainty of security-related decisions. Several examples of nudging are considered for different tested and potential scenarios in security context

Addressing consumerization of IT risks with nudging

In this work we address the main issues of Information Technology (IT) consumerization that are related to security risks, and vulnerabilities of devices used within Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy in particular. We propose a ‘soft’ mitigation strategy for user actions based on nudging, widely applied to health and social behavior influence. In particular, we propose a complementary, less strict, more flexible Information Security policies, based on risk assessment of device vulnerabilities and threats to corporate data and devices, combined with a strategy of influencing security behavior by nudging. We argue that nudging, by taking into account the context of the decision-making environment, and the fact that the employee may be in better position to make a more appropriate decision, may be more suitable than strict policies in situations of uncertainty of security-related decisions. Several examples of nudging are considered for different tested and potential scenarios in security context

Waypoint Planning for Autonomous Aerial Inspection of Large-Scale Solar Farms

Solar energy is seen as a sustainable and nondepletable source of energy supply. Worldwide, large-scale solar power infrastructure is being installed every day. Such structures can suffer from many faults and defects that degrade their energy output during their operational life. Detecting such faults and defects requires regular inspection over physically large and distributed solar infrastructure. On-site manual human inspection tends to be impractical, risky and costly. As such, replacing humans with autonomous robotic aerial inspection systems has great potential. In this work, we propose an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) waypoint generation system that is specifically designed for aerial inspection of solar infrastructure. Our system takes into consideration the physical structure and the dynamic nature of sun-tracking solar modules and generates waypoints with the right camera viewing pose and drone orientation. Statistical methods are used to generate a randomly selected set of modules as a representation of the entire solar farm. The set is guaranteed to satisfy a user-defined confidence level and margin of error requirements. A path is generated to visit selected modules in an optimal way by deploying the traveling-salesman shortest path algorithm, allowing the vehicle to maximize battery use. Illustrative flights and preliminary inspection results are presented and discussed.This research was supported by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), through Grant G00853 “A robotic vision system for rapid inspection and evaluation of solar plant infrastructure”

Design Fiction for Cybersecurity Using Science Fiction to Help Software Developers Anticipate Problems

Security and privacy issues are an ever-increasing problem for software systems. To address them, software developers must anticipate the problems that their developed systems may face, using a process we call 'threat assessment'. Unfortunately, given the shortage of security experts, and the need to 'think laterally', threat assessment is very difficult for many development teams. One possibility is to use stories, known as 'Design Fiction,' to help developers visualize different contexts and future use for their software. But such stories are themselves difficult to write. A recent pilot project investigated using a broad-brush threat model and fiction samples derived from existing science fiction literature to help developers create threat assessments for Health Internet-of-Things devices. The preliminary results are encouraging, and open the possibility of developing a method to support developers in threat assessment in any domain

Experimental Testing of a High-Flux Cavity Receiver

A new tubular cavity receiver for direct steam generation, ‘SG4’, has been built and tested on-sun based on integrated optical and thermal modelling. The new receiver achieved an average thermal efficiency of 97.1±2.1% across several hours of testing, and reduced the losses by more than half, compared to the modelled performance of the previous SG3 receiver and dish. Near-steady-state outlet steam temperatures up to 560°C were achieved during the testsFunding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (project 1-UFA006) is gratefully acknowledged