Factors influencing the decision to choose information technology preparatory studies in secondary schools: an exploratory study in regional/rural Australia

[Abstract]: The career paths of students are influenced and shaped by the subject choices that are made in the final years of secondary schooling. This paper presents the findings of an empirical study that identified the key factors influencing the decision of rural / regional Australian students to choose or not choose to study Information Processing and Technology. The findings revealed that career oriented, extrinsic factors play an important role in motivating the selection of I.P.T. at school and, by implication, information technology at university. There are few apparent gender differences but there is limited evidence to suggest that males may be more influenced by extrinsic motivators and females by intrinsic motivators. Although the factors used in the study were initially identified largely via informal processes, they all appear to influence the decision to take I.P.T. The focus on career-related factors and the instrumentality of taking I.P.T. could explain the drop-off in students taking the subject. This has potentially significant implications as regards the future supply of good information technology professional

“Time for Some Traffic Problems”: Enhancing E-Discovery and Big Data Processing Tools with Linguistic Methods for Deception Detection

Linguistic deception theory provides methods to discover potentially deceptive texts to make them accessible to clerical review. This paper proposes the integration of these linguistic methods with traditional e-discovery techniques to identify deceptive texts within a given author’s larger body of written work, such as their sent email box. First, a set of linguistic features associated with deception are identified and a prototype classifier is constructed to analyze texts and describe the features’ distributions, while avoiding topic-specific features to improve recall of relevant documents. The tool is then applied to a portion of the Enron Email Dataset to illustrate how these strategies identify records, providing an example of its advantages and capability to stratify the large data set at hand

Attitudes towards mental illness in Malawi: a cross-sectional survey

<p><b>Background:</b> Stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness are strongly linked to suffering, disability and poverty. In order to protect the rights of those with mental disorders and to sensitively develop services, it is vital to gain a more accurate understanding of the frequency and nature of stigma against people with mental illness. Little research about this issue has been conducted in sub Saharan Africa. Our study aimed to describe levels of stigma in Malawi.</p> <p><b>Method:</b> A cross-sectional survey of patients and relatives attending mental health and non-mental health related clinics in a general hospital in Blantyre, Malawi. Subjects were interviewed using an adapted version of the questionnaire developed for the World Psychiatric Association Program to Reduce Stigma and Discrimination Because of Schizophrenia.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> 210 subjects participated in our study. Most attributed mental disorder to alcohol and illicit drug abuse (95%). This was closely followed by brain disease (92.8%), spirit possession (82.8%) and then psychological trauma (76.1%). There were some associations found between demographic variables and single question responses, however no consistent trends were observed in stigmatising beliefs. These results should be interpreted with caution and in the context of existing research. Contrary to the international literature, having direct personal experience of mental illness seemed to have no positive effect on stigmatising beliefs in our sample.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> Our study contributes to an emerging picture that individuals in sub Saharan Africa most commonly attribute mental illness to alcohol/ illicit drug use and spiritual causes. Our work adds weight to the argument that stigma towards mental illness is an important global health and human rights issue.</p&gt

‘Everything causes cancer’: how Australians respond to the message that alcohol causes cancer

Over 5000 Australians are diagnosed with alcohol-related cancers annually, with growing evidence that low-levels of chronic alcohol consumption significantly increases cancer risk. Public knowledge of the link between alcohol and cancer is limited and, therefore, alcohol consumers may be inadvertently putting themselves at increased risk of developing cancer. Informing the community of alcohol-related cancer risk is important to reduce the burden of disease, however, the message that alcohol causes cancer may challenge current understanding of the risks and benefits associated with alcohol consumption. We examine how Australian adults who self-identify as light-to-moderate alcohol consumers, respond to the message that alcohol causes cancer. Seven focus groups with males and females aged between 18 and 65 years of age were audio–visually recorded, with transcripts thematically analysed within a social constructionist epistemology informed by critical realism. Cancer was represented as an inevitable part of life and something over which participants had no control: consequently, altering alcohol consumption to reduce cancer risk was not justifiable. Participants worked to present themselves as ‘normal’ consumers of alcohol by recounting personal experiences and depicting an obligation to uphold societal expectations to consume alcohol. Through the construction of cancer as an inescapable disease, and their own alcohol consumption as unproblematic and socially sanctioned, participants were able to resist the message that alcohol causes cancer, and any implied need to alter personal alcohol consumption to reduce the risk of cancer.Natalie May, Jaklin Eliott and Shona Crab

Progression from ocular hypertension to visual field loss in the English hospital eye service

Background There are more than one million National Health Service visits in England and Wales each year for patients with glaucoma or ocular hypertension (OHT). With the ageing population and an increase in optometric testing, the economic burden of glaucoma-related visits is predicted to increase. We examined the conversion rates of OHT to primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) in England and assessed factors associated with risk of conversion. Methods Electronic medical records of 45 309 patients from five regionally different glaucoma clinics in England were retrospectively examined. Conversion to POAG from OHT was defined by deterioration in visual field (two consecutive tests classified as stage 1 or worse as per the glaucoma staging system 2). Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine factors (age, sex, treatment status and baseline intraocular pressure (IOP)) associated with conversion. Results The cumulative risk of conversion to POAG was 17.5% (95% CI 15.4% to 19.6%) at 5 years. Older age (HR 1.35 per decade, 95% CI 1.22 to 1.50, p<0.001) was associated with a higher risk of conversion. IOP-lowering therapy (HR 0.45, 95% CI 0.35 to 0.57, p<0.001) was associated with a lower risk of conversion. Predicted 5-year conversion rates for treated and untreated groups were 14.0% and 26.9%, respectively. Conclusion Less than one-fifth of OHT patients managed in glaucoma clinics in the UK converted to POAG over a 5-year period, suggesting many patients may require less intensive follow-up. Our study provides real-world evidence for the efficacy of current management (including IOP-lowering treatment) at reducing risk of conversion

Revealing the Molecular Determinants of Gender in Malaria Parasites

Malaria parasites have a complex life cycle with asexual multiplication in a vertebrate host and obligate sexual reproduction in the mosquito; however, commitment to sexual development begins in the vertebrate with differentiation of female and male gametocytes. In this issue of Cell, Khan et al. (2005) used elegant approaches to purify male and female gametocytes and elucidated their respective proteome, providing the basis for understanding sexual development in this pathogen

Sum rules for spin asymmetries

Starting from rotational invariance we derive sum rules for the single-spin asymmetries in inclusive production and binary processes. We also get sum rules for spin correlation parameters in elastic pp-scattering.Comment: 4 page

Towards a Vaccine against Plasmodium vivax Malaria

The authors discuss a new study that suggests thatPlasmodium vivax Duffy-binding protein could be a candidate antigen for developing aP. vivax vaccine

A New Graphical Tool for Assessing Visual Field Progression in Clinical Populations

Purpose: We demonstrate a new approach for assessing and visualizing visual field (VF) progression in clinics. Methods: Two summary measures for VF progression, Rate of Progression (RP) and Loss of Sight Years (LSY), are combined with a novel visualization (Hedgehog Plots). RP is calculated per eye using linear regression of mean deviation (MD) against time of follow-up. LSY is a novel parameter, linked to actuarial data, which estimates the number of years that a patient will have advanced bilateral VF loss in their predicted remaining lifetime. Every eye is given a rank within the sample based on RP and LSY allowing for ‘‘ priority ’’ patients to be identified. We illustrate differences between the parameters with an experiment comparing the cases flagged as ‘‘ priority ’’ by each method using data from 1263 VF records. Results: RP for every eye in a ‘‘ clinic ’’ can be visualized and assessed using a Hedgehog Plot. Eyes are ranked against all other eyes by RP and LSY; these parameters provide different and complementary information on a patient’s VF progression status. A purpose written interactive application demonstrating the techniques is available in the public domain at https://crabblab.shinyapps.io/ hedgehog. Conclusion: Hedgehog Plots provide a tool for visualizing VF progression in groups of patients and can be used potentially to prioritize monitoring resources. Translational Relevance: This study illustrates a novel visualization technique and an interactive application that can be used to help determine VF progression in large groups of patients

Do apicomplexan parasite-encoded proteins act as both ligands and receptors during host cell invasion?

Apicomplexan parasites are responsible for a wide range of diseases in animals, including humans, in whom Plasmodium species cause the devastating disease malaria. Several recent discoveries now indicate that these intracellular parasites may use a conserved mechanism to infect their host cells by using parasite-encoded proteins as both parasite ligands and receptors anchored to the host cells