The Developments in Paramedical Science and the implications of National and International Accreditation and Registration in Alliance with Ambulance Authorities

The School of Exercise, Biomedical and Health Sciences at Edith Cowan University established a new Bachelor of Science (Paramedical Science) degree in 2004. The program is a joint initiative between Edith Cowan University and St. John Ambulance and is the only Paramedical degree being taught within Western Australia. In preparing the graduates to work in the profession as qualified paramedics, it was essential to integrate the theoretical content taught by both the university and the ambulance corporation with significant practical experiences being delivered in the ambulance and hospital environments. The implications for this type of arrangement have been far reaching, as it involved the combining of the university resources with a corporate provider who had previously been involved in an education program in the VET system. From the beginning it was recognised that there were many issues that had to be addressed. These included: 1. the ownership of the intellectual property, 2. cost sharing arrangements between the university and the corporate partner, 3. quality control of all aspects of the program, 4. staffing implications for units taught outside the university, 5. legal liability associated with all aspects of conducting the program, 6. adherence to occupational safety and health standards, 7. duty of care for both patients and the trainee paramedics, 8. ownership of the program, 9. the identity of the university degree as opposed to the VET qualification, 10. conversion from the VET qualification, 11. development of postgraduate and research programs, 12. accreditation and registration. With the development of this program each of these issues has brought its own unique problems and forced similarly unique solutions. This has been an exciting challenge for all concerned. There was no template or guide to follow within the university system and this was the first time that the university has entered into an arrangement where a partner from the community has had such a significant input into a teaching program. The resulting agreement has provided a guide for others who may wish to establish similar partnerships in the future. Now that this degree is about to see its first graduates receive their parchments it is beneficial to reflect on the changes which have occurred both locally and nationally since the inception of the degree. It is clear that the effort that has gone into the careful development of this degree and its associated partnership has resulted in a quality program being delivered by the university in conjunction with its corporate partner

HEAD STABILISATION DURING RUNNING IN PLACE OF CHILDREN WITH VARYING MOTOR PROFICIENCY LEVELS

The purpose of this study was to investigate head motion in children during stationary running. Participants in this study underwent a running proficiency test based on the Test for Gross Motor Proficiency (TGMD), and then underwent a one-minute trial of running on the spot while being videotaped. Head stabilisation for all subjects was found to remain well within the functional range of the vestibulo-occular reflex (VOR) and no significant relationship was found between running proficiency and head angular velocity. Proficient subjects moved the head independently of the trunk

DESCRIPTION OF A METHOD TO CONTINUOUSLY REGISTER THE HAND-CURVE IN ROWERS

Previous methods of tracing the path of the rower's oar (the "hand-curve") have relied upon cinematographic methods, which have resulted in a minimal number of strokes being analysed. A method of continuously registering the hand-curve in rowers is presented. A modified Concept II oarlock was designed so that rotation of the oar about the X and Y-axes could be measured and thus the hand-curve obtained. A potential source of error in measurement is in the calibration of the potentiometers measuring the angle. Therefore, the repeatability of this procedure was examined. The calibration procedure was repeated five times and it was revealed that the construction of the calibration rig was of importance to maintain data integrity

HEAD MOVEMENT IN OVERARM THROWING FOR CHILDREN WITH VARYING LEVELS OF MOTOR PROFICIENCY

The purpose of this study was to investigate head motion of children of varying levels of motor ability performing an overarm throw towards a forward facing target. Ten ten-yearold children were analysed using three-dimensional veideographic techniques. Angular motion of the head about its three axes was determined with respect to the external reference frame and with respect to the trunk. It was found that all subjects stabilised their heads during the performance of the throw. The angular velocity of the head immediately prior to release small despite large trunk angular velocity

Affine registration of multispectral images of historical documents for optimized feature recovery

Multispectral (MSI) imaging of historical documents can recover lost features, such as text or drawings. This technique involves capturing multiple images of a document illuminated using different wavelengths of light. The images created must be registered in order to ensure optimal results are produced from any subsequent image processing techniques. However, the images may be misaligned due to the presence of optical elements such as filters, or because they were acquired at different times or because the images were captured from different copies of the documents . There is little prior work or information available about which image registration techniques are most appropriate. Image registration of multispectral images is challenging as the illumination changes for each image and the features visible in images captured at different wavelengths may not appear consistently throughout the image sequence. Here, we compare three image registration techniques: two based on similarity measures and a method based on phase correlation. These methods are characterized by applying them to realistic surrogate images and then assessed on three different sets of real multispectral images. Mutual information is recommended as a measure for affine image registration when working with multispectral images of documentary material as it was proven to be more robust than the other techniques tested

The Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relation at Mid-Infrared Wavelengths: I. First-Epoch LMC Data

We present the first mid-infrared Period-Luminosity (PL) relations for Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) Cepheids. Single-epoch observations of 70 Cepheids were extracted from Spitzer IRAC observations at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0 microns, serendipitously obtained during the SAGE (Surveying the Agents of a Galaxy's Evolution) imaging survey of the LMC. All four mid-infrared PL relations have nearly identical slopes over the period range 6 - 88 days, with a small scatter of only +/-0.16 mag independent of period for all four of these wavelengths. We emphasize that differential reddening is not contributing significantly to the observed scatter, given the nearly two orders of magnitude reduced sensitivity of the mid-IR to extinction compared to the optical. Future observations, filling in the light curves for these Cepheids, should noticeably reduce the residual scatter. These attributes alone suggest that mid-infrared PL relations will provide a practical means of significantly improving the accuracy of Cepheid distances to nearby galaxies.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Gum health and quality of life-subjective experiences from across the gum health-disease continuum in adults

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Measurement of volatile organic compounds emitted in libraries and archives : an inferential indicator of paper decay?

A sampling campaign of indoor air was conducted to assess the typical concentration of indoor air pollutants in 8 National Libraries and Archives across the U.K. and Ireland. At each site, two locations were chosen that contained various objects in the collection (paper, parchment, microfilm, photographic material etc.) and one location was chosen to act as a sampling reference location (placed in a corridor or entrance hallway). Of the locations surveyed, no measurable levels of sulfur dioxide were detected and low formaldehyde vapour (< 18 μg m-3) was measured throughout. Acetic and formic acids were measured in all locations with, for the most part, higher acetic acid levels in areas with objects compared to reference locations. A large variety of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was measured in all locations, in variable concentrations, however furfural was the only VOC to be identified consistently at higher concentration in locations with paper-based collections, compared to those locations without objects. To cross-reference the sampling data with VOCs emitted directly from books, further studies were conducted to assess emissions from paper using solid phase microextraction fibres (SPME) fibres and a newly developed method of analysis; collection of VOCs onto a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer strip. In this study acetic acid and furfural levels were consistently higher in concentration when measured in locations which contained paper-based items. It is therefore suggested that both acetic acid and furfural (possibly also trimethylbenzenes, ethyltoluene, decane and camphor) may be present in the indoor atmosphere as a result of cellulose degradation and together may act as an inferential non-invasive marker for the deterioration of paper. Direct VOC sampling was successfully achieved using SPME fibres and analytes found in the indoor air were also identified as emissive by-products from paper. Finally a new non-invasive, method of VOC collection using PDMS strips was shown to be an effective, economical and efficient way of examining VOC emissions directly from the pages of a book and confirmed that toluene, furfural, benzaldehyde, ethylhexanol, nonanal and decanal were the most concentrated VOCs emitted directly from paper measured in this study