Learning fast: broadband and the future of education

Educational institutions have always had a central place in the online age. Before the advent of high-speed broadband, other communications technologies and services also played a big role in education.  University researchers were among the first Australian users of what became known as the Internet. When the domain name system was deployed in the mid-1980s, the .au domain was delegated to Robert Elz at the University of Melbourne. When the Australian Vice-Chancellor’s Committee decided to set up a national communications network to support research, Geoff Huston transferred to its payroll from ANU to work as technical manager for AARNet, whose current chief executive, Chris Hancock, is interviewed by Liz Fell in this issue. When a 56 kbps ARPANET link with Australia was made by NASA and the University of Hawaii via Intelsat in June 1989, the connection was established in Elz’s University of Melbourne laboratory. (Clarke 2004: 31) In earlier times, the postal service made learning-at-a-distance possible by ‘correspondence’, particularly in remote areas of Australia. Advances in radio communications made it easier and the interactivity more immediate. Television sets and later video cassette and DVD players and recorders made it more visual. The telephone provided a tool of communication for teachers and learners; the best of them understood that most people were both at different times. Then simple low bandwidth tools like email and web browsing provided new ways for students, teachers and their institutions to communicate and distribute and share information. Learning management systems like Blackboard have been widely deployed through the education sector. Information that was once housed in libraries is now available online and social media platforms are providing new ways for students to collaborate. Ubiquitous, faster broadband and mobile access via smartphones and tablets promise further transformations. &nbsp

Whole genome sequence analysis of Shigella from Malawi identifies fluoroquinolone resistance

Increasing antimicrobial resistance and limited alternative treatments have led to fluoroquinolone-resistant Shigella strain inclusion on the WHO global priority pathogens list. In this study we characterized multiple Shigella isolates from Malawi with whole genome sequence analysis, identifying the acquirable fluoroquinolone resistance determinant qnrS1

The Enterics for Global Health (EFGH) Shigella Surveillance Study in Malawi

Background: Malawi is among 7 countries participating in the Enterics for Global Health (EFGH) Shigella surveillance study, which aims to determine the incidence of medically attended diarrhea attributed to Shigella, a leading bacterial cause of diarrhea in children in low-resource settings. Methods: We describe the EFGH study site in the densely populated informal settlement of Ndirande Township, Blantyre, Malawi. We explore the site’s geographical location, demographic characteristics, and the healthcare-seeking behavior of its population, particularly for childhood diarrhea. We also describe the management of childhood diarrhea at the health facility, and the associated challenges to attaining optimum adherence to local and national guidelines at the site. Conclusions: Our overarching aim is to improve global health through understanding and mitigating the impact of diarrhea attributed to Shigella

Emergence of a multidrug-resistant and virulent Streptococcus pneumoniae lineage mediates serotype replacement after PCV13: an international whole-genome sequencing study.

BACKGROUND Serotype 24F is one of the emerging pneumococcal serotypes after the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV). We aimed to identify lineages driving the increase of serotype 24F in France and place these findings into a global context. METHODS Whole-genome sequencing was performed on a collection of serotype 24F pneumococci from asymptomatic colonisation (n=229) and invasive disease (n=190) isolates among individuals younger than 18 years in France, from 2003 to 2018. To provide a global context, we included an additional collection of 24F isolates in the Global Pneumococcal Sequencing (GPS) project database for analysis. A Global Pneumococcal Sequence Cluster (GPSC) and a clonal complex (CC) were assigned to each genome. Phylogenetic, evolutionary, and spatiotemporal analysis were conducted using the same 24F collection and supplemented with a global collection of genomes belonging to the lineage of interest from the GPS project database (n=25 590). FINDINGS Serotype 24F was identified in numerous countries mainly due to the clonal spread of three lineages: GPSC10 (CC230), GPSC16 (CC156), and GPSC206 (CC7701). GPSC10 was the only multidrug-resistant lineage. GPSC10 drove the increase in 24F in France and had high invasive disease potential. The international dataset of GPSC10 (n=888) revealed that this lineage expressed 16 other serotypes, with only six included in 13-valent PCV (PCV13). All serotype 24F isolates were clustered in a single clade within the GPSC10 phylogeny and long-range transmissions were detected from Europe to other continents. Spatiotemporal analysis showed GPSC10-24F took 3-5 years to spread across France and a rapid change of serotype composition from PCV13 serotype 19A to 24F during the introduction of PCV13 was observed in neighbouring country Spain. INTERPRETATION Our work reveals that GPSC10 alone is a challenge for serotype-based vaccine strategy. More systematic investigation to identify lineages like GPSC10 will better inform and improve next-generation preventive strategies against pneumococcal diseases

An evaluation of system penalties from polarisation mode dispersion

© 2007 Dr. Kate E. CornickPolarisation mode dispersion (PMD) arises from the polarisation properties of an optical signal interacting with the non-degenerate polarisation modes of an optical fibre. When an optical signal is launched into a fibre, the power is split between the polarisation modes. The amount of power contained in each mode depends on the relationship between the launch state of polarisation and the axes of the fibre's polarisation modes. Assuming that some optical power is contained in each polarisation mode, the difference in propagation constants between the modes causes pulse broadening to data bits contained within an optical signal. The inter-symbol interference that results from PMD-induced pulse broadening is the first-order manifestation of PMD. However, in deployed optical systems, the coordinate axes of the fibre's polarisation modes vary with length, and are sensitive to mechanical stresses and temperature variations. The resulting all-order PMD causes more complicated signal distortions, which are stochastic in nature. This thesis investigates the impact of first- and all-order PMD in optical systems using the PMD-induced system penalty. To achieve this, tools are first developed to aid the investigation. Firstly, a novel channel characteristic is introduced, for monitoring PMD-induced penalties. Secondly, the channel characteristic is used to develop a new theoretical framework, to interrelate different methods for monitoring PMD to the PMD-induced penalty. The techniques investigated include degree of polarisation, RF spectral power monitoring and eye closure. The framework is confirmed experimentally, and then used to demonstrate that the novel channel characteristic is the most practical method for monitoring PMD-induced penalties. Finally, the impact of the penalty measurement is recognised as a factor that influences the PMD-induced penalty. As a result, a new theoretical basis is derived to quantify the differences between the various methods of measuring system penalties, including eye closure penalties, Q-penalties, power penalties and optical signal-to-noise ratio penalties. This basis is also experimentally verified. In the second half of the thesis the tools that have been developed are used to experimentally investigate the system impact of first- and all-order PMD on two different systems. The first system does not employ PMD compensation, while the second system is compensated for PMD, using a maximum likelihood sequence estimation-based electronic equaliser. In both cases, the work extends previous investigations of PMD-induced penalties, by investigating the impact of first- and all-order PMD over many launch states of polarisation. The results from the study of PMD-induced penalties in the PMD uncompensated system are used to derive a new PMD-induced penalty model, which is then critically compared to existing models. The new model is shown to better represent both first- and all-order PMD-induced system penalties. The impact of all-order PMD in the two optical systems is reported in detail, and it is shown that in most circumstances first-order PMD is the dominant cause of system penalty. In addition, the results provide experimental evidence for previous simulation based studies of all-order PMD, and some new findings are reported

Getting better: broadband, information and the health sector

Editorial for the Telecommunications Journal of Australia's issue on eHealth (2011, vol. 61, no. 3)

Modelling PMD-induced system penalties

F1 - Full Written Papers Referee

The Enterics for Global Health (EFGH) Shigella Surveillance Study in Malawi.

Funder: NIHR Global Health ResearchFunder: NIHR Health Protection ResearchBACKGROUND: Malawi is among 7 countries participating in the Enterics for Global Health (EFGH) Shigella surveillance study, which aims to determine the incidence of medically attended diarrhea attributed to Shigella, a leading bacterial cause of diarrhea in children in low-resource settings. METHODS: We describe the EFGH study site in the densely populated informal settlement of Ndirande Township, Blantyre, Malawi. We explore the site's geographical location, demographic characteristics, and the healthcare-seeking behavior of its population, particularly for childhood diarrhea. We also describe the management of childhood diarrhea at the health facility, and the associated challenges to attaining optimum adherence to local and national guidelines at the site. CONCLUSIONS: Our overarching aim is to improve global health through understanding and mitigating the impact of diarrhea attributed to Shigella

The Enterics for Global Health (EFGH) <i>Shigella</i> Surveillance Study in Malawi

Funder: NIHR Global Health ResearchFunder: NIHR Health Protection ResearchAbstract Background Malawi is among 7 countries participating in the Enterics for Global Health (EFGH) Shigella surveillance study, which aims to determine the incidence of medically attended diarrhea attributed to Shigella, a leading bacterial cause of diarrhea in children in low-resource settings. Methods We describe the EFGH study site in the densely populated informal settlement of Ndirande Township, Blantyre, Malawi. We explore the site’s geographical location, demographic characteristics, and the healthcare-seeking behavior of its population, particularly for childhood diarrhea. We also describe the management of childhood diarrhea at the health facility, and the associated challenges to attaining optimum adherence to local and national guidelines at the site. Conclusions Our overarching aim is to improve global health through understanding and mitigating the impact of diarrhea attributed to Shigella. </jats:sec