Commentary: new development goals must focus on social determinants of health

Although the millennium development goals (MDGs) addressed some of the starkest manifestations of the contemporary global health crisis, they failed to confront the underlying structures that maintain the crisis, including globalisation. In reflecting on the post-2015 development agenda,1 we need to challenge some key assumptions about the genesis and effect of the current goals.Department of HE and Training approved lis

Application of ant based routing and intelligent control to telecommunications network management

This thesis investigates the use of novel Artificial Intelligence techniques to improve the control of telecommunications networks. The approaches include the use of Ant-Based Routing and software Agents to encapsulate learning mechanisms to improve the performance of the Ant-System and a highly modular approach to network-node configuration and management into which this routing system can be incorporated. The management system uses intelligent Agents distributed across the nodes of the network to automate the process of network configuration. This is important in the context of increasingly complex network management, which will be accentuated with the introduction of IPv6 and QoS-aware hardware. The proposed novel solution allows an Agent, with a Neural Network based Q-Learning capability, to adapt the response speed of the Ant-System - increasing it to counteract congestion, but reducing it to improve stability otherwise. It has the ability to adapt its strategy and learn new ones for different network topologies. The solution has been shown to improve the performance of the Ant-System, as well as outperform a simple non-learning strategy which was not able to adapt to different networks. This approach has a wide region of applicability to such areas as road-traffic management, and more generally, positioning of learning techniques into complex domains. Both Agent architectures are Subsumption style, blending short-term responses with longer term goal-driven behaviour. It is predicted that this will be an important approach for the application of AI, as it allows modular design of systems in a similar fashion to the frameworks developed for interoperability of telecommunications systems

Unpacking “Health Reform” and “Policy Capacity”; Comment on “Health Reform Requires Policy Capacity”

Health reform is the outcome of dispersed policy initiatives in different sectors, at different levels and across time. Policy work which can drive coherent health reform needs to operate across the governance structures as well as the institutions that comprise healthcare systems. Building policy capacity to support health reform calls for clarity regarding the nature of such policy work and the elements of policy capacity involved; and for evidence regarding effective strategies for capacity building

Research Paper Youth Service

An assumption that most people would probably agree on is that service to community, on a voluntary basis, builds character, self esteem, pride toward one\u27s self and his/her community, develops personal growth and respect or compassion for others. I don\u27t think many people look beyond that. Does the service need to be voluntary? Is service a responsibility that goes with being a part of a community? Why is service a positive aspect of community life? What are the characteristics of service that make it a fulfilling experience? Should youth be required to serve their community? If so, are there other options? Is service a community or school issue? Or both? There are many more questions, however; most people just know it\u27s important, as do some of the youth that were surveyed or interviewed for this paper

Perceptions of Preparedness Among New Graduate Nurses: Traditional Curriculum Versus Concept-Based Curriculum

Concept-based curriculum (CBC) is a newer trend in nursing education curriculum aimed at preparing new graduates to enter the workforce as generalist nurses better suited to care for a more medically complex population. Using CBC, students are introduced to concepts in order to build conceptual understandings as they engage in knowledge and skill learning, as opposed to a traditional nursing curriculum that is taught in sections grouped by patient population and medical complexity. At a nursing school housed within a private university in the southeast, the traditional nursing curriculum was replaced with CBC in 2016. To better understand the preparedness of new graduate nurses, students graduating from both traditional curriculum and CBC curricular designs were asked about their perception of preparedness in five specific areas during their first three months of clinical practice. The results of the explanatory mixed-methods survey, which consisted of Likert scale responses and qualitative data, showed no statistically significant difference in perception of preparedness between the two groups. The outcomes of each individual curricula were not dramatically different, but the actionable data reinforces the importance of clinical learning

Connecting workspace and health : a case study

The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of the physical workspace and work health on workplace connectivity (level and type of interactions). It summarises the first stage of research being undertaken by an interdisciplinary team of researchers on a university engineering research department that is relocating into temporary office accommodation. The research incorporates the measurement of spatial and social connectivity, as well as work health on two occasions: prior to the relocation from traditional cellular office accommodation and following the relocation into an open plan workspace. On completion of both stages, comparisons will be made to assess for changes that could be attributed to the change in workspace. The measurements taken before the move to temporary accommodation showed a limited level of physical connectivity in the traditional cellular office space. There were a number of individuals in the research department that had a much greater level of social connectivity but no pattern emerged in terms of their physical location in the workspace. However a pattern did emerge with regard to work health and social connectivity, where those with a high level of connectivity also had a high level of work stress. The practical implications of the research are to demonstrate a methodology for assessing social connectivity with workspace and health that can be applied to other organisations. It makes a contribution to the fields of work psychology, facilities management and environmental psychology that has not before considered spatiality and social connectivity with work health.</p

A Simple Landscape-Scale Test of a Spatially Explicit Population Model: Patch Occupancy in Fragmented South-Eastern Australian Forests

The results of a landscape-scale test of ALEX, a widely used metapopulation model for Population Viability Analysis (PVA), are described. ALEX was used to predict patch occupancy by the laughing kookaburra and the sacred kingfisher in patches of eucalypt forest in south-eastern Australia. These predictions were compared to field surveys to determine the accuracy of the model. Predictions also were compared to a "naïve" null model assuming no fragmentation effects. The naive null model significantly over-predicted the number of eucalypt patches occupied by the sacred kingfisher, but the observed patch occupancy was not significantly different from that predicted using ALEX. ALEX produced a better fit to the field data than the naive null model for the number of patches occupied by the laughing kookaburra. Nevertheless, ALEX still significantly over-predicted the number of occupied patches, particularly remnants dominated by certain forest types – ribbon gum and narrow-leaved peppermint. The predictions remained significantly different from observations, even when the habitat quality of these patches was reduced to zero. Changing the rate of dispersal improved overall predicted patch occupancy, but occupancy rates for the different forest types remained significantly different from the field observations. The lack of congruence between field data and model predictions could have arisen because the laughing kookaburra may move between an array of patches to access spatially separated food and nesting resources in response to fragmentation. Alternatively, inter-specific competition may be heightened in a fragmented habitat. These types of responses to fragmentation are not incorporated as part of traditionally applied metapopulation models. Assessments of predictions from PVA models are rare but important because they can reveal the types of species for which forecasts are accurate and those for which they are not. This can assist the collection of additional empirical data to identify important factors affecting population dynamics

Issues for designing and evaluating a 'heroin trial': three discussion papers

Report on a workshop on trial evaluation / G. Bammer and D.N. McDonald -- An evaluation of possible designs for a heroin trial / R.G. Jarrett and P.J. Solomon -- Service provision considerations for the evaluation of a heroin trial. A discussion paper / D.N. McDonald, G. Bammer, D.G. Legge and B.M. Sibthorpe