How much of Australia's health expenditure is allocated to general practice and primary healthcare?

ackground and objectives Understanding resource allocation is important to ensure that limited health resources are spent where they bring the greatest benefit. The aim of this study was to explore how much of Australia’s national health expenditure is allocated specifically to general practice services, and more broadly to primary healthcare (PHC) services. Methods This study used multiple Australian institutional reports – produced by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Productivity Commission and Services Australia – to classify, compare and quantify general practice and PHC expenditure. Results National statistics report that approximately 34% of Australian health expenditure is spent on PHC. However, less than 20% of PHC expenditure (approximately 6.5% of total health expenditure) is allocated to delivering general practice services. Spending on general practitioners and general practice services varies between 4.2% and 6.8% of total health expenditure (between $7.8 billion and$12.4 billion) depending on the classification used. Discussion Significant differences exist in how different institutions classify general practice and PHC spending. Clearer, agreed and more precise methods of classification and reporting of health expenditure are needed

Function length as a tool for malware classification

The proliferation of malware is a serious threat to computer and information systems throughout the world. Antimalware companies are continually challenged to identify and counter new malware as it is released into the wild. In attempts to speed up this identification and response, many researchers have examined ways to efficiently automate classification of malware as it appears in the environment. In this paper, we present a fast, simple and scalable method of classifying Trojans based only on the lengths of their functions. Our results indicate that function length may play a significant role in classifying malware, and, combined with other features, may result in a fast, inexpensive and scalable method of malware classification.<br /

Optically probing symmetry breaking in the chiral magnet Cu2OSeO3

We report on the linear optical properties of the chiral magnet Cu2OSeO3, specifically associated with the absence of inversion symmetry, the chiral crystallographic structure, and magnetic order. Through spectroscopic ellipsometry, we observe local crystal-field excitations below the charge-transfer gap. These crystal-field excitations are optically allowed due to the lack of inversion symmetry at the Cu sites. Optical polarization rotation measurements were used to study the structural chirality and magnetic order. The temperature dependence of the natural optical rotation, originating in the chiral crystal structure, provides evidence for a finite magneto-electric effect in the helimagnetic phase. We find a large magneto-optical susceptibility on the order of V(540nm)~10^4 rad/(T*m) in the helimagnetic phase and a maximum Faraday rotation of ~165deg/mm in the ferrimagnetic phase. The large value of V can be explained by considering spin cluster formation and the relative ease of domain reorientation in this metamagnetic material. The magneto-optical activity allows us to map the magnetic phase diagram, including the skyrmion lattice phase. In addition to this, we probe and discuss the nature of the various magnetic phase transitions in Cu2OSeO3.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure