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Potential for fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy toward predicting antioxidant and phenolic contents in powdered plant matrices
No full textAshwath, N ORCiD: 0000-0002-4032-4507; Johnson, JB ORCiD: 0000-0002-9172-8587; Naiker, M ORCiD: 0000-0002-6844-8325Mid-infrared spectroscopy is finding an increasing number of applications; however, many of its potential uses remain unexplored. In this study, mid-infrared spectroscopy is applied to predict total antioxidant capacity and phenolic contents of powdered matrices of 14 diverse plant species. In all instances, the optimum prediction models were found using standard normal variate smoothing as a pre-processing method. The results show high correlation between the FTIR predicted and chemically determined values, namely R2 values of 0.962 for total phenolics, 0.829 for cupric reducing antioxidant potential (CUPRAC) and 0.911 for ferric reducing antioxidant potential (FRAP). The relative RMSE found for validation indicated that total phenolic content could be predicted with higher accuracy than CUPRAC or FRAP. This pilot study highlights the promise of this technology for plant breeders and a range of industries where rapid screening of many samples for antioxidant and/or phenolic content is envisaged
The use of telephone communication between nurse navigators and their patients
No full textBaldwin, AE ORCiD: 0000-0002-6325-4142; Harvey, CL ORCiD: 0000-0001-9016-8840; Hegney, DG ORCiD: 0000-0003-1267-1760; Willis, EM ORCiD: 0000-0001-7576-971XBackground Hospitals and other health care providers frequently experience difficulties contacting patients and their carers who live remotely from the town where the health service is located. In 2016 Nurse Navigator positions were introduced into the health services by Queensland Health, to support and navigate the care of people with chronic and complex conditions. One hospital in Far North Queensland initiated an additional free telephone service to provide another means of communication for patients and carers with the NNs and for off-campus health professionals to obtain details about a patient utilising the service. Calls made between 7am and 10pm, seven days per week are answered by a nurse navigator. Aim To report utilisation of the service by navigated clients and remotely located clinicians compared to use of navigators' individual work numbers and direct health service numbers. We report the reason for calls to the free number and examine features of these calls. Methods Statistical analysis examined the call reason, duration of calls, setting from where calls originated and stream of calls. Interactions between the reasons for calls and the features of calls, such as contact method, were examined. Results The major reason for calls was clinical issues and the source of calls was primarily patients and carers. Clinical calls were longer in duration. Shorter calls were mainly non-clinical, made by a health professional. Setting for calls was not related to the reason. The most frequent number used was the individual mobile number of the NN, followed by the hospital landline. Although the free number was utilised by patients and carers, it was not the preferred option. Conclusion As patients and carers preferred to access their NN directly than via the 1800 number, further research should explore options best suited to this group of patients outside normal business hours. © 2020 Heritage et al
Developing police leaders: Does experience in isolated areas build leadership capacity and what role does mentoring play?
No full textColley, LK ORCiD: 0000-0001-7692-5868; Doyle, ST ORCiD: 0000-0002-1008-3706; Muurlink, OT ORCiD: 0000-0002-8251-9521The scant scholarly attention to how police leaders develop is surprising, given the critical importance of a cadre of capable police leaders to maintain public confidence and deal with challenges in an increasingly
complex policing environment. There is some consensus amongst scholars that police acquire most key skills in the field, as opposed to the classroom. Establishing relationships, including mentoring, particularly
from superiors, also plays an important role in learning. However, this paper questions how this can occur when leaders are removed to rural and remote postings. Policing in Queensland produces its own
diverse set of challenges, none the least being a state so geographically dispersed. Physical isolation, from resources and support, brings with it its own set of policing challenges, which can, in theory, make or break an officer’s leadership. The literature remains largely silent on how experiences in isolated areas can build good police leaders. Mentoring, as the other important piece in the leadership development puzzle, has similarly escape scholarly interest – in terms of how it mediates the process. The current research, situated in the Queensland Police Service (QPS), presents a case study to address this focus. In-depth interviews were conducted with a highly representative group of 20 commissioned
officers, who, when faced with a step pyramid organisation, had managed to successfully navigate a slow and at times arduous climb into senior leadership positions. Officers describe commanding major incidents and
natural disasters in isolated areas and how their leadership blossomed, or was hindered, as a result. The role mentoring played in their development, against the backdrop of isolated outposts, where support and resources could be hours away, were also highlighted in officers’ narratives
Making the student voice count: Using qualitative student feedback to enhance the student experience
No full textPabel, A ORCiD: 0000-0003-1409-5496Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to outline how qualitative data can be used to gain insights into the experience of different cohorts of students including online and on-campus students. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative data from student surveys are used to analyse three years of data. The text analytics software Leximancer was used to analyse the qualitative student comments. Findings: Comparing comments of on-campus and online students, the findings indicate that the students had different perceptions in regards to what they rated as best aspects of their course and what needed improvement. Originality/value: The study is based on three years of qualitative comments collected in student surveys. The study is unique, given that previous studies have looked at qualitative comments in general rather than comparing the experience of online and on-campus students
Registered nurses as role models for healthy lifestyles
No full textHeidke, PV ORCiD: 0000-0002-8991-6570; Langham, EM ORCiD: 0000-0002-1824-5108; Madsen, WL ORCiD: 0000-0002-6136-8939The aim of this paper is to report on the registered nurses adherence to current Australian behaviour recommendations. Barriers and facilitators to healthy lifestyles, and their attitudes towards being role models and promoting healthy lifestyles to their patients
Working with victims/survivors of intimate partner violence: The ‘Self’ in the therapeutic relationship
No full textGuggisberg, M ORCiD: 0000-0003-1344-7330As such, this collection includes the results of a study comparing three measures so as to examine whether a certain measure produces a discernible pattern of results
Thinking with theory as a policy evaluation tool: The case of boarding schools for remote First Nations students
No full textBenveniste, TC ORCiD: 0000-0002-7189-5118; Mccalman, JR ORCiD: 0000-0002-3022-3980Many recent policy documents have outlined the challenges of delivering high-quality education in remote First Nations communities and proposed that boarding schools are one important solution. These documents have influenced the increasing uptake of boarding options and there has been considerable public investment in scholarships, residential facilities and transition support. Yet the outcomes of this investment and policy effort are not well understood. The authors of this article came together as a collaboration of researchers who have published about boarding school education for First Nations students to examine the evidence and develop a theory-driven understanding of how policies drive systems to produce both desirable and undesirable outcomes for First Nations boarding school students. We applied complexity theory and post-structural policy analysis techniques and produced a useful tool for the evaluation of boarding policy and its implementation
Poster abstract: A QoS-Aware, energy-efficient trajectory optimization for UAV base stations using Q-Learning
No full textBokani, A ORCiD: 0000-0001-5160-7724; Hassan, JA ORCiD: 0000-0002-0939-2106; Hoseini, S ORCiD: 0000-0002-3105-4218Next generation mobile networks have proposed the integration of
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as aerial base stations (UAV-BS) to serve ground nodes with potentially varying QoS requirements. However, the dependence on the on-board, limited-capacity battery of the UAV-BS limits their service continuity. While conserving energy is important, meeting the QoS requirements of the ground nodes is equally important. We present an energy-efficient trajectory optimization for the UAV-BS while satisfying QoS requirements. We model the trajectory optimization as an MDP problem
and solve it using Q-Learning. Simulation results reveal that our proposed algorithm decreases the average energy consumption by nearly 55% compared to a randomly-served algorithm
Contamination of emergency medical vehicles and risk of infection to paramedic first responders and patients by antibiotic-resistant bacteria: Risk evaluation and recommendations from ambulance case studies
No full textTaylor-Robinson, AW ORCiD: 0000-0001-7342-8348Contamination of emergency medical vehicles with pathogenic microbes poses a potential threat to public health considering the many millions of ambulance responses that are made globally each year. This risk of infection is to the patients, to their companions who may travel with them, and to the paramedic first responders whose work involves pre- or inter-hospital transfer. This applies particularly to contamination by those infectious disease-causing microbes for which the threat is heightened because of their recognised resistance to leading antimicrobial agents. Determining the risks should facilitate the advancement of best practices to enhance infection control of routine outbreaks and during a major emergency such as a disease pandemic or a bioterrorism event. This may merit the introduction of amended guidelines for ambulance cleaning and disinfection to achieve more effective pre-hospital infection control among the worldwide community of emergency service providers
Exercise before bed does not impact sleep inertia in young healthy males
No full textLastella, AM ORCiD: 0000-0003-1793-3811; Sargent, C ORCiD: 0000-0001-5340-4701; Scanlan, AT ORCiD: 0000-0002-0750-8697; Vincent, GE ORCiD: 0000-0002-7036-7823Sleep inertia is the transitional state marked by impaired cognitive performance and reduced vigilance upon waking. Exercising before bed may increase the amount of slow wave sleep (SWS) within the sleep period, which has previously been associated with increased sleep inertia. Healthy males (n=12) spent three nights in a sleep laboratory (one-night wash-out period between each night) and completed one of the three conditions on each visit – no exercise, aerobic exercise (30 min cycling at 75% HR), and resistance exercise (six resistance exercises, three sets of 10 repetitions). The exercise conditions were completed 90 min prior to bed. Sleep was measured using polysomnography. Upon waking, participants completed five test batteries every 15 min including the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale, a Psychomotor Vigilance Task and the Spatial Configuration Task. Two separate linear mixed-effects models were used to assess 1) the impact of condition and 2) the amount of slow wave sleep, on sleep inertia. There were no significant differences in sleep inertia between conditions, likely as a result of the similar sleep amount, sleep structure and time of awakening between conditions. SWS amount impacted fastest 10% reciprocal reaction time on the PVT only, whereby more SWS improved performance, however the magnitude of this relationship was small. Results from this study suggest that exercise performed 90 min before bed does not negatively impact on sleep or sleep inertia. Future studies should investigate the impact of exercise intensity, duration and timing on sleep and subsequent sleep inertia