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Journal impact factor and its importance for AFP
No full textBackground: In 2008, Australian Family Physician (AFP) was accepted on the list of journals listed in Science Citation Index Expanded and, thus, will generate an impact factor over the next 2 years. Impact factor is important to authors from research and academic backgrounds and will make AFP an increasingly attractive journal in which to publish. Aim: To describe the impact factor, its method of calculation, and its flaws. Discussion: Impact factor is the number of a journal's cited research papers divided by the total number of citable papers it has published. It is distorted by several different factors: sub-discipline, region, basic versus applied research, and whether the journal editor deliberately tries to strategically increase their impact factor. Conclusion: Impact factor is an oversimplified single measure of 'impact', which may underestimate the contribution of the AFP to society. However, no accepted alternative metric currently exists
Unraveling the complexity of therapeutic drug monitoring for monoclonal antibody therapies to individualize dose in oncology
No full textMonoclonal antibodies (Mabs) have become key drugs in cancer treatment, either as targeted therapies or more recently as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). The fact that only some patients benefit from these drugs poses the usual question in the field of onco-hematology: that of the benefit of individual dosing and the potential of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) to carry out this individualization. However, Mabs present unique pharmacological characteristics for TDM, and the pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic relationship observed should be interpreted differently than that observed for conventional drugs and small molecules. This pharmacology practice review has been summarized from a public debate between the authors at the International TDM and Clinical Toxicology meeting in Banff, 2020, regarding the potential roles of TDM in the Mab/ICI setting
A survey of specialist opinions on biomarker use in severe asthma in Australia: scepticism but hope?
No full textAsthma specialists are interested in adopting biomarkers into clinical practice, but more work needs to be done to support resources towards their use and provide clearer direction on this. This concern is not limited to European specialists
Reducing urinary catheter use using an electronic reminder system in hospitalized patients: A randomized stepped-wedge trial
No full textObjective: To determine the effectiveness and ease of use of an electronic reminder device in reducing urinary catheterization duration. Design: A randomized controlled trial with a cross-sectional anonymous online survey and focus group. Setting: Ten wards in an Australian hospital. Participants: All hospitalized patients with a urinary catheter. Intervention: An electronic reminder system, the CATH TAG, applied to urinary catheter bags to prompt removal of urinary catheters. Outcomes: Catheterization duration and perceptions of nurses about the ease of use. Methods: A Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess the rate of removal of catheters. A phenomenological approach underpinned data collection and analysis methods associated with the focus group. Results: In total, 1,167 patients with a urinary catheter were included. The mean durations in control and intervention phases were 5.51 days (95% confidence interval [CI], 4.9-6.2) and 5.08 days (95% CI, 4.6-5.6), respectively. For patients who had a CATH TAG applied, the hazard ratio (HR) was 1.02 (95% CI, 0.91-1.14; P =.75). A subgroup analysis excluded patients in an intensive care unit (ICU), and the use of the CATH TAG was associated with a 23% decrease in the mean, from 5.00 days (95% CI, 4.44-5.56) to 3.84 days (95% CI, 3.47-4.21). Overall, 82 nurses completed a survey and 5 nurses participated in a focus group. Responses regarding the device were largely positive, and benefits for patient care were identified. Conclusion: The CATH TAG did not reduce the duration of catheterization, but potential benefits in patients outside the ICU were identified. Electronic reminders may be useful to aid prompt removal of urinary catheters in the non-ICU hospital setting
Digesting commercial clips from TV streams
No full textA commercial system that performs syntactic and semantic analysis during a TV advertising break could facilitate innovative new applications, such as an intelligent set-top box that enhances the ability of viewers to monitor and manage commercials from TV streams
Optimal routing for decode-forward in cooperative wireless networks
No full textWe investigate routing in cooperative multiple-terminal wireless networks in which the nodes can collaborate with each other in data transmission. First, we motivate cooperation by showing that decode-forward, an information-theoretic cooperative coding strategy, achieves rates significantly higher than those achievable by the conventional multi-hop routing, a point-to-point non-cooperative coding strategy. We then construct an algorithm to find optimal (rate-maximizing) routes for decode-forward. We show that the algorithm is able to find shortest optimal routes and is optimal in fading channels. However, the algorithm runs in factorial time in the worst case. So, we propose a near-optimal heuristic algorithm that runs in polynomial time. The heuristic algorithm always outputs optimal routes when the nodes transmit independent codewords, and outputs optimal routes with high probability when the nodes transmit arbitrarily correlated codewords. Lastly, we implement decode-forward using low-density parity-check codes to compare the bit error rate performance of different routes
All regular graphs of small odd order are vertex-magic
No full textThis paper deals with vertex-magic total labellings of graphs. Earlier work by many authors has shown many infinite families of graphs to admit such labelings. The fact that many of these graphs are regular led MacDougall to conjecture that all non-trivial regular graphs are vertex-magic. Previously Gray and MacDougall showed that all odd-order r-regular graphs (r ≥ 2) of order up to v = 19 are vertex-magic. In this paper, we report on computations that extend this range, to show that all odd-order r-regular graphs (r ≥ 2) of order up to v = 29 are vertex-magic
Print journalism and the creative process: journalists and the organisation
No full textThis paper applies current research in the domain of creativity research to the domain of print journalism to illustrate how a journalist learns the rules and procedures of the organisation worked for and how important they are in the production of creative media texts. Using Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s systems model of creativity, a Rationalist model, it can be demonstrated that it is both the cultural and social structures of the organisation, as well as those of the broader journalism domain, that supports a journalist’s production. Csikszentmihalyi claims that creativity is generated within the interaction of a system of three elements: a domain of knowledge (the cultural structure), a field (the social structure) and an individual, in this case the print journalist. The paper maintains that by learning the rules and procedures of the organisation, a print journalist can produce work that is both novel and appropriate: a creative text. The paper is drawn from ongoing PhD research into the creative practices of print journalists in Australia. After conducting semi-structured interviews with 36 members of the field of print journalism, data analysis indicated that cultural and social structures are a crucial element in the communication of an organisation’s policies and expectations to journalists, both formally and informally. Furthermore, there is an inextricable link between the cultural structure, the social structure and an individual journalist in the creation of a media text and this is an illustration of Csikszentmihalyi’s systems model of creativity in action
Bachelor dad on her doorstep
No full textThe creative work – Bachelor Dad on Her Doorstep – is a Harlequin Mills & Boon Sweet Romance. It details Jaz Harper’s return to her hometown of Clara Falls in the Blue Mountains after eight years away. Her return means confronting her past – in the shape of her high school sweetheart, Connor Reed, who broke her heart and who is the reason she left Clara Falls all those years ago. Connor is convinced that eight years ago Jaz cheated on him, dashing all their plans for the future. In the time since she left he has become a single father. The story details the development of their relationship from antipathy to empathy, and then from friendship to love. The accompanying exegesis discusses the conventions and constraints of the popular romance genre. It explores the challenges presented to a writer in creating and maintaining emotional intensity in a popular genre romance and the need to provide a satisfying and credible ending to that romance. Five well-known romance novels – Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Rebecca, The Grand Sophy, and The Republic of Love – are analysed for the manner in which they portray romantic love and for the narrative strategies that may be of use to the writer of category romance. Finally, the exegesis discusses how the conventions of the popular romance genre and the narrative strategies employed have combined to shape the creative work
Interpreting the scriptures of Islam and implications for the West
No full textThe paper will explore scriptural evidence in the Islamic tradition which has capacity to fortify dialogue with the West on the basis of the notion of a common tradition existing between Islam and the major religious traditions of the West. This common tradition will focus not only on the central Abraham legends and lineage but on recently revived evidence of the strong role played by the 'Muslim Jesus' in the early inspiration of Islam. At the same time, this evidence will be unveiled as the cause of much of the misunderstanding and tension that exists between Islam and Judaism and Christianity in particular. The role of the work of the Tunisian scholar, Mohamed Talbi, will be central to the thesis being put in the paper that the common tradition has greater potential for unity than disunity