66 research outputs found
Concerns about the validity of authorship and Data Integrity of 37 Randomized Controlled Trials in Women’s Health
No full textObjective a systematic assessment of the validity of authorship and the data integrity of some of these RCTs of this author.
Study Design We conducted a systematic analysis of the authorship and data discrepancy of 37 RCTs published by Dr. Ben Mol -an author working in Monash University. We conducted a visual comparison between the trial registration, published protocol, published abstract and the final published article. In the pairwise comparisons, we only reported values that were identical or extremely similar.
Results The date of ethical approval was questioned in 5 articles where it was obtained in the same day of trial registration in 2 articles and after start of patients’ recruitment in 3 articles.
There were discrepancies in start of 10 trials and in study completion in 24 studies.
We also found many differences between the inclusion criteria in 11 trials, exclusion criteria in 9 trials, reporting of primary outcomes in 9 trials and reporting of secondary outcomes in 11 trials.
Sixteen trials of the sampled 37 were retrospectively registered. The sample size was not consistent between trial registration and the published article in 21 studies. The investigated author was not mentioned in all registration but one. Also, he was not an author in the published abstract and protocol of one study. There was changes in methodology after the start of participants recruitment and even after study completion in many articles.
Conclusion The investigated author has an exceptionally large number of published articles within a short time. There were many discrepancies in data reporting. We suggest that publishing journals should investigate these issues according to the COPE guidelines. Many of the investigated articles have identical values with identical similarities between the studies that were conducted during the same durations and carried out by the same authors
Working at home and sustainable living : architecture and planning implications
No full textThe goal of this thesis is to determine the correlation between the practice of working at home and the theoretical needs of sustainable living. The author presents a brief synopsis of the present theories of sustainability which he then uses as an evaluative backdrop for the study. Urban transport, architectural design and quality of life issues are addressed. The author conducted an extensive literature review, several case studies and a survey. Conclusions drawn from these studies were used to attempt to envision sustainable home working communities.It was found that sustainability was directly related to whether the home worker telecommutes or operates a home-based business. Home-based business owners continue to be heavily reliant on automobile transportation, while telecommuters make fewer overall trips and travel shorter distances than conventional commuters. Although neither work type demands significant changes to the infrastructure of the typical residence, home-based businesses require more space and more attention to design. Telecommuting has potential adverse side effects of personal isolation and physical strain. To ensure the sustainability of working at home, the practice must be adopted as an integral part of a larger transformation on the scale of the local community
Multi-channel customer management: A case study in Egypt
No full textChannel management is one CRM systems component much influenced by the behaviour of customers in relation to the implementation and use of channel management CRM component. The consumers’ behaviours, preferences, perceptions and expectations are crucial for the implementation and use of channel management. Customers’ contact with the organization’s multi-channels can occur at several touch points through out customer lifecycle. Customers’ behaviours may be differentiated according to the individual or micro level, but it might also differ at an ecological or macro level of analysis (Ramaseshan et al., 2006). In this paper the author has conducted a case study in Egypt to analyze customers’ behaviours at a macro level and customers channel choices, through out the customer lifecycle. The author has used a Structurational Analysis model (Ali and Brooks, 2008) to identify the cultural factors (Ali, et al. 2008) that influence the multi-channel customer management in Egypt
Long-term learning of feature group weights in CBIR
No full textThis thesis was scanned from the print manuscript for digital preservation and is copyright the author.
Researchers can access this thesis by asking their local university, institution or public library to
make a request on their behalf. Monash staff and postgraduate students can use the link in the References field
Intrinsic sense of touch for intuitive physical human-robot interaction
No full textThe sense of touch is a property that allows humans to interact delicately with their physical environment. This article reports on a technological advancement in intuitive human-robot interaction that enables an intrinsic robotic sense of touch without the use of artificial skin or tactile instrumentation. On the basis of high-resolution joint-force-torque sensing in a redundant arrangement, we were able to let the robot sensitively feel the surrounding environment and accurately localize touch trajectories in space and time that were applied on its surface by a human. Through an intertwined combination of manifold learning techniques and artificial neural networks, the robot identified and interpreted those touch trajectories as machine-readable letters, symbols, or numbers. This opens up unexplored opportunities in terms of intuitive and flexible interaction between human and robot. Furthermore, we showed that our concept of so-called virtual buttons can be used to straightforwardly implement a tactile communication link, including switches and slider bars, which are complementary to speech, hardware buttons, and control panels. These interaction elements could be freely placed, moved, and configured in arbitrary locations on the robot structure. The intrinsic sense of touch we proposed in this work can serve as the basis for an advanced category of physical human-robot interaction that has not been possible yet, enabling a shift from conventional modalities toward adaptability, flexibility, and intuitive handling
Cultural aspects of multi-channel customer management: A case study in Italy
No full textChannel management is one of CRM systems component much influenced by the behaviour of customers in relation to its implementation and use. The consumers’ behaviours, preferences, perceptions and expectations are crucial for the implementation and use of channel management. Customers’ contact with the organization’s multi-channels can occur at several touch points throughout the customer lifecycle. Customers’ behaviours may be differentiated according to the individual or micro level, but it might also differ at an ecological or macro level of analysis (Ramaseshan et al., 2006). In this paper the author has conducted a case study in a multinational organization in Italy to analyze customers’ behaviours at a macro level and customers channel choices, through out the customer lifecycle. The author has used a content analysis technique to define the themes of the case study and then used the Structurational Analysis model by Ali and Brooks, (2008) to identify the cultural values dimensions (Ali, et al. 2008a) that influence multi-channel customer management in Italy. The research findings highlight the cultural dimensions, which should be considered while adopting multi-channel customer strategy. Also, the research findings encourage the articulation of situated cultural approach to study cultural impact within IS discipline as alternative approach than predefined culture archetype
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