bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Place and Music: performing 'the region' on the New South Wales Far North Coast
Authors: Gibson Chris
Published: September 2017

This paper draws on research conducted for over a decade on the musical cultures of the New South Wales Far North Coast, as a contribution to debates in geography and popular music studies on the links between music, place and articulations of cultural identities. Patterns of migration and economic restructuring over the last 20 years have transformed the Far North Coast region, with associated changes in the images conjured to describe the region – from those centred on dairying, fishing and sugar harvesting to those of a ‘lifestyle’ or ‘alternative’ region, with growth in employment in tourism, recreational services, ‘gourmet’ agricultural production, culinary delights, homewares retail and the arts. Music has been a constant presence in the region throughout generations, but became much more pronounced after significant counter-urban migrations to the area began in the 1970s. As music emerged as a unique part of the cultural mix of the region, it became much more diverse, was entangled in local politics, and in the transitions and tensions that have surrounded successive waves of new migrants – both domestic and international – to the region. This article discusses music as a social practice within the region that has played a part in shaping and reflecting evolving regional identities; but at the same time, music constitutes a set of activities that unsettle notions of ‘boundedness’ or ‘stable’ associations between place identities and music. I begin with debates about the links between music, place and identity, and the extent to which such associations are performative – constituted in an embodied fashion in the process of describing and enacting certain cultural discourses. Two broad trends are outlined here as ‘storylines’: one focused on constructions of music as ‘authentic’ that are linked to place identities, the second emphasises mobility of musical languages, and network metaphors for the repetition of musical practices across locations. Interpretations of musical practices on the Far North Coast hold these storylines in tension; one focused on ‘fixing’ musical practices in place, the other emphasizing the fluidity of ‘the region’ in a wider musical geography.
When a Place Becomes a Community: Music, radio and the reach of social aesthetics
Authors: Fairchild Charles
Published: September 2017

What questions do we face when the familiar, informal or semi-formal modes of musical place-making are constituted instead by formal institutions whose explicit recognition by the state and the market are necessary for their existence and survival? A community radio station is one such institution. Their participants’ primary goal is to enact different ways of producing culture, doing so by constructing a series of social relationships crafted through acts of communication and organisation that define the institution itself. The scholarly consensus has it that the ways of producing culture through community media enact a distinctly civil discourse that challenges traditional notions of cultural belonging, citizenship and the public sphere. The bare, simple fact that the vast majority of programming materials on most community radio stations in Australia is music begs a series of questions about the role of the social aesthetics of music in the construction and maintenance of institutions of civil society. I argue that we can draw out of these institutions the core values of a civil or democratic aesthetics specifically through understanding the type and character of the kinds of relationships that constitute them. Moreover, these relationships present an enticing contrast to the commercial relationships which dominate most of consumer culture.
A Band Without Walls at the End of the World: The Green Mist, Next Stop Antarctica and the Tasmanian geographic imaginary
Authors: Stewart Keryn , Hopcroft Helen
Published: September 2017

The Green Mist is a floating international blues entity which evolved in the deep south of Tasmania. Featuring former members of the Violent Femmes and Beasts of Bourbon, the Mist’s first album Next Stop Antarctica represents a vivid evocation of the peculiar strangeness of the island’s atmosphere, history and environment. Musician Julien Poulson’s father Bruce was a historian who lived in a derelict organic garlic farm in the small town of Southport; an area that is often bitterly cold, perpetually gloomy, bleak yet strangely beautiful. Bruce was one of the people who discovered the remains of a garden built in 1792 by French explorers in Recherche Bay, and this discovery was later used to help protect the site from logging. While his dad was dying of cancer, Julien helped him put together his final book about Recherche Bay’s history and later many of these old stories formed the basis of album tracks. Using The Green Mist as a case study, this paper will explore the links between physical place of production and creation; the use of both individual memory and historical narratives in song writing; and the extent to which these factors form part of a conscious or deliberate strategy.
Fijian Sigidrigi and the Sonic Representation and Construction of Place
Authors: Cattermole Jennifer
Published: September 2017

This paper explores how the inhabitants of Taveuni, Fiji’s third largest island, use the music genre known as sigidrigi (from the English ‘sing drink’) to articulate and redefine their relationships to particular places. Sigidrigi songs are often performed by groups of men to entertain people during informal yaqona (or kava as it is known throughout Polynesia) drinking sessions. They feature three or four-part vocal harmony, and are accompanied by guitar and/or ukulele. The repertoire consists of covers and localised versions of overseas songs, as well as songs composed by Fijians in styles adopted and adapted primarily from Northern America and Western Europe (for example, rock, pop, country and blues). The repertoire also includes songs from other Pacific islands, the Caribbean (for example, reggae), Indo-Fijian songs, and i taukei (indigenous Fijians of Melanesian or Polynesian descent) children’s songs and meke (an art form consisting of music, dance and costuming whose origin pre-dates European contact). An examination of sigidrigi song lyrics (in terms of both language use and textual content), band names, and various elements of musical style (such as texture, timbre, meter etc.) reveals how Taveuni islanders have used this music genre to (re)construct communities at geographical scales ranging from the local to the supranational.
Music and the 'any-space-whatever': Translating existential chaos into artistic composition
Authors: Scannell John
Published: September 2017

This paper looks at the importance of rhythmic creativity for the African-American musician as a means of counteracting the inherent “non-space” of diasporic existence. Drawing upon the work of Deleuze and Guattari, as well as from the fields of cultural studies and diaspora theory, this paper examines the immanent existential and territorial concerns of the “minor” subject, as might be witnessed in the music of James Brown. Rather than attribute Brown’s African-American identity as the defining characteristic of his musical style, as many previous academic accounts have done, I will instead look at his work as the product of a lack of an identity, and how this idea might be understood in relation to Augé’s “non-places”, the idiosyncratic interpretation of Augé by Deleuze in his Cinema books, and the possible correspondence of this concept of the “non-place”/”any-space-whatever” with the rhizomorphic, post-national. The Black Atlantic subject described by Paul Gilroy. Rather than simply attribute Brown’s music as a reiteration of African diasporic musical legacy, the paper instead attempts to define Brown’s funk as the work of a becoming-subject, where the creativity of the minority in these “any-space-whatevers” is due to being thrown into the creative chaos of an intolerable position.
“¡Somos Más Americanos!”: The music of Los Tigres del Norte as Grass Roots Activism
Authors: Rodriguez Mariana
Published: September 2017

The music of popular Mexican band Los Tigres del Norte illustrates a Mexican migrant and Chicano/a tradition of using popular music as an alternative way of narrating community life in the U.S.A., most notably the Mexican migrant, Chicana/o and Mexican-American experience of discrimination along ethnic, class, gender and cultural lines. The band grapples with the ways by which a dominant U.S. national discourse has historically subordinated Mexican migrant and Chicano/a communities. Through their lyrics they propose a kind of progressive politics that underscores the importance of equality and antidiscrimination based on ethnic, cultural, gender and class positions. I believe that Los Tigres del Norte should be regarded as political activists, using their lyrics and musical profile to articulate and present a kind of progressive politics on behalf of Mexican migrants and Chicanos, and in ways that work with the legacies of the Chicano Movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Los Tigres del Norte are worthy of attention for a number of reasons. First, they speak of the importance of community building as a form of empowerment for immigrant groups and ethnic minorities in the U.S.A., as typified by the long tradition of community organizations among Mexican migrants, Chicanas/os and Mexican-American communities. Second, it is arguable that Los Tigres del Norte continue the Chicano/a movement fight for human rights and equality. Los Tigres del Norte claim a place for Mexican migrants and Chicanos/as as a viable and productive constituency within the U.S.A. Third, while these musicians are male performers, who engage with civil and migrant rights, they also deal with female issues and characters, departing from traditional views and ideals of the subordinate role of women in Mexican migrant and Chicana/o patriarchal societies. Los Tigres del Norte also engage with notions of an ‘America’ whose pan-ethnic qualities mark the importance of alliances between diverse groups. Their focus on the immigrant experience –documented and undocumented— makes their music an important example of a political project of pan-Latino and pan-American affiliation. In this way, I argue that Los Tigres del Norte should be regarded not only as ‘the most famous and popular band in contemporary Mexican culture band’ (Wald 2001) but as political activists who, in their lyrics, articulate political and social issues affecting the Mexican migrant and Chicana/o communities which might be read as legacies of the Chicano Movement in the 1960s and 1970s.
Book Review: Reggaeton
Authors: White Cameron
Published: September 2017

Book Review
'Bombora', 'Malabar Mansion': the psychogeography of the Sydney Sonic Sublime
Authors: Doyle Peter
Published: September 2017

This paper looks at two recordings connected with the strangely disquieting tract of fifteen or so square miles separating the northern shores of Botany Bay from the Pacific Ocean, in Sydney’s south-east. In 1964 the Atlantics, a band composed mainly of young migrant Australians produced a reverb-drenched guitar instrumental called “Bombora”. The name - an Aboriginal word referring to a type of submerged rocky reef, over which large ocean waves occasionally and unexpectedly break - had immediate meaning to Sydney’s surfer subculture. But for the population of the Botany Bay area, the term had a more local meaning, referring to one specific reef where, over the years, many boat fishermen, often migrants unused to the local conditions, had been killed. In the 1988 recording, “Malabar mansion,” singer Mac Silver prepares himself for the horrors of a night in Long Bay Jail, (located nearby on that same peninsula). At that time a commission of inquiry was investigating the deaths in custody of large numbers of young Aboriginal prisoners, and Silver’s recording had powerful political and emotional resonances. “Bombora” is a frenzied, almost operatic piece, and many listeners hear a bouzouki and folk dance influence in Theo Penglis’s lead guitar. The chaotic textures, high pitch and fast pace might be heard as a musical analogue of hyperventilation and a racing heart beat-bodily markers of the state where excitation becomes terror, leading to a moment of transcendence, a kind of sonic sublime. “Malabar Mansion”, on the other hand is almost anti-sublime: quiet, literal, weary, precise in its delineation of the psychic and physical perils, and disarmingly specific in describing the elsewhere for which the singer longs. The peninsula whence these songs come has long been an uneasy presence in the city’s imaginary, a combined badlands and seaside idyll. Over the past century suburban homes have shared the snake-infested sandhills, heath, swamp with a leprosarium, a prison, a cemetery, a crematorium, a rubbish dump, a sewerage works, a power station, a rifle range, an army depot, tanneries, refineries, a migrant hostel, a shipping terminal and a sprawling post war housing project. Although rarely visited by tourists, the area has some of the most hauntingly beautiful coastline in the Sydney district, and is home to native flora and fauna long since lost to the rest of Sydney. Neither “Bombora” nor “Malabar mansion” simply “sounds like” the places they are meant to evoke, but both, I will argue, are thoroughly determined by moods, physical ecologies and insoluble contradictions of place.
Sigur Rós's Heima: An Icelandic Psychogeography
Authors: Mitchell Tony
Published: September 2017

This paper examines the sonic geography of the Icelandic ambient rock group Sigur Rós with particular reference to their documentary film Heima, which documents a tour the group made of remote places in their home country. Known for causing some people to faint or burst into tears during their concerts, Sigur Rós’s music could be said to express sonically both the isolation of their Icelandic location and to induce a feeling of hermetic isolation in the listener through the climactic and melodic intensity of their sound. This is distinguished by lead guitarist Jónsi Birgisson’s falsetto vocals and Gibson Les Paul guitar played through reverb with a well-resined cello bow, heavily amplified drums, and the use of various types of keyboards, including church organ, minimally emphatic bass, and an all-female string section called Anima who play instruments such as xylophone, celeste, a glass of water, a musical saw and a laptop. Singing both in Icelandic and an invented language called Hopelandic (vonlenska), Jónsi, who is gay and blind in one eye, channels a striking form of glossolalia in his vocals which links the group’s music to ambient rock predecessors such as the Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance. As Edward D. Miller has stated, ‘Glossolalia reveals the tension between voice and signification, and exposes the communicativeness of sounds itself. The casual listener to Sigur Rós easily becomes an involved one. S/he is listening to made up words and in accepting the meaning of their arrangement in a melody, imagines what the lyrics might mean. This dual dynamic creates a strong emotional correspondence between the band and its listener’ (2003: 8). The group acknowledges a strong degree of Icelandic animism in their music – they have referred to ‘the presence of mortality’ in the Icelandic landscape, and their links to stories, sagas, magic and ritual in a remote country where ‘the majority of the population believes in elves and power spots … the invisible world is always with us’ (Young 2001:33). In their music they create geomorphic soundscapes which transport the active listener into an imaginary world. As bass player Georg Holm, who is demophobic, has stated, ‘we provide the colours and the frame and you paint the picture’ (Zuel 2005). This paper mobilises Barthes’ ‘jouissance’, Michael Bull’s work on personal stereos, and Daniel Grimley’s work on music and Nordic identity along with various notions of musical affect to discuss relations between Sigur Rós’s music, arctic landscape and its resonances outside Scandinavia.
Music and the Production of Place: Introduction
Authors: Mitchell Tony
Published: September 2017

Introduction
The Evolution Of ‘Malay’ Labour Activism, 1870-1947: protest among pearling crews in Dutch East Indies-Australian waters
Authors: Martinez Julia
Published: September 2017

The history of Indonesian labour activism as seen from an Australian perspective is best known in the context of World War Two when the presence of Asian seamen in Australia sparked a flourish of internationalism and anticolonial protest under the umbrella organization of the Seamen's Union of Australia. But the story of Malay maritime worker protest has a deeper history, reaching back to the early years of the pearl-shelling and trepang industries when Malay workers from the Dutch East Indies were brought to work off the northern Australian coast. Before the advent of a seamen's union, these workers faced harsh working conditions and had little recourse to legal forms of protest. Their refusal to accept poor conditions was met with reprisals which included physical punishment, gaol sentences and detention on board ships without shore leave. There is evidence that in the late nineteenth century the most common form of protest was mutiny, with Malay crews seizing vessels and sailing to the Dutch East Indies. By the twentieth century there was more scope for negotiation, with increasing support from Australian unions and improved government regulation. The milder forms of more recent protests and the willingness of Indonesians to take their cue from Australian unionists has somewhat obscured the nature of early Malay protest. This paper takes a longer view of worker activism in order to highlight the deep roots of maritime protest in the Indian Ocean region.
Sources of PM2.5 carbonaceous aerosol in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Authors: Bian Qijing , Alharbi Badr , Sharee Mohammed M. , Husai Tahir , Pasha Mohammad J. , Atwood Samuel A. , Kreidenweis Sonia M.
Published: September 2017

Abstract. Knowledge of the sources of carbonaceous aerosol affecting air quality in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is limited, but needed for the development of pollution control strategies. We conducted sampling of PM2.5 from April to September, 2012 at various sites in the city, and used a thermo-optical semi-continuous method to quantify the organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) concentrations. The average OC and EC concentrations were 4.7 ± 4.4 and 2.1 ± 2.5 μg  m
An ion-neutral model to investigate chemical ionization mass spectrometry analysis of atmospheric molecules – application to a mixed reagent ion system for hydroperoxides and organic acids
Authors: Heikes Brian G. , Treadaway Victoria , McNeill Ashley S. , Silwal Indira K. C. , O'Sullivan Daniel W.
Published: September 2017

Abstract. An ion-neutral chemical kinetic model is described and used to simulate the negative-ion chemistry occurring within a mixed-reagent ion chemical ionization mass spectrometer (CIMS). The model objective was the establishment of a theoretical basis to understand ambient pressure (variable sample flow and reagent ion carrier gas flow rates), water vapor, ozone and oxides of nitrogen effects on ion-cluster sensitivities for hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), methyl peroxide (CH3OOH), formic acid (HFo) and acetic acid (HAc). The model development started with established atmospheric ion chemistry mechanisms, thermodynamic data and reaction rate coefficients. The chemical mechanism was augmented with additional reactions and their reaction rate coefficients specific to the analytes. Some existing reaction rate coefficients were modified to enable the model to match laboratory and field campaign determinations of ion-cluster sensitivities as functions of CIMS sample flow rate and ambient humidity. Relative trends in predicted and observed sensitivities are compared as instrument specific factors preclude a direct calculation of instrument sensitivity as a function of sample pressure and humidity. Predicted sensitivity trends and experimental sensitivity trends suggested the model captured the reagent ion and cluster chemistry and reproduced trends in ion-cluster sensitivity with sample flow and humidity observed with a CIMS instrument developed for atmospheric peroxide measurements (PCIMS). The model was further used to investigate the potential for isobaric compounds as interferences in the measurement of the above species. For ambient ozone (O3) mixing ratios more than 50 times those of hydrogen peroxide, H2O2, O3− (H2O) was predicted to be a significant isobaric interference to the measurement of O2− (H2O2) at m/z 66. O3 and NO give rise to species and cluster ions, CO3− (H2O) and NO3− (H2O), respectively, which interfere in the measurement of CH3OOH) using O2− (CH3OOH) at m/z 80. The CO3− (H2O) interference assumed one of its O atoms was 18O and present in the cluster in proportion to its natural abundance. The model results indicated monitoring water vapor mixing ratio, m/z 78 for CO3− (H2O) and m/z 98 for isotopic CO3− (H2O)2 can be used to determine when CO3− (H2O) interference is significant. Similarly, monitoring water vapor mixing ratio, m/z 62 for NO3− (H2O) and m/z 98 for NO3− (H2O)2 can be used to determine when NO3− (H2O) interference is significant.
Minimum Aerosol Layer Detection Sensitivities and their Subsequent Impacts on Aerosol Optical Thickness Retrievals in CALIPSO Level 2 Data Products
Authors: Toth Travis D. , Campbell James R. , Reid Jeffrey S. , Tackett Jason L. , Vaughan Mark A. , Zhang Jianglong , Marquis Jared W.
Published: September 2017

Abstract. Due to instrument sensitivities and algorithm detection limits, Level 2 (L2) Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) 532 nm aerosol extinction profile retrievals are often populated with retrieval fill values (RFVs), which indicate the absence of detectable levels of aerosol within the profile. In this study, using four years (2007–2008 and 2010–2011) of CALIOP Version 3 L2 aerosol data, the occurrence frequency of daytime CALIOP profiles containing all RFVs (all-RFV profiles) is studied. In the CALIOP data products, the aerosol optical thickness (AOT) of any all-RFV profile is reported as being zero, which may introduce a bias in CALIOP-based AOT climatologies. For this study, we derive revised estimates of AOT for all-RFV profiles using collocated Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Dark Target (DT) and, where available, Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) data. Globally, all-RFV profiles comprise roughly 71 % of all daytime CALIOP L2 aerosol profiles (i.e., including completely attenuated profiles), accounting for nearly half (45 %) of all daytime cloud-free L2 aerosol profiles. The mean collocated MODIS DT (AERONET) 550 nm AOT is found to be near 0.06 (0.08) for CALIOP all-RFV profiles. We further estimate a global mean aerosol extinction profile, a so-called noise floor, for CALIOP all-RFV profiles. The global mean CALIOP AOT is then recomputed by replacing RFV values with the derived noise floor values for both all-RFV and non-all-RFV profiles. This process yields an improvement in the agreement of CALIOP and MODIS over-ocean AOT.
Marine Phytoplankton Stoichiometry Mediates Nonlinear Interactions Between Nutrient Supply, Temperature, and Atmospheric CO2
Authors: Moreno Allison R. , Hagstrom George I. , Primeau Francois W. , Levin Simon A. , Martiny Adam C.
Published: September 2017

Abstract. Marine phytoplankton stoichiometry links nutrient supply to marine carbon export. Deviations of phytoplankton stoichiometry from Redfield proportions (106C : 1P) could therefore have a significant impact on carbon cycling, and understanding which environmental factors drive these deviations may reveal new mechanisms that regulate the carbon cycle. To explore the links between environmental conditions, stoichiometry, and carbon cycling, we compared four different models for variations in phytoplankton C : P: a fixed Redfield model, a model with C : P given as a function of surface phosphorus concentration ([P]), a model with C : P given as a function of temperature, and a new multi-environmental model that predicts C : P as a function of light, temperature, and [P]. These stoichiometric models were embedded into a box model of the ocean circulation, which resolves the three major ocean biomes (high-latitude, subtropical gyres, and iron-limited tropical upwelling regions). Contrary to the expectation of a monotonic relationship between surface nutrient drawdown and carbon export, we found that lateral nutrient transport from lower C : P tropical waters to high C : P subtropical waters could cause carbon-export to decrease with increased tropical nutrient utilization. Temperature is thought to be one of the primary drivers of changes in atmospheric pCO2 (pCO2,atm) across glacial/interglacial periods, and it has been hypothesized that a positive feedback between temperature and pCO2,atm will play an important role in anthropogenic climate change, with changes in the biological pump playing at most a secondary role. Here we show that environmentally driven shifts in stoichiometry make the biological pump more influential, and may reverse the expected negative relationship between temperature and pCO2,atm. In the temperature-only model changes in tropical temperature have more impact on the Δ pCO2,atm (~ 41 ppm) compared to subtropical temperature (~ 4.5 ppm). Our multi-environmental model produced a decline in pCO2,atm of ~ 46 when temperature spanned a change of 10 °C. Thus, we find that variation in marine phytoplankton stoichiometry and its environmental controlling factor can lead to counterintuitive controls on pCO2,atm, suggesting the need for further studies of ocean C : P and the impact on ocean carbon cycling.
Parameter-state ensemble data assimilation using Approximate
Bayesian Computing for short-term hydrological prediction
Authors: Davison Bruce , Fortin Vincent , Pietroniro Alain , Yau Man K. , Leconte Robert
Published: September 2017

Abstract. The main sources of uncertainty in hydrological modelling can be summarized as structural errors, parameter errors, and data errors. Operational modellers are generally more concerned with predictive ability than model errors, and Data Assimilation (DA) methods are commonly employed to merge models with observations to improve predictive ability. This paper presents an example of Approximate Bayesian Computing (ABC), or a simplified Particle Filter (PF), to simultaneously assimilate model states and parameters, calling the method Parameter-State Ensemble DA (P-SEDA). The case study is from June to October, 2014 for a small (1324 km2) watershed just north of Lake Superior in Ontario, Canada using the Canadian semi-distributed hydrologic land-surface scheme MESH. The study examines how well the approach works given various levels of certainty in the data; beginning with certainty in the streamflow and precipitation, followed by uncertainty in the streamflow and certainty in the precipitation, and finally uncertainty in both the streamflow and precipitation. The approach is found to work in this case when streamflow and precipitation is fairly certain, while being more challenging to implement in a forecasting scenario where future streamflow and precipitation is much less certain. The main challenge is determined to be related to parametric uncertainty and ideas for overcoming this challenge are discussed.
Opportunities and obstacles using a clinical decision support system for maternal care in Burkina Faso
Authors: Zakane Sidagna Alphonse , Gustafsson Lars L , Sie Ali , Tomson Göran , Loukanova Svetla , Bastholm-Rahmner Pia
Published: September 2017

AbstractObjective:  Maternal and neonatal mortality is high in sub-Saharan Africa. To support Healthcare Workers (HCWs), a computerized decision support system (CDSS) was piloted at six rural maternal care units in Burkina Faso. During the two years of the study period, it was apparent from reports that the CDSS was not used regularly in clinical practice. This study aimed to explore the reasons why HCWs failed to use the CDSS.Methods: A workshop, organised as group discussions and a plenary session, was performed with 13 participants to understand their experience with the CDSS and suggest improvements if pertinent. Workshop transcripts were analysed thematically. Socio-demographic and usage patterns of the CDSS were examined by a questionnaire and analysed descriptively.Results: The participants reported that the contextual basic conditions for using the CDSS were not fulfilled. These included unreliable power supply, none user-friendly partograph, the CDSS was not integrated with workflow and staff lacked motivational incentives. Despite these limitations, the HCWs reported learning benefits from guidance and alerts in the CDSS. Using the CDSS enabled them to discover problems earlier as they learned to focus on symptoms to prevent harmful situations.Conclusion: The CDSS was not tailored to the needs and context of the users. The HCWs, defined their needs and suggested how the CDSS should be re-designed. This suggests that the successful and regular usage of any CDSS in rural settings requires the involvement of users throughout the construction and pilot-testing phases and not only during the early prototype design period.
Applications of information and communications technologies to public health: A scoping review using the MeSH term “public health informatics”
Authors: Bhattarai Arjun Kumar , Zarrin Aein , Lee Joon
Published: September 2017

Objective: To examine public health informatics (PHI) articles that are tagged with MeSH term “public health informatics” and to review the use of this MeSH term in recognizing the current state of PHI. Materials and Methods: MeSh term “public health informatics” was searched on MEDLINE-PubMed. The result of the search was screened in two steps. First, articles were included or excluded based on their titles and abstracts. Second, a full-text review was conducted to ensure the relevance of the included articles. All articles were charted based on public health focus, information technology, article type, and informatics concept. Results: 515 articles met the inclusion criteria. The majority of the articles focused on communicable disease monitoring, public health policy and research, and public health awareness. Syndromic surveillance and communication between clinical and public health units were dominant themes, while electronic registries and websites were the most popular information technologies applied in this field. Data collection, retrieval, and management were the most prevalent informatics concepts, and data security was the least researched concept. Discussion: PHI is a multi-disciplinary field with a wide range of themes, such as disease and injury surveillance, environmental monitoring, and research/policy utilization. MeSh term-tagged articles emphasized the need for further research in interoperability, data quality, appropriate data sources, accessible health information, and communication. Conclusion: Despite the rapid growth in PHI, improvements in interoperability, data quality, appropriate data sources, accessible health information and communication between stakeholders is needed to facilitate adequate implementation of PHI into the healthcare system.
Interactive visualization of public health indicators to support policymaking: An exploratory study
Authors: Zakkar Moutasem , Sedig Kamran
Published: September 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the use of interactive visualizations to represent data/information related to social determinants of health and public health indicators, and to investigate the benefits of such visualizations for health policymaking. Methods: The study developed a prototype for an online interactive visualization tool that represents the social determinants of health. The study participants explored and used the tool. The tool was evaluated using the informal user experience evaluation method. This method involves the prospective users of a tool to use and play with it and their feedback to be collected through interviews. Results: Using visualizations to represent and interact with health indicators has advantages over traditional representation techniques that do not allow users to interact with the information. Communicating healthcare indicators to policymakers is a complex task because of the complexity of the indicators, diversity of audiences, and different audience needs. This complexity can lead to information misinterpretation, which occurs when users of the health data ignore or do not know why, where, and how the data has been produced, or where and how it can be used. Conclusions: Public health policymaking is a complex process, and data is only one element among others needed in this complex process. Researchers and healthcare organizations should conduct a strategic evaluation to assess the usability of interactive visualizations and decision support tools before investing in these tools. Such evaluation should take into consideration the cost, ease of use, learnability, and efficiency of those tools, and the factors that influence policymaking.
Leveraging public health's participation in a Health Information Exchange to improve communicable disease reporting
Authors: Painter Ian , Revere Debra , Gibson P. Joseph , Baseman Janet
Published: September 2017

Background: Infectious diseases can appear and spread rapidly. Timely information about disease patterns and trends allows public health agencies to quickly investigate and efficiently contain those diseases. But disease case reporting to public health has traditionally been paper-based, resulting in somewhat slow, burdensome processes. Fortunately, the expanding use of electronic health records and health information exchanges has created opportunities for more rapid, complete, and easily managed case reporting and investigation. To assess how this new service might impact the efficiency and quality of a public health agency's case investigations, we compared the timeliness of usual case investigation to that of case investigations based on case report forms that were partially pre-populated with electronic data. Intervention: Between September 2013-March 2014, chlamydia disease report forms for certain clinics in Indianapolis were electronically pre-populated with clinical, lab and patient data available through the Indiana Health Information Exchange, then provided to the patient’s doctor. Doctors could then sign the form and deliver it to public health for investigation and population-level disease tracking. Methods: We utilized a novel matched case analysis of timeliness changes in receipt and processing of communicable disease report forms. Each Chlamydia cases reported with the pre-populated form were matched to cases reported in usual ways. We assessed the time from receipt of the case at the public health agency: 1) inclusion of the case into the public health surveillance system and 2) to close to case. A hierarchical random effects model was used to compare mean difference in each outcome between the target cases and the matched cases, with random intercepts for case. Results: Twenty-one Chlamydia cases were reported to the public health agency using the pre-populated form. Sixteen of these pre-populated form cases were matched to at least one other case, with a mean of 23 matches per case. The mean Reporting Lag for the pre-populated form cases was 2.5 days, which was 2.7 days shorter than the mean Reporting Lag for the matched controls (p = <0.001). The mean time to close a pre-populated form case was 4.7 days, which was 0.2 days shorter than time to close for the matched controls (p = 0.792). Conclusions: Use of pre-populated forms significantly decreased the time it took for the local public health agency to begin documenting and closing chlamydia case investigations. Thoughtful use of electronic health data for case reporting may decrease the per-case workload of public health agencies, and improve the timeliness of information about the pattern and spread of disease.
Safe Opioid Prescripting: A SMART on FHIR Approach to Clinical Decision Support
Authors: Sinha Shyamashree , Jensen Mark , Mullin Sarah , Elkin Peter L
Published: September 2017

Prescription opioid pain medication overuse, misuse and abuse has been a significant contributing factor in the opioid epidemic. The rising death rates from opioid overdose has caused healthcare practitioners and researchers to work on optimizing pain therapy and limiting the prescriptions for pain medications. The state of New York has implemented a prescription drug monitoring program(PDMP), amended public health law to limit the prescription of opioids for acute pain and utilized the resources of the state and county health departments to help in curbing this epidemic. The recent publication of guidelines for prescription opioids from CDC [2] and ASIPP (American Society of Interventional pain practitioners) [4] have independently reviewed literature and found good evidence of limiting opioid prescription for acute and chronic non cancer pain.MethodClinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) have been developed over the last decade to help in the work flow of healthcare providers since advanced technology is increasing the complexity of electronic health records systems. There are several systematics reviews on the effectivity and utility of CDSSs. The common consensus seems to be that commercially and locally developed CDSS are effective in improving patient measures while actual workload improvement and efficient cost cutting measure are not significantly improved by CDSS. Patient provider involvement in developing CDSS is a determinant of its success and utilization rates. In this light, a plug and play form of CDSS which is independent of the vendors of Electronic Health Records and can be implemented from an external platform through secure channels would be more effective.The Health Level Seven’s (HL7) open licensed interoperability standard called Fast Health Interoperability Resources (FHIR) has a platform, Substitutable Medical Applications and Reusable Technologies (SMART) for CDSS app development by a third party. (Mandl and Kohane) [13] We adopted these open source standard to develop an app for proper implementation of the recently published guidelines for management of pain with opioid pain medications.The goal for this CDSS tool would be to achieve proper monitoring of prescription drugs, patients’ medication list and potential interactive medications, surveillance for abuse/ misuse, patient involvement in alternative therapy, reporting problems and obtaining adequate pain control.
Re-examine Lou Go Phenomenon in Japan
Authors: Winch Junko
Published: September 2017

This study is to re-examine the language phenomenon which occurred in Japan. Japan had undergone a linguist phenomenon called Lou Go (‘Lou language’) between 2006 and 2007. Lou Go had been analysed its basic grammar rule and the use of vocabulary when it was in trend. However, the analysis was not linguistically studied and its implication was unknown. The objective of this study is to investigate Lou Go from linguistic perspectives and consider its implications. The research method of Lou Go’s characteristics was analysed using a Lou Go text and Katakana (English borrowing words) text both quantitatively and qualitatively. Two key findings were observed. The first was that the use of English borrowing words and relexification of the word class were different, although both Lou Go and Katakana texts seems to share similarities. The relexification of Katakana text used only pronouns or nouns while Lou Go text consisted of relexification of nouns, verbs and adjectives. The second finding was that Lou Go users were usually Japanese native speakers and they did conscious code-switching which means they intentionally chose to replace certain Japanese nouns, verbs and adjectives into English. From these results, it may be possible to conclude that Lou Go was not an extension of existing Katakana and that Lou Go was not an alternative name of foreigners’ Japanese. Implication of Lou Go phenomenon is that its success may be due to a combination of globalisation and Japanese educational policy at the right time and the right place.
Historical and Cultural Prerequisites for the Decline of the Significance of Truth: Cujus Regio, Ejus Religio?
Authors: Deikus Mykolas P.
Published: September 2017

Background: This article deals with the historical and cultural prerequisites for the decline of significance of truth in Western societies. In response to the formulated problem question, the ideas taught in the disciplines of humanities and social sciences are briefly discussed, the existing conditions of the power to form the directive regime of truth in the context are outlined.Objectives: The aim of the paper is to analyze historical and cultural prerequisites for the decline of the meaning of the truth in the public discourse.Method: This article is prepared using the methods of analysis and synthesis of academic literature. The analysis of academic sources and the citation follows the chronology according to the publishing year of the source. The methods of comparison and analogy are also used, the authors’ insights and generalizations are provided.Conclusion: The main conclusion is formulated that culture, as shown by the history, has some self-regulatory mechanisms that occur in different forms as a significant condition, which prevents the establishment of a unidirectional regime of the truth.
FinTech - The digital (R)Evolution in the German Banking Sector?
Authors: Winnefeld Christoph H. , Permantier Anja
Published: September 2017

During the last years, the German banking sector has faced major changes due to significant progress in the technological sector and hence an increased digitalization in many areas. Changing consumer behavior and customer needs force credit institutions to adjust to these developments in order to maintain their competitiveness. An enlarged number of new financial technology (FinTech) corporations started providing financial services comparable to the ones conventional banks offer. In this context, especially the topic of robo-advice is becoming more and more relevant. Robo-advisors can be defined as digital platforms that provide automated, algorithm-driven financial planning services with little to no human supervision. In our article, we investigate robo-advisors as part of the FinTech movement and in particular analyze the eligibility of digital investment advisory service as potential alternative to conventional asset management. We specifically emphasize the influence that FinTech companies and innovations have on the German banking sector.
On Non-English Majors’ Strategy Training in English Reading Comprehension
Authors: Yang Xiaoling
Published: September 2017

This paper reviewed the literature of the previous research and questionnaire survey on reading strategy. Based on theories of psycholinguistics, a five-week experiment was carried out in order to probe into the effectiveness of strategy training. The experiment was designed to answer the following question: Can reading comprehension be improved by strategy training? Two groups of subjects from non-English majors participated in the experiment and questionnaire survey. Experimental group received training on reading strategies while control group didn’t. By comparing the results of the pretest and posttest of the two groups, the effectiveness of strategy training was examined. The results of data analysis indicated that both efficient and non-efficient readers use strategies to facilitate their reading and there was no significant difference between them with regard to strategy use in general, but some strategies were especially favored by the efficient readers and that reading competence could be improved by strategy training.
Reshaping Risk Disclosure through Integrated Reporting: Evidence from Italian Early Adopters
Authors: Manes-Rossi Francesca , Nicolo Giuseppe , Orelli Rebecca Levy
Published: September 2017

The purpose of this paper is to explore Integrated Reporting (IR) and risk disclosure (RD) and demonstrating the interconnection between business strategies and risk. Through a content analysis, the paper explores the management commentary and Integrated reporting of Italian companies at the end of 2015.The study reveals that many of the companies have embedded financial reporting into IR. We find extensive information about risks and opportunities, in relation to the management of the six capitals. The paper represents an investigation into risk disclosure in IR. It adds knowledge to the opportunity offered by IR in meeting stakeholder’s information needs, compared to traditional tools of corporate reporting.The results could be of interest both for legislator and standards setters, to bring them up to date with enhanced disclosure of risk and opportunities which IR offers with respect to the more traditional forms of disclosure.This is the first country-based study investigating risk disclosure provided through IR looking at three different dimensions: the metrics of RD (monetary or non-monetary); the outlook orientation (past, present or future) and the type of risk news (good or bad news). The results are relevant to detect how companies act and what can be done to improve risk disclosure.
Using Human Resource Management Practices to Predict Quality Service Delivery: Case of Public Secondary Schools in Kenya
Authors: Mutiso Christine , Kilika James M.
Published: September 2017

With rapid changes in the business environment, organizations are increasingly looking at their human resources as a unique asset that can provide sustained competitive advantage. Human resources are considered by many to be the most important assets of an organization for sustaining competitiveness through their products and services. It has been observed that very few employers are able to harness the full potential from their human resources. In view of this, this study examined the relationship between Human Resource Management Practices and Quality Service Delivery in the education sector in Kenya. The research was done as a case study of government sponsored secondary schools based in in Taita-Taveta County. The conceptualization in the study was guided by the various strategic human resource theories, models and the servqual model. The results show that the regression model used is significant (F=23.499; p<0.001) and that the HRM practices as measured using the five practices explain approximately 45% of the variation in service quality delivery in the education sector in Taita-Taveta county in Kenya (R2=0.448). The results show that hypotheses one, four and five of the study are supported (β=.405, p<.000;β=.321, p<.000; β= .181, p<.001 respectively) while hypotheses two and three are not (β=-.113, p=.170; β= -.508, p=.612 respectively).  The study concluded that HRM practices in the Education sector in Kenya is still undertaken with an inclination towards the traditional personnel management perspective. The study called on future research to investigate the same phenomenon using an expanded list of HRM Practices indicators and pay attention to senior executives’ perspective on the strategic role of human resources in the sector.
The Impact of Economic Value Added & Return on Investment on the Changes in Stock Market’s Value (Analytical Study: ASE: 2006-2015)
Authors: Al-Afeef Mohammad Abdel Mohsen
Published: September 2017

This study aims to determine the effect of EVA and ROI and which is better able to explain the change in Stock market’s value in the companies listed in (ASE) (2006-2015), the researcher addresses a random sample consisting of (46) Company, and uses regression model, which connects the dependent and independent variables.The results of the study shows that the return on investment (ROI) is better than (EVA) to interpret the changes in Stock market’s value, where the coefficient of determination (R2) for the ROI is (22.5%), while the R2 for EVA Only 1.3%.This study also recommends the need to look for additional factors that would explain the changes in stock market's value such as: the degree of leverage, systemic risks, and macroeconomic indicators such as: (interest rates and inflation).