University of Southern Queensland

About: University of Southern Queensland is a education organization based out in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Higher education. The organization has 3037 authors who have published 11241 publications receiving 234781 citations. The organization is also known as: USQ.

SONS: The JCMT legacy survey of debris discs in the submillimetre

Abstract: During the period of these observations the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope was operated by the Joint Astronomy Centre on behalf of the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom, the National Research Council of Canada and the Netherlands Organisation for Pure Research. Additional funds for the construction of SCUBA-2 were provided by the Canada Foundation for Innovation. MCW acknowledges the support of the European Union through ERC grant number 279973. GMK is supported by the Royal Society as a Royal Society University Research Fellow. MB acknowledges support from a FONDECYT Postdoctoral Fellowship, project no. 3140479 and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through project Kr 2164/15-1. JPM is supported by a UNSW Vice Chancellor’s postdoctoral research fellowship. The work of OP is supported by the Royal Society through a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin fellowship. GJW gratefully acknowledges support from the Leverhulme Trust.

Psychosocial interventions for managing occupational stress and burnout among medical doctors: a systematic review

Abstract: Occupational stress and burnout are highly prevalent among medical doctors and can have adverse effects on patient, doctor, and organisational outcomes. The purpose of the current study was to review and evaluate evidence on psychosocial interventions aimed at reducing occupational stress and burnout among medical doctors. A systematic review was conducted for original research articles reporting on psychosocial interventions targeting occupational stress or burnout among medical doctors, published in the English language, and with data collected at a minimum of two time points. Searches were conducted across five electronic databases, as well as by manual search of Google Scholar. Data was extracted relating to study characteristics and outcomes, quality and rigour, as well as modes of delivery and engagement. Studies were appraised using the Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy (SORT) and Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP). Twenty-three articles were reviewed, which reported on interventions utilising cognitive-behavioural, relaxation, and supportive discussion strategies. Only 12 studies allowed estimation of pre- to post-intervention effects. Cognitive behavioural interventions demonstrated the strongest evidence, particularly for reducing stress. Some evidence was identified to support the efficacy of relaxation-based approaches, but no such evidence was found for the efficacy of discussion-based interventions, such as Balint groups. There was a lack of quality among reviewed studies, with no studies receiving a quality rating of 1, and the overall body of evidence being rated as level B, according to the SORT. Effect sizes were not pooled due to a lack of quality among the study sample. This review found that despite increased scientific attention, the quality of research examining the benefits of psychosocial/behavioural interventions for occupational stress and burnout in medical doctors remains low. Despite this, interventions focused on cognitive and behavioural principles appear to show promise in reducing doctor stress and burnout. Limitations of the current review include a lack of risk of bias assessment or pooling of analyses. Recommendations for improving the quality of research in this area, as well as implications of the current body of evidence are discussed. PROSPERO CRD42016032595

Mobile Health in the Developing World: Review of Literature and Lessons From a Case Study

Abstract: The mHealth trend, which uses mobile devices and associated technology for health interventions, offers unprecedented opportunity to transform the health services available to people across the globe In particular, the mHealth transformation can be most disruptive in the developing countries, which is often characterized by a dysfunctional public health system Despite this opportunity, the growth of mHealth in developing countries is rather slow and no existing studies have conducted an in-depth search to identify the reasons We present a comprehensive report about the factors hindering the growth of mHealth in developing countries Most importantly, we outline future strategies for making mHealth even more effective We are also the first to conduct a case study on the public health system of Pakistan showing that mHealth can offer tremendous opportunities for a developing country with a severe scarcity of health infrastructure and resources The findings of this paper will guide the development of policies and strategies for the sustainable adoption of mHealth not only in Pakistan but also for any developing country in general

Decoupling control of a twin rotor mimo system using robust deadbeat control technique

Abstract: The decoupling control of a twin rotor multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) system is studied and proposed to apply robust deadbeat control technique to this nonlinear system. First, the nonlinear problem is identified and system model is developed. Then, it is shown that the system is able to be decoupled into two single-input-single-output (SISO) systems, and the cross couplings can be considered as disturbances to each other. Finally, a robust deadbeat control scheme is applied to the two SISO systems and a controller is designed for each of them. This design is evaluated in simulations, and the final result is tested in a twin rotor MIMO system. Comparing with a traditional system with two proportional, integral and derivative (PID) controllers, this method is easy to follow, and the results show that the proposed scheme has less overshoot, shorter settling time and is more robust to cross-coupling disturbances.