Online discrete-time LQR controller design with integral action for bulk Bucket Wheel Reclaimer operational processes via Action-Dependent Heuristic Dynamic Programming.

In this paper, a novel approach for online design of optimal control systems applied to the bulk resumption process by bucket wheel reclaimer (BWR) is presented. This approach is based on reinforcement learning paradigms, more specifically Action Dependent Heuristic Dynamic Programming (ADHDP), that learn online in real-time the Discrete Linear Quadratic Regulator (DLQR) optimal control solution with integral action. Due to the geometric irregularities of the storage yard stacks and variation in physical and chemical characteristics of the stacked material, the flow control of solid bulks by bucket wheel reclaimer requires methods that are suitable with the high degree of imprecision of process variables and environment uncertainties.

Bullying in the Australian medical workforce: cross-sectional data from an Australian e-Cohort study.

Objective: This study aimed to describe the prevalence of perceived workplace bullying in the Australian medical workforce, and investigate the relationship between workplace bullying and job satisfaction, health status, and current and planned medical workforce participation.

Methods: An electronic cross-sectional survey of doctors currently in the paid workforce, conducted between April 2008 and October 2009, was nested within a longitudinal cohort study investigating factors affecting the recruitment and retention of the Australian medical workforce. To address the specific aims of this study, a subset of questions in the survey investigated the prevalence of self-reported bullying; physical and mental health; workforce participation patterns; job satisfaction; and job stressors.

Rewards, costs and challenges: the general practitioner's experience of teaching medical students.

Context: Medical student attachments in general practices play an important role in undergraduate medical education internationally. The recruitment by universities of new teaching practices or an increase in the teaching commitment of existing practices will be necessary to address rising medical student numbers. General practitioners (GPs) are likely to weigh the perceived rewards of practice-based teaching against the perceived costs and challenges in deciding whether to accept a student placement and how to teach.

Is simulation training effective in increasing podiatrists' confidence in foot ulcer management?

Background: Foot ulcers are a frequent reason for diabetes-related hospitalisation. Clinical training is known to have a beneficial impact on foot ulcer outcomes. Clinical training using simulation techniques has rarely been used in the management of diabetes-related foot complications or chronic wounds.

Using a structured clinical coaching program to improve clinical skills training and assessment, as well as teachers' and students' satisfaction.

Introduction: The ability to deliver the traditional apprenticeship method of teaching clinical skills is becoming increasingly more difficult as a result of greater demands in health care delivery, increasing student numbers and changing medical curricula. Serious consequences globally include: students not covering all elements of clinical skills curricula; insufficient opportunity to practise clinical skills; and increasing reports of graduates' incompetence in some clinical skills.

Methods: A systematic Structured Clinical Coaching Program (SCCP) for a large cohort of Year 1 students was developed, providing explicit learning objectives for both students and paid generalist clinical tutors.

Clinical location and student learning: outcomes from the LCAP program in Queensland, Australia.

Background: Three students in the 3rd year of a graduate entry medical program self-selected to participate in a 1-year clinical placement, each with a rural general practitioner in central western Queensland, Australia.

Description: Students completed 32 weeks in a rural generalist community immersion medical program and were compared with matched students who completed their year in urban tertiary hospitals. Evaluations included teaching and learning opportunities, assessment of clinical competencies, and semistructured interviews.

IVIMEDS: a short report on an evaluation of the cardiovascular system learning module.

Background: On-line learning technology can be used to present curricular material in a variety of formats to stimulate and support student learning in both content and potentially skills-based areas in medicine. In 2005, second-year medical students at the University of Queensland evaluated the IVIMEDS' cardiovascular module, and were given access to all learning objects in the module.

Aim: The study aimed to determine the value to students of the IVIMEDS' Cardio-vascular System (CVS) module compared with existing CVS learning resources.

Tutoring in problem-based learning medical curricula: the influence of tutor background and style on effectiveness.

Background: Evidence for the superiority of particular characteristics in PBL tutors in medical curricula is generally inconclusive. Most studies have investigated the effectiveness of content experts compared with that of non-experts as measured either by student satisfaction or academic achievement. A few have compared academic staff tutors with student tutors.

Teaching and learning population and preventive health: challenges for modern medical curricula.

Objectives: This study aimed to formally identify medical students' attitudes towards population and preventive health issues addressed in the University of Queensland's Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) programme, in response to informal student reports that population and preventive health issues were largely just matters of "common sense".

Methods: Year 2 medical students were surveyed in 1999 and 2000 using a custom-designed instrument incorporating Likert scales and requests for qualitative responses. A sample of students participated in semistructured interviews.