Kym Fraser | University of South Australia (original) (raw)

Books by Kym Fraser

Springer Nature, 2023

A one-stop shop for information on the topic of labour market implications of ageing population i... more A one-stop shop for information on the topic of labour market implications of ageing population in China

Labour market focus to provide specialised information

Multi-discipline lens to provide different perspectives of a topic of shared interest

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), 2020

Advances in telemedicine technologies have offered clinicians greater levels of real-time guidanc... more Advances in telemedicine technologies have offered clinicians greater levels of real-time guidance and technical assistance for diagnoses, monitoring, operations or interventions from colleagues based in remote locations. The topic includes the use of videoconferencing, mentorship during surgical procedures, or machine-to-machine communication to process data from one location by programmes running in another. This edited book presents a variety of technologies with applications in telemedicine, originating from the fields of biomedical sensors, wireless sensor networking, computer-aided diagnosis methods, signal and image processing and analysis, automation and control, virtual and augmented reality, multivariate analysis, and data acquisition devices. The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), surgical robots, telemonitoring, and teleoperation systems are also explored, as well as the associated security and privacy concerns in this field. Topics covered include critical factors in the development, implementation and evaluation of telemedicine; surgical tele-mentoring; technologies in medical information processing; recent advances of signal/image processing techniques in healthcare; a real-time ECG processing platform for telemedicine applications; data mining in telemedicine; social work and tele-mental health services for rural and remote communities; applying telemedicine to social work practice and education; advanced telemedicine systems for remote healthcare monitoring; the impact of tone-mapping operators and viewing devices on visual quality of experience of colour and grey-scale HDR images; modelling the relationships between changes in EEG features and subjective quality of HDR images; IoMT and healthcare delivery in chronic diseases; and transform domain robust watermarking method using Riesz wavelet transform for medical data security and privacy. Demographic shifts in populations trigger opportunities for innovations in e-Health, m-Health, precision and personalized medicine, robotics, sensing, the Internet of Things, cloud computing, Big Data, Software Defined Networks, and network function virtualization. The integration of these technologies is however associated with many technological, ethical, legal, and social issues. This book series aims to disseminate recent advances in the e-Health Technology field to help improve healthcare and wellbeing.

Papers by Kym Fraser

Ciencia Latina Revista Científica Multidisciplinar, 2023

Con los cambios recientes en el sector energético a nivel mundial, la industria petrolera enfrent... more Con los cambios recientes en el sector energético a nivel mundial, la industria petrolera enfrenta retos importantes en la extracción de hidrocarburos, por lo que se ha priorizado la implementación de operaciones que permitan esta actividad de forma eficiente y optimizada. En este trabajo se analizará la aplicación de una de las herramientas del Lean Manufacturing, el VSM (Value Stream Mapping) con la finalidad de identificar posibles mejoras y disminución de tiempos no productivos en los procesos de perforación de pozos petroleros, de acuerdo a las experiencias previas en campos desarrollados en México. Se pretende demostrar que herramientas de análisis de eficiencia para la manufactura pueden adaptarse a industrias pesadas como la petrolera y en particular del área de perforación.

Problems and Perspectives in Management, 2023

Plos One, 2022

This paper presents a solution for creating individualized medicine intake schedules for Parkinso... more This paper presents a solution for creating individualized medicine intake schedules for Parkinson's disease patients. Dosing medicine in Parkinson's disease is a difficult and a timeconsuming task and wrongly assigned therapy affects patient's quality of life making the disease more uncomfortable. The method presented in this paper may decrease errors in therapy and time required to establish a suitable medicine intake schedule by using objective measures to predict patient's response to medication. Firstly, it demonstrates the use of machine learning models to predict the patient's medicine response based on their state evaluation acquired during examination with biomedical sensors. Two architectures, a multilayer perceptron and a deep neural network with LSTM cells are proposed to evaluate the patient's future state based on their past condition and medication history, with the best patient-specific models achieving R 2 value exceeding 0.96. These models serve as a foundation for conventional optimization, specifically genetic algorithm and differential evolution. These methods are applied to find optimal medicine intake schedules for patient's daily routine, resulting in a 7% reduction in the objective function value compared to existing approaches. To achieve this goal and be able to adapt the schedule during the day, reinforcement learning is also utilized. An agent is trained to suggest medicine doses that maintain the patient in an optimal state. The conducted experiments demonstrate that machine learning models can effectively model a patient's response to medication and both optimization approaches prove capable of finding optimal medicine schedules for patients. With further training on larger datasets from real patients the method has the potential to significantly improve the treatment of Parkinson's disease.

2nd International Conference on Civil Infrastructure and Construction, 2022

Hospitals operation is becoming a major focusing points on China as there is a huge market becaus... more Hospitals operation is becoming a major focusing points on China as there is a huge market because of aging population. The management of healthcare institute is crucial as it contains operational activities that can be harmful to public health such as medical waste as well as medical equipment that has to be maintained timely. In particular with the pandemic COVID-19 situation, the maintenance of the medical equipment is the foundation to ensure the healthcare service can operate functionally. Hence, this research is focusing on how medical facilities are being managed in Chinese healthcare institute as well as to understand whether and how BIM can impact healthcare facility management. A mixed methodology was used to interview facility managers in the province of East China region during COVID-19 period. The result of this research shows that by adopting BIM, the quality and efficiencies of facility management for key hazard assets in hospitals can be improved in principle because of the large amount of asset data and hospitals' information.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN SOCIAL SCIENCE, 2022

Purpose-The study aims to assess the maintenance practices in the Bekwai Municipal Hospital. The ... more Purpose-The study aims to assess the maintenance practices in the Bekwai Municipal Hospital. The study specifically assessed the availability of a maintenance policy, the maintenance strategy used, and the current state of buildings in the hospital. Design/methodology/approach-The study adopted a descriptive research design. A sample size of 108 respondents was selected using simple random and purposive sampling techniques. Questionnaires and observation checklists were used to collect data for the study. Findings-The Bekwai Government Hospital has a maintenance policy and uses a corrective maintenance strategy. Maintenance works are performed only upon request, which are acted upon approximately within one month. Users (staff) of hospital facilities generally made maintenance requests verbally. Generally, the buildings in the hospital were in a good state of repair. Practical Implications-The paper underscores the importance of efficient maintenance practices in Ghanaian healthcare institutions, as they significantly influence building conditions and effective healthcare delivery. Originality/ Value-The study specifically focused on maintenance practices that could enhance the effective management and use of hospital facilities (buildings and other services).

WGAB, 2022

Disruptions in in-plant production systems, such as variant-rich series production, can lead to s... more Disruptions in in-plant production systems, such as variant-rich series production, can lead to serious production downtimes. The longer the production stoppage lasts, the greater the damage to companies and supply chains. The capabilities to ensure emergency operation until full performance is restored after disruptions as well as the fast restart of production systems represent a crucial competitive factor for companies and also increase production agility. Therefore, it is of central importance to reduce the time between the occurrence of a disruption and the return to the initial level in order to minimize downtime costs. In the context of this paper the state of research on disturbance management and assistance systems for disturbance management ist stated and a research approach for investigating the potentials of assistance systems will be presented.

Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC31), 2022

The breakdown of facilities in a built environment results in inconvenience to the stakeholders d... more The breakdown of facilities in a built environment results in inconvenience to the stakeholders due to the downtime (DT) experience. The facility DT can be brought down through proper facility maintenance management (FMM). Within FMM, different processes occur to make the facility work normally. These activities of FMM are sometimes planned and often executed when a facility undergoes breakdown. This study targets to understand the implementation ability of lean methods in situations when a service of a built environment has failed and the FMM system tries to bring it back to normal functioning. An educational institute's FMM process to address DT is mapped using value stream mapping (VSM), and delays associated with the current process are captured. This mapping helped in identifying delay causes like material unavailability and administrative delay. The research utilizes the 5S (Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, Shitsuke) and Just In Time (JIT) methods of lean to improve the FMM process, and implementation of these methods resulted in achieving resolution time closer to the time expected by the stakeholders utilizing the facility.

Proceedings of the Operational Research Society Simulation Workshop, 2022

The importance of inventory management has been widely acknowledged both in practice and in acade... more The importance of inventory management has been widely acknowledged both in practice and in academic research, with perishable products constituting an additional complexity in the field. Discrete Event Simulation (DES) is amongst the most frequently used Operations Research methods that allow the incorporation of stochasticity (reflective of the real-world environment) in modelling the system of interest. Beyond providing a general overview of the publications, the review provides a more detailed analysis of model characteristics (e.g., model objectives and outputs, issuing policy), focusing on supply and demand uncertainty, and identifies possible opportunities for further research. As the first review paper in this area, our work will serve as a key reference on the state-of-the-art in DES for inventory control and its application in the management of supply chains in healthcare, retail and domains that handle perishable inventory. Amongst the important findings is that lifetime is generally assumed to be known a priori, neglecting the product lifetime uncertainty.

Acta Montanistica Slovaca, 2022

The unknown subsurface conditions in tunnelling projects have led to their management with many u... more The unknown subsurface conditions in tunnelling projects have led to their management with many uncertainties. From these uncertainties, we can mention the geological condition of the tunnel route and the time and costs required for construction. In order to significantly reduce these uncertainties, techniques that have a high predictive power must be used. For this purpose, in this study, an autoregressive model was used to reduce the uncertainties related to geology and construction time and cost in tunnelling projects. A comparison between the predicted results and the actual values through several statistical indices showed the high-performance prediction of the autoregressive model in the prediction of tunnel resources. Also, three input parameters affecting tunnel construction time and costs, such as RQD, groundwater, and RMR, were considered. The sensitivity analysis of these parameters on the time and cost of tunnelling projects was investigated through mutual information test (MIT). The groundwater was the most effective parameter on the tunnel's time and cost.

Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Research, 2022

Scarcity of skilled labour to man effectively and maintain buildings to the satisfaction of clien... more Scarcity of skilled labour to man effectively and maintain buildings to the satisfaction of clients and the end users is posing a lot of concerns to all the relevant professionals in the built environment. If training of artisans will improve the knowledge and the skills of the building site operatives and make maintainability of our built environment efficient and effective,then. let's it be. As the programme will generate revenue for the host Institution, it will also improve the skills and knowledge of the artisans in the building industry , contribute to the growth of the building industry, and boost the capacity of the host institution reputations. The researcher used mixed methods. The first phase was by conducting semi-structured interviews, followed by a survey to validate the results of the interviews. It is recommended that, large and complex projects be executed via outsourcing, while small and simple maintenance projects be handled by in-house technical staff,each works and services department to adopt and adapt planned preventive maintenance method,and create a quality control unit to improve the quality of the assets.

Encyclopedia of Sustainable Management, 2023

A circular economy is a production system designed to minimize the use of resources in production... more A circular economy is a production system designed to minimize the use of resources in production and to reduce unwanted negative externalities from manufacturing processes including waste, emissions, and energy leakages. Such an approach is differentiated from linear production approaches that are built on the premise of "takemake-consume and dispose" (Camilleri, 2019; EU, 2014) that presume that resources are abundant, available, and easily disposed of. A circular economy can be achieved by remanufacturing, refurbishing, reusing, and recycling resources and repairing goods and resources that were consumed in production or use, so safeguarding the natural environment. It is essentially a long-lasting closed loop product service system (EMF, 2013). It is a system that balances economic development with environmental and resource protection. It leads to higher operational efficiencies through both responsible production and consumption behaviors (UNEP, 2006).

Springer Nature, 2023

China is posited to become the country with the largest older population in the world with rising... more China is posited to become the country with the largest older population in the world with rising longevity and declining fertility. Its myriad retirement schemes and retirement age rules date back to the 1950s and are not suited to the fast-rising ageing population. Its myriad retirement schemes and retirement age rule traced back in the 1950s are struggling to cope with the fast-rising ageing population. There is limited understanding on what motivates people to work at an older age in China. This study examines how access to different types of pensions, human capital and economic factors influence the propensity of people aged 50 and above to work in China. Data sourced from the 2013 and 2015 waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitude Survey (CHARLS) are utilised for the analysis. We find a distinct gender difference in terms of working decisions at an older age: not only are men more likely to work than women, but financial pressure and marriage are correlated with a man's propensity to work. However, these factors have very little impact on women. Contrary to findings reported in previous literature, care responsibilities for parents does not have a statistically significant impact on an individual's working decision. In addition, the impact of caring responsibilities for grandchildren, while statistically significant, does not differ between men and women in China.

Springer Nature, 2023

This chapter reflects on the major trends related to China's labour market since the turn of the ... more This chapter reflects on the major trends related to China's labour market since the turn of the twenty-first century and introduces the chapters included in this book. In the last two decades, population ageing has been accelerating and China is posited to experience a population decline in 2023. Indeed, the downward trend in labour supply started much earlier. The share of the working aged population started to fall in 2010 and the number of employed people peaked in 2013. Adding to the decrease in labour supply is the fall of the share of private sector employment. Meanwhile, huge pay gaps exist among different segments of the labour market: gender, region and firm's ownership typelargely caused by discrimination and institutional factors. This book aims to understand what the ageing population means to the labour market in China through examining empirical evidence related to labour supply, fertility, female-friendly organisational practices, and working at an older age. This chapter summarises the main insights from each chapter and suggests future reforms to turn challenges brought by population ageing into opportunities for prosperity in China.

Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, 2022

Exporting is the most common mode of entry when firms want to expand their operations via interna... more Exporting is the most common mode of entry when firms want to expand their operations via internationalisation. In this study, a comparison of the exporting performance between firms in a developed country, New Zealand, and an emerging country, Indonesia, is undertaken. The study aims to better understand the relationship between firm performance and exporting decisions, and whether performance is a result of the firms' strategic choice or environmental pressure. Exporting firms from both New Zealand and Indonesia were targeted with a selfadministered survey, and the companies involved ranged from low to high internationalised industries. Eighty-seven useable questionnaires were received from company owners and export managers, with 52 coming from New Zealand exporters and 35 from Indonesia. Regression analysis was conducted with the focus on two iterations, with the first being a test of the overall model, and the second iteration comparing the model to New Zealand and Indonesia data separately. With respect to the overall model, the study found that strategic choice is the significant factor when being compared to environmental pressure. When comparing differences between Indonesian and New Zealand exporters, the study found that the export performance of Indonesian firms was significantly linked between strategic choice and the age of the firm. The study indicates that as Indonesian firms mature, they improve the flexibility of their management systems to allow better strategic responses to international business opportunities. For New Zealand companies, the situation changes somewhat, with environmental uncertainty and the length of time to internationalise, being negatively associated with export performance. The less uncertainty of the environment and the less experience of the firm in the international market, the higher the export performance of New Zealand firms. With respect to different industries, firms that operate in highly internationalised industries can be pulled by the size and strength of industry networks, such as support from the association representing the industry.

SSRN, 2021

Given the lack of consensus among experimental studies on the effects of R&D and renewable energy... more Given the lack of consensus among experimental studies on the effects of R&D and renewable energy on CO2 emissions, this study attempted to bridge the divide. Additionally, the study contributes by examining the role of pandemics in CO2 emissions through the use of a new pandemics index. Panel data models are estimated to examine the effects of determinants of CO2 emission using annual data from 2003 to 2017 in sample of 54 countries. Our findings indicate that increased trade openness, urbanization, and GDP per capita contribute significantly to the spread of CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the negative coefficient of squared GDP per capita emphasized the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis. Additionally, the inclusion of spillover effects from R&D resulted in a statistically significant increase in its coefficient. Moreover, despite the increasing impact of R&D on CO2 emission reductions, its indirect effects resulted in increased energy use efficiency and a reduction in the damaging environmental effects of production expansion. While renewable energy production reduces CO2 emissions, these reductions can be mitigated or improved, and in some cases, even be positive, depending on the state of R&D in the countries studied. Furthermore, our findings indicate that epidemics had a negligible effect on CO2 emissions.

International Journal of Sustainable Energy Planning and Management, 2021

Indonesia, like many countries, has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To ... more Indonesia, like many countries, has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To do this, the country needs to move from its current high reliance on non-renewable energy sources to renewable sources of energy. The issue is significant for Indonesia as the country is the 4th largest contributor to global CO 2 emissions. The country has abundant sources for energy and one of these sources is the potential for solar energy. Therefore, the country has set ambitious renewable energy targets based on the potential supply of solar energy. With domestic residential consuming up to 43% of total electricity consumption, the Government has targeted homeowners to install solar rooftop and become residential solar PV prosumers. However, a recent energy evaluation report indicates that the country's progress is very slow and it is highly likely that renewable energy goals will not be achieved. This study conducted an online survey of a small sample of regular electricity subscribers and residents who have installed solar rooftop in the hope of gaining a better understanding of various issues and factors which could be impeding the growth of residential solar. Some of areas the study explored included the level of knowledge and awareness of solar energy, initiatives for homeowners, policy on net-metering and feed-in tariff, and areas of concern related to economic, environmental, and technological factors. While many countries are struggling to shift to greener energy generation and consumption, in Indonesia's case, the country has its own unique set of challenges being the energy generation and distribution is centralised, state-owned, with an inflexible energy pricing system. Hence, energy management in Indonesia could benefit from becoming more market focused and transparent, while increasing technology adoption with hybrid community partnerships, including a mix of private and government ownership. A discussion on policy implications and suggestions for improvements can be found at the end of this paper.

Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues, 2021

The following reflections on practice were written to highlight the growing issue of the research... more The following reflections on practice were written to highlight the growing issue of the research-practice gap in academia and to stimulate debate. With respect to applied research, it would seem the social sciences, including business schools, perform poorly in producing research which is relevant and useful to practitioners, policy makers and society in general. Research is expensive and time consuming, and in many countries, taxpayers are the major funders of university research. With such outlay and investment, it is not unreasonable to expect research undertaken in our universities, especially applied research in the social sciences, to have impact on society and improve the world we live in. It should be noted that some journal publishers, especially in the business and management field, are focusing greater editorial attention in an effort to highlight the growing gap between academia and practice. Therefore, it is hoped this short reflection will help generate further debate and continue the efforts to highlight this important issue.

Springer Nature, 2023

Labour market focus to provide specialised information

Multi-discipline lens to provide different perspectives of a topic of shared interest

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), 2020

Ciencia Latina Revista Científica Multidisciplinar, 2023

Problems and Perspectives in Management, 2023

Plos One, 2022

2nd International Conference on Civil Infrastructure and Construction, 2022

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN SOCIAL SCIENCE, 2022

WGAB, 2022

Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC31), 2022

Proceedings of the Operational Research Society Simulation Workshop, 2022

Acta Montanistica Slovaca, 2022

Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Research, 2022

Encyclopedia of Sustainable Management, 2023

Springer Nature, 2023

Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, 2022

SSRN, 2021

International Journal of Sustainable Energy Planning and Management, 2021

Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues, 2021

Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, 2021

This study examines the possible impact of Generic Competitive Strategies, Cost Leadership, Diffe... more This study examines the possible impact of Generic Competitive Strategies, Cost Leadership, Differentiation , and Focus, on the financial and non-financial Performance of Internet-based entrepreneurial ventures in the MENA region. Descriptive analytical methodology and exploratory research design, consisting of qualitative then quantitative approaches, were utilized. After qualitative semi-structured interviews, a five-point Likert scale questionnaire was sent to Internet-based entrepreneurial ventures. SPSS was used to describe and analyse the data of 201 filtered and screened questionnaires. The results indicate that all of the examined generic competitive strategies have positive direct impacts on the performance of Internet-based entrepreneurial ventures. Differentiation strategies have the highest impact on the performance of Internet entrepreneurial ventures in MENA region, followed by Cost Leadership, then Focus strategies. This paper concludes with a discussion of the managerial implications of these findings, future research recommendations , and limitations of the study.

Publications, 2020

Criticism about the practical usefulness of academic accounting research produced in university b... more Criticism about the practical usefulness of academic accounting research produced in university business schools has been growing for some time. Due to accounting being an applied social science, many stakeholders question the relevance and value of research published in accounting journals to the accounting profession, practitioners and society in general. This paper highlights the various areas of criticism and discusses factors which underline the issue. While most of the criticism is anecdotal, this study sets about to empirically explore practitioners' perception of academia, and research published in academic accounting journals. To better understand the situation in accounting, a comparison of two other applied academic disciplines is undertaken, involving medical and engineering practitioners. The study found that for accounting there were major differences in the sourcing of information, and significant differences between the other two applied fields with respect to the utilisation and the need for academic material. The findings lead to the conclusion that academic accounting researchers are now nearly totally divorced from the real-world profession of accounting. If we were to take a singular view on the purpose of academic accounting research, then the current situation could leave accounting researchers very vulnerable to adverse decisions with respect to the allocation of future government funding. The conclusions of this paper propose a series of thought-provoking questions about the current state of accounting research, in the hope that it will stimulate debate and generate responses from the accounting community and other stakeholders.