Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Hydroclimate Of The Last Glacial Maximum And Deglaciation In Southern Australia's Arid Margin Interpreted From Speleothem Records (23-15 Ka), Pauline Treble, Andrew Baker, Linda K. Ayliffe, Tim J. Cohen, John C. Hellstrom, Michael K. Gagan, Silvia Frisia, Russell N. Drysdale, Alan Griffiths, Andrea Borsato

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Terrestrial data spanning the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and deglaciation from the southern Australian region are sparse, and limited to discontinuous sedimentological and geomorphological records with relatively large chronological uncertainties. This dearth of records has prevented a critical assessment of the role of the Southern Hemisphere mid-latitude westerly winds on the region's climate during this time period. In this study, two precisely-dated speleothem records for Mairs Cave, Flinders Ranges, are presented, providing a detailed terrestrial hydroclimatic record for the southern Australian drylands during 23-15 ka for the first time. Enhanced recharge to Mairs Cave is interpreted from the speleothem record …

A Review Of Recruitment, Adherence And Drop-Out Rates In Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Supplementation Trials In Children And Adolescents, Inge S. M Van Der Wurff, Barbara J. Meyer, Renate H. M De Groot

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Introduction: The influence of n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LCPUFA) supplementation on health outcomes has been studied extensively with randomized controlled trials (RCT). In many research fields, difficulties with recruitment, adherence and high drop-out rates have been reported. However, what is unknown is how common these problems are in n-3 LCPUFA supplementation studies in children and adolescents. Therefore, this paper will review n-3 LCPUFA supplementation studies in children and adolescents with regard to recruitment, adherence and drop-out rates. Methods: The Web of Science, PubMed and Ovid databases were searched for papers reporting on RCT supplementing children and adolescents (2¿18 …

'Involve Me And I Learn': Development Of An Assessment Program For Research And Critical Analysis, Judy Mullan, Kylie J. Mansfield, Kathryn M. Weston, Warren C. Rich, Pippa Burns, Christine A. Brown, Peter L. Mclennan

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Evidence-based medical practice is best achieved by developing research understanding in medical practitioners. To this end, medical councils worldwide increasingly recognise the importance of medical schools graduating students with well-developed research skills and research capacity. To meet this need, the principles of programmatic assessment were implemented in designing a research and critical analysis curriculum and assessment program that aimed to enhance the research and critical analysis skills of medical students. The program was developed by mapping assessment tasks to a research capabilities framework that was in turn scaffolded to different levels of Miler's pyramid. The curriculum and assessments were integrated …

Structural And Biophysical Analyses Of The Skeletal Dihydropyridine Receptor Β Subunit Β1a Reveal Critical Roles Of Domain Interactions For Stability, Nicole C. Norris, Soumya Joseph, Shouvik Aditya, Yamuna Karunasekara, Philip G. Board, Angela Dulhunty, Aaron J. Oakley, Marco G. Casarotto

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Excitation-contraction (EC) coupling in skeletal muscle requires a physical interaction between the voltage-gated calcium channel dihydropyridine receptor (DHPR) and the ryanodine receptor Ca²⁺ release channel. Although the exact molecular mechanism that initiates skeletal EC coupling is unresolved, it is clear that both the α₁ and β subunits of DHPR are essential for this process. Here, we employed a series of techniques, including size-exclusion chromatography-multi-angle light scattering, differential scanning fluorimetry, and isothermal calorimetry, to characterize various biophysical properties of the skeletal DHPR β subunit β_1a. Removal of the intrinsically disordered N and C termini and the hook …

The Health And Health Preparation Of Long-Term Australian Travellers, Elizabeth J. Halcomb, Moira Stephens, Elizabeth A. Smyth, Shahla Meedya, Sarah Tillott

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

A growing number of Australians are travelling domestically for extended periods. This creates challenges in both continuity of health care and burdens on health services. This paper reports a cross-sectional survey aimed to explore the health needs and health planning of long-term travellers. In total, 316 respondents who had travelled for more than 3 months consecutively in the last year participated. Most respondents were retired (n=197; 62.3%); however, ages ranged from 26 to 89 years. Nearly half of the respondents or their travel companion had a long-term illness that affected their daily life (n=135; 42.7%). Nearly half of respondents visited …

Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Most And Least Satisfying Aspects Of Work, Elizabeth J. Halcomb, Christine Ashley

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Aims and objectives: To identify the aspects of working in Australian primary health care that nurses rate as the most and least satisfying.

Background: The nursing workforce in Australian primary health care has grown exponentially to meet the growing demand for health care. To maintain and further growth requires the recruitment and retention of nurses to this setting. Understanding the factors that nurses' rate as the most and least satisfying about their job will inform strategies to enhance nurse retention.

Design: A cross-sectional online survey.

Method: Nurses employed in primary health care settings across Australia were …

Activating Primary Care Copd Patients With Multi-Morbidity (Apcom) Pilot Project: Study Protocol, Sameera Ansari, Hassan Hosseinzadeh, Sarah May Dennis, Nicholas Zwar

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), third leading cause of mortality worldwide,1 is primarily caused by cigarette smoking in Australia.2 COPD often occurs in the presence of multi-morbidity, which is the simultaneous occurrence of two or more chronic conditions; this is a growing concern in a health system focused on single-disease management.3 Around 80% of older Australians have multi-morbidity, average prevalence of chronic respiratory disease being 9.5%.4 A systematic review of COPD education programs suggests that equipping patients with self-management skills is as important as disease knowledge.5 Studies exploring positive effects of chronic disease-management interventions6 also underline the lack of studies …

Healing At Home: Developing A Model For Ambulatory Alcohol "Detox" In An Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service, Jonathan Brett, Angela Dawson, Rowena G. Ivers, Leanne Lawrence, Sarah Barclay, Kate M. Conigrave

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Indigenous Peoples who have been colonized typically face a greater burden of injury, disease, and social disruption associated with alcohol use (Kirmayer, Brass, & Tait, 2000). However, they often also encounter many barriers to accessing treatment for alcohol use disorders (Gray, Stearne, Wilson, & Doyle, 2010). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians (here described as Aboriginal Australians) experience 3-8 times the prevalence of alcohol-related illness, injury, and death than the general population (Calabria, Doran, Vos, Shakeshaft, & Hall, 2010). But their barriers to treatment access for alcohol dependence include transport difficulties, fear of discrimination, and lack of culturally secure services …

The Functional Roles Of The Unstructured N- And C-Terminal Regions In Αb-Crystallin And Other Mammalian Small Heat-Shock Proteins, John A. Carver, Aidan Grosas, Heath Ecroyd, R Quinlan

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Small heat-shock proteins (sHsps), such as αB-crystallin, are one of the major classes of molecular chaperone proteins. In vivo, under conditions of cellular stress, sHsps are the principal defence proteins that prevent large-scale protein aggregation. Progress in determining the structure of sHsps has been significant recently, particularly in relation to the conserved, central and β-sheet structured α-crystallin domain (ACD). However, an understanding of the structure and functional roles of the N- and C-terminal flanking regions has proved elusive mainly because of their unstructured and dynamic nature. In this paper, we propose functional roles for both flanking regions, based around three …

Linking Animal Contests And Community Structure Using Rockpool Fishes As A Model System, Kai Paijmans, Marian Y. L Wong

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Competition for limiting resources is a fundamental and well-established driver of niche partitioning, which in turn promotes species coexistence and biodiversity. Although contests are a well-known behavioural mechanism by which organisms compete over limiting resources, there has been surprisingly little application of contest theory to understanding interspecific interactions, niche partitioning, species coexistence and biodiversity. We investigated the link between contest dynamics and community structure using two intertidal rockpool fishes, Bathygobius cocosensis (Gobiidae) and Lepidoblennius haplodactylus (Tripterygiidae), as model species. We assessed the abundance and distribution of the two species on intertidal rocky shores of South-East Australia, and whether distribution patterns …

Experiences Of Sheltering During The Black Saturday Bushfires: Implications For Policy And Research, Joshua Whittaker, R Blanchi, Katharine Haynes, J Leonard, Kimberley Opie

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

More than half of those who died in the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, Australia, were sheltering inside a house at the time of their death. This marks a shift in bushfire fatality trends, which previously saw most fatalities occurring outside while residents attempted to protect assets or evacuate. This paper presents findings from research that examined people's experiences of sheltering in and exiting houses, sheds, personal shelters and other structures on Black Saturday. Qualitative data were sourced from 315 semi-structured interviews with residents affected by the bushfires and 50 witness statements presented to the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission. …

Know Your Noodles! Assessing Variations In Sodium Content Of Instant Noodles Across Countries, Clare Farrand, Karen E. Charlton, Michelle Crino, Joseph Santos, Rodrigo Rodriguez-Fernandez, Cliona Ni Mhurchu, Jacqui Webster

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Reducing salt intake is a cost-effective public health intervention to reduce the global burden of non-communicable disease (NCDs). Ultra-processed foods contribute ~80% of dietary salt in high income countries, and are becoming prominent in low-middle income countries. Instant noodle consumption is particularly high in the Asia Pacific region. The aim of this study was to compare the sodium content of instant noodles sold worldwide to identify potential for reformulation. Analysis was undertaken for 765 instant noodle products from 10 countries using packaged food composition databases of ultra-processed foods compiled by the Global Food Monitoring Group (GFMG) and national shop survey …

The More The Merrier: High-Throughput Single-Molecule Techniques, Flynn R. Hill, Enrico Monachino, Antoine M. Van Oijen

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

The single-molecule approach seeks to understand molecular mechanisms by observing biomolecular processes at the level of individual molecules. These methods have led to a developing understanding that for many processes, a diversity of behaviours will be observed, representing a multitude of pathways. This realisation necessitates that an adequate number of observations are recorded to fully characterise this diversity. The requirement for large numbers of observations to adequately sample distributions, subpopulations, and rare events presents a significant challenge for single-molecule techniques, which by their nature do not typically provide very high throughput. This review will discuss many developing techniques which address …

Tunability Of The Co Adsorption Energy On A Ni/Cu Surface: Site Change And Coverage Effects, Erik Vesselli, Michele Rizzi, Sara Furlan, Xiangmei Duan, Enrico Monachino, Carlo Dri, Angelo Peronio, Cristina Africh, Paolo Lacovig, Alfonso Baldereschi, Giovanni Comelli, Maria Peressi

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

The adsorption energy of carbon monoxide on Ni ad-islands and ultra-thin films grown on the Cu(110) surface can be finely tuned via a complex interplay among diffusion, site change mechanisms, and coverage effects. The observed features of CO desorption can be explained in terms of migration of CO molecules from Cu to Ni islands, competition between bridge and on-top adsorption sites, and repulsive lateral adsorbate-adsorbate interactions. While the CO adsorption energy on clean Cu(110) is of the order of 0.5 eV, Ni-alloying allows for its controlled, continuous tunability in the 0.98-1.15 eV range with Ni coverage. Since CO is a …

Radical Generation From The Gas-Phase Activation Of Ionized Lipid Ozonides, Shane R. Ellis, Huong T. Pham, Marc In Het Panhuis, Adam J. Trevitt, Todd W. Mitchell, Stephen J. Blanksby

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Reaction products from the ozonolysis of unsaturated lipids at gas¿liquid interfaces have the potential to significantly influence the chemical and physical properties of organic aerosols in the atmosphere. In this study, the gas-phase dissociation behavior of lipid secondary ozonides is investigated using ion-trap mass spectrometry. Secondary ozonides were formed by reaction between a thin film of unsaturated lipids (fatty acid methyl esters or phospholipids) with ozone before being transferred to the gas phase as [M + Na]⁺ ions by electrospray ionization. Activation of the ionized ozonides was performed by either energetic collisions with helium buffer-gas or laser photolysis, with …

Calcium Carbonate Production And Contribution To Coastal Sediments, Colin D. Woodroffe, John W. Farrell, Frank R. Hall, Peter T. Harris

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Biological production of calcium carbonate in the oceans is an important process. Although carbonate is produced in the open ocean (pelagic, see Chapter 5), this chapter concentrates on production in coastal waters (neritic) because this contributes sediment to the coast through skeletal breakdown producing sand and gravel deposits on beaches, across continental shelves, and within reefs. Marine organisms with hard body parts precipitate calcium carbonate as the minerals calcite or aragonite. Corals, molluscs, foraminifera, bryozoans, red algae (for example the algal rims that characterize reef crests on Indo-Pacific reefs) are particularly productive, as well as some species of green algae …

An Incised Shell Object From Baradostian (Early Upper Palaeolithic) Layers In Shanidar Cave, Iraqi Kurdistan, Chris Hunt, Evan Hill, Tim Reynolds, Dlshad Abdulmutalb, Lucy Farr, Ross Lane, Katherine A. Szabo, Graeme Barker

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Shanidar Cave contains one of the most important Palaeolithic archaeological sequences in West Asia. During renewed excavations of Baradostian (Upper Palaeolithic) layers in the cave, an incised land-snail shell fragment was recovered. A natural cause seems unlikely and it does not appear likely to reflect palaeoeconomic functions. It is suggested tentatively that this may have been made during manufacture of a composite artefact designed for visual display. Although Upper Palaeolithic ornaments are often reported, composite ornaments of this period are rather unusual.

Stir Casting Process For Manufacture Of Al-Sic Composites, Shahin Soltani, R Azari Khosroshahi, R Taherzadeh Mousavian, Zhengyi Jiang, Alireza Fadavi Boostani, D Brabazon

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Stir casting is an economical process for the fabrication of aluminum matrix composites. There are many parameters in this process, which affect the final microstructure and mechanical properties of the composites. In this study, micron-sized SiC particles were used as reinforcement to fabricate Al-3 wt% SiC composites at two casting temperatures (680 and 850 °C) and stirring periods (2 and 6 min). Factors of reaction at matrix/ceramic interface, porosity, ceramic incorporation, and agglomeration of the particles were evaluated by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and high-resolution transition electron microscope (HRTEM) studies. From microstructural characterizations, it is concluded that the shorter stirring …

Assessing The Vulnerability Of Pumping Stations To Trash Blockage In Coastal Mega-Cities Of Developing Nations, Robert Ighodaro Ogie, Sarah Dunn, Tomas Holderness, Etienne Turpin

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Pumping stations are important flood mitigation infrastructure used in coastal cities to remove accumulating floodwater from low-lying areas, where drainage is naturally poor due to very low slope gradient. In coastal mega-cities situated in developing nations, these pumping stations are often vulnerable to trash blockage as a result of frequent dumping of solid waste in water bodies. Given that blocked pumps are common causes of drainage infrastructure failure, the inability to identify the most vulnerable pumping stations can lead to inefficient allocation of limited resources for preventative maintenance of the drainage system. This study proposes an approach for measuring and …

Identity-Based Remote Data Integrity Checking With Perfect Data Privacy Preserving For Cloud Storage, Yong Yu, Man Ho Au, Giuseppe Ateniese, Xinyi Huang, Willy Susilo, Yuanshun Dai, Geyong Min

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Remote data integrity checking (RDIC) enables a data storage server, say a cloud server, to prove to a verifier that it is actually storing a data owner's data honestly. To date, a number of RDIC protocols have been proposed in the literature. However, most of the constructions suffer from the issue of requiring complex key management. That is, they rely on the expensive public key infrastructure (PKI), which might hinder the deployment of RDIC in practice. In this paper, we propose a new construction of identity-based (ID-based) RDIC protocol by making use of key-homomorphic cryptographic primitive to reduce the system …

Sharing Social Network Data: Differentially Private Estimation Of Exponential Family Random-Graph Models, Vishesh Karwa, Pavel N. Krivitsky, Aleksandra B. Slavkovic

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Motivated by a real life problem of sharing social network data that contain sensitive personal information, we propose a novel approach to release and analyse synthetic graphs to protect privacy of individual relationships captured by the social network while maintaining the validity of statistical results. A case-study using a version of the Enron e-mail corpus data set demonstrates the application and usefulness of the proposed techniques in solving the challenging problem of maintaining privacy and supporting open access to network data to ensure reproducibility of existing studies and discovering new scientific insights that can be obtained by analysing such data. …

Anonymous Announcement System (Aas) For Electric Vehicle In Vanets, Man Ho Au, Joseph K. Liu, Zhenfei Zhang, Willy Susilo, Jin Li, Jianying Zhou

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET) allows vehicles to exchange information about road and traffic conditions through wireless communications. Nevertheless, providing reliable and authenticated information without violating the user's privacy seems contradictory. In this paper, we propose an Anonymous Announcement System especially designed for Electric Vehicle (EV) in VANETs to achieve the aforementioned contradictory goals. We demonstrated the feasibility of the protocol with a prototype implementation on a suitable device and a network simulation with our protocol added on top of a normal VANET.

Development Of A Dynamic Model For A Hybrid Photovoltaic Thermal Collector - Solar Air Heater With Fins, Wenke Fan, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Zhenjun Ma, Paul Cooper

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

A dynamic model for a hybrid Photovoltaic Thermal Collector-Solar Air Heater (PVT-SAH) with longitudinal fins was developed to enable assessment of the potential of the system to provide high temperature outlet air (60-90 °C) under dynamic boundary conditions. The model description includes the method for discretising the system into a number of control volumes, the energy balance equations for each control volume and the implementation of the numerical solution. Model validation has been successfully undertaken by using empirical verification of model predictions with an experimental facility and by comparing the model outputs with the reference data from the literature. The …

Using Contrastive Divergence To Seed Monte Carlo Mle For Exponential-Family Random Graph Models, Pavel N. Krivitsky

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Exponential-family models for dependent data have applications in a wide variety of areas, but the dependence often results in an intractable likelihood, requiring either analytic approximation or MCMC-based techniques to fit, the latter requiring an initial parameter configuration to seed their simulations. A poor initial configuration can lead to slow convergence or outright failure. The approximate techniques that could be used to find them tend not to be as general as the simulation-based and require implementation separate from that of the MLE-finding algorithm. Contrastive divergence is a more recent simulation-based approximation technique that uses a series of abridged MCMC runs …

Factors Governing Mass Transfer During Membrane Electrodialysis Regeneration Of Licl Solution For Liquid Desiccant Dehumidification Systems, Ali Hussein Al-Jubainawi, Zhenjun Ma, Yi Guo, Long D. Nghiem, Paul Cooper, Weihua Li

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This study investigates the mass transfer mechanisms and the performance of membrane electrodialysis (ED) for regenerating lithium chloride (LiCl) solution commonly used in liquid desiccant dehumidification systems. Experiments were conducted using an ED experimental system while numerical simulation was performed using COMSOL Multiphysics. The results showed that the water flux transfer due to osmosis and electro-osmosis during ED regeneration of LiCl liquid desiccant was significant and could not be ignored. The water flux due to osmosis and electro-osmosis is directly associated with the osmotic gradient and the applied current between the cathode and anode, respectively. The average flux of water …

Thin-Film Composite Forward Osmosis Membranes Functionalized With Graphene Oxide-Silver Nanocomposites For Biofouling Control, Andreia Faria, Caihong Liu, Ming Xie, Francois Perreault, Long D. Nghiem, Jun Ma, Menachem Elimelech

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Innovative approaches to prevent bacterial attachment and biofilm growth on membranes are critically needed to avoid decreasing membrane performance due to biofouling. In this study, we propose the fabrication of anti-biofouling thin-film composite membranes functionalized with graphene oxide-silver nanocomposites. In our membrane modification strategy, carboxyl groups on the graphene oxide-silver nanosheets are covalently bonded to carboxyl groups on the surface of thin-film composite membranes via a crosslinking reaction. Further characterization, such as scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, revealed the immobilization of graphene oxide-silver nanocomposites on the membrane surface. Graphene oxide-silver modified membranes exhibited an 80% inactivation rate against attached …

Axial Load-Bending Moment Diagrams Of Gfrp Reinforced Columns And Gfrp Encased Square Columns, Jim Youssef, Muhammad N. S Hadi

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) pultruded materials are available in a wide variety of shapes, including bars, I-sections, C-sections and other structural sections. Due to their high durability, low self-weight and reduced maintenance costs, these FRP materials are becoming a competitive option for replacing steel as structural materials especially in corrosive environments. This paper summarizes an experimental program on the axial and flexural behaviour of square concrete members reinforced with glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars and embedded with pultruded GFRP structural sections under different loading conditions. Furthermore, an analytical model is presented to predict the axial load-bending moment interaction diagrams …

A 3d Lateral Electrode Structure For Diamond Based Microdosimetry, Jeremy A. Davis, Kumaravelu Ganesan, Dale A. Prokopovich, Marco Petasecca, Michael L. F Lerch, David Jamieson, Anatoly B. Rosenfeld

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

A diamond based microdosimeter prototype featuring a 3D lateral electrode structure was created using laser ablation and active brazing alloys and characterised by means of ion beam induced charge collection measurements and finite element analysis, using Synopsys TCAD simulation package.

Simulation Ballasted Track Behavior: Numerical Treatment And Field Application, Ngoc Trung Ngo, Buddhima Indraratna, Cholachat Rujikiatkamjorn

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The load deformation of ballasted rail tracks subjected to cyclic loading is investigated experimentally using a large-scale track process simulation apparatus and numerically through a combined discrete element-finite-difference approach. Laboratory tests were performed to examine the deformation and degradation of ballast subjected to cyclic loading at 15 Hz and a lateral confinement of 10 kPa 10 kPa. The laboratory results reveal that ballast undergoes significant deformation during the initial load cycles, followed by gradually increasing deformation attaining a steady value toward the end of testing. A numerical model based on a combined discrete element method (DEM) and finite-difference method (FDM) …

Dynamic Exergy Analysis For The Thermal Storage Optimization Of The Building Envelope, Valentina Bonetti, Georgios Kokogiannakis

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

As a measure of energy "quality", exergy is meaningful for comparing the potential for thermal storage. Systems containing the same amount of energy could have considerably different capabilities in matching a demand profile, and exergy measures this difference. Exergy stored in the envelope of buildings is central in sustainability because the environment could be an unlimited source of energy if its interaction with the envelope is optimised for maintaining the indoor conditions within comfort ranges. Since the occurring phenomena are highly fluctuating, a dynamic exergy analysis is required; however, dynamic exergy modelling is complex and has not hitherto been implemented …