Natural convection adjacent to an inclined flat plate and in an attic space under various thermal forcing conditions

The effect of viscous dissipation on natural convection from a vertical plate placed in a thermally stratified environment has been investigated numerically. The reduced equations are integrated by employing the implicit finite difference scheme or Ke1ler-box method and obtained the effect of heat due to viscous dissipation on the local skin-friction and loca1 Nusselt number at various stratification levels, for fluids having Prandtl number equals 10, 50, and 100. Solutions are also obtained using the perturbation technique for small values of viscous dissipation parameters and compared with the Finite Difference solutions. Effect of the heat transfer due to viscous dissipation and the temperature stratification are also shown on the velocity and temperature distributions in the boundary layer region. A numerical study of laminar doubly diffusive free convection flows adjacent to a vertical surface in a stable thermally stratified medium is also considered for this study. Solutions are obtained using the implicit Finite Difference method and compared with the local non-similarity method. The velocity and temperature distributions for different values of stratification parameter are shown graphically. The results show many interesting aspects of complex interaction of the two buoyant mechanisms.

Domains of rural social work practice

Even though there is substantial agreement about the nature of rural contexts, practice principles, and factors influencing practice we still do not have a framework for organising this knowledge in a way that can directly inform the practitioner in their day-to-day work. In this paper, we introduce the concepts 'practice domains', 'domain location', and 'domain alignment' that, taken together, provide such a framework. We suggest that each practitioner works within a number of practice domains. A domain is a discourse about practice comprising narratives about how a social worker should practise and which factors they should take most account of in their practice decision making. Each practitioner, and each practice process, can be located somewhere within each domain (domain location) and also situated amongst domains according to their relative alignment with each of them (domain alignment). In this paper, we present this framework and show how it is useful for practitioners in understanding practice, identifying factors influencing it, and making practice decisions in immediate, concrete situations.

Rural and Urban Differentials in Primary Care Management of Chronic Heart Failure: New Data from the CASE Study

Objective: To determine whether primary care management of chronic heart failure (CHF) differed between rural and urban areas in Australia. Design: A cross-sectional survey stratified by Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Areas (RRMA) classification. The primary source of data was the Cardiac Awareness Survey and Evaluation (CASE) study. Setting: Secondary analysis of data obtained from 341 Australian general practitioners and 23 845 adults aged 60 years or more in 1998. Main outcome measures: CHF determined by criteria recommended by the World Health Organization, diagnostic practices, use of pharmacotherapy, and CHF-related hospital admissions in the 12 months before the study. Results: There was a significantly higher prevalence of CHF among general practice patients in large and small rural towns (16.1%) compared with capital city and metropolitan areas (12.4%) (P < 0.001). Echocardiography was used less often for diagnosis in rural towns compared with metropolitan areas (52.0% v 67.3%, P < 0.001). Rates of specialist referral were also significantly lower in rural towns than in metropolitan areas (59.1% v 69.6%, P < 0.001), as were prescribing rates of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (51.4% v 60.1%, P < 0.001). There was no geographical variation in prescribing rates of β-blockers (12.6% [rural] v 11.8% [metropolitan], P = 0.32). Overall, few survey participants received recommended “evidence-based practice” diagnosis and management for CHF (metropolitan, 4.6%; rural, 3.9%; and remote areas, 3.7%). Conclusions: This study found a higher prevalence of CHF, and significantly lower use of recommended diagnostic methods and pharmacological treatment among patients in rural areas.

The use of speech and lip modalities for robust speaker verification under adverse conditions

Investigates the use of lip information, in conjunction with speech information, for robust speaker verification in the presence of background noise. We have previously shown (Int. Conf. on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Proc., vol. 6, pp. 3693-3696, May 1998) that features extracted from a speaker's moving lips hold speaker dependencies which are complementary with speech features. We demonstrate that the fusion of lip and speech information allows for a highly robust speaker verification system which outperforms either subsystem individually. We present a new technique for determining the weighting to be applied to each modality so as to optimize the performance of the fused system. Given a correct weighting, lip information is shown to be highly effective for reducing the false acceptance and false rejection error rates in the presence of background noise

Funding and employment conditions : critical issues for Australian music therapy beyond 2009

As the Australian Journal of Music Therapy celebrates its 20th year of publication, it is evident that the profession of music therapy in Australia, has made substantial progress over these last 20 years. Jobs are regularly advertised on the website, there is a greater public awareness of what music therapy is, there are government recognised salary awards applicable in several states of the country, working conditions have generally improved, and many Australian music therapists are recognised on the international stage as leaders in their field of expertise. You can even go to a party and tell someone you are a music therapist and there is a good chance they will say 'oh yeah, I know someone who does that at the hospital / school / community centre / nursing home' instead of saying 'oh, so like, a what?'. Despite the impressive leaps and bounds that have been made, and the success of many programs in Australia to date, there is still a great deal of room for improvement. What are the critical issues ahead for the development of music therapy in Australia? In particular, how do music therapists develop going forward and secure funding for clinical initiatives? In reflecting on this question, this article identifies two key areas, amongst the many, that can be addressed by music therapists over the next 20 years: funding and employment conditions. Examples from the national early intervention music therapy program 'Sing and Grow' are used to illustrate the potential impact of addressing these two issues on the positive development of the profession into the future.

An experimental research investigation into disused flat rail wagons as bridges with applications for low volume rural roads in Australia

An experimental laboratory investigation was carried out to assess the structural adequacy of a disused PHO Class Flat Bottom Rail Wagon (FRW) for a single lane low volume road bridge application as per the design provisions of the Australian Bridge Design Standard AS 5100(2004). The investigation also encompassed a review into the risk associated with the pre-existing damage in wagons incurred during their service life on rail. The main objective of the laboratory testing of the FRW was to physically measure its performance under the same applied traffic loading it would be required to resist as a road bridge deck. In order to achieve this a full width (5.2m) single lane, single span (approximately 10m), simply supported bridge would be required to be constructed and tested in a structural laboratory. However, the available clear spacing between the columns of the loading portal frame encountered within the laboratory was insufficient to accommodate the 5.2m wide bridge deck excluding clearance normally considered necessary in structural testing. Therefore, only half of the full scale bridge deck (single FRW of width 2.6m) was able to be accommodated and tested; with the continuity of the bridge deck in the lateral direction applied as boundary constraints along the full length of the FRW at six selected locations. This represents a novel approach not yet reported in the literature for bridge deck testing to the best of the knowledge of the author. The test was carried out under two loadings provided in AS 5100 (2004) – one stationary W80 wheel load and the second a moving axle load M1600. As the bridge investigated in the study is a single lane single span low volume road bridge, the risk of pre-existing damage and the expected high cycle fatigue failure potential was assessed as being minimal and hence the bridge deck was not tested structurally for fatigue/ fracture. The high axle load requirements have instead been focussed upon the investigation into the serviceability and ultimate limit state requirements. The testing regime adopted however involved extensive recording of strains and deflections at several critical locations of the FRW. Three locations of W80 point load and two locations of the M1600 Axle load were considered for the serviceability testing; the FRW was also tested under the ultimate load dictated by the M1600. The outcomes of the experimental investigation have demonstrated that the FRW is structurally adequate to resist the prescribed traffic loadings outlaid in AS 5100 (2004). As the loading was directly applied on to the FRW, the laboratory testing is assessed as being significantly conservative. The FRW bridge deck in the field would only resist the load transferred by the running platform, where, depending on the design, composite action might exist – thereby the share of the loading which needs to be resisted by the FRW would be smaller than the system tested in the lab. On this basis, a demonstration bridge is under construction at the time of writing this thesis and future research will involve field testing in order to assess its performance.

Aircraft emission reduction through multi-disciplinary flight path optimisation

There is worldwide interest in reducing aircraft emissions. The difficulty of reducing emissions including water vapour, carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) is mainly due from the fact that a commercial aircraft is usually designed for a particular optimal cruise altitude but may be requested or required to operate and deviate at different altitude and speeds to archive a desired or commanded flight plan, resulting in increased emissions. This is a multi- disciplinary problem with multiple trade-offs such as optimising engine efficiency, minimising fuel burnt, minimise emissions while maintaining aircraft separation and air safety. This project presents the coupling of an advanced optimisation technique with mathematical models and algorithms for aircraft emission reduction through flight optimisation. Numerical results show that the method is able to capture a set of useful trade-offs between aircraft range and NOx, and mission fuel consumption and NOx. In addition, alternative cruise operating conditions including Mach and altitude that produce minimum NOx and CO2 (minimum mission fuel weight) are suggested.