All-terrain vehicle crashes and associated injuries in North Queensland : findings from the Rural and Remote Road Safety Study

Objective: To define characteristics of all-terrain vehicle (ATV) crashes occurring in north Queensland from March 2004 till June 2007 with the exploration of associated risk factors. Design: Descriptive analysis of ATV crash data collected by the Rural and Remote Road Safety Study. Setting: Rural and remote north Queensland. Participants: Forty-two ATV drivers and passengers aged 16 years or over hospitalised at Atherton, Cairns, Mount Isa or Townsville for at least 24 hours as a result of a vehicle crash. Main outcome measures: Demographics of participants, reason for travel, nature of crash, injuries sustained and risk factors associated with ATV crash. Results: The majority of casualties were men aged 16–64. Forty-one per cent of accidents occurred while performing agricultural tasks. Furthermore, 39% of casualties had less than one year’s experience riding ATVs. Over half the casualties were not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash. Common injuries were head and neck and upper limb injuries. Rollovers tended to occur while performing agricultural tasks and most commonly resulted in multiple injuries. Conclusions: Considerable trauma results from ATV crashes in rural and remote north Queensland. These crashes are not included in most general vehicle crash data sets, as they are usually limited to events occurring on public roads. Minimal legislation and regulation currently applies to ATV use in agricultural, recreational and commercial settings. Legislation on safer design of ATVs and mandatory courses for riders is an essential part of addressing the burden of ATV crashes on rural and remote communities.

Remote interaction and user research : anaesthetic preadmission activity

In the absence of telehealth technology, rural patients must travel to a regional or metropolitan hospital for a preadmission consultation one week before their surgery. Currently, examination of the patient’s chest using a stethoscope (auscultation) is not possible over a telehealth network as existing digital stethoscopes have been designed for in-person auscultation. We report on the initial phase of research which ultimately aims to design a digital stethoscope for use in the telehealth context. This initial research phase describes the complexity of the activity of preadmission clinics and the implications for the design of the stethoscope. The research is conducted through field studies of existing face-to-face and remote consultations.

Leading indigenous education in a remote location : reflections on teaching to be "proud and deadly"

This thesis is a critical reflection of the author’s time as a Principal of an Indigenous state school from 2003-2004. The purpose is to reassess the impact of her principalship in terms of the staff, students and Community change that affected learning outcomes at the school and to reanalyse to what actions and to whom positive changes could be attributed. This thesis reflects and identifies, in light of the literature, strategies which were effective in enhancing student learning outcomes. The focus of this thesis was the Doongal State School*, its students, staff and facilities. The author will attempt to draw out theoretical frameworks in terms of: (1) what changed educationally in Doongal State School, (2) what seemed to be important in the Principal’s role, (3) the processes that took place, and (4) the effect of being non- Indigenous and a female. Overall, the author undertook this critical reflection in order to understand and embrace educational practices that will (a) lessen the gap between the academic outcomes achieved by Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, and (b) enhance life choices for Indigenous children. The findings indicate that principal leadership is critical for success in Indigenous schools and is the centrepiece of the models developed to explain improvement at Doongal State School. School factors, Principal Leadership factors, Change factors and factors relating to being a non-Indigenous female principal, which, when implemented, will lead to improved educational outcomes for Indigenous students, have evolved as a result of this thesis. Principal Leadership factors were found to be the enablers for the effective implementation of the key components for success.

Managing hostile environments : journalists and media workers : learning to survive the world's difficult, remote and hostile environments

The aim of this research is to examine the changing nature of risks that face journalists and media workers in the world's difficult, remote and hostile environments, and consider the 'adequacy' of managing hostile environment safety courses that some media organizations require prior to foreign assignments. The study utilizes several creative works and contributions to this area of analysis, which includes a documentary film production, course contributions, an emergency reference handbook, security and incident management reviews and a template for evacuation and contingency planning. The research acknowledges that employers have a 'duty of care' to personnel working in these environments, identifies the necessity for pre-deployment training and support, and provides a solution for organizations that wish to initiate a comprehensive framework to advise, monitor, protect and respond to incidents. Finally, it explores the possible development of a unique and holistic service to facilitate proactive and responsive support, in the form of a new profession of 'Editorial Logistics Officer' or 'Editorial Safety Officer' within media organizations. This area of research is vitally important to the profession, and the intended contribution is to introduce a simple and cost-efficient framework for media organizations that desire to implement pre-deployment training and field-support – as these programs save lives. The complete proactive and responsive services may be several years from implementation. However, this study demonstrates that the facilitation of Managing Hostile Environment (MHE) courses should be the minimum professional standard. These courses have saved lives in the past and they provide journalists with the tools to "cover the story, and not become the story."

Operation and control of a hybrid microgrid containing unbalanced and nonlinear loads

This paper shows how the power quality can be improved in a microgrid that is supplying a nonlinear and unbalanced load. The microgrid contains a hybrid combination of inertial and converter interfaced distributed generation units where a decentralized power sharing algorithm is used to control its power management. One of the distributed generators in the microgrid is used as a power quality compensator for the unbalanced and harmonic load. The current reference generation for power quality improvement takes into account the active and reactive power to be supplied by the micro source which is connected to the compensator. Depending on the power requirement of the nonlinear load, the proposed control scheme can change modes of operation without any external communication interfaces. The compensator can operate in two modes depending on the entire power demand of the unbalanced nonlinear load. The proposed control scheme can even compensate system unbalance caused by the single-phase micro sources and load changes. The efficacy of the proposed power quality improvement control and method in such a microgrid is validated through extensive simulation studies using PSCAD/EMTDC software with detailed dynamic models of the micro sources and power electronic converters

Load sharing and power quality enhanced operation of a distributed microgrid

This paper describes control methods for proper load sharing between parallel converters connected in a microgrid and supplied by distributed generators (DGs). It is assumed that the microgrid spans a large area and it supplies loads in both in grid connected and islanded modes. A control strategy is proposed to improve power quality and proper load sharing in both islanded and grid connected modes. It is assumed that each of the DGs has a local load connected to it which can be unbalanced and/or nonlinear. The DGs compensate the effects of unbalance and nonlinearity of the local loads. Common loads are also connected to the microgrid, which are supplied by the utility grid under normal conditions. However during islanding, each of the DGs supplies its local load and shares the common load through droop characteristics. Both impedance and motor loads are considered to verify the system response. The efficacy of the controller has been validated through simulation for various operating conditions using PSCAD. It has been found through simulation that the total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of the of the microgrid voltage is about 10% and the negative and zero sequence component are around 20% of the positive sequence component before compensation. After compensation, the THD remain below 0.5%, whereas, negative and zero sequence components of the voltages remain below 0.02% of the positive sequence component.

Evaluation of aerial remote sensing techniques for vegetation management in power line corridors

The following paper presents an evaluation of airborne sensors for use in vegetation management in powerline corridors. Three integral stages in the management process are addressed including, the detection of trees, relative positioning with respect to the nearest powerline and vegetation height estimation. Image data, including multi-spectral and high resolution, are analyzed along with LiDAR data captured from fixed wing aircraft. Ground truth data is then used to establish the accuracy and reliability of each sensor thus providing a quantitative comparison of sensor options. Tree detection was achieved through crown delineation using a Pulse-Coupled Neural Network (PCNN) and morphologic reconstruction applied to multi-spectral imagery. Through testing it was shown to achieve a detection rate of 96%, while the accuracy in segmenting groups of trees and single trees correctly was shown to be 75%. Relative positioning using LiDAR achieved a RMSE of 1.4m and 2.1m for cross track distance and along track position respectively, while Direct Georeferencing achieved RMSE of 3.1m in both instances. The estimation of pole and tree heights measured with LiDAR had a RMSE of 0.4m and 0.9m respectively, while Stereo Matching achieved 1.5m and 2.9m. Overall a small number of poles were missed with detection rates of 98% and 95% for LiDAR and Stereo Matching.

Smart grids : better performance through communication and algorithms

There has been a developing interest in smart grids, the possibility of significantly enhanced performance from remote measurements and intelligent controls. For transmission the use of PMU signals from remote sites and direct load shed controls can give significant enhancement for large system disturbances rather than relying on local measurements and linear controls. This lecture will emphasize what can be found from remote measurements and the mechanisms to get a smarter response to major disturbances. For distribution systems there has been a significant history in the area of distribution reconfiguration automation. This lecture will emphasize the incorporation of Distributed Generation into distribution networks and the impact on voltage/frequency control and protection. Overall the performance of both transmission and distribution will be impacted by demand side management and the capabilities built into the system. In particular, we consider different time scales of load communication and response and look to the benefits for system, energy and lines.

Experiments in outdoor operation of RatSLAM

This paper shows initial results in deploying the biologically inspired Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping system, RatSLAM, in an outdoor environment. RatSLAM has been widely tested in indoor environments on the task of producing topologically coherent maps based on a fusion of odometric and visual information. This paper details the changes required to deploy RatSLAM on a small tractor equipped with odometry and an omnidirectional camera. The principal changes relate to the vision system, with others required for RatSLAM to use omnidirectional visual data. The initial results from mapping around a 500 m loop are promising, with many improvements still to be made.

Framework for the long-term operation of a mobile robot via the Internet

This paper describes an autonomous docking system and web interface that allows long-term unaided use of a sophisticated robot by untrained web users. These systems have been applied to the biologically inspired RatSLAM system as a foundation for testing both its long-term stability and its practicality. While docking and web interface systems already exist, this system allows for a significantly larger margin of error in docking accuracy due to the mechanical design, thereby increasing robustness against navigational errors. Also a standard vision sensor is used for both long-range and short-range docking, compared to the many systems that require both omni-directional cameras and high resolution Laser range finders for navigation. The web interface has been designed to accommodate the significant delays experienced on the Internet, and to facilitate the non- Cartesian operation of the RatSLAM system.

Piezoelectric PVDF materials performance and operation limits in space environments

Piezoelectric polymers based on polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) are of interest for large aperture space-based telescopes. Dimensional adjustments of adaptive polymer films are achieved via charge deposition and require a detailed understanding of the piezoelectric material responses which are expected to suffer due to strong vacuum UV, gamma, X-ray, energetic particles and atomic oxygen under low earth orbit exposure conditions. The degradation of PVDF and its copolymers under various stress environments has been investigated. Initial radiation aging studies using gamma- and e-beam irradiation have shown complex material changes with significant crosslinking, lowered melting and Curie points (where observable), effects on crystallinity, but little influence on overall piezoelectric properties. Surprisingly, complex aging processes have also been observed in elevated temperature environments with annealing phenomena and cyclic stresses resulting in thermal depoling of domains. Overall materials performance appears to be governed by a combination of chemical and physical degradation processes. Molecular changes are primarily induced via radiative damage, and physical damage from temperature and AO exposure is evident as depoling and surface erosion. Major differences between individual copolymers have been observed providing feedback on material selection strategies.

Monitoring animal behaviour and environmental interactions : GPS collars and satellite remote sensing within a satellite remote sensing context

Remote monitoring of animal behaviour in the environment can assist in managing both the animal and its environmental impact. GPS collars which record animal locations with high temporal frequency allow researchers to monitor both animal behaviour and interactions with the environment. These ground-based sensors can be combined with remotely-sensed satellite images to understand animal-landscape interactions. The key to combining these technologies is communication methods such as wireless sensor networks (WSNs). We explore this concept using a case-study from an extensive cattle enterprise in northern Australia and demonstrate the potential for combining GPS collars and satellite images in a WSN to monitor behavioural preferences and social behaviour of cattle.

Monitoring animal behaviour and environmental interactions using wireless sensor networks, GPS collars and satellite remote sensing

Remote monitoring of animal behaviour in the environment can assist in managing both the animal and its environmental impact. GPS collars which record animal locations with high temporal frequency allow researchers to monitor both animal behaviour and interactions with the environment. These ground-based sensors can be combined with remotely-sensed satellite images to understand animal-landscape interactions. The key to combining these technologies is communication methods such as wireless sensor networks (WSNs). We explore this concept using a case-study from an extensive cattle enterprise in northern Australia and demonstrate the potential for combining GPS collars and satellite images in a WSN to monitor behavioural preferences and social behaviour of cattle.