Prospect of renewable energy sources and integrating challenges in Victoria, Australia

The Australian Government has targeted 20% of electricity generation from renewable energy sources by 2020. The 20% renewable energy target (RET) for Australia will be around 45000GWH in 2020. Renewable energy of Victoria also includes as part of support to achieve 20% RET in Australia. In Victoria wind and solar resources are abundant as compared to other sources of renewable energy. Solar radiation and wind speed data for Victoria State was collected from NASA surface meteorology and solar energy web site. A feasibility analysis has been carried out to explore the potentialities of wind and solar energy for Victoria State using hybrid optimization model of electric renewable (HOMER) software. This paper also represents the estimation analysis of RET for Victoria and describes the integrating challenges of renewable energy sources to the utility grid.

Accounting for the association of family conflict and heavy alcohol use among adolescent girls: the role of depressed mood

Heavy alcohol use increases dramatically at age 14, and there is emerging cross-sectional evidence that when girls experience family conflict at younger ages (11–13 years) the risk of alcohol use and misuse is high. This study evaluated the role of family conflict and subsequent depressed mood in predicting heavy alcohol use among adolescent girls. Method: This was a three-wave longitudinal study with annual assessments (modal ages 12, 13, and 14 years). The participants (N = 886, 57% female) were from 12 metropolitan schools in Victoria, Australia, and participants completed questionnaires during school class time. The key measures were based on the Communities That Care Youth Survey and included family conflict (Wave 1), depressed mood (Wave 2), and heavy alcohol use (Wave 3). Control variables included school commitment, number of peers who consumed alcohol, whether parents were living together, and ethnic background. Results: With all controls in the model, depressed mood at Wave 2 was predicted by family conflict at Wave 1. The interaction of family conflict with gender was significant, with girls showing a stronger association of family conflict and depressed mood. Depressed mood at Wave 2 predicted heavy alcohol use at Wave 3. Conclusions: Girls may be especially vulnerable to family conflict, and subsequent depressed mood increases the risk of heavy alcohol use. The results support the need for gender-sensitive family-oriented prevention programs delivered in late childhood and early adolescence.

Seasonal coolth storage system for residential buildings in Australia

Night sky cooling is explored as an alternative to the conventional cooling technologies using fossil fuels. The night sky cooling method is based on the long wave radiation of unglazed collectors to the sky at night. An evaluation of the night sky cooling system is present for a residential building in three cities of Australia, namely Alice Springs, Darwin and Melbourne. The system comprises an unglazed flat plate solar collector integrated with borehole storage. It uses night sky radiation to reduce the temperature of the ground near to the boreholes. The system was simulated with TRNSYS, a transient simulation program. The simulation results for adequately sized systems show that night sky radiation is able to reduce the coolth storage borehole temperature and the proposed system is able to meet the cooling load of the residential building simulated in three locations. Borehole lengths of 270, 318 and 106 m are required for coolth storage with 90, 260 and 14 m2 collector area for heat rejection in Alice Springs, Darwin and Melbourne, respectively. At the 20th simulation year, the proposed system is able to achieve a system cooling coefficient of performance of 2.2 in Alice Springs, and 2.8 in Darwin and Melbourne.

Physical activity, television viewing time and 12 year changes in waist circumference

PURPOSE: Both moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary behavior can be associated with adult adiposity. Much of the relevant evidence is from cross-sectional studies or from prospective studies with relevant exposure measures at a single time point prior to weight gain or incident obesity. This study examined whether changes in MVPA and television (TV) viewing time are associated with subsequent changes in waist circumference, using data from three separate observation points in a large population-based prospective study of Australian adults. METHODS: Data were obtained from the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle study collected in 1999-2000 (baseline), 2004-05 (Wave 2), and 2011-12 (Wave 3). The study sample consisted of adults aged 25 to 74 years at baseline who also attended site measurement at three time points (n=3261). Multilevel linear regression analysis examined associations of initial five-year changes in MVPA and TV viewing time (from baseline to Wave 2) with 12-year change in waist circumference (from baseline to Wave 3), adjusting for well-known confounders. RESULTS: As categorical predictors, increases in MVPA significantly attenuated increases in waist circumference (p for trend< 0.001). TV viewing time change was not significantly associated with changes in waist circumference (p for trend =0.06). Combined categories of MVPA and TV viewing time changes were predictive of waist circumference increases; compared to those who increased MVPA and reduced TV viewing time, those who reduced MVPA and increased TV viewing time had a 2cm greater increase in waist circumference (p=0.001). CONCLUSION: Decreasing MVPA emerged as a significant predictor of increases in waist circumference. Increasing TV viewing time was also influential, but its impact was much weaker than MVPA.This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially.

Application of species distribution models to explain and predict the distribution, abundance and assemblage structure of nearshore temperate reef fishes

 Aim: The purpose of this study was to create predictive species distribution models (SDMs) for temperate reef-associated fish species densities and fish assemblage diversity and richness to aid in marine conservation and spatial planning. Location: California, USA. Methods: Using generalized additive models, we associated fish species densities and assemblage characteristics with seafloor structure, giant kelp biomass and wave climate and used these associations to predict the distribution and assemblage structure across the study area. We tested the accuracy of these predicted extrapolations using an independent data set. The SDMs were also used to estimate larger scale abundances to compare with other estimates of species abundance (uniform density extrapolation over rocky reef and density extrapolations taking into account variations in geomorphic structure). Results: The SDMs successfully modelled the species-habitat relationships of seven rocky reef-associated fish species and showed that species' densities differed in their relationships with environmental variables. The predictive accuracy of the SDMs ranged from 0.26 to 0.60 (Pearson's r correlation between observed and predicted density values). The SDMs created for the fish assemblage-level variables had higher prediction accuracies with Pearson's r values of 0.61 for diversity and 0.71 for richness. The comparisons of the different methods for extrapolating species densities over a single marine protected area varied greatly in their abundance estimates with the uniform extrapolation (density values extrapolated evenly over the rocky reef) always estimating much greater abundances. The other two methods, which took into account variation in the geomorphic structure of the reef, provided much lower abundance estimates. Main conclusions: Species distribution models that combine geomorphic, oceanographic and biogenic habitat variables can reliably predict spatial patterns of species density and assemblage attributes of temperate reef fishes at spatial scales of 50 m. Thus, SDMs show great promise for informing spatial and ecosystem-based approaches to conservation and fisheries management. © 2015 John Wiley

The density of alcohol outlets and adolescent alcohol consumption: an Australian longitudinal analysis

 Higher density of alcohol outlets has been linked to increased levels of adolescent alcohol-related behaviour. Research to date has been cross-sectional. A longitudinal design using two waves of annual survey data from the Australian arm of the International Youth Development Study was used. The sample comprised 2835 individuals with average age at wave 2 of 14 years (SD=1.67; range=11–17 years). GSEM was used to examine how absolute levels of alcohol outlet density was associated with student-reported alcohol use one year later, while controlling for prior alcohol use, risk factors at wave one and changes in density over the 2 years. Adolescents' perception of alcohol availability and friends' alcohol use were tested as potential mediators of the association between alcohol outlet density and adolescent alcohol use. Elasticity modelling identified a 10% increase in overall density at wave one was associated with an approximately 17% increase in odds of adolescent alcohol consumption at wave two. Living in areas with a higher density of outlets was associated with a statistically significant increase in the likelihood of adolescents developing early age alcohol consumption.