The Victorian bushfires and extreme weather events : media coverage, crisis and communication

The 2009 'Black Saturday' Victorian bushfires claimed the lives of 173 people and have become known as the worst fire event in Australian history. Victoria has been at the centre of two other significant Australian fire disasters - 'Black Friday' in 1939 and the 1983 'Ash Wednesday' fires in south-eastern Australia that claimed the lives of 47 people in Victoria. As media scholar and commentator Michael Gawenda has noted, the media not only report an 'event' - like the Victorian bushfires or the tsunami in the South Pacific - but in a sense create and define it. Print and electronic media coverage of extreme weather events therefore raises a multitude of issues about the media's role in serving the community before, during and after a crisis, while also trying to produce the best possible reportage in a competitive industry undergoing dramatic change. This issue of MIA provides a venue for critical, empirical engagement with media coverage and representation, and the role of journalism and journalists in reporting national and international bushfires, tsunamis, hurricanes and other extreme weather events, with a special focus on the 2009 Victorian bushfires. Its goal is to address the ramifications of an industry in flux - indeed, some may say crisis - driven by technological advances, staff reductions and media organisations under financial pressure, and to explore the ways in which such extreme weather events have impacted media practices and policy

Lucy Williams' internal weather

 Review of Lucy Williams' poetry collection, Internal Weather

Respiration rate and breathing patterns from doppler radar measurements

This paper presents an evaluation of microwave Doppler radar used for capturing different types of breathing patterns in addition to the respiration rate. Finding therespiration rate is equally important as identifying abnormal breathing patterns which it could be used to gain a better insight into respiratory disorders. Various known breathing disorders were role played and captured using a non-contactmicrowave Doppler radar which further supports the feasibility of Doppler radar in obtaining an accurate detection of different types of breathing patterns. The results obtained for all the experiments were compared with a standard measurementapparatus, respiration strap, yielding a good correlations with the Doppler radar signals. In a nutshell, Doppler radar can be potentially used as an alternative approach, not only for finding the respiration rates, but also for identifying respiration patterns replacing the conventional contact methods.

Monitoring and analysis of respiratory patterns using microwave doppler radar

 Noncontact detection characteristic of Doppler radar provides an unobtrusive means of respiration detection and monitoring. This avoids additional preparations, such as physical sensor attachment or special clothing, which can be useful for certain healthcare applications. Furthermore, robustness of Doppler radar against environmental factors, such as light, ambient temperature, interference from other signals occupying the same bandwidth, fading effects, reduce environmental constraints and strengthens the possibility of employing Doppler radar in long-term respiration detection, and monitoring applications such as sleep studies. This paper presents an evaluation in the of use of microwave Doppler radar for capturing different dynamics of breathing patterns in addition to the respiration rate. Although finding the respiration rate is essential, identifying abnormal breathing patterns in real-time could be used to gain further insights into respiratory disorders and refine diagnostic procedures. Several known breathing disorders were professionally role played and captured in a real-time laboratory environment using a noncontact Doppler radar to evaluate the feasibility of this noncontact form of measurement in capturing breathing patterns under different conditions associated with certain breathing disorders. In addition to that, inhalation and exhalation flow patterns under different breathing scenarios were investigated to further support the feasibility of Doppler radar to accurately estimate the tidal volume. The results obtained for both experiments were compared with the gold standard measurement schemes, such as respiration belt and spirometry readings, yielding significant correlations with the Doppler radar-based information. In summary, Doppler radar is highlighted as an alternative approach not only for determining respiration rates, but also for identifying breathing patterns and tidal volumes as a preferred nonwearable alternative to the conventional - ontact sensing methods.

Detection of respiratory paradoxical movement via doppler radar measurements

 This paper presents an evaluation of microwave Doppler radar in capturing the respiration signal from the chest and abdomen simultaneously using two radar systems. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the feasibility of using Doppler radar in measuring respiration from both chest and abdomen simultaneously. Results obtained indicate that the respiration patterns from the radar were highly correlated with the reference respiration strap readings for normal breathing scenarios and also sensitive enough in capturing the paradoxical movement between the chest and the abdomen in the professionally role played experiments.

Towards localisation with Doppler radar

In this thesis the author introduces a novel method for Geo Localisation via Doppler Radar. The area of research is in the three dimensional space using amplitude and magnitude measurements. Geo Localisation in mobile applications is a useful technology that enables monitoring and gathering information about objects of interest.

Economic Bias of Weather Forecasting: A Spatial Modeling Approach

The value of accurate weather forecast information is substantial. In this paper we examine competition among forecast providers and its implications for the quality of forecasts. A simple economic model shows that an economic bias geographical inequality in forecast accuracy arises due to the extent of the market. Using the unique data on daily high temperature forecasts for 704 U.S. cities, we find that forecast accuracy increases with population and income. Furthermore, the economic bias gets larger when the day of forecasting is closer to the target day; i.e. when people are more concerned about the quality of forecasts. The results hold even after we control for location-specific heterogeneity and difficulty of forecasting.

Noncontact detection and analysis of respiratory function using microwave Doppler Radar

Real-time respiratory measurement with Doppler Radar has an important advantage in the monitoring of certain conditions such as sleep apnoea, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and many other general clinical uses requiring fast nonwearable and non-contact measurement of the respiratory function. In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of using Doppler Radar in measuring the basic respiratory frequencies (via fast Fourier transform) for four different types of breathing scenarios: normal breathing, rapid breathing, slow inhalation-fast exhalation, and fast inhalation-slow exhalation conducted in a laboratory environment. A high correlation factor was achieved between the Doppler Radar-based measurements and the conventional measurement device, a respiration strap. We also extended this work from basic signal acquisition to extracting detailed features of breathing function (I: E ratio). This facilitated additional insights into breathing activity and is likely to trigger a number of new applications in respiratory medicine.

Separation of Doppler radar-based respiratory signatures

Respiration detection using microwave Doppler radar has attracted significant interest primarily due to its unobtrusive form of measurement. With less preparation in comparison with attaching physical sensors on the body or wearing special clothing, Doppler radar for respiration detection and monitoring is particularly useful for long-term monitoring applications such as sleep studies (i.e. sleep apnoea, SIDS). However, motion artefacts and interference from multiple sources limit the widespread use and the scope of potential applications of this technique. Utilising the recent advances in independent component analysis (ICA) and multiple antenna configuration schemes, this work investigates the feasibility of decomposing respiratory signatures into each subject from the Doppler-based measurements. Experimental results demonstrated that FastICA is capable of separating two distinct respiratory signatures from two subjects adjacent to each other even in the presence of apnoea. In each test scenario, the separated respiratory patterns correlate closely to the reference respiration strap readings. The effectiveness of FastICA in dealing with the mixed Doppler radar respiration signals confirms its applicability in healthcare applications, especially in long-term home-based monitoring as it usually involves at least two people in the same environment (i.e. two people sleeping next to each other). Further, the use of FastICA to separate involuntary movements such as the arm swing from the respiratory signatures of a single subject was explored in a multiple antenna environment. The separated respiratory signal indeed demonstrated a high correlation with the measurements made by a respiratory strap used currently in clinical settings.

Weather fine light distant

A photograph that is part of a series building upon 'Fly Rhythm' 2013, this work and the other's in the exhibition are referenced in two double blind refereed, peer reviewed articles for 'Brolga' and 'Journal of somatic dance' due for publication in 2016. The series has also been referenced in the conference 'Photography in the 21st Century' at Central Saint Martins, London UK 2015 organised by 'The Philsophy of Photography' Journal, Intellect publishers UK; and 'MEMORY ^ SENTIMENT ^ BODY ^ SPACE ^ OBJECT ' Coventry University symposium 2015

Detection and analysis of human respiration using microwave Doppler radar

 Non-contact detection characteristic of Doppler radar provides an unobtrusive means of respiration detection and monitoring. This avoids additional preparations such as physical sensor attachment or special clothing. Furthermore, robustness of Doppler radar against environmental factors reduce environmental constraints and strengthens the possibility of employing Doppler radar as a practical biomedical devices in the future particularly in long term monitoring applications such as in sleep studies.