Application of SWAT to model the water balance of the Woady Yaloak River catchment, Australia

The widespread land use changes that are expected to occur across the Corangamite region in southwest Victoria, Australia, have the potential to significantly alter the water balance of catchments. Adoption of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), which is a long-term water balance model, as a tool for predicting land use change impacts on catchment water balance for the Corangamite region is currently being considered. This paper describes the initial application of SWAT to the Woady Yaloak River catchment, located within the Corangamite region, to carry out an evaluation of its abilities for simulating the long-term water balance dynamics of the catchment. The performance of the model for predicting runoff at annual and monthly time scales was found to be very good. The excessive recharge of the shallow aquifer that occurred during winter, despite the subsoil being relatively impermeable, ultimately contributed to overestimation of baseflow and underestimation of interflow. The actual evapotranspiration from hydrologic response units (HRU s) containing eucalyptus trees was significantly less than that from HRUs containing pasture, a problem attributed to the incorrect simulation of Leaf Area Index (LAI) and biomass by the model for mature stands of eucalyptus trees and also to assigning inadequate values for two parameters that directly influence evapotranspiration. SWAT has very good potential for being used as tool to study land use change impacts across the Corangamite region provided that several modifications are made to the model to overcome some of the shortcomings and deficiencies that were identified in this initial application.

Integration of 3-PG into SWAT to simulate the growth of evergreen forests

SWAT cannot accurately simulate the seasonal fluctuations or the long-term trend of the Leaf Area Index (LAI) of evergreen forests. This deficiency has detrimental impacts for the prediction of interception and transpiration, two processes that have a significant influence on catchment water yield. This paper details the integration of the forest growth model 3-PG with SWAT to improve the simulation of LAI for evergreen forests. The integrated model, called SWAT/3-PG, was applied to the Woady Yaloak River Catchment in southern Australia where eucalyptus forests and pine plantations account for 30% of the total land use. SWAT/3-PG simulated the LAI of eucalypts and pines more accurately and realistically than the original version of SWAT. Forest LAI simulated by SWAT/3-PG agreed reasonably well with estimates of forest LAI derived independently from a Landsat satellite image. SWAT/3- PG has considerable value as a tool that managers can utilise to predict the impacts of land use change in catchments where evergreen forests are prevalent.

God, gratuitous evil, and van Inwagen's attempt to reconcile the two

Both critics and advocates of evidential arguments from evil often assume that theistic belief is not compatible with gratuitous evil. It is often assumed, in other words, that an omniscient, omnipotent, perfectly good being would not permit an evil unless he had a morally sufcient reason to permit it. However, this cornerstone of evidential arguments from evil has come under increasing re of late, in particular by Peter van Inwagen. The aim of this paper is to outline and then assess van Inwagen's attempt to reconcile theism with gratuitous evil.

Does hard determinism render the problem of evil even harder?

Hard determinism, in theological dress, holds that there is no human free will since God is the sufficient active cause of everything that happens in creation. It is surprising that, in the ever-growing literature on the problem of evil, very little attention has been paid to theodicies that adopt a hard determinist outlook. It is commonly assumed that without free will the theodical project is a non-starter. I challenge this long-held assumption by, firstly, developing a cumulative-style theodicy from within a hard determinist framework, and secondly, comparing the merits of such a theodicy with two libertarian rivals, specifically, Molinism and open theism. The hard determinist model of divine providence is, I argue, in no worse shape than the principal models developed by libertarians.

Structural and functional characterization of the oxidoreductase a-DsbA1 from wolbachia pipientis

The α-proteobacterium Wolbachia pipientis is a highly successful intracellular endosymbiont of invertebrates that manipulates its host's reproductive biology to facilitate its own maternal transmission. The fastidious nature of Wolbachia and the lack of genetic transformation have hampered analysis of the molecular basis of these manipulations. Structure determination of key Wolbachia proteins will enable the development of inhibitors for chemical genetics studies. Wolbachia encodes a homologue (α-DsbA1) of the Escherichia coli dithiol oxidase enzyme EcDsbA, essential for the oxidative folding of many exported proteins. We found that the active-site cysteine pair of Wolbachia α-DsbA1 has the most reducing redox potential of any characterized DsbA. In addition, Wolbachia α-DsbA1 possesses a second disulfide that is highly conserved in α-proteobacterial DsbAs but not in other DsbAs. The α-DsbA1 structure lacks the characteristic hydrophobic features of EcDsbA, and the protein neither complements EcDsbA deletion mutants in E. coli nor interacts with EcDsbB, the redox partner of EcDsbA. The surface characteristics and redox profile of α-DsbA1 indicate that it probably plays a specialized oxidative folding role with a narrow substrate specificity. This first report of a Wolbachia protein structure provides the basis for future chemical genetics studies.

Disulfides as redox switches : from molecular mechanisms to functional significance

The molecular mechanisms underlying thiol-based redox control are poorly defined. Disulfide bonds between Cys residues are commonly thought to confer extra rigidity and stability to their resident protein, forming a type of proteinaceous spot weld. Redox biologists have been redefining the role of disulfides over the last 30–40 years. Disulfides are now known to form in the cytosol under conditions of oxidative stress. Isomerization of extracellular disulfides is also emerging as an important regulator of protein function. The current paradigm is that the disulfide proteome consists of two subproteomes: a structural group and a redox-sensitive group. The redoxsensitive group is less stable and often associated with regions of stress in protein structures. Some characterized redox-active disulfides are the helical CXXC motif, often associated with thioredoxin-fold proteins; and forbidden disulfides, a group of metastable disulfides that disobey elucidated rules of protein stereochemistry. Here we discuss the role of redox-active disulfides as switches in proteins.

FacadeUnity

FacadeUnity is an artistic software environment developed during a residency at Ars Electronica Futurelab (Linz, Austria) and supported by the Australia Council. It allows a dancer in a motion capture system to choreograph the facade lighting of the Ars Electronica building in realtime creating a dance-driven kinetic architecture.

Reproduction

Reproduction is a mixed reality installation that investigates relationships between the material and synthetic worlds through a realtime 3D environment that immerses the interior of the space in which human participants interact with colonies of synthetic entities.

Application of enhanced membrane bioreactor (eMBR) to treat dye wastewater

An enhanced membrane bioreactor (eMBR) consisting of two anoxic bioreactors (ARs) followed by an aerated membrane bioreactor (AMBR), UV-unit and a granular activated carbon (GAC) filter was employed to treat 50-100 mg/L of remazol blue BR dye. The COD of the feed was 2334 mg/L and COD:TN:TP in the feed was 119:1.87:1. A feed flow rate of 5 L/d was maintained when the dye concentration was 50 mg/L; 10 L/d of return activated sludge was recirculated to each AR from the AMBR. Once the biological system is acclimatised, 95% of dye, 99% of COD, 97% of nitrogen and 73% of phosphorus were removed at a retention time of 74.4 h. When the effluent from the AMBR was drawn at a flux rate of 6.5 L/m(2)h, the trans-membrane pressure reached 40 kPa in every 10 days. AMBR effluent was passed through the UV-unit and GAC filter to remove the dye completely.