Pooled biological specimens for human biomonitoring of environmental chemicals : opportunities and limitations

Biomonitoring has become the ‘gold standard’ in assessing chemical exposures, and plays an important role in risk assessment. The pooling of biological specimens – combining multiple individual specimens into a single sample – can be used in biomonitoring studies to monitor levels of exposure and identify exposure trends, or to identify susceptible populations in a cost-effective manner. Pooled samples provide an estimate of central tendency, and may also reveal information about variation within the population. The development of a pooling strategy requires careful consideration of the type and number of samples collected, the number of pools required, and the number of specimens to combine per pool in order to maximize the type and robustness of the data. Creative pooling strategies can be used to explore exposure-outcome associations, and extrapolation from other larger studies can be useful in identifying elevated exposures in specific individuals. The use of pooled specimens is advantageous as it saves significantly on analytical costs, may reduce the time and resources required for recruitment, and in certain circumstances, allows quantification of samples approaching the limit of detection. In addition, use of pooled samples can provide population estimates while avoiding ethical difficulties that may be associated with reporting individual results.

Report on a workshop to investigate the current status of environmental bio-acoustic monitoring

This workshop was supported by the Australian Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (ACEAS, http://www.aceas.org.au/), a facility of the Australian Government-funded Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (http://www.tern.org.au/), a research infrastructure facility established under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy and Education Infrastructure Fund - Super Science Initiative, through the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education. Hosted by: Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland. (QUT, http://www.qut.edu.au/) Dates: 8-11 May 2012 Report Editors: Prof Stuart Parsons (Uni. Auckland, NZ) and Dr Michael Towsey (QUT). This report is a compilation of notes and discussion summaries contributed by those attending the Workshop. They have been assembled into a logical order by the editors. Another report (with photographs) can be obtained at: http://www.aceas.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=94&Itemid=96

A history of environmental management in the field in Queensland : episodes of activity

This paper reviews a wide range of literature on environmental management in the field in Queensland, and analyzes this by period and by author. An episodic pattern of activities since European settlement is evident. Periods of exploration (pre-1950) and inventory- compilation (ca. 1950-1970) were followed by two decades of media and non-government organization campaigning (ca. 1970-1990), then an era dominated by government regulatory action (ca. 1990-2010). These eras dominated public perception of what was happening in environmental practice. They were delineated by historic ‘interventions’ (summarily, the end of World War II, the 1971 inflationary crisis, and computerization respectively).

Benchmarking the standard of environmental management practised in marinas

Most existing marinas are boat parking/storing and servicing facilities that have been built over a long period of time for the convenience of local boat owners.

An investigation of the impacts of Excellence in Research for Australia : a case study on accounting for research

This is the first study to explore the way Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA), a research assessment exercise introduced in the Australian higher education sector in 2010, fostered the development of strategically oriented Management Accounting technologies in the form of Performance Management Systems (PMS) to achieve research excellence within an Australian university. It identifies ERA's intended and unintended consequences. While ERA enabled the creation of tighter controls in the PMS of faculties, departments and individual academics within the university, enhancing its reported research performance, the impact on academics was low job satisfaction, increased workload and a higher focus on research than teaching.

Mitigation of distorted and unbalanced stator voltage of stand-alone doubly fed induction generators using repetitive control technique

Unbalanced or non-linear loads result in distorted stator currents and electromagnetic torque pulsations in stand-alone doubly fed induction generators (DFIGs). This study proposes the use of a proportional-integral repetitive control (PIRC) scheme so as to mitigate the levels of harmonic and unbalance at the stator terminals of the DFIG. The PIRC is structurally simpler and requires much less computation than existing methods. Analysis of the PIRC operation and the methodology to determine the control parameters is included. Simulation study as well as laboratory test measurements demonstrate clearly the effectiveness of the proposed PIRC control scheme.

Risk mitigation of post-earthquake fire in urban buildings

Post-earthquake fire (PEF) is considered one of the most high risk and complicated problems affecting buildings in urban areas and can cause even more damage than the earthquake itself. However, most standards and codes ignore the implications of PEF and so buildings are not normally designed with PEF in mind. What is needed is for PEF factors to be routinely scrutinized and codified as part of the design process. A systematic application is presented as a means of mitigating the risk of PEF in urban buildings. This covers both existing buildings, in terms of retrofit solutions, and those yet to be designed, where a PEF factor is proposed. To ensure the mitigation strategy meets the defined criteria, a minimum time is defined – the safety guaranteed time target – where the safety of the inhabitants in a building is guaranteed.

Cortical organization of environmental sounds by attribute

Semantic knowledge is supported by a widely distributed neuronal network, with differential patterns of activation depending upon experimental stimulus or task demands. Despite a wide body of knowledge on semantic object processing from the visual modality, the response of this semantic network to environmental sounds remains relatively unknown. Here, we used fMRI to investigate how access to different conceptual attributes from environmental sound input modulates this semantic network. Using a range of living and manmade sounds, we scanned participants whilst they carried out an object attribute verification task. Specifically, we tested visual perceptual, encyclopedic, and categorical attributes about living and manmade objects relative to a high-level auditory perceptual baseline to investigate the differential patterns of response to these contrasting types of object-related attributes, whilst keeping stimulus input constant across conditions. Within the bilateral distributed network engaged for processing environmental sounds across all conditions, we report here a highly significant dissociation within the left hemisphere between the processing of visual perceptual and encyclopedic attributes of objects.

Mitigation of harmonics of DFIGs in DC-Microgrids

During the last few years, there has been an increased attention paid on the developments of DC microgrids (DCMGs) and their applications. For economical and more flexible wind power generation, doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) is regarded as a most commonly used generator in wind farms. This paper presents a configuration and operation method for a DCMG connected with DFIGs, in which the controller of the DFIG is designed for maximum power point tracking (MPPT). The generation of harmonics and their effects on the generator in this configuration are analyzed and a harmonic compensation method is proposed. Furthermore, the simulation results are presented to show that the DFIG can be operated effectively in DCMGs and harmonic currents can be reduced.

Green Cultural Criminology : Constructions of Environmental Harm, Consumerism, and Resistance to Ecocide

Over the last two decades, "green criminology" has emerged as a unique area of study, bringing together criminologists and sociologists from a wide range of research backgrounds and varying theoretical orientations. It spans the micro to the macro—from individual-level environmental crimes and victimization to business/corporate violations and state transgressions. There have been few attempts, however, to explicitly or implicitly integrate cultural criminology into green criminology (or vice versa). This book moves towards articulating a green cultural criminological perspective. Brisman and South examine existing overlapping research and offer a platform to support future excursions by green criminologists into cultural criminology’s concern with media images and representations, consumerism and consumption, and resistance. At the same time, they offer an invitation to cultural criminologists to adopt a green view of the consumption landscape and the growth (and depictions) of environmental harms.

Appendix 8: Quantifying the effects of environmental factors on catch rates in South-East fisheries: 1986-2006

The collection of basic environmental data by industry members was successful and offers a way of overcoming the problems associated with differences in scale between the environment and fisheries datasets. A simple method of collecting environmental data was developed that was only a small time burden on skippers, yet has the potential to provide very useful information on the same scale as the catch and effort data recorded in the logbooks. The success of this trial was aided by the natural interest of fishers to learn more about the environment in which they fish. The archival temperature-depth tags chosen proved robust, reliable and easy to use. While the use of large scale environmental data may not yield significant improvements in stock assessments for most SESSF species, fine-scale data collected from selected vessels using methods developed during this project may, in the longer term, be useful for incorporation into CPUE standardisations in the future...

Semi-automated annotation of environmental acoustic recordings

Environmental sensors collect massive amounts of audio data. This thesis investigates computational methods to support human analysts in identifying faunal vocalisations from that audio. A series of experiments was conducted to trial the effectiveness of novel user interfaces. This research examines the rapid scanning of spectrograms, decision support tools for users, and cleaning methods for folksonomies. Together, these investigations demonstrate that providing computational support to human analysts increases their efficiency and accuracy; this allows bioacoustics projects to efficiently utilise their valuable human analysts.

Local experiences, global similarities: Teacher perceptions of the impacts of national testing

Since 2008, Australian schoolchildren in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 have sat a series of tests each May designed to assess their attainment of basic skills in literacy and numeracy. These tests are known as the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). In 2010, individual school NAPLAN data were first published on the MySchool website which enables comparisons to be made between individual schools and statistically like schools across Australia. NAPLAN represents the increased centrality of the federal government in education, particularly in regards to education policy. One effect of this has been a recast emphasis of education as an economic, rather than democratic, good. As Reid (2009) suggests, this recasting of education within national productivity agendas mobilises commonsense discourses of accountability and transparency. These are common articles of faith for many involved in education administration and bureaucracy; more and better data, and holding people to account for that data, must improve education...