South-West elevation, Lake Weyba House, Sunshine Coast

Bath house and bedroom pavilions, with outdoor seating area in foreground.

North-West elevation, Brannigan House, St Lucia, Brisbane

Facing front of site. Carport underneath house, entry steps on left.

West elevation, Sunshine Beach House, Sunshine Coast

Part of western rear facade with fenestrations.

View along gallery to West, Goetz Residence, Buderim, Sunshine Coast

As seen from dining room.

West elevation, Hammond House, Cooran, Sunshine Coast

Windowless elevation facing uphill. Living room and bedroom study/storage alcove to South elevation on right.

South-west elevation, Prasser House, Buderim

As seem from the street.

North-west elevation, Carpenter Hall house, Wilston, Brisbane

House in foreground, with view to city beyond.

North-West elevation, Smeeton Residence, Buderim

Street (North-West) elevation.

South-west elevation, Addison House, Brisbane

View of south-west elevation through house to rear deck.

A first-principles density-functional calculation of the electronic and vibrational structure of the key melanin monomers

We report first-principles density-functional calculations for hydroquinone (HQ), indolequinone (IQ), and semiquinone (SQ). These molecules are believed to be the basic building blocks of the eumelanins, a class of biomacromolecules with important biological functions (including photoprotection) and with the potential for certain bioengineering applications. We have used the difference of self-consistent fields method to study the energy gap between the highest occupied molecular orbital and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital, HL. We show that HL is similar in IQ and SQ, but approximately twice as large in HQ. This may have important implications for our understanding of the observed broadband optical absorption of the eumelanins. The possibility of using this difference in HL to molecularly engineer the electronic properties of eumelanins is discussed. We calculate the infrared and Raman spectra of the three redox forms from first principles. Each of the molecules have significantly different infrared and Raman signatures, and so these spectra could be used in situ to nondestructively identify the monomeric content of macromolecules. It is hoped that this may be a helpful analytical tool in determining the structure of eumelanin macromolecules and hence in helping to determine the structure-property-function relationships that control the behavior of the eumelanins.

North-west elevation, Sunshine Coast University Library, Maroochydore

North-west elevation as seen from library forecourt.

North-west elevation and entrance court, Sunshine Coast University Library, Maroochydore

View of entrance court under construction, with north-west elevation behind.

Colonnade to south-west elevation, Sunshine Coast University Library, Maroochydore

View from south-east as seen from exterior.