High bandwidth voltage and current control design for voltage source converters

In this paper, two different high bandwidth converter control strategies are discussed. One of the strategies is for voltage control and the other is for current control. The converter, in each of the cases, is equipped with an output passive filter. For the voltage controller, the converter is equipped with an LC filter, while an output has an LCL filter for current controller. The important aspect that has been discussed the paper is to avoid computation of unnecessary references using high-pass filters in the feedback loop. The stability of the overall system, including the high-pass filters, has been analyzed. The choice of filter parameters is crucial for achieving desirable system performance. In this paper, the bandwidth of achievable performance is presented through frequency (Bode) plot of the system gains. It has been illustrated that the proposed controllers are capable of tracking fundamental frequency components along with low-order harmonic components. Extensive simulation results are presented to validate the control concepts presented in the paper.

Intake of isoflavone and lignan phytoestrogens and associated demographic and lifestyle factors in older Australian women

The purpose was to determine intake of phytoestrogens in a sample of older Australian women, and to investigate associated lifestyle factors. Subjects were an age-stratified sample of 511 women aged 40-80 y, randomly selected from the electoral roll and participating in the Longitudinal Assessment of Ageing in Women at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess isoflavone and lignan intake over the past month from food and supplements using a 112-item phytoestrogen frequency questionnaire. Data were also collected on nutrient intakes, physical activity, smoking, alcohol, non-prescription supplements, hormone therapy, education and occupation. Logistic regression was used to evaluate associations between demographic and lifestyle variables and soy/linseed consumption while controlling for age. Isoflavone intakes were significantly higher in the younger compared to older age groups (p<0.001); there were no age-related differences in lignan intake. Forty-five percent of women consumed at least one serve of a soy and/or linseed item and were defined as a soy/linseed consumer. Median (range) intakes by consumers for isoflavones and lignans (3.9 (0-172) mg/d and 2.4 (0.1-33) mg/d) were higher than intakes by non-consumers (0.004 (0-2.6) mg/d and 1.57 (0.44-4.7) mg/d), respectively (p<0.001). Consumers had higher intakes of dietary fibre (p=0.003), energy (p=0.04) and polyunsaturated fat (p=0.004), and higher levels of physical activity (p=0.006), socio-economic position (p<0.001), education (p<0.001) and supplement use (p<0.001). Women who consumed soy or linseed foods differed in lifestyle and demographic characteristics suggesting these factors should be considered when investigating associations with chronic disease outcomes.

User-created content and everyday cultural practice : lessons from YouTube

This chapter sets out the debates about the changing role of audiences in relation to user-created content as they appear in New Media and Cultural Studies. The discussion moves beyond the simple dichotomies between active producers and passive audiences, and draws on empirical evidence, in order to examine those practices that are most ordinary and widespread. Building on the knowledge of television’s role in facilitating public life, and the everyday, affective practices through which it is experienced and used, I focus on the way in which YouTube operates as a site of community, creativity and cultural citizenship; and as an archive of popular cultural memory.

Hydrodynamic and thruster model validation for autonomous underwater vehicles

From Pontryagin’s Maximum Principle to the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex; we develop the theory and generate implementable time efficient trajectories for a test-bed autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). This paper is the beginning of the journey from theory to implementation. We begin by considering pure motion trajectories and move into a rectangular trajectory which is a concatenation of pure surge and pure sway. These trajectories are tested using our numerical model and demonstrated by our AUV in the pool. In this paper we demonstrate that the above motions are realizable through our method, and we gain confidence in our numerical model. We conclude that using our current techniques, implementation of time efficient trajectories is likely to succeed.

Where does it say I have to do that? How can secondary schools enact assessment policy for students with disabilities

This paper describes effective ways secondary school leaders can enact curriculum policy, particularly assessment practices, to support learning for students with disabilities in mainstream schools. Assessment for learning (AfL) as a pedagogic practice, has gained recent importance through inclusion in curriculum policy in Queensland, Australia. AfL is the frequent assessment of student progress that identifies learning needs and informs future teaching and learning. Assessment of student progress of the standards based curriculum has provided challenges for schools attempting to meet the needs of “all” learners. This paper highlights findings of a small case study to model successful leadership practices used in an inclusive secondary school to improve achievement of students with disabilities through assessment. Successful leadership practices that can be generalized to improve achievement of all learners include making sense of policy for staff; developing staff common and shared beliefs and actions; organizing professional learning opportunities and arranging collaborative curriculum planning and co-teaching.

Group maintenance scheduling : a case study for a pipeline network

This paper presents a group maintenance scheduling case study for a water distributed network. This water pipeline network presents the challenge of maintaining aging pipelines with the associated increases in annual maintenance costs. The case study focuses on developing an effective maintenance plan for the water utility. Current replacement planning is difficult as it needs to balance the replacement needs under limited budgets. A Maintenance Grouping Optimization (MGO) model based on a modified genetic algorithm was utilized to develop an optimum group maintenance schedule over a 20-year cycle. The adjacent geographical distribution of pipelines was used as a grouping criterion to control the searching space of the MGO model through a Judgment Matrix. Based on the optimum group maintenance schedule, the total cost was effectively reduced compared with the schedules without grouping maintenance jobs. This optimum result can be used as a guidance to optimize the current maintenance plan for the water utility.

Factors associated with recall of media reports about vitamin D and sun protection

Objective: To assess the recall of media reports about vitamin D and associated factors. Methods: Analysis of cross-sectional telephone interview data (2,001 Queensland adults, 18-70 years) on vitamin D and personal sun protection, recall of media reports and participant characteristics. Results: 83.7% of participants had heard of vitamin D, 47.5% through the media. Only 513 (25.6%) participants recalled the media content within four main themes: vitamin D is beneficial/comes from the sun (47.0%); some people aren’t getting enough vitamin D, need more sun (27.9%); need to balance sun exposure and skin protection (11.5%); or other (13.6%). Only 65 of the 950 participants (6.8%) reported a change to their behaviour(s) due to the media report. Conclusion: Although the media were the main source of information about vitamin D for almost 50% of participants, recall of the content and direct effect on behaviour was low. Only a small minority recalled a balanced media report of beneficial and harmful aspects of sun exposure. Implications Health professionals often supply media with background information. To achieve best public health practice for sun protection and vitamin D, information to foster balanced media reports should be provided.

Estimating the loading condition of a diesel engine using instantaneous angular speed analysis

Continuing monitoring of diesel engine performance is critical for early detection of fault developments in the engine before they materialize and become a functional failure. Instantaneous crank angular speed (IAS) analysis is one of a few non intrusive condition monitoring techniques that can be utilized for such tasks. In this experimental study, IAS analysis was employed to estimate the loading condition of a 4-stroke 4-cylinder diesel engine in a laboratory condition. It was shown that IAS analysis can provide useful information about engine speed variation caused by the changing piston momentum and crankshaft acceleration during the engine combustion process. It was also found that the major order component of the IAS spectrum directly associated with the engine firing frequency (at twice the mean shaft revolution speed) can be utilized to estimate the engine loading condition regardless of whether the engine is operating at normal running conditions or in a simulated faulty injector case. The amplitude of this order component follows a clear exponential curve as the loading condition changes. A mathematical relationship was established for the estimation of the engine power output based on the amplitude of the major order component of the measured IAS spectrum.

Estimating the loading condition of a diesel engine using instantaneous angular speed analysis

Continuing monitoring of diesel engine performance is critical for early detection of fault developments in the engine before they materialize and become a functional failure. Instantaneous crank angular speed (IAS) analysis is one of a few non intrusive condition monitoring techniques that can be utilized for such tasks. In this experimental study, IAS analysis was employed to estimate the loading condition of a 4-stroke 4-cylinder diesel engine in a laboratory condition. It was shown that IAS analysis can provide useful information about engine speed variation caused by the changing piston momentum and crankshaft acceleration during the engine combustion process. It was also found that the major order component of the IAS spectrum directly associated with the engine firing frequency (at twice the mean shaft revolution speed) can be utilized to estimate the engine loading condition regardless of whether the engine is operating at normal running conditions or in a simulated faulty injector case. The amplitude of this order component follows a clear exponential curve as the loading condition changes. A mathematical relationship was established for the estimation of the engine power output based on the amplitude of the major order component of the measured IAS spectrum.

Identifying differences in safe roads and crash prone roads using clustering data mining

Road asset managers are overwhelmed with a high volume of raw data which they need to process and utilise in supporting their decision making. This paper presents a method that processes road-crash data of a whole road network and exposes hidden value inherent in the data by deploying the clustering data mining method. The goal of the method is to partition the road network into a set of groups (classes) based on common data and characterise the class crash types to produce a crash profiles for each cluster. By comparing similar road classes with differing crash types and rates, insight can be gained into these differences that are caused by the particular characteristics of their roads. These differences can be used as evidence in knowledge development and decision support.

Inclusive practice in kindergarten

Professional Development module video interview What does the principle of inclusive practice look/sound/feel like in the early years setting? (7min09sec; 15 MB) What do you see as the role of the teacher and support personnel in terms of inclusive practice? Why is collaboration so important? (3min; 6 MB) What communication strategies would help support inclusive practices with parents? (4min; 9 MB)

M-ary trees for combinatorial asset management decision problems

A novel m-ary tree based approach is presented to solve asset management decisions which are combinatorial in nature. The approach introduces a new dynamic constraint based control mechanism which is capable of excluding infeasible solutions from the solution space. The approach also provides a solution to the challenges with ordering of assets decisions.

Separation of acoustic emission signals from small size multi-cylinder diesel engine

This paper presents techniques which can lead to diagnosis of faults in a small size multi-cylinder diesel engine. Preliminary analysis of the acoustic emission (AE) signals is outline, including time-frequency analysis and selection of optimum frequency band.The results of applying mean field independent component analysis (MFICA) to separate the AE root mean square (RMS) signals and the effects of changing parameter values are also outlined. The results on separation of RMS signals show thsi technique has the potential of increasing the probability to successfully identify the AE events associated with the various mechanical events within the combustion process of multi-cylinder diesel engines.

A multilevel investigation of inequalities in clinical and psychosocial outcomes for women after breast cancer

Background In Australia, breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting Australian women. Inequalities in clinical and psychosocial outcomes have existed for some time, affecting particularly women from rural areas and from areas of disadvantage. We have a limited understanding of how individual and area-level factors are related to each other, and their associations with survival and other clinical and psychosocial outcomes. Methods/Design This study will examine associations between breast cancer recurrence, survival and psychosocial outcomes (e.g. distress, unmet supportive care needs, quality of life). The study will use an innovative multilevel approach using area-level factors simultaneously with detailed individual-level factors to assess the relative importance of remoteness, socioeconomic and demographic factors, diagnostic and treatment pathways and processes, and supportive care utilization to clinical and psychosocial outcomes. The study will use telephone and self-administered questionnaires to collect individual-level data from approximately 3, 300 women ascertained from the Queensland Cancer Registry diagnosed with invasive breast cancer residing in 478 Statistical Local Areas Queensland in 2011 and 2012. Area-level data will be sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics census data. Geo-coding and spatial technology will be used to calculate road travel distances from patients' residence to diagnostic and treatment centres. Data analysis will include a combination of standard empirical procedures and multilevel modelling. Discussion The study will address the critical question of: what are the individual- or area-level factors associated with inequalities in outcomes from breast cancer? The findings will provide health care providers and policy makers with targeted information to improve the management of women with breast cancer, and inform the development of strategies to improve psychosocial care for women with breast cancer.