An evaluation of the effectiveness of Value-at-Risk (VaR) models for Australian banks under Basel III

This study compares Value-at-Risk (VaR) measures for Australian banks over a period that includes the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) to determine whether the methodology and parameter selection are important for capital adequacy holdings that will ultimately support a bank in a crisis period. VaR methodology promoted under Basel II was largely criticised during the GFC for its failure to capture downside risk. However, results from this study indicate that 1-year parametric and historical models produce better measures of VaR than models with longer time frames. VaR estimates produced using Monte Carlo simulations show a high percentage of violations but with lower average magnitude of a violation when they occur. VaR estimates produced by the ARMA GARCH model also show a relatively high percentage of violations, however, the average magnitude of a violation is quite low. Our findings support the design of the revised Basel II VaR methodology which has also been adopted under Basel III.

Under this Sky: Logan's Musical Celebration

A creative practice as research, UNDER THIS SKY is the latest investigation in a 12-year study into the “QMF Model”, an application of principles of community and cultural practice that generates large-scale, music spectacle events that derive their narrative and expression from the communities in which they are performed. UNDER THIS SKY is a large-scale musical specially commissioned for the city of Logan (Queensland) as the signature work of the 2015 Queensland Musical Festival. The investigation centres around the capacity of the “QMF Model” to engage with performers and musicians of Logan and then, through community consultation, create a narrative based on idiosyncratic stories and themes that would culminate in a performance event in August 2015. Previous creative projects, Boomtown (Gladstone), Behind the Cane (Bowen) and The Road We’re On (Charleville), were conducted in relatively small communities, Gladstone being the largest. In UNDER THIS SKY, the model is being tested in a large metropolitan city (Logan – 300,000). The core principles of CACD (community arts and cultural development) are being interrogated and adapted to fit this large-scale, whole of community environment. The purpose is to refine and further validate the “QMF Model” as a viable and effective process for community/artistic partnerships. Since February 2014, professional artists and managers have facilitated and shaped the work, up-skilling performers over a periods of 12 months, developing new relationships and creating opportunities for participation at all levels of experience. The research methodology involved creative practice through a continuous cycle of action, reflection, adaptation and application.

Priority threat management of invasive animals to protect biodiversity under climate change

Climate change is a major threat to global biodiversity, and its impacts can act synergistically to heighten the severity of other threats. Most research on projecting species range shifts under climate change has not been translated to informing priority management strategies on the ground. We develop a prioritization framework to assess strategies for managing threats to biodiversity under climate change and apply it to the management of invasive animal species across one-sixth of the Australian continent, the Lake Eyre Basin. We collected information from key stakeholders and experts on the impacts of invasive animals on 148 of the region's most threatened species and 11 potential strategies. Assisted by models of current distributions of threatened species and their projected distributions, experts estimated the cost, feasibility, and potential benefits of each strategy for improving the persistence of threatened species with and without climate change. We discover that the relative cost-effectiveness of invasive animal control strategies is robust to climate change, with the management of feral pigs being the highest priority for conserving threatened species overall. Complementary sets of strategies to protect as many threatened species as possible under limited budgets change when climate change is considered, with additional strategies required to avoid impending extinctions from the region. Overall, we find that the ranking of strategies by cost-effectiveness was relatively unaffected by including climate change into decision-making, even though the benefits of the strategies were lower. Future climate conditions and impacts on range shifts become most important to consider when designing comprehensive management plans for the control of invasive animals under limited budgets to maximize the number of threatened species that can be protected.

A right of resale? Indigenous art under the hammer

This week, Sotheby's sold the late Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri's painting, Warlugulong. The auction-house's spokesman, Tim Klingender, was enthusiastic about the high price commanded by the art work: "The painting was a really great painting and it deserved to make a really fantastic price, and it made that price."

Who killed fair use? A copyright murder mystery down under

Fair Use Week has been celebrated this week in the United States, with great gusto and enthusiasm. At Harvard Library, Kyle Courtney commented: ‘Fair use is critical and important to innovation, scholarship and research in the United States.’ Kenneth Crews emphasized that ‘the new technological ventures, like other creative pursuits, require fair use and other copyright limitations for experimentation and success.’ Legal director Corynne McSherry of the Electronic Frontier Foundation has highlighted the significance and the importance of the defence of fair use: ‘Fair use provides breathing space in copyright law, making sure that control of the right to copy and distribute doesn’t become control of the right to create and innovate.’ For Techdirt, Mike Masnick has emphasized that fair use is a right – and not an exception or a mere defence. Peter Jaszi and Pat Aufderheide have highlighted the contextual operation of fair use in particular artistic communities. Molly Van Houweling of the Authors Alliance has written about the ecstasy of influence – the role of inspiration and appropriation in all acts of artistic creation. Fair use has been celebrated as a many-splendored legal creation.

A decision support framework for prioritization of engineering asset management activities under uncertainty

Engineers and asset managers must often make decisions on how to best allocate limited resources amongst different interrelated activities, including repair, renewal, inspection, and procurement of new assets. The presence of project interdependencies and the lack of sufficient information on the true value of an activity often produce complex problems and leave the decision maker guessing about the quality and robustness of their decision. In this paper, a decision support framework for uncertain interrelated activities is presented. The framework employs a methodology for multi-criteria ranking in the presence of uncertainty, detailing the effect that uncertain valuations may have on the priority of a particular activity. The framework employs employing semi-quantitative risk measures that can be tailored to an organisation and enable a transparent and simple-to-use uncertainty specification by the decision maker. The framework is then demonstrated on a real world project set from a major Australian utility provider.

Characteristics of the first pre-discharge current pulse in SF6 under a steep fronted impulse voltage

An improved understanding of the characteristics of the pre-discharge current pulses in GIS will lead to improved analyses of the results from the UHF partial discharge detection method. This paper presents the characteristics of the first pre-discharge current pulses from a point-to-plain geometry at 1 bar absolute under both polarities of a 1.1/80 us lightning impulse. The analysis has shown that the pre-discharge current wave shape, peak current magnitude and charge is effected by the instantaneous voltage at which the pre- discharge took place as well as the polarity of the active electrode. The measured results show that protrusions on the electrodes have slower wave shape parameters than those reported for free conducting particles.

Preliminary work on the detection of partial discharges in SF6 under impulse voltages

This paper presents preliminary results of an investigation into the detection of partial discharges on the rise of impulse voltages from a point-to-plane gap in SF6. A parallel RC detection impedance is placed in the earth path of a point. Computer simulations are done to determine the values of R and C that will result in the smallest impulse voltage signal and the largest discharge signal across the detection impedance. These simulations and the experimental work show that the impulse voltage signal can not be sufficiently attenuated during the rise time of the applied voltage impulse using the RC detection impedance alone. An alternative discharge detection method is proposed in which a resonant partial discharge coupler is used. Elimination of noise and the impulse voltage signal can be achieved by shorting the coupler plate to the ground plane in the middle of the disk. However, due to the bandwidth of the measuring equipment and noise from the impulse generator it was not possible to detect discharges on the rising edge of a 1.5s voltage impulse using a coupler shorted in the middle. It was found that for this particular coupler, with no shorting points, and if the rising edge of the voltage impulse is longer than 5us, (10us) PD activity can be detected on the rising edge.

Behaviour and strength of hollow flange channel sections under torsion and bending

Hollow flange channel section is a cold-formed high-strength and thin-walled steel section with a unique shape including two rectangular hollow flanges and a slender web. Due to its mono-symmetric characteristics, it will also be subjected to torsion when subjected to transverse loads in practical applications. Past research on steel beams subject to torsion has concentrated on open sections while very few steel design standards give suitable design rules for torsion design. Since the hollow flange channel section is different from conventional open sections, its torsional behaviour remains unknown to researchers. Therefore the elastic behaviour of hollow flange channel sections subject to uniform and non-uniform torsion, and combined torsion and bending was investigated using the solutions of appropriate differential equilibrium equations. The section torsion shear flow, warping normal stress distribution, and section constants including torsion constant and warping constant were obtained. The results were compared with those from finite element analyses that verified the accuracy of analytical solutions. Parametric studies were undertaken for simply supported beams subject to a uniformly distributed torque and a uniformly distributed transverse load applied away from the shear centre. This paper presents the details of this research into the elastic behaviour and strength of hollow flange channel sections subject to torsion and bending and the results.

An investigation of Nano-particle deposition in cylindrical tubes under Laminar condition using Lagrangian transport model

Aerosol deposition in cylindrical tubes is a subject of interest to researchers and engineers in many applications of aerosol physics and metrology. Investigation of nano-particles in different aspects such as lungs, upper airways, batteries and vehicle exhaust gases is vital due the smaller size, adverse health effect and higher trouble for trapping than the micro-particles. The Lagrangian particle tracking provides an effective method for simulating the deposition of nano-particles as well as micro-particles as it accounts for the particle inertia effect as well as the Brownian excitation. However, using the Lagrangian approach for simulating ultrafine particles has been limited due to computational cost and numerical difficulties. In this paper, the deposition of nano-particles in cylindrical tubes under laminar condition is studied using the Lagrangian particle tracking method. The commercial Fluent software is used to simulate the fluid flow in the pipes and to study the deposition and dispersion of nano-particles. Different particle diameters as well as different flow rates are examined. The point analysis in a uniform flow is performed for validating the Brownian motion. The results show good agreement between the calculated deposition efficiency and the analytic correlations in the literature. Furthermore, for the nano-particles with the diameter more than 40 nm, the calculated deposition efficiency by the Lagrangian method is less than the analytic correlations based on Eulerian method due to statistical error or the inertia effect.

Experimental studies of lipped channel beams subject to web crippling under ETF and ITF load cases

Lipped channel beams (LCBs) are commonly used as floor joists and bearers in buildings. However, they are subjected to specific failure modes such as web crippling. Despite considerable web crippling research, recent studies [1-6] have shown that the current web crippling design rules are unable to predict the test capacities under ETF and ITF load cases. In many instances, the predictions by the available design standards such as AISI S100, AS/NZS 4600 and Eurocode 3 Part 1-3 [7-9] are inconsistent. Hence thirty-six tests were conducted to assess the web crippling behaviour and strengths of LCBs under two flange load cases. Experimental web crippling capacities were then compared with the predictions from the current design rules. These comparisons showed that AS/NZS 4600 and AISI S100 design equations are very unconservative for LCB sections under ETF load case and are conservative for ITF load case. Hence improved equations were proposed to determine the web crippling capacities of LCBs. Suitable design rules were also developed using the direct strength method. This paper presents the details of this study and the results including improved design rules.

A legal perspective of carbon rights and benefit sharing under REDD+: A conceptual framework and examples from Cambodia and Kenya

This article discusses two key issues in REDD+ design and implementation at the national level – carbon rights, and benefit sharing. Both carbon rights and benefit sharing can be understood as new legal concepts (although they build on existing law), and as legal concepts they offer a framework for addressing related areas of REDD+ policy. Many countries are currently considering how to manage carbon rights and benefit sharing issues, including Cambodia and Kenya. Both of these countries host existing forest carbon projects and are also in the process of designing national REDD+ programmes. This article uses a conceptual framework for carbon rights and benefit sharing derived from legal analysis to consider the cases of both Cambodia and Kenya, and also includes a general discussion of the challenges countries might encounter when considering how to manage carbon rights and benefit sharing in the context of REDD+ implementation.

Experimental study of cold-formed steel floors made of hollow flange channel section joists under fire conditions

Fire safety plays a vital role in building design because appropriate level of fire safety is important to safeguard lives and property. Cold-formed steel channel sections along with fire-resistive plasterboards are used to construct light-gauge steel frame (LSF) floor systems to provide adequate fire resistance ratings (FRR). It is common practice to use lipped channel sections (LCS) as joists in LSF floor systems, and past research has only considered such systems. This research focuses on adopting improved joist sections such as hollow flange channel (HFC) sections to improve the structural performance and FRR of cold-formed LSF floor systems under standard fire conditions. The structural and thermal performances of LSF floor systems made of a welded HFC, LiteSteel Beams (LSB), with different plasterboard and insulation configurations, were investigated using four full-scale fire tests under standard fires. These fire tests showed that the new LSF floor system with LSB joists improved the FRR in comparison to that of conventional LCS joists. Fire tests have provided valuable structural and thermal performance data of tested floor systems that included time-temperature profiles and failure times, temperatures, and modes. This paper presents the details of the fire tests conducted in this study and their results along with some important findings.

Direct photocatalytic conversion of aldehydes to esters using supported gold nanoparticles under visible light irradiation at room temperature

Visible light can drive esteri fi cation from aldehydes and alcohols using supported gold nanoparticles (Au/Al 2 O 3 ) as photo- catalysts at ambient temperatures. The gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) absorb visible light due to the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) e ff ect, and the conduction electrons of the AuNPs gain the energy of the incident light. The energetic electrons, which concentrate at the NP surface, facilitate the activation of a range of aldehyde and alcohol substrates. The photocatalytic e ffi ciencies strongly depend on the Au loading, particle sizes of the AuNPs, irradiance, and wavelength of the light irradiation. Finally, a plausible reaction mechanism was proposed, and the Au/Al 2 O 3 catalysts can be reused several times without signi fi cantly losing activity. The knowledge acquired in this study may inspire further studies in new e ffi cient recyclable photocatalysts and a wide range of organic synthesis driven by sunlight.

The exhaustive reduction of formylporphyrins to methylporphyrins using dimethylformamide/water as reductant under microwave irradiation

The reduction of meso-formyl derivatives of 5,15-diaryl- and 5,10,15-triphenylporphyrin (and their nickel(II) complexes) to the corresponding meso-methyl porphyrins is achieved in high yield by microwave heating of the substrate in dimethylformamide (DMF) in the presence of acids such as trifluoroacetic acid, or even just with added water. The reactions are complete in less than 30 min at 250 °C. The reaction is strongly suppressed in very dry DMF in the absence of added acid. The meso-hydroxymethyl porphyrins are also reduced to the methyl derivatives, suggesting the primary alcohols may be intermediates in the exhaustive reduction. UV-visible spectra taken at intervals during reaction at 240 °C indicated that at least one other intermediate is present, but it was not identified. In d7-DMF, the methylporphyrin isolated was mainly Por-CD2H, showing that both of the added hydrogens arise from the solvent, and not from the added water or acid.