Gympie messmate (plantations)

Gympie messmate is an important commercial wood products tree in Queensland that produces high quality, strong, extremely durable and attractive timber. Although only small volumes are harvested from native forests in Queensland, it has a well-established market, and is in demand nationally. Gympie messmate timber from native forest has been used for a range of construction, engineering, appearance products and round timbers.

Spotted gum (plantations)

Spotted gum is an important commercial tree in Queensland that produces a high quality, hard, durable and attractive timber. Currently, spotted gum is the highest volume native hardwood harvested in Queensland and has been used for construction, engineering, appearance products and round timbers. Spotted gum timber has a well-established market, and is in demand both nationally and internationally.

Red mahogany (plantations)

Red mahogany produces a hard, durable and attractive timber. In the past, small quantities of timber harvested from native forest has been used in construction, engineering and for appearance products and round timbers. It has well-established national markets, particularly in Queensland and NSW. It is also known in the international market as it is grown in plantations in other tropical regions.

Thin-Walled Timber Structures

Due to their efficiency, lightweight, ease of erection and low cost, steel and aluminium thin-walled structures have become very popular in the construction industry over the past few decades. Applications include roof and wall systems (purlins and girts), storage racks, and composite concrete and steel slabs. The effectiveness of these structures lies in the cross-sectional shape of the profiles which enhances their strength by controlling the three fundamental buckling modes: local, distortional, and global. However, despite the attractiveness of these structures, steel and aluminium are greenhouse gas intensive materials and do not produce sustainable structural products. This paper presents an investigation performed at the Griffith School of Engineering, Griffith University, which shows manufacturing these types of profiles in timber is possible. Short composite thinwalled timber Cee-sections (500 mm long) were fabricated by gluing together thin softwood (Araucaria cunninghamii) veneers (1 mm thick). Two types of Ceesections were considered, one with a web stiffener to increase the local buckling capacity of the profile and one without. The profiles were tested in compression and the test results are presented and discussed in the paper in terms of structural behaviour and performance. Further research directions are proposed in order to provide efficient and lightweight sustainable structural products to the timber industry. © RILEM 2014.

High value timber composite panels from hardwood plantation thinnings.

Identifying processing strategies and products that suit young plantation hardwoods has proved challenging with low product recoveries and/or unmarketable products being the outcome of many trials. The production of rotary veneer has been demonstrated as an effective method for converting plantation hardwood trees. Across nine processing studies that included six different plantation species (Dunn’s white gum, spotted gum, Gympie messmate, spotted gum hybrid, red mahogany and western white gum), simple spindleless lathe technology was used to process 914 veneer billets totally 37.4 m3.

Optimisation of resin extraction from an Australian arid grass ‘Triodia pungens’ and its preliminary evaluation as an anti-termite timber coating

Spinifex grasses are the dominant vegetative component in Australian grassland habitats, covering approximately 26% of the Australian landmass. Our ongoing work explores the utility of both the cellulosic and resinous components of this abundant biomass for modern applications and a potential economy for our Aboriginal collaborators. This study is focused on the optimisation of a resin extraction process using solvent, and the subsequent evaluation, via a field trial, of the potential use and efficacy of the resin as an anti-termite coating material. Termiticidal performance was evaluated by re-dissolving the extracted resin in acetone and coating on pine timber blocks. The resin-coated and control blocks were then exposed to a colony of Mastotermes darwiniensis’ (Froggatt) termites, which are the most primitive alive and destructive species in subterranean area, at a trial site in northeast Australia, for six months. The results clearly showed that spinifex resin effectively protected the timber from termite attack, while the uncoated control samples were extensively damaged. By demonstrating an enhanced termite resistance, we here report that plant resins that are produced by arid/semi-arid grasses could be potentially used as treatments to prevent termite attack.

Thin-walled timber and FRP-timber veneer composite CEE-sections

This paper compares the structural performance between thin-walled timber and FRP-timber composite Cee-sections. While, thin-walled composite timber structures have been proven to be efficient and ultra-light structural elements, their manufacturing is difficult and labour intensive. Significant effort and time is required to prevent the cracking of the transverse timber veneers, bent in the grain direction, when forming the cross-sectional shape. FRP-timber structures overcome this disadvantage by replacing the transverse veneers with flexible, unidirectional FRP material and only keeping the timber veneers which are bent in their natural rolling direction. The Cee-sections investigated in this study were 210 mm deep × 90 mm wide × 500 mm high and manufactured from five plies. For both section types, the three internal plies were thin (1 mm thick) softwood Hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii) veneers, orientated along the section longitudinal axis. The two outer layers, providing bending stiffness to the walls, were Hoop pine veneers (1 mm thick) for the timber sections and glass fibre reinforced plastic (0.73 mm thick) for the FRP-timber sections orientated perpendicular to the inner layers. The manufacturing process is briefly introduced in this paper. The profiles were fitted with strain gauges and tested in compression. Linear Variable Displacement Transducers also recorded the buckling along one flange. The test results are presented and discussed in this paper in regards to their structural behaviour and performance. Results showed that the use of FRP in the sections increases both the elastic local buckling load and section capacity, the latter being increased by about 24 percent. The results indicate that thin-walled FRP-timber can ultimately be used as a sustainable alternative to cold-formed steel profiles.

Malaria rapid diagnostic test performance: Results of WHO product testing of malaria RDTs: Round 6 (2014-2015)

Overview This report, published in conjunction with a summary overview of results of rounds 1–6, is the sixth in a series of laboratory-based evaluations of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for malaria. It provides a comparative measure of their performance in a standardized way to distinguish between well and poorly performing tests. It can be used by malaria control programmes and guide WHO procurement recommendations for these diagnostic tools. The evaluation reported here was a joint project of the WHO Global Malaria Programme, the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) within the WHO-FIND Malaria RDT Evaluation Programme. The project was financed by FIND through a grant from UNITAID.

Worldwide outdoor round robin study of organic photovoltaic devices and modules

Accurate characterization and reporting of organic photovoltaic (OPV) device performance remains one of the important challenges in the field. The large spread among the efficiencies of devices with the same structure reported by different groups is significantly caused by different procedures and equipment used during testing. The presented article addresses this issue by offering a new method of device testing using “suitcase sample” approach combined with outdoor testing that limits the diversity of the equipment, and a strict measurement protocol. A round robin outdoor characterization of roll-to-roll coated OPV cells and modules conducted among 46 laboratories worldwide is presented, where the samples and the testing equipment were integrated in a compact suitcase that served both as a sample transportation tool and as a holder and test equipment during testing. In addition, an internet based coordination was used via plasticphotovoltaics.org that allowed fast and efficient communication among participants and provided a controlled reporting format for the results that eased the analysis of the data. The reported deviations among the laboratories were limited to 5% when compared to the Si reference device integrated in the suitcase and were up to 8% when calculated using the local irradiance data. Therefore, this method offers a fast, cheap and efficient tool for sample sharing and testing that allows conducting outdoor measurements of OPV devices in a reproducible manner.

The role of selected non-timber forest products for rural areas in Laos: Case studies in Ban Napo and Ban Kouay communities

Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are one of the major income sources for the rural population of Laos. An exploratory study was conducted to determine the role of non-timber forest products for rural communities of the study area. The study was carried out in two villages viz. Ban Napo and Ban Kouay of Sangthong district between January and March 2010. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to gather data from the respondents. Twenty-five respondents from each village were chosen based on their involvement in NTFPs collection and marketing activities. Statistically significant NTFPs income differences were not found between the villages and age groups of the respondents, however, significant differences were found in the annual incomes between farms size of the respondents. This study also analyzed the value chain structure of the three (See khai’ ton, Bamboo mats and Incense sticks) important non-timber forest products and the interactions between the actors in the case study areas. Barriers to entry the market, governance and upgrading possibilities have been discussed for each of the value chains. Comparison of unit prices at different levels of the value chains indicated uneven income distribution in favour of the intermediaries, factories and foreign buyers. The lack of capital, marketing information and negotiation skills restricted the villagers to increase their income. However, all the respondents have shown their satisfaction with their income from NTFPs.

The impact of FSC certification on timber tree regeneration and floristic composition in Honduran community forests

Forest certification has been put forward as a means to improve the sustainability of forest management in the tropical countries, where traditional environmental regulation has been inefficient in controlling forest degradation and deforestation. In these countries, the role of communities as managers of the forest resources is rapidly increasing. However, only a fraction of tropical community forests have been certified and little is known about the impacts of certification in these systems. Two areas in Honduras where community-managed forest operations had received FSC certifications were studied. Río Cangrejal represents an area with a longer history of use, whereas Copén is a more recent forest operation. Ecological sustainability was assessed through comparing timber tree regeneration and floristic composition between certified, conventionally managed and natural forests. Data on woody vegetation and environmental conditions was collected within logging gaps and natural treefall gaps. The regeneration success of shade-tolerant timber tree species was lower in certified than in conventionally managed forests in Río Cangrejal. Furthermore, the floristic composition was more natural-like in the conventionally managed than the certified forests. However, the environmental conditions indicated reduced logging disturbance in the certified forests. Data from Copén demonstrated that the regeneration success of light-demanding timber species was higher in the certified than the unlogged forests. In spite of this, the most valuable timber species Swietenia macrophylla was not regenerating successfully in the certified forests, due to rapid gap closure. The results indicate that pre-certification loggings and forest fragmentation may have a stronger impact on forest regeneration than current, certified management practices. The focus in community forests under low-intensive logging should be directed toward landscape connectivity and the restoration of degraded timber species, instead of reducing mechanical logging damage. Such actions are dependent on better recognition of resource rights, and improving the status of small Southern producers in the markets of certified wood products.