980 resultados para Seufert, Chris
Resumo:
The mining industry faces concurrent pressures of reducing water use, energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in coming years. However, the interactions between water and energy use, as well as GHG e missions have largely been neglected in modelling studies to date. In addition, investigations tend to focus on the unit operation scale, with little consideration of whole-of-site or regional scale effects. This paper presents an application of a hierarchical systems model (HSM) developed to represent water, energy and GHG emissions fluxes at scales ranging from the unit operation, to the site level, to the regional level. The model allows for the linkages between water use, energy use and GHG emissions to be examined in a fl exible and intuitive way, so that mine sites can predict energy and emissions impacts of water use reduction schemes and vice versa. This paper examines whether this approach can also be applied to the regional scale with multiple mine sites. The model is used to conduct a case study of several coal mines in the Bowen Basin, Australia, to compare the utility of centralised and decentralised mine water treatment schemes. The case study takes into account geographical factors (such as water pumping distances and elevations), economic factors (such as capital and operating cost curves for desalination treatment plants) and regional factors (such as regionally varying climates and associated variance in mine water volumes and quality). The case study results indicate that treatment of saline mine water incurs a trade-off between water and energy use in all cases. However, significant cost differences between centralised and decentralised schemes can be observed in a simple economic analysis. Further research will examine the possibility for deriving model up-scaling algorithms to reduce computational requirements.
Resumo:
Land-use change, particularly clearing of forests for agriculture, has contributed significantly to the observed rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. Concern about the impacts on climate has led to efforts to monitor and curtail the rapid increase in concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Internationally, much of the current focus is on the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Although electing to not ratify the Protocol, Australia, as a party to the UNFCCC, reports on national greenhouse gas emissions, trends in emissions and abatement measures. In this paper we review the complex accounting rules for human activities affecting greenhouse gas fluxes in the terrestrial biosphere and explore implications and potential opportunities for managing carbon in the savanna ecosystems of northern Australia. Savannas in Australia are managed for grazing as well as for cultural and environmental values against a background of extreme climate variability and disturbance, notably fire. Methane from livestock and non-CO2 emissions from burning are important components of the total greenhouse gas emissions associated with management of savannas. International developments in carbon accounting for the terrestrial biosphere bring a requirement for better attribution of change in carbon stocks and more detailed and spatially explicit data on such characteristics of savanna ecosystems as fire regimes, production and type of fuel for burning, drivers of woody encroachment, rates of woody regrowth, stocking rates and grazing impacts. The benefits of improved biophysical information and of understanding the impacts on ecosystem function of natural factors and management options will extend beyond greenhouse accounting to better land management for multiple objectives.
Resumo:
Communicating the mining industry’s water use is fundamental to maintaining its social license to operate but the majority of corporate reporting schemes list indicators. The Minerals Council of Australia’s Water Accounting Framework was designed to assist the minerals industry obtain consistency in its accounting method and in the definitions of terms used in water reporting. The significance of this paper is that it shows that the framework has been designed to be sufficiently robust to describe any mining/mineral related operation. The Water Accounting Framework was applied across four operations over three countries producing four commodities. The advantages of the framework were then evident through the presentation of the reports. The contextual statement of the framework was able to explain contrasting reuse efficiencies. The Input-Output statements showed that evaporation was a significant loss for most of the operations in the study which highlights a weakness of reporting schemes that focus on discharge volumes. The framework method promotes data reconciliation which proved the presence of flows that two operations in the study had neglected to provide. Whilst there are many advantages of the framework, the major points are that the reporting statements of the framework, when presented together, can better enable the public to understand water interactions at a site-level and allows for valid comparisons between sites, regardless of locale and commodity. With mining being a global industry, these advantages are best realised if there was international adoption of the framework.
Resumo:
Selumetinib (AZD6244, ARRY-142886) is a selective, non-ATP-competitive inhibitor of mitogen-activated protein/extracellular signal-regulated kinase kinase (MEK)-1/2. The range of antitumor activity seen preclinically and in patients highlights the importance of identifying determinants of response to this drug. In large tumor cell panels of diverse lineage, we show that MEK inhibitor response does not have an absolute correlation with mutational or phospho-protein markers of BRAF/MEK, RAS, or phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) activity. We aimed to enhance predictivity by measuring pathway output through coregulated gene networks displaying differential mRNA expression exclusive to resistant cell subsets and correlated to mutational or dynamic pathway activity. We discovered an 18-gene signature enabling measurement of MEK functional output independent of tumor genotype. Where the MEK pathway is activated but the cells remain resistant to selumetinib, we identified a 13-gene signature that implicates the existence of compensatory signaling from RAS effectors other than PI3K. The ability of these signatures to stratify samples according to functional activation of MEK and/or selumetinib sensitivity was shown in multiple independent melanoma, colon, breast, and lung tumor cell lines and in xenograft models. Furthermore, we were able to measure these signatures in fixed archival melanoma tumor samples using a single RT-qPCR-based test and found intergene correlations and associations with genetic markers of pathway activity to be preserved. These signatures offer useful tools for the study of MEK biology and clinical application of MEK inhibitors, and the novel approaches taken may benefit other targeted therapies.
Resumo:
Pain is common in individuals living in residential aged care facilities (RACFs), and a number of obstacles have been identified as recurring barriers to adequate pain management. To address this, the Australian Pain Society developed 27 recommendations for comprehensive good practice in the identification, assessment, and management of pain. This study reviewed preexisting pain management practice at five Australian RACFs and identified changes needed to implement the recommendations and then implemented an evidence-based program that aimed to facilitate better pain management. The program involved staff training and education and revised in-house pain-management procedures. Reviews occurred before and after the program and included the assessment of 282 residents for analgesic use and pain status. Analgesic use improved after the program (P<.001), with a decrease in residents receiving no analgesics (from 15% to 6%) and an increase in residents receiving around-the-clock plus as-needed analgesics (from 24% to 43%). There were improvements in pain relief for residents with scores indicative of pain, with Abbey pain scale (P=.005), Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia Scale (P=.001), and Non-communicative Patient's Pain Assessment Instrument scale (P<.001) scores all improving. Although physical function declined as expected, Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short-Form Survey bodily pain scores also showed improvement (P=.001). Better evidence-based practice and outcomes in RACFs can be achieved with appropriate training and education. Investing resources in the aged care workforce using this program improved analgesic practice and pain relief in participating sites. Further attention to the continued targeted pain management training of aged care staff is likely to improve pain-focused care for residents.
Resumo:
As a Lecturer of Animation History and 3D Computer Animator, I received a copy of Moving Innovation: A History of Computer Animation by Tom Sito with an element of anticipation in the hope that this text would clarify the complex evolution of Computer Graphics (CG). Tom Sito did not disappoint, as this text weaves together the multiple development streams and convergent technologies and techniques throughout history that would ultimately result in modern CG. Universities now have students who have never known a world without computer animation and many students are younger than the first 3D CG animated feature film, Toy Story (1996); this text is ideal for teaching computer animation history and, as I would argue, it also provides a model for engaging young students in the study of animation history in general. This is because Sito places the development of computer animation within the context of its pre-digital ancestry and throughout the text he continues to link the discussion to the broader history of animation, its pioneers, technologies and techniques...
Resumo:
Taking cues from the fragility and grace enfolded within Asian cuisine, this paper explores recent experimentation of an edible rice paper veil. The veil fashions a 'secondary skin', what Jeffery Schnapp the author of 'The Fabric of Modern Times', calls an "object for prosthetic shelf extension...bearing a uniquely intimate and direct relation to the human body" (Schnapp, 1997:197). The process reveals a layered material mutable to moisture and humidity, changing its elastic state in relation to body and surroundings. The moving, breathing, sweating surface of the body further modifies both veil and bodily experience drawing forth deeper emotional responses. The implications here offer a reciprocal affect, a revealing, where new materiality evokes the threshold to a new sensible being, one aware of the depth of material consciousness and inter-corporeal engagement, and which extends the relations between thinking and being of Heidegger and Shklovsky's seminal works.
Resumo:
The global landscape of molecular testing is rapidly changing, with the recent publication of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC)/College of American Pathologists (CAP) guidelines and the ALK Atlas. The IASLC/CAP guidelines recommend that tumors from patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) be tested for ALK rearrangements in addition to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations. The spur for this recommendation is the availability of novel therapies that target these rearrangements. This article is based on coverage of a Pfizer-sponsored National Working Group Meeting on ALK Diagnostics in Lung Cancer, held around the 15th World Lung Cancer Conference, in Sydney on October 31, 2013. It is based on the presentations given by the authors at the meeting and the discussion that ensued. The content for this article was discussed and agreed on by the authors.