Characterisation of Coal Seam Gas Waters in New Zealand

Coal seam gas (CSG) exploration and development requires the abstraction of significant amounts of water. This is so because gas desorbtion in coal seams takes place only after aquifer pressure has been reduced by prolonged pumping of aquifer water. CSG waters have a specific geochemical signature which is a product of their formation process. These waters have high bicarbonate, high sodium, low calcium, low magnesium, and very low sulphate concentrations. Additionally, chloride concentrations may be high depending on the coal depositional environment. This particular signature is not only useful for exploration purposes, but it also highlights potential environmental issues that can arise as a consequence of CSG water disposal. Since 2002 L&M Coal Seam Gas Ltd and CRL Energy Ltd, have been involved in exploration and development of CSG in New Zealand. Anticipating disposal of CSG waters as a key issue in CSG development, they have been assessing CSG water quality along with exploration work. Coal seam gas water samples from an exploration well in Maramarua closely follow the geochemical signature associated with CSG waters. This has helped to identify CSG potential, while at the same time assessing the chemical characteristics and water generation processes in the aquifer. Neutral pH and high alkalinity suggest that these waters could be easily managed once the sodium and chloride concentrations are reduced to acceptable levels.

A CFD study of Hong Kong refuge floor design : floor height effect

Since 1996, ther provision of a refuge floor has been a mandatory feature for all new tall buildings in Hong Kong. These floors are designed to provide for building occupants a fire safe environment that is also free from smoke. However, the desired cross ventilation on these floors to achieve the removal of smoke, assumed by the Building Codes of Hong Kong, is still being questioned so that a further scientific study of the wind-induced ventilation of a refuge fllor is needed. This paper presents an investigation into this issue. The developed computational technique used in this paper was adopted to study the wind-induced natural ventilation on a refuge floor. The aim of the investigation was to establish whether a refuge floor with a cetnral core and having cross ventilation produced by only two open opposite external side walls on the refuge floor would provide the required protection in all situations taking into account behaviour of wind due to different floor heights, wall boundary conditions and turbulence intensity profiles. The results revealed that natural ventilation can be increased by increasng the floor heigh provided the wind angle to the building is less than 90 degrees. The effectiveness of the solution was greatly reduced when the wind was blowing at 90 degrees to the refuge floor opening.

Predicting residue-wise contact orders in proteins by support vector regression

Background The residue-wise contact order (RWCO) describes the sequence separations between the residues of interest and its contacting residues in a protein sequence. It is a new kind of one-dimensional protein structure that represents the extent of long-range contacts and is considered as a generalization of contact order. Together with secondary structure, accessible surface area, the B factor, and contact number, RWCO provides comprehensive and indispensable important information to reconstructing the protein three-dimensional structure from a set of one-dimensional structural properties. Accurately predicting RWCO values could have many important applications in protein three-dimensional structure prediction and protein folding rate prediction, and give deep insights into protein sequence-structure relationships. Results We developed a novel approach to predict residue-wise contact order values in proteins based on support vector regression (SVR), starting from primary amino acid sequences. We explored seven different sequence encoding schemes to examine their effects on the prediction performance, including local sequence in the form of PSI-BLAST profiles, local sequence plus amino acid composition, local sequence plus molecular weight, local sequence plus secondary structure predicted by PSIPRED, local sequence plus molecular weight and amino acid composition, local sequence plus molecular weight and predicted secondary structure, and local sequence plus molecular weight, amino acid composition and predicted secondary structure. When using local sequences with multiple sequence alignments in the form of PSI-BLAST profiles, we could predict the RWCO distribution with a Pearson correlation coefficient (CC) between the predicted and observed RWCO values of 0.55, and root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.82, based on a well-defined dataset with 680 protein sequences. Moreover, by incorporating global features such as molecular weight and amino acid composition we could further improve the prediction performance with the CC to 0.57 and an RMSE of 0.79. In addition, combining the predicted secondary structure by PSIPRED was found to significantly improve the prediction performance and could yield the best prediction accuracy with a CC of 0.60 and RMSE of 0.78, which provided at least comparable performance compared with the other existing methods. Conclusion The SVR method shows a prediction performance competitive with or at least comparable to the previously developed linear regression-based methods for predicting RWCO values. In contrast to support vector classification (SVC), SVR is very good at estimating the raw value profiles of the samples. The successful application of the SVR approach in this study reinforces the fact that support vector regression is a powerful tool in extracting the protein sequence-structure relationship and in estimating the protein structural profiles from amino acid sequences.

A large change in temperature between neighbouring days increases the risk of mortality

Background: Previous studies have found high temperatures increase the risk of mortality in summer. However, little is known about whether a sharp decrease or increase in temperature between neighbouring days has any effect on mortality. Method: Poisson regression models were used to estimate the association between temperature change and mortality in summer in Brisbane, Australia during 1996–2004 and Los Angeles, United States during 1987–2000. The temperature change was calculated as the current day’s mean temperature minus the previous day’s mean. Results: In Brisbane, a drop of more than 3 °C in temperature between days was associated with relative risks (RRs) of 1.157 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.024, 1.307) for total non external mortality (NEM), 1.186 (95%CI: 1.002, 1.405) for NEM in females, and 1.442 (95%CI: 1.099, 1.892) for people aged 65–74 years. An increase of more than 3 °C was associated with RRs of 1.353 (95%CI: 1.033, 1.772) for cardiovascular mortality and 1.667 (95%CI: 1.146, 2.425) for people aged < 65 years. In Los Angeles, only a drop of more than 3 °C was significantly associated with RRs of 1.133 (95%CI: 1.053, 1.219) for total NEM, 1.252 (95%CI: 1.131, 1.386) for cardiovascular mortality, and 1.254 (95%CI: 1.135, 1.385) for people aged ≥75 years. In both cities, there were joint effects of temperature change and mean temperature on NEM. Conclusion : A significant change in temperature of more than 3 °C, whether positive or negative, has an adverse impact on mortality even after controlling for the current temperature.

A superdirective 3-element array for adaptive beamforming

A small array composed of three monopole elements with very small element spacing on the order of λ/6 to λ/20 is considered for application in adaptive beamforming. The properties of this 3-port array are governed by strong mutual coupling. It is shown that for signal-to-noise maximization, it is not sufficient to adjust the weights to compensate for the effects of mutual coupling. The necessity for a RF-decoupling network (RF-DN) and its simple realization are shown. The array with closely spaced elements together with the RF-DN represents a superdirective antenna with a directivity of more than 10 dBi. It is shown that the required fractional frequency bandwidth and the available unloaded Q of the antenna and RF-DN structure determine the lower limit for the element spacing.

Performance enhancement of smart antennas with reduced element spacing

This paper addresses the problem of degradations in adaptive digital beam-forming (DBF) systems caused by mutual coupling between array elements. The focus is on compact arrays with reduced element spacing and, hence, strongly coupled elements. Deviations in the radiation patterns of coupled and (theoretically) uncoupled elements can be compensated for by weight-adjustments in DBF, but SNR degradation due to impedance mismatches cannot be compensated for via signal processing techniques. It is shown that this problem can be overcome via the implementation of a RF-decoupling-network. SNR enhancement is achieved at the cost of a reduced frequency bandwidth and an increased sensitivity to dissipative losses in the antenna and matching network structure.

Problem-solving courts, therapeutic jurisprudence and the constitution : if two is company, is three a crowd?

Court costs, resource-intensive trials, booming prison populations and the obduracy of recidivism rates all present as ugly excesses of the criminal law adversarial paradigm. To combat these excesses, problem-solving courts have evolved with an edict to address the underlying issues that have caused an individual to commit a crime. When a judge seeks to help a problem-solving court participant deal with issues like addiction, mental health or poverty, they are performing a very different role to that of a judicial officer in the traditional court hierarchy. They are no longer the removed, independent arbiter — a problem-solving court judge steps into the ‘arena’ with the participant and makes active use of their judicial authority to assist in rehabilitation and positive behavioural change. Problem-solving court judges employing the principles of therapeutic jurisprudence appreciate that their interaction with participants can have therapeutic and anti-therapeutic consequences. This article will consider how the deployment of therapeutic measures (albeit with good intention) can lead to the behavioural manifestation of partiality and bias on the part of problem-solving court judges. Chapter III of the Commonwealth Constitution will then be analysed to highlight why the operation and functioning of problem solving courts may be deemed unconstitutional. Part IV of this article will explain how a problem-solving court judge who is not acting impartially or independently will potentially contravene the requirements of the Constitution. It will finally be suggested that judges who possess a high level of emotional intelligence will be the most successful in administering an independent and impartial problem solving court.

Evaluating the success of large-scale, integrated information systems through the lens of IS-impact and IS-support

This study proceeds from a central interest in the importance of systematically evaluating operational large-scale integrated information systems (IS) in organisations. The study is conducted within the IS-Impact Research Track at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). The goal of the IS-Impact Track is, "to develop the most widely employed model for benchmarking information systems in organizations for the joint benefit of both research and practice" (Gable et al, 2009). The track espouses programmatic research having the principles of incrementalism, tenacity, holism and generalisability through replication and extension research strategies. Track efforts have yielded the bicameral IS-Impact measurement model; the ‘impact’ half includes Organisational-Impact and Individual-Impact dimensions; the ‘quality’ half includes System-Quality and Information-Quality dimensions. Akin to Gregor’s (2006) analytic theory, the ISImpact model is conceptualised as a formative, multidimensional index and is defined as "a measure at a point in time, of the stream of net benefits from the IS, to date and anticipated, as perceived by all key-user-groups" (Gable et al., 2008, p: 381). The study adopts the IS-Impact model (Gable, et al., 2008) as its core theory base. Prior work within the IS-Impact track has been consciously constrained to Financial IS for their homogeneity. This study adopts a context-extension strategy (Berthon et al., 2002) with the aim "to further validate and extend the IS-Impact measurement model in a new context - i.e. a different IS - Human Resources (HR)". The overarching research question is: "How can the impacts of large-scale integrated HR applications be effectively and efficiently benchmarked?" This managerial question (Cooper & Emory, 1995) decomposes into two more specific research questions – In the new HR context: (RQ1): "Is the IS-Impact model complete?" (RQ2): "Is the ISImpact model valid as a 1st-order formative, 2nd-order formative multidimensional construct?" The study adhered to the two-phase approach of Gable et al. (2008) to hypothesise and validate a measurement model. The initial ‘exploratory phase’ employed a zero base qualitative approach to re-instantiating the IS-Impact model in the HR context. The subsequent ‘confirmatory phase’ sought to validate the resultant hypothesised measurement model against newly gathered quantitative data. The unit of analysis for the study is the application, ‘ALESCO’, an integrated large-scale HR application implemented at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), a large Australian university (with approximately 40,000 students and 5000 staff). Target respondents of both study phases were ALESCO key-user-groups: strategic users, management users, operational users and technical users, who directly use ALESCO or its outputs. An open-ended, qualitative survey was employed in the exploratory phase, with the objective of exploring the completeness and applicability of the IS-Impact model’s dimensions and measures in the new context, and to conceptualise any resultant model changes to be operationalised in the confirmatory phase. Responses from 134 ALESCO users to the main survey question, "What do you consider have been the impacts of the ALESCO (HR) system in your division/department since its implementation?" were decomposed into 425 ‘impact citations.’ Citation mapping using a deductive (top-down) content analysis approach instantiated all dimensions and measures of the IS-Impact model, evidencing its content validity in the new context. Seeking to probe additional (perhaps negative) impacts; the survey included the additional open question "In your opinion, what can be done better to improve the ALESCO (HR) system?" Responses to this question decomposed into a further 107 citations which in the main did not map to IS-Impact, but rather coalesced around the concept of IS-Support. Deductively drawing from relevant literature, and working inductively from the unmapped citations, the new ‘IS-Support’ construct, including the four formative dimensions (i) training, (ii) documentation, (iii) assistance, and (iv) authorisation (each having reflective measures), was defined as: "a measure at a point in time, of the support, the [HR] information system key-user groups receive to increase their capabilities in utilising the system." Thus, a further goal of the study became validation of the IS-Support construct, suggesting the research question (RQ3): "Is IS-Support valid as a 1st-order reflective, 2nd-order formative multidimensional construct?" With the aim of validating IS-Impact within its nomological net (identification through structural relations), as in prior work, Satisfaction was hypothesised as its immediate consequence. The IS-Support construct having derived from a question intended to probe IS-Impacts, too was hypothesised as antecedent to Satisfaction, thereby suggesting the research question (RQ4): "What is the relative contribution of IS-Impact and IS-Support to Satisfaction?" With the goal of testing the above research questions, IS-Impact, IS-Support and Satisfaction were operationalised in a quantitative survey instrument. Partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modelling employing 221 valid responses largely evidenced the validity of the commencing IS-Impact model in the HR context. ISSupport too was validated as operationalised (including 11 reflective measures of its 4 formative dimensions). IS-Support alone explained 36% of Satisfaction; IS-Impact alone 70%; in combination both explaining 71% with virtually all influence of ISSupport subsumed by IS-Impact. Key study contributions to research include: (1) validation of IS-Impact in the HR context, (2) validation of a newly conceptualised IS-Support construct as important antecedent of Satisfaction, and (3) validation of the redundancy of IS-Support when gauging IS-Impact. The study also makes valuable contributions to practice, the research track and the sponsoring organisation.

Assessing the impacts of lifetime sun exposure on skin damage and skin aging using a non-invasive method

Background: Ultraviolet radiation exposure during an individuals' lifetime is a known risk factor for the development of skin cancer. However, less evidence is available on assessing the relationship between lifetime sun exposure and skin damage and skin aging. Objectives: This study aims to assess the relationship between lifetime sun exposure and skin damage and skin aging using a non-invasive measure of exposure. Methods: We recruited 180 participants (73 males, 107 females) aged 18-83 years. Digital imaging of skin hyper-pigmentation (skin damage) and skin wrinkling (skin aging) on the facial region was measured. Lifetime sun exposure (presented as hours) was calculated from the participants' age multiplied by the estimated annual time outdoors for each year of life. We analyzed the effects of lifetime sun exposure on skin damage and skin aging. We adjust for the influence of age, sex, occupation, history of skin cancer, eye color, hair color, and skin color. Results: There were non-linear relationships between lifetime sun exposure and skin damage and skin aging. Younger participant's skin is much more sensitive to sun exposure than those who were over 50 years of age. As such, there were negative interactions between lifetime sun exposure and age. Age had linear effects on skin damage and skin aging. Conclusion: The data presented showed that self reported lifetime sun exposure was positively associated with skin damage and skin aging, in particular, the younger people. Future health promotion for sun exposure needs to pay attention to this group for skin cancer prevention messaging. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Shut up and write! Some surprising uses of cafes and crowds in doctoral writing

This chapter discusses a ‘writing movement’, which is currently occurring in various parts of Australia through the support of social media. A concept emerging from the café scene in San Francisco, ‘Shut Up and Write!’ is a meetup group that brings writers together at a specific time and place to write side by side, thus making writing practice, social. This concept has been applied to the academic environment and our case-study explores the positive outcomes in two locations: RMIT University and Queensland University of Technology. This informal learning practice can be implemented to assist research students in developing academic skills.

Innovative Leadership by School Principals : embedding Information Communication and Technology in Kuwaiti Schools

Kuwait is an oil rich country planning for a future that is not dependent on exploiting natural resources. A major policy initiative has been the introduction of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) to schools. However, contextual issues and teacher capabilities in the use of ICT have limited the success of this initiative. The study examines the leadership strategies of two secondary school principals whose schools have achieved this goal. The case study draws on intensive data collected through interviews of the principals, and teachers supported by document analysis and observations. Analysis was guided by theoretical perspectives drawn from the literature which identified a range of strategies used by the principals to manage change. The principals of Schools A and B employed three key strategies to maximise the impact on the teaching staff incorporating ICT into their teaching and learning practices. These strategies were: (a) encouragement for teaching staff to implement ICT in their teaching; (b) support to meet the material and human needs of teaching staff using ICT; and (c) provision of instructions and guidance for teaching staff in how and why such behaviours and practices should be performed. The outcome of this study proposes an innovative change leadership model that informs emerging countries, which are also undergoing major change related to ICT. However, the study also revealed limitations in the implementation of ICT in the classroom and provides insights into further strategies that principals need to adopt.

The molecular structure of the phosphate mineral senegalite Al2(PO4)(OH)3⋅3H2O – A vibrational spectroscopic study

We have studied the mineral senagalite, a hydrated hydroxy phosphate of aluminium with formula Al2(PO4)(OH)3⋅3H2O using a combination of electron microscopy and vibrational spectroscopy. Senegalite crystal aggregates shows tabular to prismatic habitus and orthorhombic form. The Raman spectrum is dominated by an intense band at 1029 cm−1 assigned to the PO43- ν1 symmetric stretching mode. Intense Raman bands are found at 1071 and 1154 cm−1 with bands of lesser intensity at 1110, 1179 and 1206 cm−1 and are attributed to the PO43- ν3 antisymmetric stretching vibrations. The infrared spectrum shows complexity with a series overlapping bands. A comparison is made with spectra of other aluminium containing phosphate minerals such as augelite and turquoise. Multiple bands are observed for the phosphate bending modes giving support for the reduction of symmetry of the phosphate anion. Vibrational spectroscopy offers a means for the assessment of the structure of senagalite.