Carbonate cementation in sandstones of the Plover Formation, North West Shelf, W.A

Ancient sandstones include important reservoirs for hydrocarbons (oil and gas), but, in many cases, their ability to serve as reservoirs is heavily constrained by the effects of carbonate cements on porosity and permeability. This study investigated the controls on distribution and abundance of carbonate cements within the Jurassic Plover Formation, Browse Basin, North West Shelf, Australia. Samples were analysed petrographically with point counting of 59 thin sections and mineralogically with x-ray diffraction from two wells within the Torosa Gas Field. Selected samples were also analysed for stable isotopes of O and C. Sandstones are classified into eleven groups. Most abundant are quartzarenites and then calcareous quartzarenites. Lithology ranged between sandstones consisting of mostly quartz with scant or no carbonate in the form of cement or allochems, to sandstones with as much as 40% carbonate. The major sources of carbonate cement in Torosa 1 and Torosa 4 sandstones were found to be early, shallow marine diagenetic processes (including cementation), followed by calcite cementation and recrystallisation of cements and allochems during redistribution by meteoric waters. Blocky and sparry calcite cements, indicative of meteoric environments on the basis of stable isotope values and palaeotemperature assessment, overprinted the initial shallow marine cement phase in all cases and meteoric cements are dominant. Torosa 4 was influenced more by marine settings than Torosa 1, and thus has the greater potential for calcite cement. The relatively low compaction of calcite-cemented sandstones and the stable isotope data suggest deep burial cementation was not a major factor. Insufficient volcanic rock fragments or authigenic clay content infers alteration of feldspars was not a major source of calcite. Very little feldspar is present, altered or otherwise. Hence, increased alkalinity from feldspar dissolution is not a contributing factor in cement formation. Increased alkalinity from bacterial sulphate reduction in organic–rich fine sediments may have driven limited cementation in some samples. The main definable and significant source of diagenetic marine calcite cement originated from original marine cements and the nearby dissolution of biogenic sources (allochems) at relatively shallow depths. Later diagenetic fluids emplaced minor dolomite, but this cement did not greatly affect the reservoir quality in the samples studied.

‘Working with the team’ : an exploratory study of improved type 2 diabetes management in a new model of integrated primary/secondary care

This study aimed to explore how a new model of integrated primary/secondary care for type 2 diabetes management, the Brisbane South Complex Diabetes Service (BSCDS), related to improved diabetes management in a selected group of patients. We used a qualitative research design to obtain detailed accounts from the BSCDS via semi-structured interviews with 10 patients. The interviews were fully transcribed and systematically coded using a form of thematic analysis. Participants’ responses were grouped in relation to: (1) Patient-centred care; (2) Effective multiprofessional teamwork; and (3) Empowering patients. The key features of this integrated primary/secondary care model were accessibility and its delivery within a positive health care environment, clear and supportive interpersonal communication between patients and health care providers, and patients seeing themselves as being part of the team-based care. The BSCDS delivered patient-centred care and achieved patient engagement in ways that may have contributed to improved type 2 diabetes management in these participants.

Assessing performance and capability in work placements

As universities worldwide begin to appreciate the value of authentic learning experiences, so they struggle with methods of assessing the outcomes from such experiences. This chapter describes the application of an assessment matrix developed by Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia, to the assessment requirements and practices relating to work integrated learning at the University of Surrey in the UK. Despite the very different institutional contexts and independent way in which the assessment regimes have developed, it was found that the values and outcomes being assessed and the methods used to assess them were similar. The most important feature of assessing work integrated learning experiences is fitness for purpose; hence the learning objectives and assessment of outcomes for a WIL experience must be explicitly aligned to this objective.

PI claim clears the statute bar

In Hughes v Impulse Entertainment Pty Ltd & Workcover Queensland [2013] QDC 21 the plaintiff commenced a proceeding more than 60 days after the compulsory conference under the Workers Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld). The question to be determined was whether this meant the claim was statute-barred under that Act, even though the relevant limitation period under the Limitation of Actions Act 1974 (Qld) had not expired

Insights into special costs orders : WA court examines compliance and retrospectivity

In Walter v Buckeridge [No.5] [2012] WASC 495 Le Miere J considered an application by the defendants for special costs orders under the applicable legislation in Western Australia. Aspects of the decision may be of persuasive value in dealing with similar issues under Queensland legislation.

Service difficulties - Will UCPR r 117 provide the answer?

In Amci Pty Ltd ACN 124 249 485 v Corcoal Management Pty Ltd [2013] QSC 50 Jackson J considered an application for an order under r117 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld) (UCPR) in relation to informal service of an originating process on a corporation registered in the Ajman Free Zone in the United Arab Emirates. The decision appears to be the first time a Queensland court has examined the scope of r117 of the UCPR, and relevant considerations influencing the exercise of the discretion under the rule, when the defendant is outside Australia.

Offers to settle - by the rules

In Balnaves v Smith [2012] QSC 408 Byrne SJA concluded that an offer to settle could be an “offer to settle” under Chapter 9 Part 5 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld) (UCPR) despite the inclusion of non-monetary terms. His Honour took a different approach to that taken by Moynihan SJA in Taske v Occupational & Medical Innovations Ltd [2007] QSC 147.

Pleading - self-incrimination and penalty privileges

In Anderson v Australian Securities and Investments Commission [2012] QCA 301 the Queensland Court of Appeal allowed an appeal from the decision of the primary judge (ASIC v Managed Investments Ltd No 3 [2012] QSC 74. The Court of Appeal was satisfied that the defendants’ non-compliance with the pleading rules in the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld) was justified by the claims to privilege against self-incrimination or exposure to a penalty.

Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 - request for information

In Angus v Conelius [2007] QCA 190 the Queensland Court of Appeal concluded that the obligations under the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (Qld), and in particular s 45 of the Act (duty of claimant to cooperate with insurer), continue beyond the commencement of court proceedings

The most private private education : home education in Australia

In Australia, the decision to home educate is becoming increasingly popular (cf. Townsend, 2012). The popularity of home education is in spite of a large number of publically funded, financially affordable private and public schools that offer a range of educational alternatives to parents (cf. English, 2009). In spite of its increasing popularity, the reasons home education is chosen by Australian families is under-researched (cf. Jackson & Allan, 2010). This paper reports on a case study that set out to explore the reasons Australian parents choose to home educate and whether this decision is related to the choice of a private school in Australia. In-depth, qualitative interviews were conducted with a group of home education families in one of Australia’s most populated cities. Data were thematically analysed. The analysis revealed that there were similarities between the discourses of parents who privately educate and parents who home educate. In particular, it reveals the parents’ fears about schools, their negative experiences of schools and their hopes for their children’s futures.

An investigation into painting's transformation and regeneration through post-photographic intervention in the digital archive

This PhD practice-led research inquiry sets out to examine and describe how the fluid interactions between memory and time can be rendered via the remediation of my painting and the construction of a digital image archive. My abstract digital art and handcrafted practice is informed by Deleuze and Guattari’s rhizomics of becoming. I aim to show that the technological mobility of my creative strategies produce new conditions of artistic possibility through the mobile principles of rhizomic interconnection, multiplicity and diversity. Subsequently through the ongoing modification of past painting I map how emergent forms and ideas open up new and incisive engagements with the experience of a ‘continual present’. The deployment of new media and cross media processes in my art also deterritorialises the modernist notion of painting as a static and two dimensional spatial object. Instead, it shows painting in a postmodern field of dynamic and transformative intermediality through digital formats of still and moving images that re-imagines the relationship between memory, time and creative practice.

Review: "Stir" -- Stephen Wallace

Synopsis and review of the Australian prison film Stir (Stephen Wallace, 1980). Includes cast and credits. Stir was written by a former prisoner, Bob Jewson, who had witnessed first hand a notorious riot at Bathurst Gaol in New South Wales in February 1974, the second serious disturbance at the prison in four years. In 1979, prisoners at Parramatta Gaol staged a peaceful sit-in to protest against the New South Wales’ government’s decision not to pursue criminal charges against prison officers for their actions during the 1974 Bathurst riot. The bashing of China Jackson and his cellmate in the first scene of Stir follows a sit-in, with the rest of the film drawing heavily on events around the 1974 Bathurst riot. The director later claimed that he wanted to call the film ‘The Riot at Bathurst Prison’, but was persuaded by nervous bureaucrats to apply the veneer of fiction. The film was retitled Stir, and set in the fictional Gatunga Gaol. Like other films in this genre, Stir draws heavily on the experiences of former prisoners and warders. The Prisoners’ Action Group played a leading role in the planning and preparation of the film, and many former inmates and guards were employed as extras. And in common with many films in this genre, Stir is concerned to humanise the plight of prisoners. Through the depiction of the routines of punishment, violence and retribution by which order in the institution is maintained, and through careful evocation of the atmosphere of fear and intimidation that prisoners (and warders) live with every day, Stir, again like other films in this genre blames the authorities and the system itself for events like those portrayed here. As producer Richard Brennan says in an interview on the 2005 DVD release of the film, “prisons create monsters”...

Open for Inspection? Julstar Pty Ltd v Lynch Morgan Lawyers [2012] QDC 272

In Julstar Pty Ltd v Lynch Morgan Lawyers [2012] QDC 272 Dorney QC DCJ considered whether an applicant for an assessment of all or part of their costs under s 335 of the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld) (LPA) must provide grounds on which they dispute the amount of the costs charged or their liability to pay them. His Honour also made an order for inspection of the solicitor’s file, despite a claimed lien for unpaid fees.

Distinguishing between mean-field, moment dynamics and stochastic descriptions of birth-death-movement processes

Mathematical descriptions of birth–death–movement processes are often calibrated to measurements from cell biology experiments to quantify tissue growth rates. Here we describe and analyze a discrete model of a birth–death-movement process applied to a typical two–dimensional cell biology experiment. We present three different descriptions of the system: (i) a standard mean–field description which neglects correlation effects and clustering; (ii) a moment dynamics description which approximately incorporates correlation and clustering effects, and; (iii) averaged data from repeated discrete simulations which directly incorporates correlation and clustering effects. Comparing these three descriptions indicates that the mean–field and moment dynamics approaches are valid only for certain parameter regimes, and that both these descriptions fail to make accurate predictions of the system for sufficiently fast birth and death rates where the effects of spatial correlations and clustering are sufficiently strong. Without any method to distinguish between the parameter regimes where these three descriptions are valid, it is possible that either the mean–field or moment dynamics model could be calibrated to experimental data under inappropriate conditions, leading to errors in parameter estimation. In this work we demonstrate that a simple measurement of agent clustering and correlation, based on coordination number data, provides an indirect measure of agent correlation and clustering effects, and can therefore be used to make a distinction between the validity of the different descriptions of the birth–death–movement process.

Dengue fever viral exposure rates among blood donors during outbreaks in North Queensland

Introduction: Dengue poses a problem for safe transfusion of blood components with confirmed reports of transfusion-transmission in Hong Kong and Singapore. The largest outbreak in 50 years occurred in North Queensland during 2008/2009 with more than 1,000 confirmed cases in Cairns and Townsville. During this outbreak, supplementary questioning for all donors was implemented, and fresh components were not manufactured from at risk donors. We aim to determine the seroprevalence of dengue exposure in this population during this epidemic. Methods: Samples were collected from blood donors during the 2008/2009 epidemic and 3 months after the last confirmed case. These samples were tested for anti-Dengue IgM, IgG and NS1 antigen with commercially available ELISA based assay kits from PanBio. Results: Initial analyses revealed 2.7% of samples from deferred donors were IgM repeat reactive. Of these, 16% were also positive for anti-dengue IgG, while none of these were positive for the NS1 viral antigen. However, two NS1 positives were found in samples collected from deferred donors. Conclusions: This initial analysis represents recent and cumulative past exposure in a presumed asymptomatic population, and will provide documentation of the rate of asymptomatic dengue infection during the epidemic. This data can also be used to assess the risk of dengue becoming endemic in North Queensland given that the mosquito vector is established in this region.