Effect of overload cycles on thin steel roof claddings during cyclonic winds

During an investigation on thin steel roof claddings under simulated cyclonic wind loading, it was found that trapezoidal roof claddings behaved quite differently to corrugated (arc and tangent type) roof claddings due to the presence of overload cycles. The overload cycles caused a reduction in fatigue life for corrugated roofing whereas the reverse occurred for trapezoidal roofing. This contrasting behavior of the two crest-fixed roof claddings was investigated using small scale roofing models instead of the commonly used large scale two-span roof claddings. It was found that overload cycles formed a weaker locally dimpled mechanism around the fastener holes of corrugated roofing and thus accelerated the fatigue-caused pull-through failure. In contrast, a stronger deformed shape was formed in trapezoidal roofing which delayed the pull-through failure. Both laboratory testing and finite element analysis of small scale models were used to study the contrasting behavior of roof claddings.

Monitoring and benchmarking government policies and actions to improve the healthiness of food environments : a proposed Government Healthy Food Environment Policy Index

Government action is essential to increase the healthiness of food environments and reduce obesity, diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and their related inequalities. This paper proposes a monitoring framework to assess government policies and actions for creating healthy food environments. Recommendations from relevant authoritative organizations and expert advisory groups for reducing obesity and NCDs were examined, and pertinent components were incorporated into a comprehensive framework for monitoring government policies and actions. A Government Healthy Food Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI) was developed, which comprises a ‘policy’ component with seven domains on specific aspects of food environments, and an ‘infrastructure support’ component with seven domains to strengthen systems to prevent obesity and NCDs. These were revised through a week-long consultation process with international experts. Examples of good practice statements are proposed within each domain, and these will evolve into benchmarks established by governments at the forefront of creating and implementing food policies for good health. A rating process is proposed to assess a government's level of policy implementation towards good practice. The Food-EPI will be pre-tested and piloted in countries of varying size and income levels. The benchmarking of government policy implementation has the potential to catalyse greater action to reduce obesity and NCDs.

Learner-focused evaluation cycles : facilitating learning using feedforward, concurrent and feedback evaluation

There is a growing trend to offer students learning opportunities that are flexible, innovative and engaging. As educators embrace student-centred agile teaching and learning methodologies, which require continuous reflection and adaptation, the need to evaluate students’ learning in a timely manner has become more pressing. Conventional evaluation surveys currently dominate the evaluation landscape internationally, despite recognition that they are insufficient to effectively evaluate curriculum and teaching quality. Surveys often: (1) fail to address the issues for which educators need feedback, (2) constrain student voice, (3) have low response rates and (4) occur too late to benefit current students. Consequently, this paper explores principles of effective feedback to propose a framework for learner-focused evaluation. We apply a three-stage control model, involving feedforward, concurrent and feedback evaluation, to investigate the intersection of assessment and evaluation in agile learning environments. We conclude that learner-focused evaluation cycles can be used to guide action so that evaluation is not undertaken simply for the benefit of future offerings, but rather to benefit current students by allowing ‘real-time’ learning activities to be adapted in the moment. As a result, students become co-producers of learning and evaluation becomes a meaningful, responsive dialogue between students and their instructors.

Associations of body mass index and waist circumference with: energy intake and percentage energy from macronutrients, in a cohort of Australian children

Background It is evident from previous research that the role of dietary composition in relation to the development of childhood obesity remains inconclusive. Several studies investigating the relationship between body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and/or skin fold measurements with energy intake have suggested that the macronutrient composition of the diet (protein, carbohydrate, fat) may play an important contributing role to obesity in childhood as it does in adults. This study investigated the possible relationship between BMI and WC with energy intake and percentage energy intake from macronutrients in Australian children and adolescents. Methods Height, weight and WC measurements, along with 24 h food and drink records (FDR) intake data were collected from 2460 boys and girls aged 5-17 years living in the state of Queensland, Australia. Results Statistically significant, yet weak correlations between BMI z-score and WC with total energy intake were observed in grades 1, 5 and 10, with only 55% of subjects having a physiologically plausible 24 hr FDR. Using Pearson correlations to examine the relationship between BMI and WC with energy intake and percentage macronutrient intake, no significant correlations were observed between BMI z-score or WC and percentage energy intake from protein, carbohydrate or fat. One way ANOVAs showed that although those with a higher BMI z-score or WC consumed significantly more energy than their lean counterparts. Conclusion No evidence of an association between percentage macronutrient intake and BMI or WC was found. Evidently, more robust longitudinal studies are needed to elucidate the relationship linking obesity and dietary intake.

Two cycles of voluminous pyroclastic volcanism and sedimentation related to episodic granite emplacement during the late Archean : Eastern Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia

The thick piles of late-Archean volcaniclastic sedimentary successions that overlie the voluminous greenstone units of the eastern Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia, record the important transition from the cessation in mafic-ultramafic volcanism to cratonisation between about 2690 and 2655 Ma. Unfortunately, an inability to clearly subdivide the superficially similar sedimentary successions and correlate them between the various geological terranes and domains of the eastern Yilgarn Craton has led to uncertainty about the timing and nature of the region's palaeogeographic and palaeotectonic evolution. Here, we present the results of some 2025 U–Pb laser-ablation-ICP-MS analyses and 323 Sensitive High-Resolution Ion Microprobe (SHRIMP) analyses of detrital zircons from 14 late-Archean felsic clastic successions of the eastern Yilgarn Craton, which have enabled correlation of clastic successions. The results of our data, together with those compiled from previous studies, show that the post-greenstone sedimentary successions include two major cycles that both commenced with voluminous pyroclastic volcanism and ended with widespread exhumation and erosion associated with granite emplacement. Cycle One commences with an influx of rapidly reworked feldspar-rich pyroclastic debris. These units, here-named the Early Black Flag Group, are dominated by a single population of detrital zircons with an average age of 2690–2680 Ma. Thick (up to 2 km) dolerite bodies, such as the Golden Mile Dolerite, intrude the upper parts of the Early Black Flag Group at about 2680 Ma. Incipient development of large granite domes during Cycle One created extensional basins predominantly near their southeastern and northwestern margins (e.g., St Ives, Wallaby, Kanowna Belle and Agnew), into which the Early Black Flag Group and overlying coarse mafic conglomerate facies of the Late Black Flag Group were deposited. The clast compositions and detrital-zircon ages of the late Black Flag Group detritus match closely the nearby and/or stratigraphically underlying successions, thus suggesting relatively local provenance. Cycle Two involved a similar progression to that observed in Cycle One, but the age and composition of the detritus were notably different. Deposition of rapidly reworked quartz-rich pyroclastic deposits dominated by a single detrital-zircon age population of 2670–2660 Ma heralded the beginning of Cycle Two. These coarse-grained quartz-rich units, are name here the Early Merougil Group. The mean ages of the detrital zircons from the Early Merougil Group match closely the age of the peak in high-Ca (quartz-rich) granite magmatism in the Yilgarn Craton and thus probably represent the surface expression of the same event. Successions of the Late Merougil Group are dominated by coarse felsic conglomerate with abundant volcanic quartz. Although the detrital zircons in these successions have a broad spread of age, the principal sub-populations have ages of about 2665 Ma and thus match closely those of the Early Merougil Group. These successions occur most commonly at the northwestern and southeastern margins of the granite batholiths and thus are interpreted to represent resedimented units dominted by the stratigraphically underlying packages of the Early Merougil Group. The Kurrawang Group is the youngest sedimentary units identified in this study and is dominated by polymictic conglomerate with clasts of banded iron formation (BIF), granite and quartzite near the base and quartz-rich sandstone units containing detrital zircons aged up to 3500 Ma near the top. These units record provenance from deeper and/or more-distal sources. We suggest here that the principal driver for the major episodes of volcanism, sedimentation and deformation associated with basin development was the progressive emplacement of large granite batholiths. This interpretation has important implication for palaeogeographic and palaeotectonic evolution of all late-Archean terranes around the world.

Reported consumption of takeaway food and its contribution to socioeconomic inequalities in body mass index

The aim of this study was to examine whether takeaway food consumption mediated (explained) the association between socioeconomic position and body mass index (BMI). A postal-survey was conducted among 1500 randomly selected adults aged between 25 and 64 years in Brisbane, Australia during 2009 (response rate 63.7%, N=903). BMI was calculated using self-reported weight and height. Participants reported usual takeaway food consumption, and these takeaway items were categorised into "healthy" and "less healthy" choices. Socioeconomic position was ascertained by education, household income, and occupation. The mean BMI was 27.1kg/m(2) for men and 25.7kg/m(2) for women. Among men, none of the socioeconomic measures were associated with BMI. In contrast, women with diploma/vocational education (β=2.12) and high school only (β=2.60), and those who were white-collar (β=1.55) and blue-collar employees (β=2.83) had significantly greater BMI compared with their more advantaged counterparts. However, household income was not associated with BMI. Among women, the consumption of "less healthy" takeaway food mediated BMI differences between the least and most educated, and between those employed in blue collar occupations and their higher status counterparts. Decreasing the consumption of "less healthy" takeaway options may reduce socioeconomic inequalities in overweight and obesity among women but not men.

Did socio-ecological factors drive the spatiotemporal patterns of pandemic influenza A (H1N1)?

BACKGROUND Pandemic influenza A (H1N1) has a significant public health impact. This study aimed to examine the effect of socio-ecological factors on the transmission of H1N1 in Brisbane, Australia. METHODOLOGY We obtained data from Queensland Health on numbers of laboratory-confirmed daily H1N1 in Brisbane by statistical local areas (SLA) in 2009. Data on weather and socio-economic index were obtained from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, respectively. A Bayesian spatial conditional autoregressive (CAR) model was used to quantify the relationship between variation of H1N1 and independent factors and to determine its spatiotemporal patterns. RESULTS Our results show that average increase in weekly H1N1 cases were 45.04% (95% credible interval (CrI): 42.63-47.43%) and 23.20% (95% CrI: 16.10-32.67%), for a 1 °C decrease in average weekly maximum temperature at a lag of one week and a 10mm decrease in average weekly rainfall at a lag of one week, respectively. An interactive effect between temperature and rainfall on H1N1 incidence was found (changes: 0.71%; 95% CrI: 0.48-0.98%). The auto-regression term was significantly associated with H1N1 transmission (changes: 2.5%; 95% CrI: 1.39-3.72). No significant association between socio-economic indexes for areas (SEIFA) and H1N1 was observed at SLA level. CONCLUSIONS Our results demonstrate that average weekly temperature at lag of one week and rainfall at lag of one week were substantially associated with H1N1 incidence at a SLA level. The ecological factors seemed to have played an important role in H1N1 transmission cycles in Brisbane, Australia.

ZnO nanocones with high-index {101̅1} facets for enhanced energy conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells

ZnO is a promising photoanode material for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) due to its high bulk electron mobility and because different geometrical structures can easily be tailored. Although various strategies have been taken to improve ZnO-based DSC efficiencies, their performances are still far lower than TiO2 counterparts, mainly because low conductivity Zn2+–dye complexes form on the ZnO surfaces. Here, cone-shaped ZnO nanocrystals with exposed reactive O-terminated {101̅1} facets were synthesized and applied in DSC devices. The devices were compared with DSCs made from more commonly used rod-shaped ZnO nanocrystals where {101̅0} facets are predominantly exposed. When cone-shaped ZnO nanocrystals were used, DSCs sensitized with C218, N719, and D205 dyes universally displayed better power conversion efficiency, with the highest photoconversion efficiency of 4.36% observed with the C218 dye. First-principles calculations indicated that the enhanced DSCs performance with ZnO nanocone photoanodes could be attributed to the strength of binding between the dye molecules and reactive O-terminated {101̅1} ZnO facets and that more effective use of dye molecules occurred due to a significantly less dye aggregation on these ZnO surfaces compared to other ZnO facets.

Export readiness index : construction and analysis

The internationalisation process of firms has attracted much research interest since the 1970s. It is noted, however, that a significant research gap exists in studies with a primary focus on the pre-internationalisation behaviour of firms. This paper proposes the incorporation of a pre-internationalisation phase into the traditional Uppsala model of firm internationalisation to address the issue of export readiness. Through extensive literature review, the concepts fundamental to the ability of an Uppsala type firm to begin internationalisation through an export entry mode are identified: exposure to stimuli factors, attitudinal commitment of decision makers towards exporting, the firm’s resource capabilities, as well as the moderating effect of lateral rigidity. The concept of export readiness is operationalised in this study through the construction of an export readiness index (ERI) using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The index is then applied to some representative cases and tested using logistic regression to establish its validity as a diagnostic tool. The proposed ERI presents not only a more practical approach towards analysing firms’ export readiness but has also major public policy implications as a possible tool for government export promotion agencies.

Conceptualising, evaluating and reporting social resilience in vulnerable regional and remote communities facing climate change in tropical Queensland : marine and tropical sciences research facility transition project final report

Regional and remote communities in tropical Queensland are among Australia’s most vulnerable in the face of climate change. At the same time, these socially and economically vulnerable regions house some of Australia’s most significant biodiversity values. Past approaches to terrestrial biodiversity management have focused on tackling biophysical interventions through the use of biophysical knowledge. An equally important focus should be placed on building regional-scale community resilience if some of the worst biodiversity impacts of climate change are to be avoided or mitigated. Despite its critical need, more systemic or holistic approaches to natural resource management have been rarely trialed and tested in a structured way. Currently, most strategic interventions in improving regional community resilience are ad hoc, not theory-based and short term. Past planning approaches have not been durable, nor have they been well informed by clear indicators. Research into indicators for community resilience has been poorly integrated within adaptive planning and management cycles. This project has aimed to resolve this problem by: * Reviewing the community and social resilience and adaptive planning literature to reconceptualise an improved framework for applying community resilience concepts; * Harvesting and extending work undertaken in MTSRF Phase 1 to identifying the learnings emerging from past MTSRF research; * Distilling these findings to identify new theoretical and practical approaches to the application of community resilience in natural resource use and management; * Reconsidering the potential interplay between a region’s biophysical and social planning processes, with a focus on exploring spatial tools to communicate climate change risk and its consequent environmental, economic and social impacts, and; * Trialling new approaches to indicator development and adaptive planning to improve community resilience, using a sub-regional pilot in the Wet Tropics. In doing so, we also looked at ways to improve the use and application of relevant spatial information. Our theoretical review drew upon the community development, psychology and emergency management literature to better frame the concept of community resilience relative to aligned concepts of social resilience, vulnerability and adaptive capacity. Firstly, we consider community resilience as a concept that can be considered at a range of scales (e.g. regional, locality, communities of interest, etc.). We also consider that overall resilience at higher scales will be influenced by resilience levels at lesser scales (inclusive of the resilience of constituent institutions, families and individuals). We illustrate that, at any scale, resilience and vulnerability are not necessarily polar opposites, and that some understanding of vulnerability is important in determining resilience. We position social resilience (a concept focused on the social characteristics of communities and individuals) as an important attribute of community resilience, but one that needs to be considered alongside economic, natural resource, capacity-based and governance attributes. The findings from the review of theory and MTSRF Phase 1 projects were synthesized and refined by the wider project team. Five predominant themes were distilled from this literature, research review and an expert analysis. They include the findings that: 1. Indicators have most value within an integrated and adaptive planning context, requiring an active co-research relationship between community resilience planners, managers and researchers if real change is to be secured; 2. Indicators of community resilience form the basis for planning for social assets and the resilience of social assets is directly related the longer term resilience of natural assets. This encourages and indeed requires the explicit development and integration of social planning within a broader natural resource planning and management framework; 3. Past indicator research and application has not provided a broad picture of the key attributes of community resilience and there have been many attempts to elicit lists of “perfect” indicators that may never be useful within the time and resource limitations of real world regional planning and management. We consider that modeling resilience for proactive planning and prediction purposes requires the consideration of simple but integrated clusters of attributes; 4. Depending on time and resources available for planning and management, the combined use of well suited indicators and/or other lesser “lines of evidence” is more flexible than the pursuit of perfect indicators, and that; 5. Index-based, collaborative and participatory approaches need to be applied to the development, refinement and reporting of indicators over longer time frames. We trialed the practical application of these concepts via the establishment of a collaborative regional alliance of planners and managers involved in the development of climate change adaptation strategies across tropical Queensland (the Gulf, Wet Tropics, Cape York and Torres Strait sub-regions). A focus on the Wet Tropics as a pilot sub-region enabled other Far North Queensland sub-region’s to participate and explore the potential extension of this approach. The pilot activities included: * Further exploring ways to innovatively communicate the region’s likely climate change scenarios and possible environmental, economic and social impacts. We particularly looked at using spatial tools to overlay climate change risks to geographic communities and social vulnerabilities within those communities; * Developing a cohesive first pass of a State of the Region-style approach to reporting community resilience, inclusive of regional economic viability, community vitality, capacitybased and governance attributes. This framework integrated a literature review, expert (academic and community) and alliance-based contributions; and * Early consideration of critical strategies that need to be included in unfolding regional planning activities with Far North Queensland. The pilot assessment finds that rural, indigenous and some urban populations in the Wet Tropics are highly vulnerable and sensitive to climate change and may require substantial support to adapt and become more resilient. This assessment finds that under current conditions (i.e. if significant adaptation actions are not taken) the Wet Tropics as a whole may be seriously impacted by the most significant features of climate change and extreme climatic events. Without early and substantive action, this could result in declining social and economic wellbeing and natural resource health. Of the four attributes we consider important to understanding community resilience, the Wet Tropics region is particularly vulnerable in two areas; specifically its economic vitality and knowledge, aspirations and capacity. The third and fourth attributes, community vitality and institutional governance are relatively resilient but are vulnerable in some key respects. In regard to all four of these attributes, however, there is some emerging capacity to manage the possible shocks that may be associated with the impacts of climate change and extreme climatic events. This capacity needs to be carefully fostered and further developed to achieve broader community resilience outcomes. There is an immediate need to build individual, household, community and sectoral resilience across all four attribute groups to enable populations and communities in the Wet Tropics region to adapt in the face of climate change. Preliminary strategies of importance to improve regional community resilience have been identified. These emerging strategies also have been integrated into the emerging Regional Development Australia Roadmap, and this will ensure that effective implementation will be progressed and coordinated. They will also inform emerging strategy development to secure implementation of the FNQ 2031 Regional Plan. Of most significance in our view, this project has taken a co-research approach from the outset with explicit and direct importance and influence within the region’s formal planning and management arrangements. As such, the research: * Now forms the foundations of the first attempt at “Social Asset” planning within the Wet Tropics Regional NRM Plan review; * Is assisting Local government at regional scale to consider aspects of climate change adaptation in emerging planning scheme/community planning processes; * Has partnered the State government (via the Department of Infrastructure and Planning and Regional Managers Coordination Network Chair) in progressing the Climate Change adaptation agenda set down within the FNQ 2031 Regional Plan; * Is informing new approaches to report on community resilience within the GBRMPA Outlook reporting framework; and * Now forms the foundation for the region’s wider climate change adaptation priorities in the Regional Roadmap developed by Regional Development Australia. Through the auspices of Regional Development Australia, the outcomes of the research will now inform emerging negotiations concerning a wider package of climate change adaptation priorities with State and Federal governments. Next stage research priorities are also being developed to enable an ongoing alliance between researchers and the region’s climate change response.

The application of luminance mapping to discomfort glare : a modified glare index for green buildings

Unfortunately, there is no reliable method to adequately quantify discomfort glare. One of the world's largest investigations on discomfort glare was conducted in five Green Star office buildings in Brisbane. Luminance mapping via high dynamic range images and Post Occupancy Evaluation surveys were used in the data collection. A new glare index, termed the Unified Glare Probability, was developed to predict discomfort glare within these types of office buildings.

Common secure index for conjunctive keyword-based retrieval over encrypted data

We consider the following problem: users in a dynamic group store their encrypted documents on an untrusted server, and wish to retrieve documents containing some keywords without any loss of data confidentiality. In this paper, we investigate common secure indices which can make multi-users in a dynamic group to obtain securely the encrypted documents shared among the group members without re-encrypting them. We give a formal definition of common secure index for conjunctive keyword-based retrieval over encrypted data (CSI-CKR), define the security requirement for CSI-CKR, and construct a CSI-CKR based on dynamic accumulators, Paillier’s cryptosystem and blind signatures. The security of proposed scheme is proved under strong RSA and co-DDH assumptions.

Cross cultural adaptation and validation of a Spanish version of the lower limb functional index

Background: The Lower Limb Functional Index (LLFI) is a relatively recently published regional outcome measure. The development article showed the LLFI had robust and valid clinimetric properties with sound psychometric and practical characteristics when compared to the Lower Limb Extremity Scale (LEFS) criterion standard. Objective: The purpose of this study was cross cultural adaptation and validation of the LLFI Spanish-version (LLFI-Sp) in a Spanish population. Methods: A two stage observational study was conducted. The LLFI was initially cross-culturally adapted to Spanish through double forward and single backward translation; then subsequently validated for the psychometric characteristics of validity, internal consistency, reliability, error score and factor structure. Participants (n = 136) with various lower limb conditions of >12 weeks duration completed the LLFI-Sp, Western Ontario and McMaster University Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) and the Euroqol Health Questionnaire 5 Dimensions (EQ-5D-3 L). The full sample was employed to determine internal consistency, concurrent criterion validity, construct validity and factor structure; a subgroup (n = 45) determined reliability at seven days concurrently completing a global rating of change scale. Results: The LLFI-Sp demonstrated high but not excessive internal consistency (α = 0.91) and high reliability (ICC = 0.96). The factor structure was one-dimensional which supported the construct validity. Criterion validity with the WOMAC was strong (r = 0.77) and with the EQ-5D-3 L fair and inversely correlated (r = -0.62). The study limitations included the lack of longitudinal data and the determination of responsiveness. Conclusions: The LLFI-Sp supports the findings of the original English version as being a valid lower limb regional outcome measure. It demonstrated similar psychometric properties for internal consistency, validity, reliability, error score and factor structure.

Ethnic cluster lifecycle : a case of Chinese restaurants in South East Queensland

Immigrant entrepreneurs tend to start businesses within their ethnic enclave (EE), as it is an integral part of their social and cultural context and the location where ethnic resources reside (Logan, Alba, & Stults, 2003). Ethnic enclaves can be seen as a form of geographic cluster, China Towns are exemplar EEs, easily identified by the clustering of Chinese restaurants and other ethnic businesses in one central location. Studies on EE thus far have neglected the life cycles stages of EE and its impact on the business experiences of the entrepreneurs. In this paper, we track the formation, growth and decline of an EE. We argue that EE is a special industrial cluster and as such it follows the growth conditions proposed by the cluster life cycle theory (Menzel & Fornahl, 2009). We report a mixed method study of Chinese Restaurants in South East Queensland. Based on multiple sources of data, we concluded that changes in government policies leading to a sharp increase of immigrant numbers from a distinctive culture group can lead to the initiation and growth of the EE. Continuous incoming of new immigrants and increase competition within the cluster mark the mature stage of the EE, making the growth condition more favourable “inside” the cluster. A decline in new immigrants from the same ethnic group and the increased competition within the EE may eventually lead to the decline of such an industrial cluster, thus providing more favorable condition for growth of business outside the cluster.