Objective:To investigate levels of awareness of dengue among the inhabitants of Queensland(QLD),a dengue-prevalent state in the north east of Australia.Methods:A computer-assisted telephone interviewing survey was con...Objective:To investigate levels of awareness of dengue among the inhabitants of Queensland(QLD),a dengue-prevalent state in the north east of Australia.Methods:A computer-assisted telephone interviewing survey was conducted in mid2014.A total of 1 223 randomly selected respondents( 18 years) across QLD completed a structured questionnaire covering all aspects of dengue.Results:97.55% had heard of dengue and participated further.Among them,54.70% had travelled overseas(48.11% to dengue-risk countries) in the last five years.A total of94.47% said transmission is by mosquito bite.In addition,84.83% knew of current transmission of dengue in QLD,while 80.97% knew the focus is Far North and North QLD.Furthermore,2.35% and 8.97% had experienced an infection in their life or that of their immediate family/partner,respectively.85.03% identified correctly at least one means of prevention.A total of 69.72% advised to use insect repellent,wear covered clothing and avoid visiting mosquito-prone areas while 20.93% advised fumigation and clearing water containers around residences.There was a significant difference(P < 0.05) between residents of South East QLD and the rest of QLD regarding knowledge of prevention.However,such awareness was not affected significantly by overseas travel(P > 0.05).Conclusions:Although many people throughout QLD have heard of dengue,about 15%appear unaware of local transmission,its symptoms and of methods to reduce risk of infection.A lack of knowledge regarding prevention of mosquito breeding is evident in South East QLD,where dengue is not currently reported.The study suggests that future dengue awareness campaigns should target communities in both endemic and potentially endemic areas throughout Queensland.展开更多
Droughts occur in all climatic regions around the world costing a large expense to global economies. Reasonably accurate prediction of drought events helps water managers proper planning for utilization of limited wat...Droughts occur in all climatic regions around the world costing a large expense to global economies. Reasonably accurate prediction of drought events helps water managers proper planning for utilization of limited water resources and distribution of available waters to different sectors and avoid catastrophic consequences. Therefore, a means to create a simplistic approach for forecasting drought conditions with easily accessible parameters is highly desirable. This study proposes and evaluates newly developed accurate prediction models utilizing various hydrologic, meteorological, and geohydrology parameters along with the use of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models with various forecast lead times. The present study develops a multitude of forecasting models to predict drought indices such as the Standard Precipitation Index with a lead-time of up to 6 months, and the Soil Moisture Index with a lead-time of 3 months. Furthermore, prediction models with the capability of approximating surface and groundwater storage levels including the Ross River Dam level have been developed with relatively high accuracy with a lead-time of 3 months. The results obtained from these models were compared to current values, revealing that ANN based approach can be used as a simple and effective predictive model that can be utilized for prediction of different aspects of drought scenarios in a typical study area like Townsville, North Queensland, Australia which had suffered severe recent drought conditions for almost six recent years (2014 to early 2019).展开更多
<strong>Aim:</strong> The objectives of this study are to determine the epidemiology of biopsy-proven glomerular disease (GD) in Central Queensland and the effect of a severe cyclone on its incidence and c...<strong>Aim:</strong> The objectives of this study are to determine the epidemiology of biopsy-proven glomerular disease (GD) in Central Queensland and the effect of a severe cyclone on its incidence and clinical phenotype. <strong>Background:</strong> Central Queensland (CQ) has a relatively high incidence of kidney disease. Since its biopsy service commenced in 2005, there have been no data on biopsy-proven GD. It has been suggested that GD incidence changes around times of natural disasters. In February 2015, the CQ region was affected by a category 5 Cyclone Marcia. This provides an opportunity to explore possible environmental triggers of GD. <strong>Methods:</strong> This was a single-centre retrospective observational study on biopsy-proven kidney disease in CQ. All kidney biopsies performed between January 2005 and December 2019 were included. Patients with biopsy-proven GD during 3 years before and after Cyclone Marcia (from 2012 to 2018) were analysed. <strong>Results:</strong> 170 native kidney biopsies occurred during the 15 years. The number of annual biopsies steadily increased from 7 to 16. The most common biopsy-proven kidney disease was IgA Nephropathy (27%) followed by diabetic nephropathy (20%). GD comprised 64% of biopsies. Unlike other GD, the incidence of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) significantly increased after cyclone (one pre- and eight post-cyclone, P value = 0.039). The majority of AAV cases occurred in the first year after the cyclone. <strong>Conclusion:</strong> Kidney biopsies in CQ provide important epidemiological data on biopsy-proven kidney disease. Cyclones have a possible effect on the incidence and clinical phenotype of ANCA associated vasculitis.展开更多
The use of draglines to remove overburden in Queensland opencut mines,results in landscapes that consist of long parallel tertiary overburden spoil-piles that are generally highly saline,dispersive,and highly erodible...The use of draglines to remove overburden in Queensland opencut mines,results in landscapes that consist of long parallel tertiary overburden spoil-piles that are generally highly saline,dispersive,and highly erodible.The height of these spoil-piles may exceed 50-60 m above the original landscapes and the slopes are at the angle of repose of around 75%or 37°.Legislation and public opinion require that these highly disturbed open-cut post-mining landscapes should be satisfactorily rehabilitated into an approved post-mining land use with acceptable erosion rates.Therefore,these slopes must be reduced before the landscape can be rehabilitated.The most expensive component of the rehabilitation process is the re-shaping and preparation of the overburden to create a suitable landscape for vegetation growth.As soils and overburden varies greatly in their erodibilities,the extent and cost of earthworks can be minimized,and rehabilitation failures avoided,if soil erosion from designed landscapes can be predicted using laboratory-based parameters prior to construction of these landscapes.This paper describes the development of a model for that purpose.A catchment or landscape erosion model MINErosion 4 was developed by upscaling the existing hillslope model MINErosion 3(So,et al.,2018)and integrate it with both ESRI ArcGIS 10.3 or QGIS 3.16(freeware),to predict event based and mean annual erosion rate from a postmining catchment or landscape.MINErosion 3 is a model that can be used to predict event and annual erosion rates from field scale hillslopes using laboratory measured erodibility parameters or routinely measured soil physical and chemical properties,and to derive suitable landscape design parameters(slope gradient,slope length and vegetation cover)that will result in acceptable erosion rates.But it cannot be used to predict the sediment delivery from catchments or landscapes.MINErosion 4 was validated against data collected on three instrumented catchments(up to 0.91 ha in size)on the Curragh mine site in Central Queensland.The agreement between predicted(Y)and measured(x)values were very good with the regression equation of Y-0.92X and an R^(2) value of 0.81 for individual storm events,and Y-1.47X and an R^(2) value of 0.73 for the average annual soil loss.This is probably the first time that a catchment scale erosion is successfully predicted from laboratory measured erodibility parameters.展开更多
I hope you enjoyed a magical celebration. I have had an exciting time here.In Australia, we celebrate New Year’s Eve with champagne and parties. At 10seconds to midnight, everyone stops to count in the new year at fu...I hope you enjoyed a magical celebration. I have had an exciting time here.In Australia, we celebrate New Year’s Eve with champagne and parties. At 10seconds to midnight, everyone stops to count in the new year at full volume, beforeshouting" Happy New Year", kissing the nearest person, and breaking into araucous (沙哑的) version of "Auld Lang Syne". Loud cheers resound in hotels,halls, nightclubs and backyards across the country.展开更多
Drying crack is a common phenomenon occurring during moisture discharge from wood,reducing efficient wood utilization.Drying crack is primarily caused by drying stress,and the reasonable methods for determining drying...Drying crack is a common phenomenon occurring during moisture discharge from wood,reducing efficient wood utilization.Drying crack is primarily caused by drying stress,and the reasonable methods for determining drying stress are sparse.In this study,the initiation and propagation of cracks during wood discs drying were simulated using the extended finite element method(XFEM).The distribution of drying stress and displacement was analyzed at different crack conditions based on the simulation results.This study aimed to solve the problem of the limitation of drying stress testing methods and provide a new idea for the study of wood drying stress.The numerical simulation results are found in good agreement with the experimental results,thus corroborating the feasibility of XFEM in modeling drying crack of wood discs.The stress concentration was observed at the crack tip region,while a minor stress was presented in the region of crack passing through,indicating that the crack formation process was also a process of releasing drying stress.Further,more energy was required to form double cracks in comparison with the single crack mode.展开更多
Concentrating solar thermal power system can provide low carbon,renewable energy resources in countries or regions with strong solar irradiation.For this kind of power plant which is likely to be located in the arid a...Concentrating solar thermal power system can provide low carbon,renewable energy resources in countries or regions with strong solar irradiation.For this kind of power plant which is likely to be located in the arid area,natural draft dry cooling tower is a promising choice.To develop the experimental studies on small cooling tower,a 20 m high natural draft dry cooling tower with fully instrumented measurement system was established by the Queensland Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence.The performance of this cooling tower was measured with the constant heat input of 600 kW and 840 kW and with ambient temperature ranging from 20 ℃ to 32 ℃.The cooling tower numerical model was refined and validated with the experimental data.The model of 1 MW concentrating solar thermal supercritical CO2 power cycle was developed and integrated with the cooling tower model.The influences of changing ambient temperature and the performance of the cooling tower on efficiency of the power system were simulated.The differences of the mechanism of the ambient temperature effect on Rankine cycle and supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle were analysed and discussed.展开更多
On-site stormwater detention (OSD) is a conventional component of urban drainage systems, designed with the intention of mitigating the increase to peak discharge of stormwater runoff that inevitably results from urba...On-site stormwater detention (OSD) is a conventional component of urban drainage systems, designed with the intention of mitigating the increase to peak discharge of stormwater runoff that inevitably results from urbanization. In Australia, singular temporal patterns for design storms have governed the inputs of hydrograph generation and in turn the design process of OSD for the last three decades. This paper raises the concern that many existing OSD systems designed using the singular temporal pattern for design storms may not be achieving their stated objectives when they are assessed against a variety of alternative temporal patterns. The performance of twenty real OSD systems was investigated using two methods:(1) ensembles of design temporal patterns prescribed in the latest version of Australian Rainfall and Runoff, and (2) real recorded rainfall data taken from pluviograph stations modeled with continuous simulation. It is shown conclusively that the use of singular temporal patterns is ineffective in providing assurance that an OSD will mitigate the increase to peak discharge for all possible storm events. Ensemble analysis is shown to provide improved results. However, it also falls short of providing any guarantee in the face of naturally occurring rainfall.展开更多
基金Supported by a competitive grant awarded through the QSS2014 Population Research Grant Scheme(Grant No.H13/06-120/QSS2014-14)
文摘Objective:To investigate levels of awareness of dengue among the inhabitants of Queensland(QLD),a dengue-prevalent state in the north east of Australia.Methods:A computer-assisted telephone interviewing survey was conducted in mid2014.A total of 1 223 randomly selected respondents( 18 years) across QLD completed a structured questionnaire covering all aspects of dengue.Results:97.55% had heard of dengue and participated further.Among them,54.70% had travelled overseas(48.11% to dengue-risk countries) in the last five years.A total of94.47% said transmission is by mosquito bite.In addition,84.83% knew of current transmission of dengue in QLD,while 80.97% knew the focus is Far North and North QLD.Furthermore,2.35% and 8.97% had experienced an infection in their life or that of their immediate family/partner,respectively.85.03% identified correctly at least one means of prevention.A total of 69.72% advised to use insect repellent,wear covered clothing and avoid visiting mosquito-prone areas while 20.93% advised fumigation and clearing water containers around residences.There was a significant difference(P < 0.05) between residents of South East QLD and the rest of QLD regarding knowledge of prevention.However,such awareness was not affected significantly by overseas travel(P > 0.05).Conclusions:Although many people throughout QLD have heard of dengue,about 15%appear unaware of local transmission,its symptoms and of methods to reduce risk of infection.A lack of knowledge regarding prevention of mosquito breeding is evident in South East QLD,where dengue is not currently reported.The study suggests that future dengue awareness campaigns should target communities in both endemic and potentially endemic areas throughout Queensland.
文摘Droughts occur in all climatic regions around the world costing a large expense to global economies. Reasonably accurate prediction of drought events helps water managers proper planning for utilization of limited water resources and distribution of available waters to different sectors and avoid catastrophic consequences. Therefore, a means to create a simplistic approach for forecasting drought conditions with easily accessible parameters is highly desirable. This study proposes and evaluates newly developed accurate prediction models utilizing various hydrologic, meteorological, and geohydrology parameters along with the use of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models with various forecast lead times. The present study develops a multitude of forecasting models to predict drought indices such as the Standard Precipitation Index with a lead-time of up to 6 months, and the Soil Moisture Index with a lead-time of 3 months. Furthermore, prediction models with the capability of approximating surface and groundwater storage levels including the Ross River Dam level have been developed with relatively high accuracy with a lead-time of 3 months. The results obtained from these models were compared to current values, revealing that ANN based approach can be used as a simple and effective predictive model that can be utilized for prediction of different aspects of drought scenarios in a typical study area like Townsville, North Queensland, Australia which had suffered severe recent drought conditions for almost six recent years (2014 to early 2019).
文摘<strong>Aim:</strong> The objectives of this study are to determine the epidemiology of biopsy-proven glomerular disease (GD) in Central Queensland and the effect of a severe cyclone on its incidence and clinical phenotype. <strong>Background:</strong> Central Queensland (CQ) has a relatively high incidence of kidney disease. Since its biopsy service commenced in 2005, there have been no data on biopsy-proven GD. It has been suggested that GD incidence changes around times of natural disasters. In February 2015, the CQ region was affected by a category 5 Cyclone Marcia. This provides an opportunity to explore possible environmental triggers of GD. <strong>Methods:</strong> This was a single-centre retrospective observational study on biopsy-proven kidney disease in CQ. All kidney biopsies performed between January 2005 and December 2019 were included. Patients with biopsy-proven GD during 3 years before and after Cyclone Marcia (from 2012 to 2018) were analysed. <strong>Results:</strong> 170 native kidney biopsies occurred during the 15 years. The number of annual biopsies steadily increased from 7 to 16. The most common biopsy-proven kidney disease was IgA Nephropathy (27%) followed by diabetic nephropathy (20%). GD comprised 64% of biopsies. Unlike other GD, the incidence of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) significantly increased after cyclone (one pre- and eight post-cyclone, P value = 0.039). The majority of AAV cases occurred in the first year after the cyclone. <strong>Conclusion:</strong> Kidney biopsies in CQ provide important epidemiological data on biopsy-proven kidney disease. Cyclones have a possible effect on the incidence and clinical phenotype of ANCA associated vasculitis.
文摘The use of draglines to remove overburden in Queensland opencut mines,results in landscapes that consist of long parallel tertiary overburden spoil-piles that are generally highly saline,dispersive,and highly erodible.The height of these spoil-piles may exceed 50-60 m above the original landscapes and the slopes are at the angle of repose of around 75%or 37°.Legislation and public opinion require that these highly disturbed open-cut post-mining landscapes should be satisfactorily rehabilitated into an approved post-mining land use with acceptable erosion rates.Therefore,these slopes must be reduced before the landscape can be rehabilitated.The most expensive component of the rehabilitation process is the re-shaping and preparation of the overburden to create a suitable landscape for vegetation growth.As soils and overburden varies greatly in their erodibilities,the extent and cost of earthworks can be minimized,and rehabilitation failures avoided,if soil erosion from designed landscapes can be predicted using laboratory-based parameters prior to construction of these landscapes.This paper describes the development of a model for that purpose.A catchment or landscape erosion model MINErosion 4 was developed by upscaling the existing hillslope model MINErosion 3(So,et al.,2018)and integrate it with both ESRI ArcGIS 10.3 or QGIS 3.16(freeware),to predict event based and mean annual erosion rate from a postmining catchment or landscape.MINErosion 3 is a model that can be used to predict event and annual erosion rates from field scale hillslopes using laboratory measured erodibility parameters or routinely measured soil physical and chemical properties,and to derive suitable landscape design parameters(slope gradient,slope length and vegetation cover)that will result in acceptable erosion rates.But it cannot be used to predict the sediment delivery from catchments or landscapes.MINErosion 4 was validated against data collected on three instrumented catchments(up to 0.91 ha in size)on the Curragh mine site in Central Queensland.The agreement between predicted(Y)and measured(x)values were very good with the regression equation of Y-0.92X and an R^(2) value of 0.81 for individual storm events,and Y-1.47X and an R^(2) value of 0.73 for the average annual soil loss.This is probably the first time that a catchment scale erosion is successfully predicted from laboratory measured erodibility parameters.
文摘I hope you enjoyed a magical celebration. I have had an exciting time here.In Australia, we celebrate New Year’s Eve with champagne and parties. At 10seconds to midnight, everyone stops to count in the new year at full volume, beforeshouting" Happy New Year", kissing the nearest person, and breaking into araucous (沙哑的) version of "Auld Lang Syne". Loud cheers resound in hotels,halls, nightclubs and backyards across the country.
基金financed by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Youth Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.31800478)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.31870535,32122058)。
文摘Drying crack is a common phenomenon occurring during moisture discharge from wood,reducing efficient wood utilization.Drying crack is primarily caused by drying stress,and the reasonable methods for determining drying stress are sparse.In this study,the initiation and propagation of cracks during wood discs drying were simulated using the extended finite element method(XFEM).The distribution of drying stress and displacement was analyzed at different crack conditions based on the simulation results.This study aimed to solve the problem of the limitation of drying stress testing methods and provide a new idea for the study of wood drying stress.The numerical simulation results are found in good agreement with the experimental results,thus corroborating the feasibility of XFEM in modeling drying crack of wood discs.The stress concentration was observed at the crack tip region,while a minor stress was presented in the region of crack passing through,indicating that the crack formation process was also a process of releasing drying stress.Further,more energy was required to form double cracks in comparison with the single crack mode.
文摘Concentrating solar thermal power system can provide low carbon,renewable energy resources in countries or regions with strong solar irradiation.For this kind of power plant which is likely to be located in the arid area,natural draft dry cooling tower is a promising choice.To develop the experimental studies on small cooling tower,a 20 m high natural draft dry cooling tower with fully instrumented measurement system was established by the Queensland Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence.The performance of this cooling tower was measured with the constant heat input of 600 kW and 840 kW and with ambient temperature ranging from 20 ℃ to 32 ℃.The cooling tower numerical model was refined and validated with the experimental data.The model of 1 MW concentrating solar thermal supercritical CO2 power cycle was developed and integrated with the cooling tower model.The influences of changing ambient temperature and the performance of the cooling tower on efficiency of the power system were simulated.The differences of the mechanism of the ambient temperature effect on Rankine cycle and supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle were analysed and discussed.
文摘On-site stormwater detention (OSD) is a conventional component of urban drainage systems, designed with the intention of mitigating the increase to peak discharge of stormwater runoff that inevitably results from urbanization. In Australia, singular temporal patterns for design storms have governed the inputs of hydrograph generation and in turn the design process of OSD for the last three decades. This paper raises the concern that many existing OSD systems designed using the singular temporal pattern for design storms may not be achieving their stated objectives when they are assessed against a variety of alternative temporal patterns. The performance of twenty real OSD systems was investigated using two methods:(1) ensembles of design temporal patterns prescribed in the latest version of Australian Rainfall and Runoff, and (2) real recorded rainfall data taken from pluviograph stations modeled with continuous simulation. It is shown conclusively that the use of singular temporal patterns is ineffective in providing assurance that an OSD will mitigate the increase to peak discharge for all possible storm events. Ensemble analysis is shown to provide improved results. However, it also falls short of providing any guarantee in the face of naturally occurring rainfall.
