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Thiamin analysis in red wine by fluorescence reverse phase-HPLC

- Liddicoat, Callum, Hucker, Barry, Liang, Hao, Vriesekoop, Frank

  • Authors: Liddicoat, Callum , Hucker, Barry , Liang, Hao , Vriesekoop, Frank
  • Date: 2015
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Food Chemistry Vol. 177, no. (2015), p. 325-329
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  • Description: The derivatization of thiamin vitamers to their respective thiochrome by ferricyanide to facilitate fluorescence detection following separation by HPLC provides a powerful analytical tool. However the polyphenolic compounds in red wine readily interact with ferricyanide, reducing the effectiveness of ferricyanide oxidation in the derivatization of thiamin. We describe a method to facilitate the removal of polyphenolic compounds that interfere with the ferricyanide derivatization of thiamin. Polyvinylpolypyrrolidone afforded the total removal of phenolic compounds from red wines and allowed a spike recovery of thiamin vitamers (101% for thiamin; 104% for TMP; and 100% for TDP) in a wide range of red wines. This research found that Merlot styles of red wine contained the highest concentration of total thiamin (29.01 ng/mL) while Pinot Noir wines contained the lowest total concentration (8.27 ng/mL).

Tidally driven water column hydro-geochemistry in a remediating acidic wetland

- Johnston, Scott, Keene, Annabelle, Bush, Richard, Sullivan, Leigh, Wong, Vanessa

  • Authors: Johnston, Scott , Keene, Annabelle , Bush, Richard , Sullivan, Leigh , Wong, Vanessa
  • Date: 2011
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Journal of Hydrology Vol. 409, no. 1-2 (2011), p. 128-139
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  • Description: Managed tidal inundation is a newly evolved technique for remediating coastal acid sulphate soil (CASS) wetlands. However, there remains considerable uncertainty regarding the hydro-geochemical pathways and spatiotemporal dynamics of residual H+ and metal(loid) mobilisation into the tidal fringe surface waters of these uniquely iron-rich landscapes. Here, we examine the hydrology and water column chemistry across the intertidal slope of a remediating CASS wetland during several tide cycles. There was extreme spatial and temporal dynamism in water column chemistry, with pH fluctuating by ∼3 units (∼3.5-6.5) during a single tide cycle. Acute acidity was spatially confined to the upper intertidal slope, reflecting surface sediment properties, and tidal overtopping is an important pathway for mobilisation of residual H+ and Al3+ to the water column. Marine derived HCO3- was depleted from surface waters migrating across the intertidal slope and a strong gradient in HCO3- was observed from the tidal fringe to the adjacent tributary channel and nearby estuary. Tidal forcing generated oscillating hydraulic gradients in the shallow fringing aquifer, favouring ebb-tide seepage and driving rapid, heterogeneous advection of groundwater on the lower intertidal slope via surface connected macropores. A combination of diffusive and advective flux across the sediment-water interface led to persistent, elevated surface water Fe2+ (∼10-1000μM). The geochemical processes associated with Fe2+ mobilisation displayed distinct spatial zonation, with low pH, proton-promoted desorption occurring on the upper intertidal slope, whilst circum-neutral pH, Fe(III)-reducing processes dominated the lower intertidal slope. Arsenic was also mobilised into surface waters on the lower intertidal slope under moderate pH (∼6.0) conditions and was strongly positively correlated with Fe2+. Saturation index values for aragonite were substantially depressed (-1 to -5) and significantly negatively correlated with elevation, thereby presenting a barrier to re-colonisation of the upper intertidal slope by calcifying benthic organisms. These findings highlight the spatially complex hydrological and geochemical controls on surface water quality that can occur in tidally inundated acid sulphate soil environments. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.

Trans-ethnic kidney function association study reveals putative causal genes and effects on kidney-specific disease aetiologies

- Morris, Andrew, Le, Thu, Wu, Haojia, Akbarov, Artur, van der Most, Peter, Hemani, Gibran, Smith, George, Mahajan, Anubha, Gaulton, Kyle, Nadkarni, Girish, Valladares-Salgado, Adan, Wacher-Rodarte, Niels, Mychaleckyj, Josyf, Dueker, Nicole, Guo, Xiuqing, Hai, Yang, Haessler, Jeffrey, Kamatani, Yoichiro, Stilp, Adrienne, Zhu, Gu, Cook, James, Arnlov, Johan, Blanton, Susan, de Borst, Martin, Bottinger, Erwin, Buchanan, Thomas, Cechova, Sylvia, Charchar, Fadi, Chu, Pei-Lun, Damman, Jeffrey, Eales, James, Gharavi, Ali, Giedraitis, Vilmantas, Heath, Andrew, Ipp, Eli, Kiryluk, Krzysztof, Kramer, Holly, Kubo, Michiaki, Larsson, Anders, Lindgren, Cecilia, Lu, Yingchang, Madden, Pamela, Montgomery, Grant, Papanicolaou, George, Raffel, Leslie, Sacco, Ralph, Sanchez, Elena, Stark, Holger, Sundstrom, Johan, Taylor, Kent, Xiang, Anny, Zivkovic, Aleksandra, Lind, Lars, Ingelsson, Erik, Martin, Nicholas, Whitfield, John, Cai, Jianwen, Laurie, Cathy, Okada, Yukinori, Matsuda, Koichi, Kooperberg, Charles, Chen, Yii-Der, Rundek, Tatjana, Rich, Stephen, Loos, Ruth, Parra, Esteban, Cruz, Miguel, Rotter, Jerome, Snieder, Harold, Tomaszewski, Maciej, Humphreys, Benjamin, Franceschini, Nora

Transdisciplinary synthesis for ecosystem science, policy and management : The Australian experience

- Lynch, Jasmyn, Thackway, Richard, Specht, Alison, Beggs, Paul, Brisbane, S., Burns, E. L., Byrne, M., Capon, Samantha, Casanova, Michelle, Clarke, Philip, Davies, J. M., Dovers, Stephen, Dwyer, R. G., Ens, Emilie, Fisher, Diana O., Flanigan, M., Garnier, E., Guru, Siddeswara, Kilminster, Kieryn, Locke, John, Mac Nally, Ralph, McMahon, Kathryn, Mitchell, Paul, Pierson, J. C., Rodgers, Essie, Russell-Smith, Jeremy, Udy, James, Waycott, Michelle

  • Authors: Lynch, Jasmyn , Thackway, Richard , Specht, Alison , Beggs, Paul , Brisbane, S. , Burns, E. L. , Byrne, M. , Capon, Samantha , Casanova, Michelle , Clarke, Philip , Davies, J. M. , Dovers, Stephen , Dwyer, R. G. , Ens, Emilie , Fisher, Diana O. , Flanigan, M. , Garnier, E. , Guru, Siddeswara , Kilminster, Kieryn , Locke, John , Mac Nally, Ralph , McMahon, Kathryn , Mitchell, Paul , Pierson, J. C. , Rodgers, Essie , Russell-Smith, Jeremy , Udy, James , Waycott, Michelle
  • Date: 2015
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Science of the Total Environment Vol. 534, no. (2015), p. 173-184
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  • Description: Mitigating the environmental effects of global population growth, climatic change and increasing socio-ecological complexity is a daunting challenge. To tackle this requires synthesis: the integration of disparate information to generate novel insights from heterogeneous, complex situations where there are diverse perspectives. Since 1995, a structured approach to inter-, multi- and trans-disciplinary. 11Transdisciplinary: A theory, methodology, point of view or perspective that transcends entrenched categories and engages both researchers and practitioners in formulating problems in new ways to address real-world problems (e.g. eco-health, ecosystem services). collaboration around big science questions has been supported through synthesis centres around the world. These centres are finding an expanding role due to ever-accumulating data and the need for more and better opportunities to develop transdisciplinary and holistic approaches to solve real-world problems. The Australian Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (ACEAS <. http://www.aceas.org.au>) has been the pioneering ecosystem science synthesis centre in the Southern Hemisphere. Such centres provide analysis and synthesis opportunities for time-pressed scientists, policy-makers and managers. They provide the scientific and organisational environs for virtual and face-to-face engagement, impetus for integration, data and methodological support, and innovative ways to deliver synthesis products.We detail the contribution, role and value of synthesis using ACEAS to exemplify the capacity for synthesis centres to facilitate trans-organisational, transdisciplinary synthesis. We compare ACEAS to other international synthesis centres, and describe how it facilitated project teams and its objective of linking natural resource science to policy to management. Scientists and managers were brought together to actively collaborate in multi-institutional, cross-sectoral and transdisciplinary research on contemporary ecological problems. The teams analysed, integrated and synthesised existing data to co-develop solution-oriented publications and management recommendations that might otherwise not have been produced. We identify key outcomes of some ACEAS working groups which used synthesis to tackle important ecosystem challenges. We also examine the barriers and enablers to synthesis, so that risks can be minimised and successful outcomes maximised. We argue that synthesis centres have a crucial role in developing, communicating and using synthetic transdisciplinary research. © 2015 Elsevier B.V.

Trends in land use and land cover change in the protected and communal areas of the Zambezi Region, Namibia

- Kamwi, Jonathan, Kaetsch, Christoph, Graz, Patrick, Chirwa, Paxie, Manda, Samuel

  • Authors: Kamwi, Jonathan , Kaetsch, Christoph , Graz, Patrick , Chirwa, Paxie , Manda, Samuel
  • Date: 2017
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Vol. 189, no. 5 (2017), p. 1-18
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  • Description: Land management decisions have extensively modified land use and land cover in the Zambezi Region. These decisions are influenced by land tenure classifications, legislation, and livelihoods. Land use and land cover change is an important indicator for quantifying the effectiveness of different land management strategies. However, there has been no evidence on whether protected or communal land tenure is more affected by land use and land cover changes in southern Africa and particularly Namibia. Our study attempted to fill this gap by analyzing the relationship between land use and land cover change and land tenure regimes stratified according to protected and communal area in the Zambezi Region. Multi-temporal Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery were used to determine the temporal dynamics of land use and land cover change from 1984 to 2010. The landscape showed distinctive modifications over the study period; broad trends include the increase in forest land after 1991. However, changes were not uniform across the study areas. Two landscape development stages were deduced: (1) 1984–1991 represented high deforestation and gradual increase in shrub land; (2) 1991–2000 and 2000–2010 represented lower deforestation and slower agropastoral expansion. The results further show clear patterns of the dynamics, magnitude, and direction of land use and land cover change by tenure regime. The study concluded that land tenure has a direct impact on land use and land cover, since it may restrict some activities carried out on the land in the Zambezi Region. © 2017, Springer International Publishing Switzerland.

Trends in pediatric and adolescent anterior cruciate ligament injuries in Victoria, Australia 2005-2015

- Shaw, Louise, Finch, Caroline

  • Authors: Shaw, Louise , Finch, Caroline
  • Date: 2017
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Vol. 14, no. 6 (2017), p. 1-10
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  • Description: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries in children and adolescents have been the focus of recent media attention and parental concern, given their potential for adverse long-term health outcomes and healthcare costs. However, there is limited formal evidence on trends in the incidence of ACL injuries in children. This study utilizes the Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset (VAED) to characterize epidemiologic trends of hospital-admitted ACL injuries in those aged 5 to 14 years over a period of 10 years from 2005 to 2015. There was a total of 320 cases and the overall annual rate of ACL injuries increased by 147.8% from 2.74 per 100, 000 population in 2005/2006 to 6.79 per 100, 000 in 2014/2015. The majority (96.9%) of these injuries were in 10-to 14-year-olds. The main in-hospital procedure provided to over 80% of the hospitalized cases involved ACL reconstruction. Sporting activities accounted for 56.6% of ACL injuries. For females, over half (52.4%) of ACL injuries occurred whilst playing ball sports, compared to 35.4% of males. The large increase in ACL injuries in 5-to 14-year-olds in the state of Victoria, Australia over a 10-year period indicates they are a significant and emerging health burden. Population-wide ACL prevention policies are required to halt these trends. Cost effective prevention programs that involve neuromuscular training must be implemented in schools and junior sports teams. © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Trust-aware detection of malicious users in dating social networks

- Shen, Xingfa, Lv, Wentao, Qiu, Jianhui, Kaur, Achhardeep, Xiao, Fengjun, Xia, Feng

  • Authors: Shen, Xingfa , Lv, Wentao , Qiu, Jianhui , Kaur, Achhardeep , Xiao, Fengjun , Xia, Feng
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems Vol. 10, no. 5 (2023), p. 2587-2598
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  • Description: Online dating is an increasingly thriving business which boosts billion-dollar revenues and attracts users in the tens of millions. Despite its popularity, internet dating is not exempt from the concerns about privacy and trust posed by the revelation of potentially sensitive data as well as the exposure to self-reported (and hence potentially distorted) information. The increasing popularity of online dating networks leads to an increase in security concerns and challenges, as well as harmful actions and attacks, such as creating fake accounts, phishing on these networks. To maintain the safety of legitimate online dating users, it is critical to recognize and isolate criminal people as soon as possible. However, researchers concerning malicious user detection in dating social networks are merely a few. To address some key challenges in this space, we propose a trust-aware detection framework to detect malicious users based on different kinds of data from a real dating site. In particular, we develop a user trust model to distinguish between malicious and legitimate users. Furthermore, we propose a novel data-balancing method to improve the recall rate of malicious user detection. Extensive experiments have been conducted over real-world datasets. The results show that the proposed approach yields a precision of up to 59.16% and a recall rate of up to 73%, which is significantly higher than other baseline algorithms. © 2014 IEEE.

Type D personality, stress, coping and performance on a novel sport task

- Borkoles, Erika, Kaiseler, Mariana, Evans, Andrew, Ski, Chantal, Thompson, David, Polman, Remco

  • Authors: Borkoles, Erika , Kaiseler, Mariana , Evans, Andrew , Ski, Chantal , Thompson, David , Polman, Remco
  • Date: 2018
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: PLoS One Vol. 13, no. 4 (2018), p. e0196692-e0196692
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  • Description: We investigated (1) the relationship between Type D personality, stress intensity appraisal of a self-selected stressor, coping, and perceived coping effectiveness and (2) the relationship between Type D personality and performance. In study one, 482 athletes completed the Type D personality questionnaire (DS14), stress thermometer and MCOPE in relation to a recently experienced sport stressor. Type D was associated with increased levels of perceived stress and selection of coping strategies (more emotion and avoidance coping) as well as perceptions of their effectiveness. In study two, 32 participants completed a rugby league circuit task and were assessed on pre-performance anxiety, post-performance affect and coping. Type D was associated with poorer performance (reduced distance more errors), decreases in pre-performance self-confidence and more use of maladaptive resignation/withdrawal coping. Findings suggest that Type D is associated with maladaptive coping and reduced performance. Type D individuals would benefit from interventions related to mood modification or enhancing interpersonal functioning.

Unbearable pressures on paradise? Tourism and heritage management in Luang Prabang, a World Heritage Site

- Reeves, Keir, Long, Colin

  • Authors: Reeves, Keir , Long, Colin
  • Date: 2011
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Critical Asian Studies Vol. 43, no. 1 (2011), p. 3-22
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  • Description: This article critically appraises and evaluates tourism strategies and heritage management in Luang Prabang, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, a Unesco-designated ‘world heritage’ city. Luang Prabang is widely regarded as one of the most significant heritage cities in Southeast Asia. The city is renowned for its Buddhist and royal culture and also its historic vernacular Lao, French, and Lao-French architecture. The city earned world heritage status in 1995, but since that time the boom in in-bound Asian tourism has put pressures on Luang Prabang’s authenticity and, for some, called into question the validity of its world heritage status. This article examines these substantial and wide-ranging pressures and argues that the growth in tourism and the treatment of Luang Prabang’s heritage are symptoms of broader regional processes of political and economic change, including the expansion of Chinese and Korean investments and the growth of intra-regional tourism. The authors argue that it is unreasonable to expect traditional heritage management mechanisims, including the world heritage listing, to be able to cope with the pressures on sites like Luang Prabang. The very least that is required, the authors contend, is an expanded understanding of the context in which heritage places sit, and the authors make a case that the cultural landscapes approach, combined with explicit concerns for intangible heritage and poverty alleviation, must be at the core of any strategy for long-term protection of the city’s cultural values.

Understanding and optimising support resources to facilitate CALD student and supervisor allied health fieldwork experiences

- Newton, Fiona, Lee, Den-Ching, Brito, Sara

  • Authors: Newton, Fiona , Lee, Den-Ching , Brito, Sara
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: PLoS ONE Vol. 18, no. 8 August (2023), p.
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  • Description: Background Although fieldwork supervisors and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students can experience challenges during allied health placements, there is little holistic understanding of how they view and use support resources to address these challenges. This study sought to identify, codify, and map the perceived value attached to support resources used or sought by CALD students and fieldwork supervisors and to ascertain areas where they could be optimised and better presented to users. Methods We conducted a thematic analysis to examine interview and open-ended survey responses from CALD students (n = 18) and fieldwork supervisors (n = 161) respectively. Findings The six generated themes depicted different patterns of perceived value in university and non-university support resources and spanned three levels of specificity: general, discipline-contextualised, and individualised. Fieldwork supervisors valued a staged approach to support resource design and use for CALD students commencing with general level resources to build foundational language skills and socio-cultural familiarisation and moving on to include disciple-contextualised supports, preplacement mechanisms to monitor student readiness, and formalised mechanisms to enable tailoring of placements. CALD students, however, often undervalued institutional general resources relative to discipline-contextualised resources. The commonality of support resources valued and sought by supervisors from different fields suggests they could be optimised for delivery via an inter-professional community of practice. Conclusion Identifying and mapping the perceived value attached to support resources provides actionable insights into how to enhance the ‘fit’ between resources and user needs. Drawing the often-fragmented support resources into a cohesive ecosystem focused around perceived value at different levels of specificity allows CALD students and educators to better conceptualise the types of benefits that can accrue from taking a broader and staged approach to fieldwork placement preparations. Knowing this ecosystem encapsulates what prior uses find of value may enhance perceptions of resource relevance in the minds of new users. © 2023 Newton et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Understanding change in the ecological character of Ramsar wetlands : Perspectives from a deeper time - Synthesis

- Gell, Peter, Finlayson, C. Max, Davidson, Nick

  • Authors: Gell, Peter , Finlayson, C. Max , Davidson, Nick
  • Date: 2016
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Marine and Freshwater Research Vol. 67, no. 6 (2016), p. 869-879
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  • Description: The Convention for Wetlands was signed in 1971 as part of a global measure to mitigate the loss and degradation of the world's wetlands. Signatory nations nominate wetlands as internationally important and commit to maintaining their 'ecological character'. In many cases the character that has been maintained was that occurring at the time of nomination with scant attention to the variability and change that occurs over longer periods. Palaeoclimate and palaeoecological research now reveals a diverse array of conditions in wetlands in the past and attests that any recently identified condition may be transient. The research further reveals the considerable magnitude and antiquity of the impact of people on wetlands. Hence the site description used by wetland managers would benefit from the provision of a longer-term perspective of change. The changing state of wetlands provides a dilemma for wetland managers. In response, a workshop on understanding change in wetlands was held in Queenscliff, Australia, in November 2013 to draw together perspectives of change from neo- and palaeoecological sources to enable the formulation of new pathways of assessment to better accommodate the dynamic nature of wetlands. A synthesis of the information provided at the workshop is provided in this paper. Journal compilation © CSIRO 2016.

Understanding fear after an anterior cruciate ligament injury : a qualitative thematic analysis using the common-sense model

- Little, Cameron, Lavender, Andrew, Starcevich, Cobie, Mesagno, Christopher, Mitchell, Tim, Whiteley, Rodney, Bakhshayesh, Hanieh, Beales, Darren

  • Authors: Little, Cameron , Lavender, Andrew , Starcevich, Cobie , Mesagno, Christopher , Mitchell, Tim , Whiteley, Rodney , Bakhshayesh, Hanieh , Beales, Darren
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Vol. 20, no. 4 (2023), p.
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  • Description: Fear is a significant factor affecting successful return to sport following an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. However, there is a lack of understanding of the emotional drivers of fear and how fear beliefs are formed. This study qualitatively explored the contextual and emotional underpinnings of fear and how these beliefs were formed, with reference to the Common-Sense Model of Self-Regulation. Face-to-face online interviews were conducted with ACL-injured participants (n = 18, 72% female) with a mean age of 28 years (range 18–50 years). Participants were either 1 year post ACL reconstruction surgery (n = 16) or at least 1 year post injury without surgery (n = 2) and scored above average on a modified Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia. Four participants were playing state-level sport or higher. Five themes emerged describing factors contributing to fear: ‘External messages’, ‘Difficulty of the ACL rehabilitation journey’, ‘Threat to identity and independence’, ‘Socioeconomic factors’, and ‘Ongoing psychological barriers’. A sixth theme, ‘Positive coping strategies’, provided insight into influences that could reduce fear and resolve negative behaviors. This study identified a broad range of contextual biopsychosocial factors which contribute to fear, supporting the notion that ACL injuries should not be treated through a purely physical lens. Furthermore, aligning the themes to the common-sense model provided a conceptual framework conveying the inter-related, emergent nature of the identified themes. The framework provides clinicians with a means to understanding fear after an ACL injury. This could guide assessment and patient education. © 2023 by the authors.

Understanding how the components of a synthetic turf system contribute to increased surface temperature C3 - Procedia Engineering

- Petrass, Lauren, Twomey, Dara, Harvey, Jack

  • Authors: Petrass, Lauren , Twomey, Dara , Harvey, Jack
  • Date: 2014
  • Type: Text , Conference paper
  • Relation: 2014 10th Conference of the International Sports Engineering Association, ISEA 2014 Vol. 72, p. 943-948
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  • Description: Surface temperatures of synthetic turf have become a factor of growing interest and concern, particularly in warmer regions like Australia. However, it is unclear which components of the synthetic turf system contribute to surface temperature. The aim of this paper was to compare the surface temperature of 34 different synthetic turf products that were exposed to the same environmental conditions to ascertain which components of the synthetic turf system and which environmental factors contributed to increased surface temperature. A total of 6,120 observations were taken on the 34 products over the summer months, giving 30 observations for each of the variables on each product. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) indicated that the type of infill and shockpad had small-medium, but significant, effects on surface temperature (p<0.001 and p=0.003, respectively), and the interaction between shockpad and tuft gauge was also significant (p=0.047). Level of solar radiation, ambient temperature and relative humidity (p<0.001 in all instances) were the only environmental variables that significantly influenced surface temperature. These findings confirm that both the composition of the synthetic turf system and environmental factors contribute to synthetic turf surface temperature, thus providing important information for synthetic turf manufacturers developing new cool climate products, or for local government authorities selecting products and/or informing safe play for end-users.
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Undiagnosed cryptic diversity in small, microendemic frogs (Leptolalax) from the Central Highlands of Vietnam

- Rowley, Jodi, Tran, Dao, Frankham, Greta, Dekker, Anthony, Le, Duong, Nguyen, Truong, Dau, Vinh, Hoang, Huy

  • Authors: Rowley, Jodi , Tran, Dao , Frankham, Greta , Dekker, Anthony , Le, Duong , Nguyen, Truong , Dau, Vinh , Hoang, Huy
  • Date: 2015
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: PLoS ONE Vol. 10, no. 5 (2015), p. 1-21
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  • Description: A major obstacle in prioritizing species or habitats for conservation is the degree of unrecognized diversity hidden within complexes of morphologically similar, "cryptic" species. Given that amphibians are one of the most threatened groups of organisms on the planet, our inability to diagnose their true diversity is likely to have significant conservation consequences. This is particularly true in areas undergoing rapid deforestation, such as Southeast Asia. The Southeast Asian genus Leptolalax is a group of small-bodied, morphologically conserved frogs that inhabit the forest-floor. We examined a particularly smallbodied and morphologically conserved subset, the Leptolalax applebyi group, using a combination of molecular, morphometric, and acoustic data to identify previously unknown diversity within. In order to predict the geographic distribution of the group, estimate the effects of habitat loss and assess the degree of habitat protection, we used our locality data to perform ecological niche modelling using MaxEnt. Molecular (mtDNA and nuDNA), acoustic and subtle morphometric differences revealed a significant underestimation of diversity in the L. applebyi group; at least two-thirds of the diversity may be unrecognised. Patterns of diversification and microendemism in the group appear driven by limited dispersal, likely due to their small body size, with several lineages restricted to watershed basins. The L. applebyi group is predicted to have historically occurred over a large area of the Central Highlands of Vietnam, a considerable portion of which has already been deforested. Less than a quarter of the remaining forest predicted to be suitable for the group falls within current protected areas. The predicted distribution of the L. applebyi group extends into unsurveyed watershed basins, each potentially containing unsampled diversity, some of which may have already been lost due to deforestation. Current estimates of amphibian diversity based on morphology alone are misleading, and accurate alpha taxonomy is essential to accurately prioritize conservation efforts. © 2015 Rowley et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Unraveling spatiotemporal transient dynamics at the nanoscale via wavelet transform-based kelvin probe force microscopy

- Biglarbeigi, Pardis, Morelli, Alessio, Pauly, Serene, Yu, Zidong, Jiang, Wenjun, Sharma, Surbhi, Finlay, Dewar, Kumar, Amit, Soin, Navneet, Payam, Amir

  • Authors: Biglarbeigi, Pardis , Morelli, Alessio , Pauly, Serene , Yu, Zidong , Jiang, Wenjun , Sharma, Surbhi , Finlay, Dewar , Kumar, Amit , Soin, Navneet , Payam, Amir
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: ACS Nano Vol. 17, no. 21 (2023), p. 21506-21517
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  • Description: Mechanistic probing of surface potential changes arising from dynamic charge transport is the key to understanding and engineering increasingly complex nanoscale materials and devices. Spatiotemporal averaging in conventional heterodyne detection-based Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) inherently limits its time resolution, causing an irretrievable loss of transient response and higher-order harmonics. Addressing this, we report a wavelet transform (WT)-based methodology capable of quantifying the sub-ms charge dynamics and probing the elusive transient response. The feedback-free, open-loop wavelet transform KPFM (OL-WT-KPFM) technique harnesses the WT’s ability to simultaneously extract spatial and temporal information from the photodetector signal to provide a dynamic mapping of surface potential, capacitance gradient, and dielectric constant at a temporal resolution 3 orders of magnitude higher than the lock-in time constant. We further demonstrate the method’s applicability to explore the surface-photovoltage-induced sub-ms hole-diffusion transient in bismuth oxyiodide semiconductor. The OL-WT-KPFM concept is readily applicable to commercial systems and can provide the underlying basis for the real-time analysis of transient electronic and electrochemical properties. © 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.

Urban region profiling with spatio-temporal graph neural networks

- Hou, Mingliang, Xia, Feng, Gao, Haoran, Chen, Xin, Chen, Honglong

  • Authors: Hou, Mingliang , Xia, Feng , Gao, Haoran , Chen, Xin , Chen, Honglong
  • Date: 2022
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems Vol. 9, no. 6 (2022), p. 1736-1747
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  • Description: Region profiles are summaries of characteristics of urban regions. Region profiling is a process to discover the correlations between urban regions. The learned urban profiles can be used to represent and identify regions in supporting downstream tasks, e.g., region traffic status estimation. While some efforts have been made to model urban regions, representation learning with awareness of graph-structured data can improve the existing methods. To do this, we first construct an attribute spatio-temporal graph, in which a node represents a region, an edge represents mobility across regions, and a node attribute represents a region's point of interest (PoI) distribution. The problem of region profiling is reformulated as a representation learning problem based on attribute spatio-temporal graphs. To solve this problem, we developed URGENT, a spatio-temporal graph learning framework. URGENT is made up of two modules. The graph convolutional neural network is used in the first module to learn spatial dependencies. The second module is an encoding-decoding temporal learning structure with self-attention mechanism. Furthermore, we use the learned representations of regions to estimate region traffic status. Experimental results demonstrate that URGENT outperforms major baselines in estimation accuracy under various settings and produces more meaningful results. © 2014 IEEE.

Urotensin-II system in genetic control of blood pressure and renal function

- Debiec, Radoslaw, Christofidou, Paraskevi, Denniff, Matthew, Bloomer, Lisa, Bogdanski, Pawel, Wojnar, Lukasz, Musialik, Katarzyna, Charchar, Fadi, Thompson, John, Waterworth, Dawn, Song, Kijoung, Vollenweider, Peter, Waeber, Gerard, Zukowska-Szczechowska, Ewa, Samani, Nilesh, Lambert, David, Tomaszewski, Maciej

  • Authors: Debiec, Radoslaw , Christofidou, Paraskevi , Denniff, Matthew , Bloomer, Lisa , Bogdanski, Pawel , Wojnar, Lukasz , Musialik, Katarzyna , Charchar, Fadi , Thompson, John , Waterworth, Dawn , Song, Kijoung , Vollenweider, Peter , Waeber, Gerard , Zukowska-Szczechowska, Ewa , Samani, Nilesh , Lambert, David , Tomaszewski, Maciej
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: PLoS ONE Vol. 8, no. 12 (2013), p.
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  • Description: Urotensin-II controls ion/water homeostasis in fish and vascular tone in rodents. We hypothesised that common genetic variants in urotensin-II pathway genes are associated with human blood pressure or renal function. We performed familybased analysis of association between blood pressure, glomerular filtration and genes of the urotensin-II pathway (urotensin-II, urotensin-II related peptide, urotensin-II receptor) saturated with 28 tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms in 2024 individuals from 520 families; followed by an independent replication in 420 families and 7545 unrelated subjects. The expression studies of the urotensin-II pathway were carried out in 97 human kidneys. Phylogenetic evolutionary analysis was conducted in 17 vertebrate species. One single nucleotide polymorphism (rs531485 in urotensin-II gene) was associated with adjusted estimated glomerular filtration rate in the discovery cohort (p = 0.0005). It showed no association with estimated glomerular filtration rate in the combined replication resource of 8724 subjects from 6 populations. Expression of urotensin-II and its receptor showed strong linear correlation (r = 0.86, p< 0.0001). There was no difference in renal expression of urotensin-II system between hypertensive and normotensive subjects. Evolutionary analysis revealed accumulation of mutations in urotensin-II since the divergence of primates and weaker conservation of urotensin-II receptor in primates than in lower vertebrates. Our data suggest that urotensin-II system genes are unlikely to play a major role in genetic control of human blood pressure or renal function. The signatures of evolutionary forces acting on urotensin-II system indicate that it may have evolved towards loss of function since the divergence of primates. © 2013 Debiec et al.

Using dye and bromide tracers to identify preferential water flow in agricultural hillslope soil under controlled conditions

- Defterdarović, Jasmina, Krevh, Vedran, Filipović, Lana, Kovač, Zoran, Phogat, Vinod, He, Hailong, Baumgartl, Thomas, Filipović, Vilim

  • Authors: Defterdarović, Jasmina , Krevh, Vedran , Filipović, Lana , Kovač, Zoran , Phogat, Vinod , He, Hailong , Baumgartl, Thomas , Filipović, Vilim
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Water (Switzerland) Vol. 15, no. 12 (2023), p.
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  • Description: Processes in hillslope soils present a particular challenge for agricultural production and soil management due to their hydropedological specifics and high soil erosion risk. Soil heterogeneities can cause preferential and/or lateral flow on the entire hillslope resulting in the off-site movement of water, fertilizers and chemicals used in crop production. A study was conducted under controlled conditions in a laboratory with undisturbed soil cores (250 cm3), which were used to estimate the soil hydraulic properties (SHP) using HYPROP and WP4C devices, while undisturbed soil columns (diameter = 16 cm, length = 25 cm) were used for the evaluation of preferential flow pathways using potassium bromide and Brilliant Blue. Samples were excavated in triplicate from the hilltop, backslope and footslope regions within the inter-rows of a vineyard from a critical zone observatory, SUPREHILL, in Croatia in Dystric Luvic Stagnosol. The aim of this study was to determine if the erosion-affected hillslope position affected the physical, chemical and hydraulic properties of soil and to identify water flow and possible preferential flow using dye and bromide tracers. The results of the sensor measurements and estimated SHPs were in agreement, showing a faster leaching of the irrigated rainwater in the footslope column. The tracer experiments showed variability even in the columns taken from the same position on the hillslope, which can be linked to plant roots and soil fauna activity. Altogether, the results showed a deeper loose layer at the footslope as a consequence of the soil erosion, which then resulted in higher hydraulic conductivity and the leached mass of the bromide due to better soil structure and pore connectivity. Thus, due to significant differences in the leached mass of bromide, this research should be later expanded in field experiments to reveal the impact of surface runoff, subsurface preferential and lateral flow on a larger scale. © 2023 by the authors.

Using historical tropical cyclone climate datasets to examine wind speed recurrence for coastal Australia

- Bell, Samuel, Dowdy, Andrew, Ramsay, H., Chand, Savin, Su, C., Ye, Harvey

  • Authors: Bell, Samuel , Dowdy, Andrew , Ramsay, H. , Chand, Savin , Su, C. , Ye, Harvey
  • Date: 2022
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Scientific Reports Vol. 12, no. 1 (2022), p.
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  • Description: Likelihood estimates of extreme winds, including those from tropical cyclones (TCs) at certain locations are used to inform wind load standards for structural design. Here, wind speed average recurrence intervals (ARIs) determined from TC climate data dating back to the 1970s in two quantile–quantile adjusted reanalysis datasets (ERA5 and BARRA [1990]), and best-track observations for context, were compared with Standardized ARIs (AS/NZS) across seven tropical and two subtropical Australian inland coastal regions. The novelty of this work lies in determining TC-wind speed ARIs from a range of datasets that are not typically used to evaluate this metric. Inherent differences between the data used to determine the Standard ARIs (large sample size allow for larger extrapolations; GEV function) and TC data ARIs (smaller sample size and less certain data; the more asymptotic Lognormal/Weibull functions are used) led to the use of different extreme value functions. Results indicated that although these are two distinct ways of determining design wind speeds, when they are considered equivalent, there was a moderate reproduction of the ARI curves with respect to the Standard in both reanalysis datasets, suggesting that similar analyses using climate model products can provide useful information on these types of metrics with some caveats. Trends in TC wind strength affecting coastal Australia were also analyzed, indicating a potential slight downtrend in tropical West coast TC wind strength and slight uptrend for tropical East coast TC wind strength, noting considerable uncertainty given the short time period and limitations of data quality including over longer time periods. Such trends are not only limited to the relationship between TC intensity and anthropogenic warming, but also to regional changes in TC frequency and track direction. This could lead to significant trends emerging in regional Australian TC wind gust strength before several decades of warming have occurred. It is hoped that climate models can provide both longer-term and a more homogenous base for these types of evaluations and subsequent projections with respect to climate change simulations. © 2022, Crown.

Using the student perceptions of assessment questionnaire (SPAQ) to develop an assessment typology for science classes

- Dorman, Jeffrey, Waldrip, Bruce, Fisher, Darrell

  • Authors: Dorman, Jeffrey , Waldrip, Bruce , Fisher, Darrell
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Foundation Journal of Science Education Vol. 9, no. 1 (2008), p. 13-17
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  • Description: This article reports research conducted on students’ perceptions of assessment in science classes in Queensland and Western Australia. A specially developed instrument, the Student Perceptions of Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ) which assesses Congruence with Planned Learning, Authenticity, Student Consultation, Transparency, and Diversity was used to collect data from 3,055 students. Hierarchical cluster analysis resulted in a four cluster solution being accepted. While one cluster of 799 students held positive perceptions of assessment, another cluster of 640 students held negative views. The SPAQ allows for a greater focus on classroom-based perceptions of assessment rather than crude external accountability measures that decontextualise classroom assessment.