Showing items 1 - 20 of 9728

Your selections:

Assessing the conservation and enhancement value of revegetated strips on arthropod assemblages in a pasture landscape

- O'Donnell, Peter, Wright, Wendy

  • Authors: O'Donnell, Peter , Wright, Wendy
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Journal of Environmental Management Vol. 278, no. (2021), p.
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Examining population dynamics of arthropod communities in habitats neighboring arable lands is essential to understanding how agroecosystems can be engineered to enhance ecosystem services and contribute to sustainable intensification. Arthropods comprise the bulk of faunal biomass on farms, are taxonomically diverse, and are the main drivers of many ecosystem functions. This study aimed to compare arthropod assemblages in revegetated strips of native plants and exotic pastures, and examine taxa of beneficial arthropods in revegetated strips and adjacent pasture in early spring (September 2009) and mid-summer (December 2009–January 2010) on two farms in southeastern Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. Arthropod community assemblages were distinctly different between revegetated strips and adjacent pasture with the exception of functional groups in early spring. Several taxa of beneficial arthropods including Carabidae (ground beetles) and Syrphidae (hoverflies) were of similar abundance in the two habitats. Only Formicidae (ants) were of higher abundances in revegetated strips compared to adjacent pasture in both seasons. Five of the 10 ant genera present, seven spider families and Dolichopodidae flies (long-legged flies) were found exclusively in revegetated strips. Apidae (bees) and Tachinidae (tachinid flies) had higher abundances in revegetated strips compared to 80 m into the adjacent pasture in mid-summer. Lycosidae (wolf spiders) were more abundant along the edge of revegetated strips and 20 m into adjacent pasture compared to the center (core) of revegetated strips and 80 m into pasture. These results illustrate that beneficial arthropods use revegetated strips as refugia and that revegetated strips clearly enhanced biological conservation of arthropods in pasturelands. Relevance of findings to enhanced biological control is also discussed. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Generalised rational approximation and its application to improve deep learning classifiers

- Peiris, V, Sharon, Nir, Sukhorukova, Nadezda, Ugon, Julien

  • Authors: Peiris, V , Sharon, Nir , Sukhorukova, Nadezda , Ugon, Julien
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Applied Mathematics and Computation Vol. 389, no. (2021), p.
  • Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP180100602
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: A rational approximation (that is, approximation by a ratio of two polynomials) is a flexible alternative to polynomial approximation. In particular, rational functions exhibit accurate estimations to nonsmooth and non-Lipschitz functions, where polynomial approximations are not efficient. We prove that the optimisation problems appearing in the best uniform rational approximation and its generalisation to a ratio of linear combinations of basis functions are quasiconvex even when the basis functions are not restricted to monomials. Then we show how this fact can be used in the development of computational methods. This paper presents a theoretical study of the arising optimisation problems and provides results of several numerical experiments. We apply our approximation as a preprocessing step to deep learning classifiers and demonstrate that the classification accuracy is significantly improved compared to the classification of the raw signals. © 2020
  • Description: This research was supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC), Solving hard Chebyshev approximation problems through nonsmooth analysis (Discovery Project DP180100602 ).  This research was partially sponsored by Tel Aviv-Swinburne Research Collaboration Grant (2019).

Model predictive control of microgrids – An overview

- Hu, Jiefeng, Shan, Yinghao, Guerrero, Josep, Ioinovici, Adrian, Chan, Ka, Rodriguez, Jose

  • Authors: Hu, Jiefeng , Shan, Yinghao , Guerrero, Josep , Ioinovici, Adrian , Chan, Ka , Rodriguez, Jose
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article , Review
  • Relation: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews Vol. 136, no. (2021), p.
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: The development of microgrids is an advantageous option for integrating rapidly growing renewable energies. However, the stochastic nature of renewable energies and variable power demand have created many challenges like unstable voltage/frequency and complicated power management and interaction with the utility grid. Recently, predictive control with its fast transient response and flexibility to accommodate different constraints has presented huge potentials in microgrid applications. This paper provides a comprehensive review of model predictive control (MPC) in individual and interconnected microgrids, including both converter-level and grid-level control strategies applied to three layers of the hierarchical control architecture. This survey shows that MPC is at the beginning of the application in microgrids and that it emerges as a competitive alternative to conventional methods in voltage regulation, frequency control, power flow management and economic operation optimization. Also, some of the most important trends in MPC development have been highlighted and discussed as future perspectives. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd
  • Description: This work was supported by School of Engineering, IT and Physical Sciences, Federation University Australia , under Project RGS20-5 .

Slope stability analysis using deterministic and probabilistic approaches for poorly defined stratigraphies

- Ghadrdan, Moshen, Dyson, Ashley, Shaghaghi, Tahereh, Tolooiyan, Ali

  • Authors: Ghadrdan, Moshen , Dyson, Ashley , Shaghaghi, Tahereh , Tolooiyan, Ali
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Geomechanics and Geophysics for Geo-Energy and Geo-Resources Vol. 7, no. 1 (2021), p.
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: The stability of slopes directly affects human lives, the environment, and the economy. Inaccurate geological profiles within numerical slope stability models can lead to potentially catastrophic consequences when model conditions do not appropriately reflect real-life stratigraphy. In cases where localised deposits are prevalent, probabilistic methods are often necessary to accommodate for unknown or poorly defined stratigraphies. Currently, there are no commercial geotechnical software packages that simulate probabilistic constitutive behaviour of materials within finite element methods for large-scale stratigraphic analysis. Instead, commercially available probabilistic methods such as the random limit equilibrium method are incapable of incorporating non-linear constitutive soil behaviour. For this reason, advanced constitutive models are seldom coupled with probabilistically varying soil layers or spatially variable soil parameters. The objective of this research is the implementation of a simplified method for probabilistic stratigraphic analysis within a commercially available FE environment, providing a technique to assess the effects of stratigraphic uncertainty on slope stability. The proposed method is presented, highlighting the impact of localised thin layers of soft material as well as their frequency and location on the slope of an operational open-pit mine. The significance of these stratigraphic effects is presented through a case study of Australia’s second-largest open-pit mine, at which the stability of a collapsed coal slope is analysed. To improve the reliability of the finite element method for slope stability assessment, the Monte Carlo approach has been incorporated to consider varying shear strength distributions for models incorporating advanced constitutive behaviour. Thicker probabilistically generated deposits of silty material resulted in increased slope Factors of Safety. Similarly, greater proportions of silty deposits within a predominantly clayey interseam produced larger safety factors than slopes without localised thin silty layers. Stratigraphic analysis indicated that the Factor of Safety was most sensitive to localised silt layers at depths greater than 83 m below ground level. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Trustworthiness of self-driving vehicles for intelligent transportation systems in industry applications

- Chowdhury, Abdullahi, Karmakar, Gour, Kamruzzaman, Joarder, Islam, Syed

  • Authors: Chowdhury, Abdullahi , Karmakar, Gour , Kamruzzaman, Joarder , Islam, Syed
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics Vol. 17, no. 2 (2021), p. 961-970
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: To enhance industrial production and automation, rapid and faster transportation of raw materials and finished products to and from distributed factories, warehouses and outlets are essential. To reduce cost with increased efficiency, this will increasingly see the use of connected and self-driving commercial vehicles fitted with industrial grade sensors on roads, shared with normal and self-driving passenger vehicles. For its wide adoption, the trustworthiness of self-driving vehicles in the intelligent transportation system (ITS) is pivotal. In this article, we introduce a novel model to measure the overall trustworthiness of a self-driving vehicle considering on-Board unit (OBU) components, GPS data and safety messages. In calculating the trustworthiness of individual OBU components, CertainLogic and beta distribution function (BDF) are used. Those trust values are fused using both the dempster-Shafer Theory (DST) and a logical operator of CertainLogic. Results of our simulation show that our proposed method can effectively determine the trust of self-driving vehicles. © 2005-2012 IEEE.

2020 International Society of Hypertension global hypertension practice guidelines

- Unger, Thomas, Borghi, Claudio, Charchar, Fadi, Khan, Nadia, Poulter, Neil, Prabhakaran, Dorairaj, Ramirez, Agustin, Schlaich, Markus, Stergiou, George, Tomaszewski, Maciej, Wainford, Richard, Williams, Bryan, Schutte, Aletta

A Ballarat chinese family biography – an intergenerational study

- Horsfield, Yvonne

  • Authors: Horsfield, Yvonne
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
  • Full Text: false
  • Description: This thesis addresses the gap that has existed in Ballarat’s historiography regarding the historical neglect and ignorance of Chinese family narratives and their life experiences. In doing so this thesis presents a longitudinal, three generational study of an immigrant Ballarat Chinese family from the early 1860s until the 1950s. It examines how members of each Tong Way generation strove to gain acceptance and establish an enduring sense of cultural belonging in a former regional, Victorian gold mining city. An ancestor, Liu Chou Hock, was a sojourner who arrived on the Haddon goldfield in 1862 and successfully worked a claim. Within three years, he returned to his village, Wang Tung, in Taishan, China. His experience was in sharp contrast to that of his son John Tong Way (Liu’ Zongwei) who permanently settled in Ballarat. The family strived to integrate against a background of migrant adjustment, ethnic discrimination and later a policy of assimilation. These factors represented a challenge for all Chinese who remained until the White Australia Policy was abandoned by the Whitlam Labor government in 1973. Unlike Caucasian immigrants, who could assimilate, whilst retaining certain features of their ethnic identification, the Chinese were culturally alienated and often excluded from everyday cultural life and practice. They represented a demographically significant ethnic minority. The thesis also compares the experiences of the Ballarat and Bendigo Chinese communities in order to examine the similarities and differences. In doing so, it analyses how they were able to establish a sense of belonging in their respective communities. The analysis of the Ballarat family’s experiences, combined with that of other Chinese descent families forms the basis of an extended case study. One that argues that adaptation was necessitated by their individual aspirations for acceptance, respectability and success.
  • Description: Doctor of Philosophy

A combined virtual element method and the scaled boundary finite element method for linear elastic fracture mechanics

- Adak, Dibyendu, Pramod, ALN, Ooi, Ean Tat, Natarajan, Sundararajan

  • Authors: Adak, Dibyendu , Pramod, ALN , Ooi, Ean Tat , Natarajan, Sundararajan
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements Vol. 113, no. (2020), p. 9-16
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: In this paper, we propose a framework that combines the recently introduced virtual element method (VEM) and the scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM) to evaluate the fracture parameters. The domain is discretized with arbitrary polygons and the element that contains the crack tip is treated within the framework of the SBFEM. This facilitates a semi-analytical treatment of the crack tip singularity allowing the fracture parameters are estimated directly from the definition. The VEM is employed for the rest of the domain. The salient feature of the VEM is that the terms in the stiffness matrix are computed without requiring higher order quadrature schemes. As both the methods satisfy partition of unity and the compatibility condition, the matrices are assembled as in the conventional FEM. The accuracy of the proposed formulation is demonstrated with two standard benchmark examples. The proposed VEM-SBFEM framework yields accurate results. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd

A comprehensive analyses of aging characteristics of oil-paper insulation system in HVDC converter transformers

- Cui, Huize, Yang, Liuqing, Zhu, Yuanwei, Li, Shengtao, Abu-Siada, A., Islam, Syed

  • Authors: Cui, Huize , Yang, Liuqing , Zhu, Yuanwei , Li, Shengtao , Abu-Siada, A. , Islam, Syed
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 27, no. 5 (2020), p. 1707-1714
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: This paper investigates the dissolved gases evolution in transformer oil under combined DC/AC electrical-Thermal stress. Dissolved gases detected in transformer aged insulation oil reveal that oil under AC electric field combined with thermal stress can produce more dissolved gases than oil under DC electric field with thermal stress but less than the gases produced in oil under distorted AC or combined AC/DC voltage stress. This is attributed to the divergent migration properties of the charged components under different types of electric fields. To further understand this behavior, carrier recombination coefficient is proposed to explain the oil DGA results under various aging stresses. Results show that diagnostic parameters such as breakdown voltage, oil interfacial tension, and moisture content in pressboard should be used along with DGA results in order to accurately diagnose the insulation condition within converter transformers that impose a combined AC/DC voltage stress on the insulation system. © 1994-2012 IEEE.
  • Description: This work has been supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFB0902705), State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment (EIPE20210), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51907148), the Youth Fund of State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment (EIPE19308), the Foundation Project of State Grid in Shaanxi province section, China (SGSNKY00SPJS1900302). The authors thank the Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China (2019JQ-070).

A cross-sectional survey of nursing students' patient safety knowledge

- Levett-Jones, Tracy, Andersen, Patrea, Bogossian, Fiona, Cooper, Simon, Guinea, Stephen, Hopmans, Ruben, McKenna, Lisa, Pich, Jacqui, Reid-Searl, Kerry, Seaton, Philippa

  • Authors: Levett-Jones, Tracy , Andersen, Patrea , Bogossian, Fiona , Cooper, Simon , Guinea, Stephen , Hopmans, Ruben , McKenna, Lisa , Pich, Jacqui , Reid-Searl, Kerry , Seaton, Philippa
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Nurse Education Today Vol. 88, no. (2020), p.
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Background: Knowledge provides a foundation for safe and effective nursing practice. However, most previous studies have focused on exploring nursing students' self-reported perceptions of, or confidence in, their level of patient safety knowledge, rather than examining their actual levels of knowledge. Objective: The overarching objective of this study was to examine final year nursing students' levels of knowledge about key patient safety concepts. Design: A cross-sectional design was used for this study. Data collection was undertaken during 2018 using a web-based patient safety quiz with 45 multiple choice questions informed by the Patient Safety Competency Framework for Nursing Students. A Modified Angoff approach was used to establish a pass mark or ‘cut score’ for the quiz. Setting and participants: Nursing students enrolled in the final year of a pre-registration nursing program in Australia or New Zealand were invited to participate in the study. Results: In total, 2011 final year nursing students from 23 educational institutions completed the quiz. Mean quiz scores were 29.35/45 or 65.23% (SD 5.63). Participants achieved highest scores in the domains of person-centred care and therapeutic communication, and lowest scores for infection prevention and control and medication safety. Based on the pass mark of 67.3% determined by the Modified Angoff procedure, 44.7% of students (n = 899) demonstrated passing performance on the quiz. For eight of the institutions, less than half of their students achieved a passing mark. Conclusions: Given the pivotal role that nurses play in maintaining patient safety, the results from this quiz raise important questions about the preparation of nursing students for safe and effective clinical practice. The institutional results also suggest the need for increased curricula attention to patient safety. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

A distributed and anonymous data collection framework based on multilevel edge computing architecture

- Usman, Muhammad, Jan, Mian, Jolfaei, Alireza, Xu, Min, He, Xiangjian, Chen, Jinjun

  • Authors: Usman, Muhammad , Jan, Mian , Jolfaei, Alireza , Xu, Min , He, Xiangjian , Chen, Jinjun
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics Vol. 16, no. 9 (2020), p. 6114-6123
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Industrial Internet of Things applications demand trustworthiness in terms of quality of service (QoS), security, and privacy, to support the smooth transmission of data. To address these challenges, in this article, we propose a distributed and anonymous data collection (DaaC) framework based on a multilevel edge computing architecture. This framework distributes captured data among multiple level-one edge devices (LOEDs) to improve the QoS and minimize packet drop and end-to-end delay. Mobile sinks are used to collect data from LOEDs and upload to cloud servers. Before data collection, the mobile sinks are registered with a level-two edge-device to protect the underlying network. The privacy of mobile sinks is preserved through group-based signed data collection requests. Experimental results show that our proposed framework improves QoS through distributed data transmission. It also helps in protecting the underlying network through a registration scheme and preserves the privacy of mobile sinks through group-based data collection requests. © 2005-2012 IEEE.

A dual scaled boundary finite element formulation over arbitrary faceted star convex polyhedra

- Ooi, Ean Tat, Saputra, Albert, Natarajan, Sundararajan, Ooi, Ean Hin, Song, Chongmin

  • Authors: Ooi, Ean Tat , Saputra, Albert , Natarajan, Sundararajan , Ooi, Ean Hin , Song, Chongmin
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Computational Mechanics Vol. 66, no. 1 (2020), p. 27-47
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: A novel technique to formulate arbritrary faceted polyhedral elements in three-dimensions is presented. The formulation is applicable for arbitrary faceted polyhedra, provided that a scaling requirement is satisfied and the polyhedron facets are planar. A triangulation process can be applied to non-planar facets to generate an admissible geometry. The formulation adopts two separate scaled boundary coordinate systems with respect to: (i) a scaling centre located within a polyhedron and; (ii) a scaling centre on a polyhedron’s facets. The polyhedron geometry is scaled with respect to both the scaling centres. Polygonal shape functions are derived using the scaled boundary finite element method on the polyhedron facets. The stiffness matrix of a polyhedron is obtained semi-analytically. Numerical integration is required only for the line elements that discretise the polyhedron boundaries. The new formulation passes the patch test. Application of the new formulation in computational solid mechanics is demonstrated using a few numerical benchmarks. © 2020, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

A machine learning approach for prediction of pregnancy outcome following IVF treatment

- Hassan, Md Rafiul, Al-Insaif, Sadiq, Hossain, Muhammad, Kamruzzaman, Joarder

  • Authors: Hassan, Md Rafiul , Al-Insaif, Sadiq , Hossain, Muhammad , Kamruzzaman, Joarder
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Neural Computing and Applications Vol. 32, no. 7 (2020), p. 2283-2297
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Infertility affects one out of seven couples around the world. Therefore, the best possible management of the in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment and patient advice is crucial for both patients and medical practitioners. The ultimate concern of the patients is the success of an IVF procedure, which depends on a number of influencing attributes. Without any automated tool, it is hard for the practitioners to assess any influencing trend of the attributes and factors that might lead to a successful IVF pregnancy. This paper proposes a hill climbing feature (attribute) selection algorithm coupled with automated classification using machine learning techniques with the aim to analyze and predict IVF pregnancy in greater accuracy. Using 25 attributes, we assessed the prediction ability of IVF pregnancy success for five different machine learning models, namely multilayer perceptron (MLP), support vector machines (SVM), C4.5, classification and regression trees (CART) and random forest (RF). The prediction ability was measured in terms of widely used performance metrics, namely accuracy rate, F-measure and AUC. Feature selection algorithm reduced the number of most influential attributes to nineteen for MLP, sixteen for RF, seventeen for SVM, twelve for C4.5 and eight for CART. Overall, the most influential attributes identified are: ‘age’, ‘indication’ of fertility factor, ‘Antral Follicle Counts (AFC)’, ‘NbreM2’, ‘method of sperm collection’, ‘Chamotte’, ‘Fertilization rate in vitro’, ‘Follicles on day 14’ and ‘Embryo transfer day.’ The machine learning models trained with the selected set of features significantly improved the prediction accuracy of IVF pregnancy success to a level considerably higher than those reported in the current literature. © 2018, The Natural Computing Applications Forum.

A narrative review of pharmacotherapy treatment for opioid addiction and application in a community-based model in Victoria, Australia

- Vishwanath, Tejaswini, Cash, Penelope, Penney, Wendy, Cant, Robyn

  • Authors: Vishwanath, Tejaswini , Cash, Penelope , Penney, Wendy , Cant, Robyn
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction Vol. 18, no. 1 (2020), p. 66-76
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: To review the literature regarding the value and consumer focus of research on opioid replacement therapy (ORT) programs, relevant to the Australian rural context and community pharmacy. We conducted a narrative review of literature published between 1995 and 2015, searching EBSCOhost, PubMed and Google Scholar. Three authors collaborated to screen and synthesise studies. Effectiveness, cost affordability, diversion and retention benefits were reported from pharmacological or prescribers’ or dispensers’ standpoint. Research was fragmented and evaluated contributions of these individual types of stakeholders with less discussion of consumers, or consumers’ everyday experiences of ORT. No studies took into account consumers’ psychosocial aspects or power discourses. We found ORT as a beneficial treatment for opioid dependence is well researched, although overall Australian program evaluation was lacking. A gap within ORT literature should be addressed by making consumer experiences central in designs for future research and for program evaluation. © 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

A new coupling structure and position detection method for segmented control dynamic wireless power transfer systems

- Li, Xiaofei, Hu, Jiefeng, Wang, Heshou, Dai, Xin, Sun, Yue

  • Authors: Li, Xiaofei , Hu, Jiefeng , Wang, Heshou , Dai, Xin , Sun, Yue
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics Vol. 35, no. 7 (2020), p. 6741-6745
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: In this letter, a new coupling structure for dynamic wireless power transfer (DWPT) systems is proposed. Bipolar coils are symmetrically placed on the transmitter unipolar coils, resulting in natural decoupling between the bipolar coils and the unipolar coils. This special structure can mitigate the self-couplings between the adjacent unipolar transmitter coils and hence facilitate the design of the compensation circuit. Another remarkable advantage of this design is that it can lead to a stable mutual coupling between the transmitter array and the receiver when the receiver moves along the transmitter, making it a natural fit for DWPT applications. Furthermore, to reduce the electromagnetic interference and power loss, an automatic segmented control scheme is implemented, and a position detection method by monitoring the primary current is developed. The feasibility of the proposed coupling structure and the position detection method are verified on a laboratory prototype with 72-V output voltage. The experimental results show that the power fluctuation is within ±2.5%, and system efficiency is around 90%. (This letter is accompanied by a video demonstrating the experimental test). © 2020 IEEE.

A New Current Limiting and Overload Protection Strategy for Droop-Controlled Voltage-Source Converters in Islanded AC Microgrids under Grid Faulted Conditions

- Li, Zi-Lin, Hu, Jiefeng, Chan, Ka Wing

  • Authors: Li, Zi-Lin , Hu, Jiefeng , Chan, Ka Wing
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Conference proceedings
  • Relation: 12th Annual IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, ECCE 2020,Detroit, MI, USA, USA, 11-15 Oct. 2020 p. 3888-3893
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Grid-forming voltage source converter (VSC) plays a vital role in the future renewable energy-based utility grid. Limited by the thermal capability of semiconductor switches, grid-forming VSC-based distributed generation units (DGs) cannot stand excess overcurrent like synchronous generators (SG) during large transient disturbances. In order to protect the VSC from overcurrent and ride through the transient disturbances, a new current limiting and overload protection strategy is proposed in this paper. By properly selecting the maximum current thresholds in the synchronous rotating frame, overcurrent and overload protection are achieved simultaneously. The synchronization among DGs is enhanced by feeding back the output voltage in the q-axis to the active power droop control. A comparison study between the proposed strategy and two existing methods are conducted using a networked microgrid in PSCAD/EMTDC, examining the effectiveness of the proposed strategy. © 2020 IEEE.

A note on primal-dual stability in infinite linear programming

- Goberna, Miguel, López, Marco, Ridolfi, Andrea, Vera de Serio, Virginia

  • Authors: Goberna, Miguel , López, Marco , Ridolfi, Andrea , Vera de Serio, Virginia
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Optimization Letters Vol. 14, no. 8 (2020), p. 2247-2263
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: In this note we analyze the simultaneous preservation of the consistency (and of the inconsistency) of linear programming problems posed in infinite dimensional Banach spaces, and their corresponding dual problems, under sufficiently small perturbations of the data. We consider seven different scenarios associated with the different possibilities of perturbations of the data (the objective functional, the constraint functionals, and the right hand-side function), i.e., which of them are known, and remain fixed, and which ones can be perturbed because of their uncertainty. The obtained results allow us to give sufficient and necessary conditions for the coincidence of the optimal values of both problems and for the stability of the duality gap under the same type of perturbations. There appear substantial differences with the finite dimensional case due to the distinct topological properties of cones in finite and infinite dimensional Banach spaces. © 2020, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.
  • Description: Funding details: Australian Research Council, ARC, DP180100602: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP180100602

A perspective on the discovery of selected compounds with anthelmintic activity against the barber's pole worm—Where to from here?

- Jiao, Yaqing, Preston, Sarah, Hofmann, Andreas, Taki, Aya, Baell, Jonathan, Chang, Bill, Jabbar, Abdul, Gasser, Robin

  • Authors: Jiao, Yaqing , Preston, Sarah , Hofmann, Andreas , Taki, Aya , Baell, Jonathan , Chang, Bill , Jabbar, Abdul , Gasser, Robin
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Advances in Parasitology p. 1-45
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Parasitic roundworms (nematodes) cause substantial morbidity and mortality in animals worldwide. Anthelmintic treatment is central to controlling these worms, but widespread resistance to most of the commercially available anthelmintics for veterinary and agricultural use is compromising control, such that there is an urgency to discover new and effective drugs. The purpose of this article is to review information on parasitic nematodes, the treatment and control of parasitic nematode infections and aspects of discovering new anthelmintics in the context of anthelmintic resistance problems, and then to discuss some progress that our group has made in identifying selected compounds with activity against nematodes. The focus of our recent work has been on discovering new chemical entities and known drugs with anthelmintic activities against Haemonchus contortus as well as other socioeconomically important parasitic nematodes for subsequent development. Using whole worm-based phenotypic assays, we have been screening compound collections obtained via product-development-partnerships and/or collaborators, and active compounds have been assessed for their potential as anthelmintic candidates. Following the screening of 15,333 chemicals from five distinct compound collections against H. contortus, we have discovered one new chemical entity (designated SN00797439), two human kinase inhibitors (SNS-032 and AG-1295), 14 tetrahydroquinoxaline analogues, one insecticide (tolfenpyrad) and two tolfenpyrad (pyrazole-5-carboxamide) derivatives (a-15 and a-17) with anthelmintic activity in vitro. Some of these 20 ‘hit’ compounds have selectivity against H. contortus in vitro when compared to particular human cell lines. In our opinion, some of these compounds could represent starting points for ‘lead’ development. Accordingly, the next research steps to be pursued include: (i) chemical optimisation of representative chemicals via structure-activity relationship (SAR) evaluations; (ii) assessment of the breadth of spectrum of anthelmintic activity on a range of other parasitic nematodes, such as strongyloids, ascaridoids, enoplids and filarioids; (iii) detailed investigations of the absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity (ADMET) of optimised chemicals with broad nematocidal or nematostatic activity; and (iv) establishment of the modes of action of lead candidates. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

A review of code blue activations in a single regional Australian healthcare service : a retrospective descriptive study of RISKMAN data

- Porter, Joanne, Peck, Blake, McNabb, Tiffinee, Missen, Karen

  • Authors: Porter, Joanne , Peck, Blake , McNabb, Tiffinee , Missen, Karen
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Journal of Clinical Nursing Vol. 29, no. 1-2 (2020), p. 221-227
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Background: In the case of life-threatening conditions such as respiratory or cardiac arrest, or the clinical deterioration of the patient, a Code Blue activation may be instigated. A Code Blue activation involves a team of advanced trained clinicians attending the emergency needs of the patient. Aims and objectives: The aim of the study was to explore the number of cases of Code Blue activations, looking at the timing, clinical ward, diagnosis and activation criteria while noting cases where escalation from a Medical Emergency Team (MET) call occurs in one Regional Healthcare Service in Victoria, Australia, over a six-year period. Methods: A quantitative retrospective descriptive study of Code Blue emergencies over a six-year period from June 2010 to June 2016 was conducted. Data collected from the RISKMAN program operating at a single site was imported into SPSS (V 22) for descriptive statistical analysis. A STROBE EQUATOR checklist was used for this study (see File S1). Findings: The majority of Code Blue activations were male (59%, n = 127) and aged between 70 and 89 years of age (43%, n = 93). A Code Blue activation was more likely to occur at 08:00 hr, 14:00 hr or 22:00 hr, corresponding to the nurses’ change in shift, with the majority of Code Blues (27.8%, n = 60) occurring in the emergency department. Cardiac arrest was the main activation criterion with 54.6% (n = 118) cases followed by respiratory arrest (14%, n = 32). Interestingly, 20% (n = 45) of the Code Blue activations were upgraded from a Medical Emergency Team (MET) call. Conclusion: This project has produced several interesting findings surrounding Code Blue activations at one regional healthcare service which are not present in existing literature and is worthwhile for further investigation. Relevance to clinical practice: Understanding Code Blue activation criteria, common timings (month, time of day) and patient demographics ensures clinicians can remain vigilant in watching for the signs of patient deterioration and improve staff preparedness Code Blue events. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

A review of south pacific tropical cyclones : impacts of natural climate variability and climate change

- Chand, Savin, Dowdy, Andrew, Bell, Samuel, Tory, Kevin

  • Authors: Chand, Savin , Dowdy, Andrew , Bell, Samuel , Tory, Kevin
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Springer Climate p. 251-273
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Impacts of tropical cyclones in the South Pacific Island countries are of great significance. Now with the growing threats from human-induced climate change, the need for effective disaster risk management and adaptation strategies for these island countries is more important than before. In order to implement appropriate strategies, a comprehensive understanding of South Pacific tropical cyclone activity—and how it is likely to change as a result of human-induced climate change—is essential. While a number of past studies have examined various aspects of tropical cyclone activity in the South Pacific basin, a review that consolidates those studies with new information is essential. In this chapter, we first examine tropical cyclone data quality for the South Pacific basin and then review the robustness of the relationship between South Pacific tropical cyclones and drivers of natural climate variability. Note that an understanding of the limitations of the data quality is important to determine the extent of natural climate variability and signatures—if any—of human-induced climate change on tropical cyclones. We then examine the influence of climate change on tropical cyclones using up-to-date historical observations and climate model projections. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.