Showing items 1 - 20 of 13205

1-Methyl-1 H-pyrazole-5-carboxamide derivatives exhibit unexpected acute mammalian toxicity

  • Authors: Preston, Sarah , Garcia-Bustos, Jose , Hall, Liam , Martin, Sheree , Le, Thuy
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Journal of Medicinal Chemistry Vol. 64, no. 1 (2021), p. 840-844
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  • Description: A series of 1-methyl-1H-pyrazole-5-carboxamides were synthesized as potent inhibitors of the parasitic nematode of sheep, Haemonchus contortus. These compounds did not show overt cytotoxicity to a range of mammalian cell lines under standard in vitro culture conditions, had high selectivity indices, and were progressed to an acute toxicity study in a rodent model. Strikingly, acute toxicity was observed in mice. Experiments measuring cellular respiration showed a dose-dependent inhibition of mitochondrial respiration. Under these conditions, potent cytotoxicity was observed for these compounds in rat hepatocytes suggesting that the potent acute mammalian toxicity of this chemotype is most likely associated with respiratory inhibition. In contrast, parasite toxicity was not correlated to acute toxicity or cytotoxicity in respiring cells. This paper highlights the importance of identifying an appropriate in vitro predictor of in vivo toxicity early on in the drug discovery pipeline, in particular assessment for in vitro mitochondrial toxicity. © 2020 American Chemical Society. *Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Sarah Preston” is provided in this record**

A field investigation of the relationship between rotating shifts, sleep, mental health and physical activity of Australian paramedics

  • Authors: Khan, Wahaj , Jackson, Melinda , Kennedy, Gerard , Conduit, Russell
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Scientific Reports Vol. 11, no. 1 (2021), p.
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  • Description: Paramedics working on a rotating shift are at an increased risk of developing chronic health issues due to continuous circadian rhythm disruption. The acute effects of shift rotation and objectively measured sleep have rarely been reported in paramedics. This study investigated the relationships between a rotating shift schedule and sleep (using actigraphy), subjective reports of sleepiness, mood, stress and fatigue. Galvanic Skin Response, energy expenditure and physical activity (BodyMedia SenseWear Armband) were also recorded across the shift schedule. Paramedics were monitored for a period of eight consecutive days across pre-shift, day shift, night shift, and 2 days off. Fifteen paramedics (M age = 39.5 and SD = 10.7 years) who worked rotational shifts experienced sleep restriction during night shift compared to pre-shift, day shift and days off (p < 0.001). Night shift was also associated with higher levels of stress (p < 0.05), fatigue (p < 0.05), and sleepiness (p < 0.05). One day off was related to a return to pre-shift functioning. Such shift-related issues have a compounding negative impact on an already stressful occupation with high rates of physical and mental health issues. Therefore, there is an urgent need to investigate methods to reduce rotating shift burden on the health of paramedics. This could be through further research aimed at providing recommendations for shift work schedules with sufficient periods for sleep and recovery from stress. © 2021, The Author(s).

A survey of early-career researchers in Australia

  • Authors: Christian, Katherine , Johnstone, Carolyn , Larkins, Jo-ann , Wright, Wendy , Doran, Michael
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: eLife Vol. 10, no. (2021), p. 1-19
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  • Description: Early-career researchers (ECRs) make up a large portion of the academic workforce and their experiences often reflect the wider culture of the research system. Here we surveyed 658 ECRs working in Australia to better understand the needs and challenges faced by this community. Although most respondents indicated a ‘love of science’, many also expressed an intention to leave their research position. The responses highlight how job insecurity, workplace culture, mentorship and ‘questionable research practices’ are impacting the job satisfaction of ECRs and potentially compromising science in Australia. We also make recommendations for addressing some of these concerns. © Christian et al.

Advances in the discovery and development of anthelmintics by harnessing natural product scaffolds

  • Authors: Herath, H. M. P. Dilrukshi , Taki, Aya , Sleebs, Brad , Hofmann, Andreas , Nguyen, Nghi , Preston, Sarah , Davis, Rohan , Jabbar, Abdul , Gasser, Robin
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Book chapter , Book Chapter
  • Relation: Advances in Parasitology p. 203-251
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  • Description: Widespread resistance to currently-used anthelmintics represents a major obstacle to controlling parasitic nematodes of livestock animals. Given the reliance on anthelmintics in many control regimens, there is a need for the continued discovery and development of new nematocides. Enabling such a focus are: (i) the major chemical diversity of natural products; (ii) the availability of curated, drug-like extract-, fraction- and/or compound-libraries from natural sources; (iii) the utility and practicality of well-established whole-worm bioassays for Haemonchus contortus—an important parasitic nematodes of livestock—to screen natural product libraries; and (iv) the availability of advanced chromatographic (HPLC), spectroscopic (NMR) and spectrometric (MS) techniques for bioassay-guided fractionation and structural elucidation. This context provides a sound basis for the identification and characterisation of anthelmintic candidates from natural sources. This chapter provides a background on the importance and impact of helminth infections/diseases, parasite control and aspects of drug discovery, and reviews recent work focused on (i) screening well-defined compound libraries to establish the methods needed for large-scale screening of natural extract libraries; (ii) discovering plant and marine extracts with nematocidal or nematostatic activity, and purifying bioactive compounds and assessing their potential for further development; and (iii) synthesising analogues of selected purified natural compounds for the identification of possible ‘lead’ candidates. The chapter describes some lessons learned from this work and proposes future areas of focus for drug discovery. Collectively, the findings from this recent work show potential for selected natural product scaffolds as candidates for future development. Developing such candidates via future chemical optimisation, efficacy and safety evaluations, broad spectrum activity assessments, and target identification represents an exciting prospect and, if successful, could pave the way to subsequent pre-clinical and clinical evaluations. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd

After work? Understanding older women’s portfolio life transitions

  • Authors: Taylor, Philip , Earl, Catherine , Brooke, Elizabeth , McLoughlin, Christopher
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Retiring women : work and post work transitions Chapter 7 p. 111-119
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  • Description: Chapter 7 reports qualitative interviews with older women about the pursuit of an active, fulfilling and productive retirement, and the mechanisms that promote these outcomes. Contrary to notions of the blended lifecycle, analysis reveals a stark division between paid work and retirement for many women at the same time as an ongoing commitment to socially valued and productive albeit unpaid activities that form a portfolio career. Furthermore , analysis reveals an increased sense of autonomy and control over decision making among retired women that contrasts with their experiences of paid employment.

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

  • Authors: O'Donnell, Peter , Wright, Wendy
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Journal of Environmental Management Vol. 278, no. (2021), p.
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  • 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

Asset management journey for realising value from assets

Behaviour tracking : using geospatial and behaviour sequence analysis to map crime

  • Authors: Keatley, David , Arntfield, Michael , Gill, Paul , Clare, Joe , Oatley, Giles , Bouhana, Noemie , Clarke, David
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Security Journal Vol. 34, no. 1 (2021), p. 184-201
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  • Description: Crime is a complex phenomenon. To understand the commission of crime, researchers must map both the temporal and the spatial processes involved. The current research combines a temporal method of analysis, Behaviour Sequence Analysis, with geospatial mapping, to outline a new method of integrating temporal and spatial movements of criminals. To show how the new method can be applied, a burglary scenario was used, and the movements and behaviours of a criminal tracked around the property. Results showed that combining temporal and spatial analyses allows for a clearer account of the process of a crime scene. The current method has application to a large range of other crimes and terrorist movements, for instance between cities and movements within each city. Therefore, the current research provides the foundation framework for a novel method of spatio-temporal analyses of crime. © 2019, Springer Nature Limited.

Can optimum solar radiation exposure or supplemented vitamin D intake reduce the severity of COVID-19 symptoms?

  • Authors: Abraham, Joji , Dowling, Kim , Florentine, Singarayer
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article , Review
  • Relation: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Vol. 18, no. 2 (2021), p. 1-21
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  • Description: The foremost mortality-causing symptom associated with COVID-19 is acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). A significant correlation has been identified between the deficiency in vitamin D and the risk of developing ARDS. It has been suggested that if we can reduce or modify ARDS in COVID-19 patients, we may significantly reduce the severity of COVID-19 symptoms and associated mortality rates. The increased mortality of dark-skinned people, who have a reduced UV absorption capacity, may be consistent with diminished vitamin D status. The factors associated with COVID-19 mortality, such as old age, ethnicity, obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes, are all found to be linked with vitamin D deficiency. Based on this review and as a precautionary measure, it is suggested that the adoption of appropriate and safe solar exposure and vitamin D enriched foods and supplements should be considered to reduce the possible severity of COVID-19 symptoms. Safe sun exposure is deemed beneficial globally, specifically in low and middle- income countries, as there is no cost involved. It is also noted that improved solar exposure and vitamin D levels can reduce the impact of other diseases as well, thus assisting in maintaining general human well-being. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Canonical duality theory and algorithm for solving bilevel knapsack problems with applications

  • Authors: Gao, David
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems Vol. 51, no. 2 (2021), p. 893-904
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  • Description: A novel canonical duality theory (CDT) is presented for solving general bilevel mixed integer nonlinear optimization governed by linear and quadratic knapsack problems. It shows that the challenging knapsack problems can be solved analytically in term of their canonical dual solutions. The existence and uniqueness of these analytical solutions are proved. NP-hardness of the knapsack problems is discussed. A powerful CDT algorithm combined with an alternative iteration and a volume reduction method is proposed for solving the NP-hard bilevel knapsack problems. Application is illustrated by benchmark problems in optimal topology design. The performance and novelty of the proposed method are compared with the popular commercial codes. © 2013 IEEE.

Conclusion: public policy leadership and change for women’s work and retirement

  • Authors: Taylor, Philip , Earl, Catherine , Brooke, Elizabeth , McLoughlin, Christopher
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Retiring women : work and post work transitions Chapter 10 p.147-151
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  • Description: With current policy concerns about shortfalls of labour supply and effects on the social welfare system due to population ageing, there is a need to understand the factors that shape women's choices about if, when and how to retire. Recent trends indicating the increased workforce participation of women demand new policy responses to the end of careers and retirement transitions to sustain acceptable levels of participation and productivity. This book is innovative in that it will examine constellations of factors that disadvantage or advantage women's career and retirement trajectories against a backdrop of public policy efforts to extend working lives.

Customizing women’s portfolio work and ‘retirement’ careers

  • Authors: Taylor, Philip , Earl, Catherine , Brooke, Elizabeth , McLoughlin, Christopher
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Retiring women : work and post work transitions Chapter 8 p. 122-134
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  • Description: Chapter 8 reports qualitative interviews with older women, drawing from the concepts of biographical work-life balance and portfolio careers. It focuses on older women who were in part-time work but who self-identified as having made a transition to retirement. Many had longstanding careers and stable networks, accrued skills and financial resources, supported a well-endowed quality of portfolio lives, whereas those who experienced ‘unbalanced’ portfolio retirement were more likely to be lacking resources from their working lives. The analysis reinforces the notion that retirement should be viewed as a process and not an event and that it is impossible to tell a single story of women's post-work transitions.

Dangerous dating in the digital age : jealousy, hostility, narcissism, and psychopathy as predictors of cyber dating abuse

  • Authors: Branson, Molly , March, Evita
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Computers in Human Behavior Vol. 119, no. (2021), p.
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  • Description: Cyber Dating Abuse includes perpetration of aggressive and controlling behaviours against an intimate partner via technology. Despite the significant physical and psychological outcomes, there is a paucity in research exploring predictors of Cyber Dating Abuse. In the current study, we replicate and extend previous research by exploring the utility of jealousy, hostility, narcissism (grandiose and vulnerable), and psychopathy (primary and secondary) as predictors of Cyber Dating Abuse. Participants (N = 817; 78.2% women; Mage = 28.16, SD = 10.49) were recruited via social media and completed an online questionnaire which comprised measures of jealousy, hostility, narcissism, psychopathy, and perpetration of Cyber Dating Abuse behaviours. Results supported the hypotheses that jealousy, vulnerable narcissism, and secondary psychopathy would be significant, positive predictors of Cyber Dating Abuse perpetration. No other predictor reached significance, and gender (control variable) was also a non-significant predictor. Results are discussed through the lens of evolutionary theory and the General Aggression Model and indicate that the perpetration of Cyber Dating Abuse may be better attributed to reactive, emotional aggression, compared to proactive, instrumental aggression. These results have important clinical and practical implications and may inform management and prevention of online intimate partner abuse and violence. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd

Detecting outlier patterns with query-based artificially generated searching conditions

  • Authors: Yu, Shuo , Xia, Feng , Sun, Yuchen , Tang, Tao , Yan, Xiaoran , Lee, Ivan
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems Vol. 8, no. 1 (2021), p. 134-147
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  • Description: In the age of social computing, finding interesting network patterns or motifs is significant and critical for various areas, such as decision intelligence, intrusion detection, medical diagnosis, social network analysis, fake news identification, and national security. However, subgraph matching remains a computationally challenging problem, let alone identifying special motifs among them. This is especially the case in large heterogeneous real-world networks. In this article, we propose an efficient solution for discovering and ranking human behavior patterns based on network motifs by exploring a user's query in an intelligent way. Our method takes advantage of the semantics provided by a user's query, which in turn provides the mathematical constraint that is crucial for faster detection. We propose an approach to generate query conditions based on the user's query. In particular, we use meta paths between the nodes to define target patterns as well as their similarities, leading to efficient motif discovery and ranking at the same time. The proposed method is examined in a real-world academic network using different similarity measures between the nodes. The experiment result demonstrates that our method can identify interesting motifs and is robust to the choice of similarity measures. © 2014 IEEE.

Draft genome sequences of four citrobacter isolates recovered from wild australian shorebirds

  • Authors: Smith, Hannah , Bean, David , Pitchers, William , Valcanis, Mary , Clarke, Rohan , Loyn, Richard , Hassell, Chris , Greenhill, Andrew
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Microbiology Resource Announcements Vol. 10, no. 1 (2021), p.
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  • Description: Citrobacter is a ubiquitous bacterial genus whose members inhabit a variety of niches. Some species are clinically important for both antimicrobial resistance (AMR) carriage and as the cause of nosocomial infections. Surveillance of Citrobacter species in the environment can provide indicators of the spread of AMR genes outside clinical spaces. In this study, we present draft genome sequences of four Citrobacter isolates obtained from three species of wild Australian shorebirds. Copyright © 2021 Smith et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Fiona Crawford - When you go looking for me, I am not there

  • Authors: Crawford, Fiona
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Artwork , Visual art work
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  • Description: Following residencies in Assisi, Italy in 2016 and 2019, inspired by the beauty and intrigue surrounding the medieval embroidery tradition of ‘Punto Assisi’ still practised today, Fiona Crawford’s contemporary textiles subvert and transgress conventions and reinterpret the ubiquitous subject of ‘women’s work’ Derived from the exterior of medieval San Rufino Cathedral, Punto Assisi’s highly stylised pattern and form is unique - the subject matter empty of detail, with the outlined negative space seeming to echo the absence of information and who the female artisans were. Invisible and indispensable, the names and faces of the female makers were rarely documented, existing within the dominant male hegemonic ideologies of the time, undervalued and seen as only undertaking 'women’s work'. Using vintage linen and thread, the combination of traditional and contemporary imagery, text, and the concept of drawing with thread, Fiona Crawford’s work investigates the notion of absence and at the same time honours the unknown female makers of this now highly prized and ancient art. This exhibition constitutes the visual outcomes emerging from a practice-led Masters research project at the School of Arts, Federation University, Australia. Fiona Crawford is supported by an Australian Research Training Program (RTP) Fee Offset Scholarship through Federation University. 45-minute session times available via Eventbrite. Please wear a mask and comply with 1.5m social distancing rules.

Generalised rational approximation and its application to improve deep learning classifiers

  • 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
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  • 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).

Germination biology of three populations of Navua sedge (Cyperus aromaticus)

  • Authors: Chadha, Aakansha , Florentine, Singarayer , Dhileepan, Kunjithapatham , Dowling, Kim , Turville, Christopher
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Weed Science Vol. 69, no. 1 (2021), p. 69-81
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  • Description: Navua sedge [Cyperus aromaticus (Ridley) Mattf. & Kük.] is an aggressive perennial sedge native to equatorial Africa that has become problematic in many Pacific islands and wet, tropical Queensland, Australia. It has had a significant impact on the livestock-grazing industry, sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) and banana (Musa acuminata Colla) plantations, and various other ecosystems. A laboratory-based research investigation was conducted to understand germination and emergence requirements under various environmental conditions of three geographically varied populations sourced from South Johnstone (SJ), Mackay (M) and Nyleta Creek (NC) in Queensland. Germination was identified to be stimulated by light, with no germination recorded under darkness. Populations SJ and NC had optimal germination at alternating temperatures of 25/15, 30/20, and 35/25 C, whereas population M had optimal germination at 25/15 and 30/20 C. All populations recorded greater than 85% germination at all pH levels tested. Seeds of population SJ were more sensitive to salinity compared with populations M and NC, with SJ showing no germination at 100 mM, whereas populations M and NC had 23% and 9% germination, respectively. An inverse relationship was observed between osmotic potential and germination, with no germination recorded at osmotic potentials below -0.8 MPa in any population, indicating moisture availability is a critical requirement for germination. Exposing seeds to 120 C radiant heat completely inhibited germination in populations M and NC, whereas 3% of population SJ germinated following a 180-s exposure at 120 C. Seedling emergence decreased as planting depth increased. Emergence was greatest for seeds on the soil surface or at 0.5-cm burial depth, consistent with germination being stimulated by light. Knowledge of these biological characteristics of C. aromaticus seed germination will assist in investigation of suitable control actions for this species, particularly in the early stage of its invasion into new areas, and will contribute to significant reduction in the soil seedbank. © 2021 Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.

Hilbert 13: Are there are any genuine continuous multivariate real-valued functions?

  • Authors: Morris, Sidney
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society Vol. 58, no. 1 (2021), p. 107-118
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  • Description: This article begins with a provocative question: Are there any genuine continuous multivariate real-valued functions? This may seem to be a silly question, but it is in essence what David Hilbert asked as one of the 23 problems he posed at the second International Congress of Mathematicians, held in Paris in 1900. These problems guided a large portion of the research in mathematics of the 20th century. Hilbert’s 13th problem conjectured that there exists a continuous function (Formula presented), where (Formula presented), which cannot be expressed in terms of composition and addition of continuous functions from ℝ2 → ℝ, that is, as composition and addition of continuous real-valued functions of two variables. It took over 50 years to prove that Hilbert’s conjecture is false. This article discusses the solution. © 2021. American Mathematical Society.

Importance of environmental flows in the Wimmera catchment, Southeast Australia

  • Authors: Atazadeh, Ehsan , Barton, Andrew , Razeghi, Jafar
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Limnological Review Vol. 20, no. 4 (2021), p. 185-198
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  • Description: In this paper the environment, climate, vegetation, indigenous and European settlement history, stream flow patterns, water quality and water resources development in western Victoria, Australia are studied. The last part of the paper focuses on the MacKenzie River, a tributary of the Wimmera River located on the northern slopes of the Grampians Ranges in western Victoria, Australia. Water release along the MacKenzie River was regulated to improve water quality, stream condition and river health especially in the downstream reaches. The upstream section tends to receive water most days of the year due to releases to secure the requirements of water supply for the city of Horsham and its recreational and conservation values, which is diverted into Mt Zero Channel. Below this the middle and downstream sections receive a more intermittent supply. Annually, a total of 10,000 dam3 of water is released from Wartook Reservoir into the MacKenzie River. Of this volume, only about 4,000 dam3 was released explicitly for environmental purposes. The remaining 6,000 dam3 was released to meet consumptive demands and to transfer water to downstream reservoirs. The empirical data and models showed the lower reaches of the river to be in poor condition under low flows, but this condition improved under flows of 35 dam3 per day, as indicated. The results are presented to tailor discharge and duration of the river flows by amalgamation of consumptive and environmental flows to improve the condition of the stream, thereby supplementing the flows dedicated to environmental outcomes. Ultimately the findings can be used by management to configure consumptive flows that would enhance the ecological condition of the MacKenzie River. © 2020 Ehsan Atazadeh et al., published by Sciendo 2020.