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Global monsoon over land (GM_L) have significant variations in their dominated area (GMA_L). The quantitative assessment of changes in GMA_L is essential for understanding spatial environment impacts and the underlying driving mechanism of GM_L evolution. Simulation results of a suite of transient climate evolution simulation over the last 21,000 years (TraCE21ka) and five-model ensemble outputs of the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project in their latest phase (fourth, PMIP4-CMIP6) are analyzed to study the changes in global, hemispheric and six sub-monsoon areas over the past 21 ka over land. Both datasets can reproduce large-scale characteristics of GMA_L variability, although there are differences in the magnitudes of their changes. Compared to 0 ka, TraCE21ka simulations reveal that GMA_L reduced by about 4.89 × 106 km2 (decreased by 10.89%) during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 21–18 ka), and reached a maximum of 46.61 × 106 km2 (increased by 3.83%) during the middle Holocene (MH, 9–6 ka). In comparison, the results of PMIP4-CMIP6 yield a smaller change of GMA_L during the LGM (decreased by 3.72%) and a larger magnitude of GMA_L during the MH (increased by 4.73%). The analysis of GMA_L over the past 21 ka reveals the varying influences of external forcing, with insolation playing a dominant role. Rising atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations (GHG) and ice sheet melting have induced a stepwise expansion in GMA_L during the last deglaciation, superimposed with several abrupt millennial-scale weakened monsoon events under meltwater fluxes (MWF) forcing. After that, insolation caused a gradually declining trend in GMA_L during the Holocene. The position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) under orbital forcing, leading to an anti-phase reaction between Northern Hemisphere monsoon areas (NHMA_L) and Southern Hemisphere monsoon areas (SHMA_L), particularly after 9 ka. Among the six sub-monsoons, they show diverse variations and regional characteristics under different forcings. Although regional monsoons like Indonesia-Australia monsoon (IAM) exhibit nonlinear behavior due to internal variabilities, the overall response of global monsoons to external forcing is predominantly linear. In addition, changes in the hydrological processes can indicate the formation and expansion of monsoon domains. Moisture budget shows that thermodynamic effect has always dominated monsoon hydrological cycles over the past 21 ka. The differences in regional monsoon hydrological processes arise from the dynamic effect. Moreover, δ18O records have been used to test these numerical simulation results. Which, together with diverse thermodynamic and dynamic component configurations of terrestrial paleo-monsoon variations, would help to better understand the underlying mechanism of global monsoon and its influences in the future. • Quantitative reconstruction of global terrestrial monsoon areas at orbital-millennial timescales over past 21 ka. • Varying differences of global, hemispheric and six sub-monsoon areas between TraCE21ka and PMIP4-CMIP6 ensemble results. • Quantifying the contribution of each single-forcing experiment relative to the all-full forcing experiments. • Differences in regional terrestrial monsoon hydrological cycle are affected by dynamic component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose an iterative approach within a threshold quantile regression framework to identify sequential structural breaks. We apply it to a time series analysis with a focus on establishing a connection between structural breaks in the gasoline consumption function and extreme events in the economy. The estimated structural breaks and piecewise relationship between Australia's automobile gasoline consumption and household disposable income are consistent with economic intuition. Moreover, the heterogeneity in their relation across various quantiles and over different time periods divided by the identified structural breaks is revealed in a systematic manner. The comparison with a state-of-practice approach demonstrates the validity and efficiency of our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to contextualise the new phase of Chinese organisational development in Australia in the academic tradition of transnationalism, explore the concrete forms of transnational activities undertaken by overseas-oriented Chinese organisations in economic, socio-cultural and political domains and analyse their policy relevance for both China and Australia. It argues that while these transnational activities could be seen as deliberative attempts to cater to the policy imperatives of the People's Republic of China, they also have the potential of furthering the national interest of Australia, which looks to enhance its economic and political standing in Asia. Underlying the triadic interactions of the Chinese transmigrants is the situational representation of ‘Chineseness’ and ‘Westernness’, which allows them to achieve a strategic balance in addressing the policy objectives of Australia and China and accumulate the greatest amount of ethnic capital in the process. Though primarily driven by self-interest and surely not free from controversies and tensions, these new forms of Chinese organisational activism are gradually taken into account by policy-makers of both countries to develop policy responses in multiple areas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Rainfall over northern Australia (NA) in austral summer is the largest water source of Australia. Previous studies have suggested a strong zonal-dipole trend pattern in austral summer rainfall since 1950, with rainfall increasing in northwest Australia (NWA) but decreasing in northeast Australia (NEA). The dynamics of rainfall increase in NWA was linked to sea surface temperature (SST) in the south Indian Ocean and the rainfall decrease in NEA was associated with SST in the northeast Indian Ocean. This study reports that, in contrast to a zonal-dipole trend pattern, a dominant wetting pattern over NA has recently been observed in the post-1979 satellite era. The recent NA rainfall increase also manifests as the first leading mode of summer rainfall variability over the Australian continent. Further investigation reveals that SST in the tropical western Pacific (TWP) has replaced the SST in the south and northeast Indian Ocean as the controlling factor responsible for the recent NA rainfall increase. Direct thermal forcing by increasing TWP SST gives rise to an anomalous Gill-type cyclone centered around NA, leading to anomalously high rainfall. As such, the increasing SST in the TWP induces over 50% of the observed rainfall wetting trend over NA. The increased rainfall in turn induces land surface cooling in NA. This mechanism can be confirmed with results obtained from sensitivity experiments of a numerical spectral atmospheric general circulation model. Thus, increasing SST in the TWP has contributed much of the recent summer rainfall increase and consequently the surface cooling over NA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a ‘most-similar-systems’ design, several major theories of welfare state development are shown to have some weaknesses in comparing the Australian and Canadian welfare states during the Golden Age. I offer instead a party competition theory, with the degree of party system polarisation as a key variable. Located in a highly polarised party system, the Australian Liberals adopted a directional social policy strategy and further shifted the Australian welfare state in favour of the middle class. Located in a less polarised party system, the Canadian Liberals adopted a more proximity-based brokerage strategy of social policy and co-opted the left's popular social policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deserts are important landscapes on the earth and their variations have impacts on global climate through feedback processes. However, there is a limited understanding of the climatic controls on the spatial and temporal variations of global deserts. Here, we use climate reanalysis datasets, global land use/land cover (LULC) products and the CMIP6 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project) model outputs to calculate the changing of global deserts during 1982–2020, and estimate future spatial trends of global deserts. Our results show that mean annual global desert area over this period is 17.64×106 km2, accounting for 12% of the terrestrial land. Desert areas decreased rapidly from the end of the 1980s to the 1990s in North Africa and Australia, followed by a slow expansion in the early 21st century globally. Spatio-temporal variations of areas of arid climate are characterized by interdecadal fluctuations, and there are clear regional differences in dynamics of the aridity index (AI, used here as a proxy for the area of drylands) and desert areas. Statistical analyses reveal that increased vegetation cover is directly related to the reduction of desert area, while potential evaporation, surface temperature and humidity are also significantly correlated with the desert area. The relationship between wind speed and desert dynamics varies regionally. The results of the CMIP6 simulations suggest that global deserts will expand in the 21st century, albeit at different rates under the ssp245 and ssp585 scenarios. Desert expansions are modelled to be greatest in Asia, Africa and Australia, while those of southern North Africa may reduce as their southern borders migrate northwards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited research has examined how employees' cultural competency may influence customers experience and behaviors. Building on social exchange theory, this study proposed and tested a model focusing on how guest gratitude mediated the relationships between three dimensions of servers' cultural competency, cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, and cultural skills, on customers' future behavioral intentions. Using empirical data collected from cross-cultural service encounters in luxury hotels in Australia, findings of the study revealed that cultural awareness and skills were significantly related to guest gratitude that, in turn, significantly influenced customers future behavioral intention. This study contributes to social exchange theory by adopting gratitude as a mediator in the reciprocal relationship between servers' cultural competency and customer behavioral intentions. The study highlights the importance of training current hospitality employees and preparing future hospitality professionals. In particular, the findings emphasize the importance of enhancing hospitality employees' cultural competency in cross-cultural service encounters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molecular biomarker-derived proxies in a marine sediment core from the eastern Timor Sea have been employed to track changes in the Australian–Indonesian monsoon system over the time period from the penultimate glacial to the last interglacial. The average chain length of n -alkanes originating from terrestrial higher plants reveals an expansion of woody plants during both Termination II and the last interglacial with respect to the penultimate glacial. This is consistent with previous reconstructions for the last glacial–interglacial cycle, indicating that water-stress conditions during dry seasons of southern Indonesia should have been relieved during interglacials and deglacials relative to glacials. However, in contrast to an only muted response during Heinrich Stadial 1, the vegetation composition showed a dramatic and prominent change during Heinrich Stadial 11. This was probably caused by a much more significant and longer duration iceberg discharge event to the northern North Atlantic during Heinrich Stadial 11 relative to Heinrich Stadial 1, which exerted a significant influence on the tropical hydrological cycle and monsoon rainfall seasonality. In addition, marine algae-derived biomarkers are used to reconstruct primary productivity variations, which are in agreement with previous studies from the same area. The precessional cyclicity of paleo-productivity variations is possibly induced by changes in the Australian–Indonesian winter monsoon intensity, showing a correlation with boreal winter insolation. However, this phase relationship is in contrast to the inference based on other lines of evidence, which suggests strong winter monsoon strength during boreal summer insolation maxima. New winter monsoon proxies are therefore required to clarify this discrepancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]