85 results on '"Xing An"'
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2. Mobilising Resilience to Symbolic Violence with Chinese International Research Students in Australia: A Bourdieusian Perspective
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Congcong Xing, Guanglun Michael Mu, and Deborah Henderson
- Abstract
Psychological studies on international research students' resilience to mental distress have attracted much scholarly attention. Yet, sociological inquiries into resilience to 'invisible' pressures such as power imbalances remain limited. Drawing insights from Bourdieu's relational sociology, we recast the psychology of resilience to adversities into a sociology of resilience to symbolic violence. To delve into the latter, we surveyed 220 Chinese international Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students across Australian universities using a self-designed instrument and analysed the data through Multiple Correspondence Analysis. Findings revealed that Chinese international HDR students were drawn into a space of forces fraught with the symbolic violence of supervisor authority, English hegemony, and neoliberalism; yet, simultaneously, they ventured into a space of struggles with such forms of symbolic violence by virtue of their agency and reflexivity as well as peer and supervisor empowerment. Such resilience practice was complicated by their capital portfolio and habitual dispositions, which in turn, contributed differently to their perceptions of symbolic violence and resilience to it. We thereby offer diverse stakeholders strategies in building resilience for (Chinese) international research students within and beyond Australia.
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- 2024
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3. An Autoethnography of an International Doctoral Student's Multidimensional Identity Construction
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Xu, Xing
- Abstract
There is a scarcity of scholarship that sheds light on international doctoral students' identity construction in quotidian encounters beyond the formal curriculum. In this autoethnographic study, based on my diary entries, via a socio-constructivist lens, I teased out my multidimensional identity construction by referring to situations, activities and relations embedded in daily experiences during my overseas study sojourn. My autoethnography reveals that how I make sense of my becoming and being as a Chinese sojourning in Australia for doctoral education transcends the experientiality of doing research alone, but incorporates gendered, sociocultural and professional facets within my past-present-future life trajectory. As I navigated these encounters, strategically mobilising my agency and utilising structural contexts towards the aim of achieving ontological security, I engaged in negotiating a transformative identity. The research calls for more studies in the future that explore the complexities and nuances of international doctoral students' identity construction in quotidian realities.
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- 2023
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4. How International Short-Term Mobility Experience Affects Full-Degree Abroad Experience: Insights from Chinese Students
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Xu, Xing, Peng, Jing, Xia, Yunni, and Zhang, Rui
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Despite an extensive body of literature scrutinising international students' short-term and long-term mobility experiences, little is known about the connection between the two. To address this gap, this study looks into the perception of a group of Chinese international students on how participation in their short-term mobility (STM) experience affects their navigation of subsequent full-degree experiences. Based on a qualitative investigation into 31 participants, drawing on the ABC theoretical model, this study manifests that penetrating diverse fabrics, the STM experience revealed impacts on the students' preparation for, operating and imagining their long-term study trajectory and beyond. These impacts are embodied in affective, behavioural and cognitive learning gains that are predominantly perceived as positive forces that facilitate navigation of a longer course. The study suggests some implications for stakeholders involved in students' international mobility programs and concludes with directions for future research.
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- 2023
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5. Submission or Subversion: Survival and Resilience of Chinese International Research Students in Neoliberalised Australian Universities
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Xing, Congcong, Mu, Guanglun Michael, and Henderson, Deborah
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Although scholars have noted the detrimental nature of the various changes in higher education prompted by neoliberalism, its impact on the experiences of international Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students has yet to be adequately studied. Informed by Bourdieu's concepts of "doxa," field, habitus, and capital, this paper examines the ways in which neoliberalism as "doxa" in the Australian higher education field has "colonised" the perception and practice of Chinese international HDR students whilst some students were able to demonstrate resilience to the pervasive neoliberal practices. The paper draws on a larger qualitative research project including interviews with 18 Chinese HDR students from four Australian universities. Data suggest that Chinese HDR research students gradually developed intensified dispositions of self-reliance and self-exploitation in response to neoliberal academic practices whilst others were enculturated into a "floating habitus" (or vulnerable position) in relation to academic publishing as they attempted to negotiate the tensions across fields and over time. Data further reveal that some participants demonstrated resilience to neoliberalism when empowered by their supervisors with less utilitarian and more critically reflexive supervisory practices. The paper argues that the embrace of neoliberalism in the Australian higher education field has become widespread yet controversial, and that thinking and enacting resilience sociologically may de-neoliberalise the higher education field in Australia and beyond.
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- 2022
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6. The Enactment of Agency in International Academic Mobility: A Case of Chinese Female PhD Students in Australia
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Xu, Xing
- Abstract
Despite widespread discourse subordinating the female PhD as a third gender in the Chinese media, little is known about how this cohort conceptualises themselves, especially in an international context. Based on a qualitative investigation into 10 Chinese female doctoral students in Australia, this study examines their enactment of agency in international academic mobility. Drawing on the notions of "agency in mobility" and in-betweenness, this article shows that Chinese female PhD students demonstrate three forms of agency. Their agency influences how they judge, utilise, produce and imagine relations, symbols and activities in the in-between space, which in turn gives shape to their enactment of agency. This study challenges the validity of the idea that the Chinese female PhD is a sexless third gender and illuminates the dynamic reciprocity between agency and the in-betweenness in shaping their transformative doctoral student identity.
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- 2021
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7. A Probe into Chinese Doctoral Students' Researcher Identity: A Volunteer-Employed Photography Study
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Xu, Xing
- Abstract
Researcher identity has been widely studied as central to doctoral education. However, little is known about students' emic conceptualization of what represents researcher identity based on their lived experience. Using a sample of 24 Chinese doctoral students in Australia, this study adopts volunteer-employed photography (VEP) to facilitate the participants' delineation of their researcher identity. Findings reveal that researcher identity is indexed at three levels: belonging as being, doing as becoming, and limited limitlessness. It presents itself as a complex formulating process in which dichotomous, yet mutually constitutive, forces collide and merge. This study concretizes perceptions about the notion of researcher identity through photographs and corresponding revelatory dialogues in relation to people, objects, feelings, phenomena, and relationships. Some insights on visual research methodology are also discussed.
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- 2021
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8. International Education through a Bioecological Development Lens -- A Case Study of Chinese Doctoral Students in Australia
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Xu, Xing, Sit, Helena, and Chen, Shen
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This study addresses the issue of international education through a human development lens. Using a group of Chinese doctoral students in Australia as a case study, it adopts volunteer-employed photography (VEP) to tease out the negative and positive forces that influence students' developmental trajectories during their doctoral education. Analyzing within the framework of Bronfenbrenner's bioecological systems theory, this study reveals that these forces, which transcend the academic sphere, exert varying influences via interactions between individuals and their environment. International doctoral study follows a developmental trajectory that is co-shaped by personal characteristics and the multilayered bioecological system that individuals negotiate and manage day-to-day. This article concludes with practical suggestions for stakeholders involved in this trajectory regarding the optimization of doctoral education.
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- 2021
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9. Rethinking energy productivity
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Denham, Todd, Xing, Ke, Dodson, Jago, and Pears, Alan
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- 2022
10. Problematising English monolingualism in the 'multicultural' university: a Bourdieusian study of Chinese international research students in Australia.
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Xing, Congcong, Mu, Guanglun Michael, and Henderson, Deborah
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MONOLINGUALISM , *MULTICULTURALISM , *ENGLISH language - Abstract
With English hegemony sustained in 'multicultural' Anglophone universities, non-English speaking research students often develop diverse strategies to improve their English. While such strategies demonstrate a form of resilience, the symbolic power of English remains intact. To grapple with this paradox, we draw on the work of Pierre Bourdieu to probe Chinese international research students' academic language practice in response to English monolingualism in Australian universities. Findings from semi-structured interviews with 18 Chinese international research students in Australian universities indicate that participants' academic language practice is influenced by both the doxic English monolingualism and the evolving exercise of academic multilingualism. Drawing insights from Bourdieu-informed sociology of resilience and post-monolingual theorising, we problematise English monolingualism and provide recommendations for (Chinese) international research students, supervisors, and universities to capitalise on linguistic repertories for the sake of enriching academic experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2024
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11. EQ-5D-5L Population Norms and Quality-Adjusted Life Expectancy by Sociodemographic Characteristics and Modifiable Risk Factors for Adults in Queensland, Australia.
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Endo, Takuto, Lee, Xing Ju, and Clemens, Susan Linden
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SOCIAL norms , *LIFE expectancy , *QUALITY of life , *DEMOGRAPHIC surveys , *ADULTS , *DEMOGRAPHIC characteristics - Abstract
Over half of Australia's disease burden is due to morbidity, predominantly chronic conditions. Health-related quality of life instruments provide measures of morbidity and health status across different dimensions with EQ-5D being one of the most widely used. This study reports EQ-5D-5L general population norms for Queensland, Australia using the recently published Australian value set. Population survey results from cross-sectional computer-assisted telephone interviews for Queensland adults in 2022 and 2023 were analyzed. EQ-5D-5L, as well as modifiable risk factors and sociodemographic data were collected. Using the recently published final Australian EQ-5D-5L value set, mean utility scores were calculated for Queensland, as well as by sociodemographic characteristics, including remoteness and socioeconomic area-based measures, and modifiable risk factors, such as smoking and body mass index. Results were combined with life tables to estimate quality-adjusted life expectancy (QALE) for subgroups with different lifestyles. The EQ-5D utility score for the Queensland adult population was 0.916. Smoking daily, being obese or older in age, or living in the most disadvantaged socioeconomic area were associated with lower mean scores. QALE was 6.1 and 7.9 years shorter than the life expectancy for Queensland males and females, respectively, but generally, those who reported having healthier lifestyles had higher mean utility scores and thus longer QALE. In addition to reporting Queensland EQ-5D-5L general population norms, these results demonstrate potential QALE gains in people following healthier lifestyles. The results support investment in prevention and may motivate further studies in this important area. • The final Australian EQ-5D-5L value set was recently published. EQ-5D-3L population norms for Queensland, Australia were reported previously. • This article updated population norms for Queensland using the EQ-5D-5L, and by subgroups based on modifiable risk factors, including quality-adjusted life-years. • The article provides a benchmark for future economic evaluation using EQ-5D-5L for Queensland and similar Australian states and territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2024
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12. Factors for Chinese Students Choosing Australian Higher Education and Motivation for Returning: A Systematic Review
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Zhai, Keyu, Gao, Xing, and Wang, Geng
- Abstract
Under the third wave of international student mobility, Australia has become the third largest country receiving international students. Compared with the United States and the United Kingdom, Australia can still maintain a stable increase in terms of hosting Chinese students. For Australia, attracting international students becomes an important part of Australian universities' business and cultural diversity. This paper reports the Chinese students' initiations of choosing Australian higher education and motivations for returning, aiming at contributing to a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of Chinese students' international flows. By retrieving all relevant literature published from 2000 to 2017, this paper engages with a systematic review to provide an overview of what exactly motivates Chinese students choosing Australian higher education and returning. Based on the robust assessment criteria, we selected 68 articles for analysis, and according to the coding results, we developed four themes influencing Chinese students' choice of Australia, including academic requirement and attainment, employment and future career prospects, host country environment, and social connections and three themes for returning: emotional needs, culture and integration in Australia, and career opportunities in China. The research results contribute to policy implications for Australian international higher education development.
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- 2019
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13. Phylogeny and biogeography of the Cryptocaryeae (Lauraceae).
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Song, Yu, Xia, Shang‐Wen, Tan, Yun‐Hong, Yu, Wen‐Bin, Yao, Xin, Xing, Yao‐Wu, and Corlett, Richard T.
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BIOGEOGRAPHY ,LAURACEAE ,PHYLOGENY ,SEED dispersal ,NUCLEOTIDE sequencing - Abstract
The biogeographical history of many lineages within the Lauraceae remains poorly known because of the difficulty of assigning macrofossils to living genera, poor pollen preservation, and the absence of sufficiently resolved or well‐supported phylogenies. Here, we utilize plastid genome sequencing to reinvestigate the phylogenetic and biogeographic history of trees in the tribe Cryptocaryeae, an important component of broad‐leaved forests worldwide, with around 800 species that rely on vertebrate frugivores to disperse their seeds. A new time‐calibrated phylogeny with high support for 176 species was used to infer the biogeographic history and speciation rates based on inferences of BAMM analyses. A monophyletic Cryptocaryeae with Aspidostemon, Beilschmiedia, Cryptocarya, Dahlgrenodendron, and Eusideroxylon clades was confirmed. The five clades of Cryptocaryeae were estimated to share a common ancestor in tropical Africa or Asia in the Early Cretaceous around 123 Ma. The Beilschmiedia and Cryptocarya clades were estimated to have originated in South America around 66 Ma. Extant subclades of the Beilschmiedia clade could colonize Australia by 35 Ma and extant subclades of the Cryptocarya clade could colonize Australia by 42 Ma. Diversification rates of the Beilschmiedia clade accelerated 14 and 12 Ma after its origin and diversification rates of the Cryptocarya clade accelerated 18 Ma after its origin. Over 45% extant Cryptocaryeae species originated in the three periods of accelerated differentiation in the Miocene of Asia and Australia. Long‐distance dispersal has had a major influence on biogeography, with dispersal to Asia likely occurring seven times, Zealandia six times, America three times, Australia three times, Africa twice, and Oceania at least once. Over 70% extant Cryptocaryeae species which diverged before the Quaternary grow in the Southern Hemisphere, while 90% extant Cryptocaryeae species which diverged in the Quaternary grow in the Northern Hemisphere. The Cryptocaryeae originated in and diversified with the first angiosperm‐dominated broad‐leaved evergreen forests, from the Cretaceous to the Paleogene. Long‐distance seed dispersal, probably by birds, although possibly also by flotation, has allowed the tribe to track these forests in space and time, despite a failure to adapt to cold, dry, or highly seasonal environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2023
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14. Reverse oppression and the residual nature of the shareholder's commercial unfairness remedy
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Tan, Zhong Xing
- Published
- 2015
15. Efficient Energy Transfer and Controlled Drug Release in Highly Stable Novel Nanoliposomes
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Chemeca 2009 (37th : 2009 : Perth W.A.), Yue, Xiuli, Xing, Zhanwen, Cao, Zhong, Guo, Caixin, Zheng, Zhaozhu, Qi, Jingjing, and Dai, Zhifei
- Published
- 2009
16. Students' Reaction to Classroom Discipline in Australia, Israel, and China
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Lewis, Ramon, Romi, Shlomo, Katz, Yaacov J., and Qui, Xing
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This study investigates the extent to which students from Australia, Israel, and China report that their teachers' classroom disciplinary behaviour affects their attitudes towards schoolwork and the teacher. They also report how justifiable a teacher's intervention appeared. In all three settings, both punishment and aggression relate significantly to the level of students' distraction and negative affect towards the teacher. Teachers' recognition of responsible behaviour and discussion with students relate to less distraction and greater belief that the intervention was necessary. Hinting and the involvement of students in classroom discipline decision making relate to a stronger belief that the disciplinary actions taken are warranted. Implications are discussed.
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- 2008
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17. A Multiscale Wavelet Kernel Regularization-Based Feature Extraction Method for Electronic Nose.
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Liu, Taoping, Zhang, Wentian, Li, Jun, Ueland, Maiken, Forbes, Shari L., Zheng, Wei Xing, and Su, Steven Weidong
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FEATURE extraction ,ELECTRONIC noses ,NOSE ,GAS detectors ,IMPULSE response ,MULTISCALE modeling ,FREQUENCY-domain analysis - Abstract
In the electronic nose (e-nose), a stable feature representation of the gas sensor’s response is a key step to realize subsequent odor identification algorithms. However, the noises in gas sensors hinder the acquisition of such features. In order to solve this problem, this article proposes a stable feature extraction algorithm which takes the impulse response of the e-nose system as the feature. The impulse response is estimated from a nonparametric model constrained by a multiscale wavelet kernel regularization matrix. The kernel regularization matrix equips the proposed feature extraction method with an ability in resistance to random noise. A numerical experiment proves that compared with single-scale kernel regularization, the use of multiscale wavelet kernel helps to achieve more stable and accurate impulse response estimation. Then, a field experiment is conducted to demonstrate the performance of the proposed features. This experiment aims to identify four different whiskies measured by a self-designed e-nose with four commercial gas sensors. Under the framework of transfer learning, the classification result based on the proposed features outperforms those using other considered features. The accuracy of whisky identification reaches 92.00%, showing a good potential of applying the proposed feature representations in the area of e-noses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2022
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18. Impact of a prospective feedback loop on care review activities in older patients at the end of life. A stepped-wedge randomised trial.
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Brown, Christine, Lee, Xing J., Farrington, Alison, Shield, Carla, Carter, Hannah E., McPhail, Steven M., Cardona, Magnolia, Hillman, Kenneth, Callaway, Leonie, Willmott, Lindy, White, Ben P., Harvey, Gillian, Graves, Nicholas, and Barnett, Adrian G.
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OLDER patients ,ELDER care ,OLDER people ,TERMINAL care ,RANDOMIZED controlled trials - Abstract
Background: Hospitalisation rates for older people are increasing, with end-of-life care becoming a more medicalised experience. Innovative approaches are warranted to support early identification of the end-of-life phase, communicate prognosis, provide care consistent with people's preferences, and improve the use of healthcare resources. The Intervention for Appropriate Care and Treatment (InterACT) trial aimed to increase appropriate care and treatment decisions for older people at the end of life, through implementation of a prospective feedback loop. This paper reports on the care review outcomes.Methods: A stepped-wedge randomised controlled trial was conducted in three large acute hospitals in Queensland, Australia between May 2020 and June 2021. The trial identified older people nearing the end of life using two validated tools for detecting deterioration and short-term death. Admitting clinical teams were provided with details of patients identified as at-risk with the goal of increasing awareness that end of life was approaching to facilitate appropriate patient centred care and avoid non-beneficial treatment. We examined the time between when the patient was identified as 'at-risk' and three outcomes: clinician-led care review discussions, review of care directive measures and palliative care referrals. These were considered useful indicators of appropriate care at the end of life.Results: In two hospitals there was a reduction in the review of care directive measures during the intervention compared with usual care at 21 days (reduced probability of - 0.08; 95% CI: - 0.12 to - 0.04 and - 0.14; 95% CI: - 0.21 to - 0.06). In one hospital there was a large reduction in clinician-led care review discussions at 21 days during the intervention (reduced probability of - 0.20; 95% CI: - 0.28 to - 0.13). There was little change in palliative care referrals in any hospital, with average probability differences at 21 days of - 0.01, 0.02 and 0.04.Discussion: The results are disappointing as an intervention designed to improve care of hospitalised older people appeared to have the opposite effect on care review outcomes. The reasons for this may be a combination of the intervention design and health system challenges due to the pandemic that highlight the complexity of providing more appropriate care at the end of life.Trial Registration: Australia New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry, ACTRN12619000675123 (registered 6 May 2019). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2022
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19. Causes and Effects of the Long‐Range Dispersion of Carbonaceous Aerosols From the 2019–2020 Australian Wildfires.
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Wu, Dongyou, Niu, Xiaoying, Chen, Ziqi, Chen, Yang, Xing, Yuxuan, Cao, Xiaoyi, Liu, Jun, Wang, Xin, and Pu, Wei
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CARBONACEOUS aerosols ,VERTICAL motion ,ATMOSPHERIC circulation ,WILDFIRES ,ATMOSPHERIC temperature ,SURFACE temperature - Abstract
Australia experienced record‐breaking wildfires during 2019–2020, which emitted large amounts of carbonaceous aerosols (CAs) to the atmosphere. In this study, we explored the atmospheric dynamics and thermodynamic mechanism of the long‐range transport of CAs during November 2019–February 2020. The results indicate that the emitted CAs had a ternary advective spreading pattern across the Pacific Ocean in the Southern Hemisphere (SH), influenced mainly by the westerlies and anticyclonic systems. Upward vertical motion over the convergence zone and heat released from smoke pyro‐cumulonimbus clouds and strong light absorption of CAs provided strong vertical lift as the predominant injection pathway of the CAs into the stratosphere in the central Pacific Ocean in the SH. The abundant tropospheric CAs induced atmospheric heating (and potentially surface cooling), with increasing air temperature and decreasing of surface temperature. The anomalous thermal structure led to changes in atmospheric circulation, which weakened the upward vertical motion. Plain Language Summary: During the summer of 2019–2020, Australia suffered unprecedented wildfires. These wildfires emitted large amounts of pollutants into the free atmosphere. The pollutants are mainly composed of carbonaceous aerosols (CAs). Under the effects of meteorological conditions, the CAs experienced a long‐range spread expanding from the western Pacific Ocean to the eastern Pacific Ocean even arriving at the Atlantic Ocean. During the transportation, the CAs were accumulated over the central Pacific Ocean under the trapping effect of the anticyclone and then exhibited significant lift owing to upward motion over the convergence zone between westerlies and anticyclone and heat buoyancy released from smoke pyro‐cumulonimbus clouds and strong light absorption of CAs. As a response, the strong absorption of CAs resulted in the warming of the atmosphere and cooling of the surface, which enhanced atmospheric stratification and constrained the development of atmospheric instability. Thus, the upward vertical motion was weakened. Key Points: The westerlies and anticyclonic system dominated the advective spread of carbonaceous aerosols (CAs)The upward vertical motion, heat released from smoke pyro‐cumulonimbus clouds, and strong CAs light absorption contributed to CAs liftThe CAs caused warming of air temperature and cooling of surface temperature, which weakened the upward vertical motion [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2022
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20. The road to decarbonization in Australia. A Morlet wavelet approach.
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Abban, Olivier Joseph, Xing, Yao Hong, Nuta, Alina Cristina, Rajaguru, Gulasekaran, Acheampong, Alex O., and Nuta, Florian Marcel
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CARBON sequestration , *CARBON emissions , *RENEWABLE energy sources , *ENERGY consumption , *CARBON dioxide mitigation , *TECHNOLOGICAL innovations - Abstract
The path toward sustainable development is closely related to the intensification of renewable energy sources and the continual innovation of technologies. To evaluate the role of renewable energy consumption and technological innovations on carbon emissions in Australia, this study uses the Morlet wavelet approach. This study identified temporal and frequency variations by applying wavelet correlation, continuous wavelet transforms, and partial and multiple wavelet coherence methods on data from 2000 to 2021. The wavelet correlation revealed that non-renewable energy, globalization, and economic growth are positively correlated with carbon emissions at all scales. In contrast, carbon emissions are negatively correlated with renewable energy and technological innovation at all scales. Meanwhile, the wavelet coherence analysis shows that non-renewable energy contributes to increased CO 2 emissions from the short to long term, whereas renewable energy usage negatively affects CO 2 emissions across all frequency scales. The study findings indicate that increasing the proportion of renewable energy usage in the total energy mix will curb CO 2 emissions over the long run. Accordingly, the way to achieve sustainable development is shifting to a low-carbon economy centered on renewable energy sources, enhancing energy efficiency, and using carbon storage and capture technologies. • Technological innovation and CO 2 emissions have an anti-cyclic impact. • Renewable energy and CO 2 emissions are out of phase; thus, emissions are been reduced. • The relationship between CO 2 emissions and oil is in the positive co-movement. • Carbon storage and capture technologies is the path to sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2024
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21. Increased Length of Hospital Stay and Mortality Associated With Community-Associated Infections in Australia.
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Wozniak, Teresa M, Dyda, Amalie, and Lee, Xing
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LENGTH of stay in hospitals ,HOSPITAL mortality ,COMMUNITY-acquired infections ,ENTEROCOCCUS faecium ,ESCHERICHIA coli - Abstract
Background An increasing proportion of antibiotic-resistant infections are community acquired. However, the burden of community-associated infections (CAIs) and the resulting impact due to resistance have not been well described. Methods We conducted a multisite, retrospective case–cohort study of all acute care hospital admissions across 134 hospitals in Australia. Patients admitted with a positive culture of 1 of 5 organisms of interest, namely Escherichia coli , Klebsiella pneumoniae , Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Staphylococcus aureus , and Enterococcus faecium , from January 1, 2012, through December 30, 2016, were included. Data linkage was used to link hospital admissions and pathology data. Patients with a bloodstream infection (BSI), urinary tract infection (UTI), or respiratory tract infection (RTI) were included in the analysis. We compared patients with a resistant and drug-sensitive infection and used regression analyses to derive the difference in length of hospital stay (LOS) and mortality estimates associated with resistance. Results No statistically significant impact on hospital LOS for patients with resistant CAIs compared with drug-sensitive CAIs was identified. CAI patients with drug-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (E. coli , K. pneumoniae) BSIs were more likely to die in the hospital than those with drug-sensitive Enterobacteriaceae BSIs (odds ratio [OR], 3.28; 95% CI, 1.40–6.92). CAI patients with drug-resistant P. aeruginosa UTIs were more likely to die in the hospital than those with the drug-sensitive counterpart (OR, 2.43; 95% CI, 1.12–4.85). Conclusions The burden of CAI in the hospital is significant, and antibiotic resistance is adding to associated mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
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22. Glazzing: See through the glass for energy
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Xing, Gina
- Published
- 2011
23. Quasi‐Trapped Electron Fluxes Induced by NWC Transmitter and CRAND: Observations and Simulations.
- Author
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Liu, Yangxizi, Xiang, Zheng, Ni, Binbin, Li, Xinlin, Zhang, Kun, Fu, Song, Gu, Xudong, Liu, Jiang, and Cao, Xing
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COSMIC rays ,ELECTRON distribution ,TRANSMITTERS (Communication) ,PROTON decay ,ELECTRONS ,ELECTRON sources - Abstract
Signals from the NWC ground‐based very low frequency (VLF) transmitter can leak into the magnetosphere and scatter trapped energetic electrons into drift loss cones. Recent studies also suggest that cosmic ray albedo neutron decay (CRAND) is probably an important source for quasi‐trapped electrons in the inner belt. To investigate their relative contributions, this study comprehensively analyzes the long‐term variations of quasi‐trapped 206 keV electrons at L = 1.7, which is roughly the L shell where NWC is located. Furthermore, a drift‐diffusion‐source model is used to reproduce longitudinal distributions of quasi‐trapped electrons and investigate sensitivities of simulation results to VLF transmitter intensities. These results suggest that CRAND is the main source of quasi‐trapped hundreds of keV electrons when the NWC station is at dayside. In contrast, pitch angle diffusions become the main source mechanism of these quasi‐trapped electrons when the NWC station operates at nightside with more VLF transmitter energy leaking into the magnetosphere. Plain Language Summary: Very low frequency (VLF) signals emitted from NWC transmitter locating at west Australia are used for submarine communications. The VLF signals propagate along the Earth‐ionosphere waveguide and a portion can leak into the magnetosphere. Low‐Earth orbit satellite observations demonstrate that the NWC transmitter signals in the magnetosphere can scatter trapped energetic electrons into the drift loss cone at L = 1.7, which is roughly of the L shell of the NWC location, resulting in the enhancement of approximately 200 keV quasi‐trapped electron fluxes. Cosmic ray albedo neutron decay (CRAND) describes the process that galaxy cosmic rays (the majority consist of high‐energy protons and helium nucleus) collide with atmosphere atoms and produce albedo neutrons, which have a mean lifetime of 887 s and then decay into protons, electrons, and antineutrinos, which is also considered as a source of >200 keV quasi‐trapped electrons in the inner belt. In this study, we compare the model results with DEMETER measurements and find that CRAND is the main source of quasi‐trapped hundreds of keV electrons when the NWC transmitter is at dayside. In contrast, the pitch angle diffusion induced by NWC transmitter signals becomes the main source mechanism of these quasi‐trapped electrons due to VLF signals leaking into the magnetosphere easily when the NWC transmitter operates at nightside. Key Points: CRAND is the main source of 200–700 keV quasi‐trapped electrons at L = 1.7 when NWC transmitter is at daysideFor quasi‐trapped 206 keV electrons at L = 1.7, pitch angle diffusion is the main source mechanism when NWC station operates at nightsideThe 〈Dαα〉 $\langle {D}_{\alpha \alpha }\rangle $ from NWC needs to be approximately 10−6 to 10−5 s−1 to reproduce the satellite observations of quasi‐trapped 206 keV electrons at L = 1.7 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
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24. Combining transfer learning and constrained long short-term memory for power generation forecasting of newly-constructed photovoltaic plants.
- Author
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Luo, Xing, Zhang, Dongxiao, and Zhu, Xu
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- *
PHOTOVOLTAIC power generation , *FORECASTING , *K-nearest neighbor classification , *COMBINED cycle power plants , *POWER plants , *DEEP learning , *STATISTICAL models , *DEMAND forecasting - Abstract
Photovoltaic power generation (PVPG) forecasting has attracted increasing research and industry attention due to its significance for energy management, infrastructure planning, and budgeting. Emerging deep learning (DL) models based on historical data have provided effective solutions for PVPG forecasting with great success. However, newly-constructed photovoltaic (NCPV) plants often lack collections of historical data, and thus it is difficult to forecast their future generation accurately. In this work, combining transfer learning (TL) and DL models, we initially propose two parameter-transferring strategies and a constrained long short-term memory (C-LSTM) model, to address the hourly day-ahead PVPG forecasting problem of NCPV plants. The K-nearest neighbors (KNN) algorithm is utilized to extract prior knowledge as physical constraints, which can guide the training process of C-LSTM. The performances of different TL methods combined with C-LSTM are evaluated specifically, and appropriate ones are determined accordingly. The proposed models are evaluated based on real-life datasets collected from actual PV plants in Australia. The results demonstrate that the proposed C-LSTM model outperforms the standard LSTM model with higher forecasting accuracy. In addition, the results also indicate that significant improvements in forecasting accuracy and stability can be obtained by the proposed TL strategies combined with C-LSTM, regardless of different sky conditions (i.e., clear sky, partly cloudy sky, and overcast sky), compared to the conventional machine learning and statistical models in the literature. The forecasting skill of the combined model has improved up to 68.4% compared with the reference persistence model. • Transfer learning (TL) strategies are proposed based on deep learning (DL) models. • A constrained LSTM (C-LSTM) is proposed by using KNN to extract prior knowledge. • C-LSTM outperforms the standard LSTM with higher forecasting accuracy. • TL assisted DL model can obtain significant accuracy and stability improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
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25. Scaled Tracking Consensus in Discrete-Time Second-Order Multiagent Systems With Random Packet Dropouts.
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Shi, Lei, Zheng, Wei Xing, Shao, Jinliang, and Cheng, Yuhua
- Subjects
- *
ARTIFICIAL satellite tracking , *RANDOM matrices , *INDEPENDENT variables , *COMPUTER simulation , *MULTIAGENT systems - Abstract
This article focuses on the issue of scaled tracking consensus for discrete-time second-order multiagent systems under random packet dropouts, where the cases with a static leader and a dynamic leader are considered, respectively. The scaled tracking consensus means that all agents reach a consensus value determined by the leader but with different scales, and the phenomenon of packet dropout on each communication link is described as a Bernoulli variable independent of other communication links. By virtue of random environment-based scaled consensus algorithms, it is shown how to reconstruct the original system into augmented error systems with random coefficient matrices. With the kind assistance of substochastic matrix and super-stochastic matrix, sufficient conditions for the cases with a static leader and a dynamic leader are derived, respectively. Moreover, computer simulations are performed to demonstrate the dynamics of network agents under random packet dropouts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
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26. Estimating impacts of wildfire and climate variability on streamflow in Victoria, Australia.
- Author
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Guo, Yuhan, Zhang, Lu, Zhang, Yongqiang, Wang, Zhonggen, and Zheng, Hong Xing
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STREAMFLOW ,WILDFIRES ,HYDROLOGIC models ,TREND analysis ,SOIL moisture ,WATERSHEDS ,WATER storage - Abstract
Wildfires are common in Australia and can cause vegetation loss and affect hydrological processes such as interception, evapotranspiration, soil water storage and streamflow. This study investigates wildfire impacts on catchment mean annual streamflow for 14 Australian catchments that have been severely impacted by the 2009 Victoria wildfire, the second‐worst wildfire disaster in Australia. A statistical approach based on sensitivity coefficients was used for quantifying the climate variability impacts on streamflow and the time trend analysis method was used to estimate the annual streamflow changes due to wildfire respectively. Our results show that wildfire has caused a noticeable increase in mean annual streamflow in the catchments with a burnt area above 70% for an immediate post‐wildfire period (2009–2015) and the wildfire impact on streamflow is evidently larger than the climate change impact in the majority of burnt catchments. Furthermore, the wildfire impact on mean annual streamflow strongly increases with the burnt percentage area, indicated by R2 = 0.73 between the two. The results also illustrate that catchments with high burnt percentage areas can have more potential to gain increased streamflow due to wildfires compared with that due to climate variability and can have significant streamflow change after wildfires above the 70% threshold of burnt area. These results provide evidence for evaluating large‐scale wildfire impact on streamflow at small to medium‐sized catchments, and guidance for process‐based hydrological models for simulating wildfire impacts on hydrological processes for the immediate period after the wildfire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
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27. A stepped-wedge randomised controlled trial assessing the implementation, effectiveness and cost-consequences of the EDDIE+ hospital avoidance program in 12 residential aged care homes: study protocol.
- Author
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Carter, Hannah E., Lee, Xing J., Farrington, Alison, Shield, Carla, Graves, Nicholas, Cyarto, Elizabeth V., Parkinson, Lynne, Oprescu, Florin I., Meyer, Claudia, Rowland, Jeffrey, Dwyer, Trudy, and Harvey, Gillian
- Subjects
GROUP homes ,RANDOMIZED controlled trials ,RESEARCH protocols ,NURSING home employees ,NURSING home care ,DIAGNOSTIC equipment - Abstract
Background: Older people living in residential aged care homes experience frequent emergency transfers to hospital. These events are associated with risks of hospital acquired complications and invasive treatments or interventions. Evidence suggests that some hospital transfers may be unnecessary or avoidable. The Early Detection of Deterioration in Elderly residents (EDDIE) program is a multi-component intervention aimed at reducing unnecessary hospital admissions from residential aged care homes by empowering nursing and care staff to detect and manage early signs of resident deterioration. This study aims to implement and evaluate the program in a multi-site randomised study in Queensland, Australia.Methods: A stepped-wedge randomised controlled trial will be conducted at 12 residential aged care homes over 58 weeks. The program has four components: education and training, decision support tools, diagnostic equipment, and implementation facilitation with clinical systems support. The integrated Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (i-PARIHS) framework will be used to guide the program implementation and process evaluation. The primary outcome measure will be the number of hospital bed days used by residents, with secondary outcomes assessing emergency department transfer rates, admission rates, length of stay, family awareness and experience, staff self-efficacy and costs of both implementation and health service use. A process evaluation will assess the extent and fidelity of program implementation, mechanisms of impact and the contextual barriers and enablers.Discussion: The intervention is expected to improve outcomes by reducing unnecessary hospital transfers. Fewer hospital transfers and admissions will release resources for other patients with potentially greater needs. Residential aged care home staff might benefit from feelings of empowerment in their ability to proactively manage early signs of resident deterioration. The process evaluation will be useful for supporting wider implementation of this intervention and other similar initiatives.Trial Registration: The trial is prospectively registered with the Australia New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry ( ACTRN12620000507987 , registered 23/04/2020). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2021
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28. Effectiveness of clinical criteria in directing patient flow from the emergency department to a medical assessment unit in Queensland, Australia: a retrospective chart review of hospital administrative data.
- Author
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Osborne, Sonya, Cleak, Helen, White, Nicole, Lee, Xing, Deacon, Anthony, and de Looze, Julian W M
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MEDICAL needs assessment ,MEDICAL emergencies ,HOSPITAL emergency services ,ACUTE medical care ,MEDICAL care - Abstract
Background: Medical Assessment Units (MAUs) have become a popular model of acute medical care to improve patient flow through timely clinical assessment and patient management. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a consensus-derived set of clinical criteria for patient streaming from the Emergency Department (ED) to a 15-bed MAU within the highly capacity-constrained environment of a large quaternary hospital in Queensland, Australia.Methods: Clinically coded data routinely submitted for inter-hospital benchmarking purposes was used to identify the cohort of medical admission patients presenting to the ED in February 2016 (summer) and June 2016 (winter). A retrospective review of patient medical records for this cohort was then conducted to extract MAU admission data, de-identified patient demographic data, and clinical criteria. The primary outcome was the proportion of admissions that adhered to the MAU admission criteria.Results: Of the total of 540 included patients, 386 (71 %) patients were deemed to meet the MAU eligibility admission criteria. Among patients with MAU indications, 66 % were correctly transferred (95 % CI: 61 to 71) to the MAU; this estimated sensitivity was statistically significant when compared with random allocation (p-value < 0.001). Transfer outcomes for patients with contraindications were subject to higher uncertainty, with a high proportion of these patients incorrectly transferred to the MAU (73 % transferred; 95 % CI: 50 to 89 %; p-value = 0.052).Conclusions: Based on clinical criteria, approximately two-thirds of patients were appropriately transferred to the MAU; however, a larger proportion of patients were inappropriately transferred to the MAU. While clinical criteria and judgement are generally established as the process in making decisions to transfer patients to a limited-capacity MAU, our findings suggest that other contextual factors such as bed availability, time of day, and staffing mix, including discipline profile of decision-making staff during ordinary hours and after hours, may influence decisions in directing patient flow. Further research is needed to better understand the interplay of other determinants of clinician decision making behaviour to inform strategies for improving more efficient use of MAUs, and the impact this has on clinical outcomes, length of stay, and patient flow measures in MAUs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2021
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29. Statistical aerosol properties associated with fire events from 2002 to 2019 and a case analysis in 2019 over Australia.
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Yang, Xingchuan, Zhao, Chuanfeng, Yang, Yikun, Yan, Xing, and Fan, Hao
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CARBONACEOUS aerosols ,AEROSOLS ,ATMOSPHERIC aerosols ,PARTICULATE matter ,CASE studies ,FIRE management ,IMPACT loads ,FIREFIGHTING - Abstract
Wildfires are an important contributor to atmospheric aerosols in Australia and could significantly affect the regional and even global climate. This study investigates the impact of fire events on aerosol properties along with the long-range transport of biomass-burning aerosol over Australia using multi-year measurements from Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) at 10 sites over Australia, a satellite dataset derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP), reanalysis data from Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications version 2 (MERRA-2), and back-trajectories from the Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model. The fire count, fire radiative power (FRP), and aerosol optical depth (AOD) showed distinct and consistent interannual variations, with high values during September–February (biomass-burning period, BB period) and low values during March–August (non-biomass-burning period, non-BB period) every year. Strong correlation (0.62) was found between FRP and AOD over Australia. Furthermore, the correlation coefficient between AOD and fire count was much higher (0.63–0.85) during October–January than other months (- 0.08 to 0.47). Characteristics of Australian aerosols showed pronounced differences between the BB period and non-BB period. AOD values significantly increased and fine-mode aerosol dominated during the BB period, especially in northern and southeastern Australia. Carbonaceous aerosol was the main contributor to total aerosols during the BB period, especially in September–December when carbonaceous aerosol contributed the most (30.08 %–42.91 %). Aerosol size distributions showed a bimodal character, with both fine and coarse aerosol particles generally increasing during the BB period. The megafires during the BB period of 2019/2020 further demonstrated the significant impact of wildfires on aerosol properties, such as the extreme increase in AOD for most of southeastern Australia, the dominance of fine particle aerosols, and the significant increase in carbonaceous and dust aerosols in southeastern and central Australia, respectively. Moreover, smoke was found to be the dominant aerosol type detected at heights from 2.5 to 12 km in southeastern Australia in December 2019 and at heights from roughly 6.2 to 12 km in January 2020. In contrast, dust was detected more frequently at heights from 2 to 5 km in November 2019 and January and February 2020. A case study emphasized that the transport of biomass-burning aerosols from wildfire plumes in eastern and southern Australia significantly impacted the aerosol loading, aerosol particle size, and aerosol type of central Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
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30. The effectiveness and cost effectiveness of a hospital avoidance program in a residential aged care facility: a prospective cohort study and modelled decision analysis.
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Carter, Hannah E., Lee, Xing J., Dwyer, Trudy, O'Neill, Barbara, Jeffrey, Dee, Doran, Christopher M, Parkinson, Lynne, Osborne, Sonya R, Reid-Searl, Kerry, and Graves, Nicholas
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ELDER care ,COST effectiveness ,DECISION making ,RESIDENTIAL care ,NURSING home employees ,QUALITY-adjusted life years - Abstract
Background: Residential aged care facility residents experience high rates of hospital admissions which are stressful, costly and often preventable. The EDDIE program is a hospital avoidance initiative designed to enable nursing and care staff to detect, refer and quickly respond to early signals of a deteriorating resident. The program was implemented in a 96-bed residential aged care facility in regional Australia.Methods: A prospective pre-post cohort study design was used to collect data on costs of program delivery, hospital admission rates and length of stay for the 12 months prior to, and following, the intervention. A Markov decision model was developed to synthesize study data with published literature in order to estimate the cost-effectiveness of the program. Quality adjusted life years (QALYs) were adopted as the measure of effectiveness.Results: The EDDIE program was associated with a 19% reduction in annual hospital admissions and a 31% reduction in the average length of stay. The cost-effectiveness analysis found the program to be both more effective and less costly than usual care, with 0.06 QALYs gained and $249,000 health system costs saved in a modelled cohort of 96 residents. A probabilistic sensitivity analysis estimated that there was an 86% probability that the program was cost-effective after taking the uncertainty of the model inputs into account.Conclusions: This study provides promising evidence for the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a nurse led, early intervention program in preventing unnecessary hospital admissions within a residential aged care facility. Further research in multi-site randomised studies is needed to confirm the generalisability of these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2020
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31. Clinical and Economic Outcomes of Genome Sequencing Availability on Containing a Hospital Outbreak of Resistant Escherichia coli in Australia.
- Author
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Lee, Xing J., Elliott, Thomas M., Harris, Patrick N.A., Douglas, Joel, Henderson, Belinda, Watson, Catherine, Paterson, David L., Schofield, Deborah S., Graves, Nicholas, and Gordon, Louisa G.
- Subjects
- *
ESCHERICHIA coli , *NUCLEOTIDE sequencing , *HOSPITAL costs , *INFECTION control , *URBAN hospitals , *BACTERIAL genomes , *CROSS infection prevention , *RESEARCH , *SPECIALTY hospitals , *HEALTH facility administration , *HOSPITAL utilization , *RESEARCH methodology , *CROSS infection , *COST control , *EVALUATION research , *MEDICAL cooperation , *COMPARATIVE studies , *EPIDEMICS , *ECONOMICS - Abstract
Objectives: To evaluate the outbreak size and hospital cost effects of bacterial whole-genome sequencing availability in managing a large-scale hospital outbreak.Methods: We built a hybrid discrete event/agent-based simulation model to replicate a serious bacterial outbreak of resistant Escherichia coli in a large metropolitan public hospital during 2017. We tested the 3 strategies of using whole-genome sequencing early, late (actual outbreak), or not using it and assessed their associated outbreak size and hospital cost. The model included ward dynamics, pathogen transmission, and associated hospital costs during a 5-month outbreak. Model parameters were determined using data from the Queensland Hospital Admitted Patient Data Collection (N = 4809 patient admissions) and local clinical knowledge. Sensitivity analyses were performed to address model and parameter uncertainty.Results: An estimated 197 patients were colonized during the outbreak, with 75 patients detected. The total outbreak cost was A$460 137 (US$317 117), with 6.1% spent on sequencing. Without sequencing, the outbreak was estimated to result in 352 colonized patients, costing A$766 921 (US$528 547). With earlier detection from use of routine sequencing, the estimated outbreak size was 3 patients and cost A$65 374 (US$45 054).Conclusions: Using whole-genome sequencing in hospital outbreak management was associated with smaller outbreaks and cost savings, with sequencing costs as a small fraction of total hospital costs, supporting the further investigation of the use of routine whole-genome sequencing in hospitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2020
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32. A stepped-wedge randomised-controlled trial assessing the implementation, impact and costs of a prospective feedback loop to promote appropriate care and treatment for older patients in acute hospitals at the end of life: study protocol.
- Author
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Lee, Xing J., Farrington, Alison, Carter, Hannah, Shield, Carla, Graves, Nicholas, McPhail, Steven M., Harvey, Gillian, White, Ben P., Willmott, Lindy, Cardona, Magnolia, Hillman, Ken, Callaway, Leonie, and Barnett, Adrian G.
- Subjects
OLDER patients ,HOSPITAL patients ,HOSPITAL care quality ,CLINICAL trial registries ,INTENSIVE care units - Abstract
Background: Hospitalisation rates for the older population have been increasing with end-of-life care becoming a more medicalised and costly experience. There is evidence that some of these patients received non-beneficial treatment during their final hospitalisation with a third of the non-beneficial treatment duration spent in intensive care units. This study aims to increase appropriate care and treatment decisions and pathways for older patients at the end of life in Australia. This study will implement and evaluate a prospective feedback loop and tailored clinical response intervention at three hospitals in Queensland, Australia.Methods: A stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial will be conducted with up to 21 clinical teams in three acute hospitals over 70 weeks. The study involves clinical teams providing care to patients aged 75 years or older, who are prospectively identified to be at risk of non-beneficial treatment using two validated tools for detecting death and deterioration risks. The intervention's feedback loop will provide the teams with a summary of these patients' risk profiles as a stimulus for a tailored clinical response in the intervention phase. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research will be used to inform the intervention's implementation and process evaluation. The study will determine the impact of the intervention on patient outcomes related to appropriate care and treatment at the end of life in hospitals, as well as the associated healthcare resource use and costs. The primary outcome is the proportion of patients who are admitted to intensive care units. A process evaluation will be carried out to assess the implementation, mechanisms of impact, and contextual barriers and enablers of the intervention.Discussion: This intervention is expected to have a positive impact on the care of older patients near the end of life, specifically to improve clinical decision-making about treatment pathways and what constitutes appropriate care for these patients. These will reduce the incidence of non-beneficial treatment, and improve the efficiency of hospital resources and quality of care. The process evaluation results will be useful to inform subsequent intervention implementation at other hospitals.Trial Registration: Australia New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry (ANZCTR), ACTRN12619000675123p (approved 6 May 2019). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2020
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33. The level of genetic diversity and differentiation of tropical lotus, Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. (Nelumbonaceae) from Australia, India, and Thailand.
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Mekbib, Yeshitila, Huang, Shi-Xu, Ngarega, Boniface K., Li, Zhi-Zhong, Shi, Tao, Ou, Ke-Fang, Liang, Yu-Ting, Chen, Jin-Ming, and Yang, Xing-Yu
- Subjects
EAST Indian lotus ,MICROSATELLITE repeats ,GENE flow ,POPULATION geography ,GENETIC correlations ,GENETIC distance - Abstract
Background: Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn., a perennial aquatic macrophyte species, has been cultivated in several Asian countries for its economic importance, and medicinal uses. Two distinct ecotypes of the species are recognized based on the geographical location where the genotypes are adapted, i.e., tropical lotus and temperate lotus. The genetic diversity levels and differentiation of the tropical lotus from poorly studied geographic regions still remain unclear. Here, the population genetic diversity and structure of 15 tropical lotus populations sampled from the previous understudied natural distribution ranges, including India, Thailand, and Australia, were assessed using nine polymorphic SSR markers. Results: The SSR markers used to genotype the 216 individuals yielded 65 alleles. The highest and lowest genetic diversity estimates were found in Thailand and Indian populations, respectively. STRUCTURE analysis revealed three distinct genetic clusters, with relatively low admixtures, supported by PCoA cluster analysis. Low levels of gene flow (mean Nm = 0.346) among the three genetic clusters signified the Mantel test for isolation by distance, revealing the existence of a positive correlation between the genetic and geographic distances (r = 0.448, P = 0.004). Besides, AMOVA analysis revealed a higher variation among populations (59.98%) of the three groups. Overall, the populations used in this study exposed a high level of genetic differentiation (F
ST = 0.596). Conclusions: The nine polymorphic microsatellite markers used in our study sufficiently differentiated the fifteen tropical N. nucifera populations based on geography. These populations presented different genetic variability, thereby confirming that populations found in each country are unique. The low genetic diversity (HE = 0.245) could be explained by limited gene flow and clonal propagation. Conserving the available diversity using various conservation approaches is essential to enable the continued utilization of this economically important crop species. We, therefore, propose that complementary conservation approaches ought to be introduced to conserve tropical lotus, depending on the genetic variations and threat levels in populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2020
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34. A novel combined probabilistic load forecasting system integrating hybrid quantile regression and knee improved multi-objective optimization strategy.
- Author
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Yang, Yi, Xing, Qianyi, Wang, Kang, Li, Caihong, Wang, Jianzhou, and Huang, Xiaojia
- Subjects
- *
QUANTILE regression , *KNEE , *FORECASTING , *TECHNOLOGICAL innovations , *FEATURE selection , *FEATURE extraction - Abstract
In contemporary power systems, diverse energy integration and technological advancements have complicated load dynamics, revealing limitations in traditional deterministic forecasting techniques. Given the pivotal role of Probabilistic Load Forecasting (PLF) in mitigating risks in power system planning and operation, the pursuit of more accurate PLF techniques has evidently become a topic of paramount importance. Therefore, in this study, a novel hybrid Quantile Regression (QR) model integrating causal dilated convolution, residual connection, and Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) is initially proposed for PLF , its core multi-scale feature extraction module can deeply mine the interactions between loads and their features. However, relying solely on a single-model often encounters inherent flaws in certain scenarios. Recognizing this, a Combined Probabilistic Load Forecasting System (CPLFS) is further proposed. This system incorporates the developed hybrid QR to establish a diversified candidate model pool, aiming to select the top-performing benchmarks in various scenarios and utilizes the Knee enhanced Pareto mechanism to adjust the combined weights of each benchmark, thereby bridging the gap created by the "No Free Lunch (NFL)" phenomenon. Taking the load uncertainty of Australia as an illustrative example, simulations indicate that the hybrid QR outperforms traditional models. Furthermore, CPLFS surpasses the best benchmarks and other combinations in both prediction accuracy and stability. • A novel combined probabilistic load forecasting system is proposed. • A hybrid quantile regression is proposed for probabilistic load prediction. • Filtering significant features using non-linear feature selection technique. • Skillfully solves the "no free lunch phenomenon" in the prediction intervals. • An improved multi-objective optimization based on Knee mechanism is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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35. An Adaptive SOSM Controller Design by Using a Sliding-Mode-Based Filter and its Application to Buck Converter.
- Author
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Liu, Lu, Zheng, Wei Xing, and Ding, Shihong
- Subjects
- *
FILTERS & filtration , *SLIDING mode control - Abstract
In this paper, a novel adaptive second-order sliding mode (SOSM) control method is proposed by combining a new adaptive strategy with the backstepping-like technique. The new adaptive strategy is first constructed by means of the equivalent control for which a sliding-mode-based filter is employed rather than the widely-used low-pass filter such that the parameter restriction under the usage of low-pass filter can be relaxed. Then, by applying the proposed adaptive strategy and the idea of adding a power integrator, an adaptive SOSM method is established to finite-time stabilize the sliding variables. The feature of the proposed SOSM method lies in that the gain will vary with the size of the lumped uncertainty so as to avoid the overestimation of the gain. The stability analysis is given based on the finite-time Lyapunov theory. The theoretical results are finally applied to the voltage regulation problem of a Buck converter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
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36. Comparison of EQ-5D-5L and SPVU-5D for measuring quality of life in patients with venous leg ulcers in an Australian setting.
- Author
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Cheng, Qinglu, Kularatna, Sanjeewa, Lee, Xing J., Graves, Nicholas, and Pacella, Rosana E.
- Subjects
ULCERS ,QUALITY of life ,LONGITUDINAL method ,LEG ,FOLLOW-up studies (Medicine) - Abstract
Purpose: Given the importance of measuring health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for cost-utility studies, this study aimed to determine the validity and responsiveness of two preference-based HRQoL instruments, the EuroQol-five dimensions-five levels questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L) and the Sheffield Preference-based Venous Ulcer questionnaire (SPVU-5D) in patients with venous leg ulcers (VLUs) in an Australian setting.Methods: This study analysed de-identified data collected from 80 patients with VLUs recruited by a prospective study in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Patients were asked to complete EQ-5D-5L and SPVU-5D surveys at baseline, 1-month, 3-month and 6-month follow-up as part of the prospective study. Baseline data and follow-up data were pooled to test the construct validity and level of agreement of the two instruments. Follow-up data were used to test the responsiveness.Results: The ceiling effects were negligible for EQ-5D-5L and SPVU-5D utility scores. Both instruments were able to discriminate between healed VLU and unhealed VLU and showed great responsiveness when healing status changed over time. Weak to strong correlations were found between dimensions of EQ-5D-5L and SPVU-5D. The utility scores produced from EQ-5D-5L were generally lower.Conclusions: This study found that both EQ-5D-5L and SPVU-5D were valid and responsive in detecting change of VLU healing status among a small Australian population. Both instruments may be used in economic evaluation studies that involve patients with healed or unhealed VLUs. However, given the limitations presented in this study, further research is necessary to make sound recommendations on the preferred instrument in economic evaluation of VLU-related interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2019
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37. Measuring costs and quality of life for venous leg ulcers.
- Author
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Barnsbee, Louise, Cheng, Qinglu, Tulleners, Ruth, Lee, Xing, Brain, David, and Pacella, Rosana
- Subjects
WOUND care ,LEG ulcers ,MEDICAL care costs ,QUALITY of life ,QUESTIONNAIRES ,WOUND healing ,TRAUMATOLOGY diagnosis ,ECONOMICS - Abstract
Venous leg ulcers (VLUs) result in substantial economic costs and reduced quality of life (QoL); however, there are few Australian cost estimates, especially using patient‐level data. We measured community‐setting VLU management costs and the impact on the QoL of affected individuals. VLU patients were recruited from a specialist wound clinic, an outpatient clinic, and two community care clinics in Queensland. Cost data were collected at the baseline visit. QoL (EQ‐5D‐5L) and wound status data were collected at baseline, 1, 3, and 6 months. Patients were classified into guideline‐based/optimal care and usual care groups. Average weekly costs per patient were statistically significantly different between the usual care and optimal care groups—$214.61 and $294.72, respectively (P = 0.04). Baseline average QoL score for an unhealed ulcer was significantly higher in the optimal care group compared with usual care (P = 0.025). Time to healing differed between the usual care group and the optimal care group (P = 0.04), with averages of 3.9 and 2.7 months, respectively. These findings increase the understanding of the costs, QoL, and healing outcomes of VLU care. Higher optimal care costs may be offset by faster time to healing. This study provides data to inform an economic evaluation of guideline‐based care for VLUs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
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38. Australian wheat production expected to decrease by the late 21st century.
- Author
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Wang, Bin, Liu, De L., O'Leary, Garry J., Asseng, Senthold, Macadam, Ian, Lines‐Kelly, Rebecca, Yang, Xihua, Clark, Anthony, Crean, Jason, Sides, Timothy, Xing, Hongtao, Mi, Chunrong, and Yu, Qiang
- Subjects
CLIMATE change ,VEGETATION & climate ,AGRICULTURAL climatology ,AGRICULTURAL productivity ,AGRICULTURE - Abstract
Climate change threatens global wheat production and food security, including the wheat industry in Australia. Many studies have examined the impacts of changes in local climate on wheat yield per hectare, but there has been no assessment of changes in land area available for production due to changing climate. It is also unclear how total wheat production would change under future climate when autonomous adaptation options are adopted. We applied species distribution models to investigate future changes in areas climatically suitable for growing wheat in Australia. A crop model was used to assess wheat yield per hectare in these areas. Our results show that there is an overall tendency for a decrease in the areas suitable for growing wheat and a decline in the yield of the northeast Australian wheat belt. This results in reduced national wheat production although future climate change may benefit South Australia and Victoria. These projected outcomes infer that similar wheat-growing regions of the globe might also experience decreases in wheat production. Some cropping adaptation measures increase wheat yield per hectare and provide significant mitigation of the negative effects of climate change on national wheat production by 2041-2060. However, any positive effects will be insufficient to prevent a likely decline in production under a high CO
2 emission scenario by 2081-2100 due to increasing losses in suitable wheat-growing areas. Therefore, additional adaptation strategies along with investment in wheat production are needed to maintain Australian agricultural production and enhance global food security. This scenario analysis provides a foundation towards understanding changes in Australia's wheat cropping systems, which will assist in developing adaptation strategies to mitigate climate change impacts on global wheat production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2018
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39. Linking Environmental and Financial Performance for Privately Owned Firms: Some Evidence from Australia.
- Author
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Qian, Wei and Xing, Ke
- Subjects
FINANCIAL performance ,PRIVATE sector ,BUSINESS enterprises ,STRATEGIC planning ,PUBLIC sector - Abstract
The debate over whether the “green” strategy pays off has been centered overwhelmingly within large public firms. It remains unclear whether “being green” matters to smaller firms such as privately owned or family controlled firms, which are equally heavy polluters but subject to much less public scrutiny. Using a sample of 138 private companies registered in the Australian National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting database over the 2009–2013 period, this study finds that embracing environmental/carbon responsibility has helped these companies gain higher financial returns. However, reducing carbon emissions has not paid off for environmentally sensitive firms, although lowering energy consumption is evidenced to be value creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
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40. An ensemble forecasting system for short-term power load based on multi-objective optimizer and fuzzy granulation.
- Author
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Wang, Jianzhou, Xing, Qianyi, Zeng, Bo, and Zhao, Weigang
- Subjects
- *
LOAD forecasting (Electric power systems) , *POWER (Social sciences) , *FORECASTING , *PARETO optimum , *SOCIAL development , *MATHEMATICAL optimization , *GRANULATION - Abstract
• A novel integrated short-term power load forecasting system is proposed. • The fuzzy granulation technique simplifies the large-scale dataset and extracts the effective characteristics of the raw data. • A novel multi-objective variant of the tuna swarm optimizer is utilized to integrate multiple forecasting sequences. • The optimal weight coefficients of the ensemble model are theoretically demonstrated to be the Pareto optimal solutions. • Our proposed forecasting system can gauge the uncertainty of future electricity load. As an irreplaceable power source, electricity is responsible for sustaining the national economy and social development, and the precondition for the power system's stable operation is to perform an accurate short-term load forecast (STLF). However, with the increasing forms of social power consumption and the emergence of large-scale sustainable resources on the grid, which make STLF increasingly challenging as the power load exhibits greater stochasticity and instability. Therefore, a novel STLF system is developed in this paper, which incorporates data fuzzy granulation, a high-performance optimizer for integrating forecasting sequences, point and interval forecasts. Moreover, the performance tests of the optimization algorithm verify that our proposed optimizer can obtain more approximate solution sets to the real Pareto front and outshines the traditional optimization algorithm concerning convergence and diversity. Load data from three regions of Australia demonstrate that our developed system can remarkably contribute to the accuracy and stability of the STLF , and also quantify the volatility and uncertainty of the power load, which allows power workers to better capture the fluctuation interval of future loads and effectively enhance the flexibility of grid operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
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41. Tsunami Hazards along the Eastern Australian Coast from Potential Earthquakes: Results from Numerical Simulations.
- Author
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Xing, H., Ding, R., and Yuen, D.
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TSUNAMIS ,HAZARDS ,EARTHQUAKES ,COMPUTER simulation ,EMERGENCY management ,RISK assessment ,TRENCHES ,EARTHQUAKE magnitude - Abstract
Australia is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean and, thus, may suffer from tsunamis due to its proximity to the subduction earthquakes around the boundary of Australian Plate. Potential tsunami risks along the eastern coast, where more and more people currently live, are numerically investigated through a scenario-based method to provide an estimation of the tsunami hazard in this region. We have chosen and calculated the tsunami waves generated at the New Hebrides Trench and the Puysegur Trench, and we further investigated the relevant tsunami hazards along the eastern coast and their sensitivities to various sea floor frictions and earthquake parameters (i.e. the strike, the dip and the slip angles and the earthquake magnitude/rupture length). The results indicate that the Puysegur trench possesses a seismic threat causing wave amplitudes over 1.5 m along the coast of Tasmania, Victoria, and New South Wales, and even reaching over 2.6 m at the regions close to Sydney, Maria Island, and Gabo Island for a certain worse case, while the cities along the coast of Queensland are potentially less vulnerable than those on the southeastern Australian coast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
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42. Market Discipline and Deposit Guarantee: Evidence from Australian Banks.
- Author
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Yan, Xing, Skully, Michael, Avram, Katherine, and Vu, Tram
- Subjects
FOREIGN banking industry ,MARKETS ,WHOLESALE trade ,SUBSIDIARY corporations - Abstract
This study examines depositor market discipline of Australian banks and its interaction with the 2008 deposit and wholesale funding guarantee. Prior to 2008 market discipline is found for Australian-incorporated banks. Depositors did not distinguish between major and small banks, but some differences in the degree of market discipline were found for foreign bank subsidiaries. Following the introduction of the 2008 guarantees, market discipline was reduced except for nonhousehold depositors at banks that did not access the wholesale guarantee. Market discipline is also evidenced at foreign bank branches, but weaker for those accessing the wholesale guarantee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2014
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
43. Universal price impact functions of individual trades in an order-driven market.
- Author
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Zhou, Wei-Xing
- Subjects
- *
STOCK prices , *STOCK exchanges , *SCALING laws (Statistical physics) , *MARKET laws - Abstract
The trade size ω has a direct impact on the price formation of the stock traded. Econophysical analyses of transaction data for the US and Australian stock markets have uncovered market-specific scaling laws, where a master curve of price impact can be obtained in each market when stock capitalization C is included as an argument in the scaling relation. However, the rationale of introducing stock capitalization in the scaling is unclear and the anomalous negative correlation between price change r and trade size ω for small trades is unexplained. Here we show that these issues can be addressed by taking into account the aggressiveness of orders that result in trades together with a proper normalization technique. Using order book data from the Chinese market, we show that trades from filled and partially filled limit orders have very different price impacts. The price impact of trades from partially filled orders is constant when the volume is not too large, while that of filled orders shows power-law behavior r ∼ ωα with α ≈ 2/3. When returns and volumes are normalized by stock-dependent averages, capitalization-independent scaling laws emerge for both types of trades. However, no scaling relation in terms of stock capitalization can be constructed. In addition, the relation α = αω/α r is verified for some individual stocks and for the whole data set containing all stocks using partially filled trades, where αω and α r are the tail exponents of trade sizes and returns. These observations also enable us to explain the anomalous negative correlation between r and ω for small-size trades. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2012
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
44. Research on Ensemble Pulsar Time Based on Observed Data
- Author
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Chen, Ding, Zhu, Xing-zhi, and Wang, Na
- Subjects
- *
ASTRONOMICAL observations , *PULSARS , *STABILITY (Mechanics) , *NEUTRON stars , *DATA analysis , *COMPARATIVE studies - Abstract
Abstract: The applications of pulsar timing to several important aspects are introduced and a skeletal definition of the pulsar time scale is given. By taking advantage of the observational timing data of millisecond pulsars obtained at the Parkes Astronomical Observatory, Australia, the ensemble pulsar time based on 4 millisecond pulsars is built up, the comparison of its stability σz, with that of the atomic time is made, and finally a few of important factors which affect the ensemble pulsar time, as well as their influences on the pulsar timing accuracy and application are analyzed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]
- Published
- 2012
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
45. Genotype V Japanese Encephalitis Virus Is Emerging.
- Author
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Ming-Hua Li, Shi-Hong Fu, Wei-Xin Chen, Huan-Yu Wang, Yu-Hong Guo, Qi-Yong Liu, Yi-Xing Li, Hui-Ming Luo, Wa Da, Dun Zhu Duo Ji, Xiu-Min Ye, and Guo-Dong Liang
- Subjects
JAPANESE B encephalitis ,JAPANESE encephalitis viruses ,NUCLEOTIDE sequence ,AMINO acid sequence ,PHYLOGENY - Abstract
Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a global public health issue that has spread widely to more than 20 countries in Asia and has extended its geographic range to the south Pacific region including Australia. JE has become the most important cause of viral encephalitis in the world. Japanese encephalitis viruses (JEV) are divided into five genotypes, based on the nucleotide sequence of the envelope (E) gene. The Muar strain, isolated from patient in Malaya in 1952, is the sole example of genotype V JEV. Here, the XZ0934 strain of JEV was isolated from Culex tritaeniorhynchus, collected in China. The complete nucleotide and amino acid sequence of XZ0934 strain have been determined. The nucleotide divergence ranged from 20.3% to 21.4% and amino acid divergence ranged from 8.4% to 10.0% when compared with the 62 known JEV isolates that belong to genotype I-IV. It reveals low similarity between XZ0934 and genotype I-IV JEVs. Phylogenetic analysis using both complete genome and structural gene nucleotide sequences demonstrates that XZ0934 belongs to genotype V. This, in turn, suggests that genotype V JEV is emerging in JEV endemic areas. Thus, increased surveillance and diagnosis of viral encephalitis caused by genotype V JEV is an issue of great concern to nations in which JEV is endemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2011
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
46. Construction of an Intraplate Fault System Model of South Australia, and Simulation Tool for the iSERVO Institute Seed Project.
- Author
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Xing, H. L. and Mora, P.
- Subjects
GEOLOGIC faults ,COMPUTER simulation ,EARTH sciences ,FINITE element method - Abstract
To foster ongoing international cooperation beyond ACES (APEC Cooperation for Earthquake Simulation) on the simulation of solid earth phenomena, agreement was reached to work towards establishment of a frontier international research institute for simulating the solid earth: iSERVO = International Solid Earth Research Virtual Observatory institute (http://www.iservo.edu.au). This paper outlines a key Australian contribution towards the iSERVO institute seed project, this is the construction of: (1) a typical intraplate fault system model using practical fault system data of South Australia (i.e., SA interacting fault model), which includes data management and editing, geometrical modeling and mesh generation; and (2) a finite-element based software tool, which is built on our long-term and ongoing effort to develop the R-minimum strategy based finite-element computational algorithm and software tool for modelling three-dimensional nonlinear frictional contact behavior between multiple deformable bodies with the arbitrarily-shaped contact element strategy. A numerical simulation of the SA fault system is carried out using this software tool to demonstrate its capability and our efforts towards seeding the iSERVO Institute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2006
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
47. Tensile stress-strain models for high strength steels.
- Author
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Wang, Xing-Qiang, Tao, Zhong, Katwal, Utsab, and Hou, Chao
- Subjects
- *
HIGH strength steel , *STRAINS & stresses (Mechanics) , *YIELD stress , *MILD steel , *CARBON steel , *TENSILE tests - Abstract
In recent years, high strength steels (HSSs) with a minimum nominal yield stress of 460 MPa have been increasingly used in structural applications. An HSS may exhibit continuous or discontinuous yielding, depending on the chemical composition and manufacturing process and procedure. However, no criterion has been proposed in the literature to predict the occurrence of a yield plateau. Meanwhile, the ductility of HSSs is often limited, making it essential to predict their fracture for a safe design. However, existing stress-strain models used for HSSs cannot meet this need. To develop versatile stress-strain models for HSSs, 212 test curves are collected from open literature. In addition, four curves are obtained from tensile tests of two types of HSS produced in Australia (Bisalloy 80 and 400). By analysing the collected test data, a criterion is proposed to determine the occurrence of the yield plateau according to the yield stress of the steel and its carbon content. Two stress-strain models are then proposed for HSSs exhibiting continuous and discontinuous yielding, respectively. Moreover, predictions from the discontinuous model are also compared with the test data of conventional mild steel, proving that the model can also capture the stress-strain response of the conventional mild steel. Finally, the proposed models are used in the simulation of HSS coupons and beams, which proves the feasibility of the proposed HSS models for structural analysis. [Display omitted] • A criteria is proposed to predict the yield plateau occurrence of HSS. • Two stress-strain models are proposed for HSSs with or without a yield plateau. • The discontinuous yielding model can also be used for conventional mild steel. • The proposed models have been used in the simulation of HSS coupons and beams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
48. A Novel Feature Extension Method for the Forest Disaster Monitoring Using Multispectral Data.
- Author
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Quan, Yinghui, Zhong, Xian, Feng, Wei, Dauphin, Gabriel, Gao, Lianru, and Xing, Mengdao
- Subjects
FOREST monitoring ,MOUNTAIN forests ,DECISION trees ,FEATURE extraction ,REMOTE sensing ,RESPONSE surfaces (Statistics) - Abstract
Remote sensing images classification is the key technology for monitoring forest changes. Texture features have been demonstrated to have better effectiveness than spectral features in the improvement of the classification accuracy. The accuracy of extracting texture information by window-based method depends on the choice of the window size. Moreover, the size should ideally match the spatial scale of the object or class under consideration. However, most of the existing texture feature extraction methods are all based on a single window and do not adequately consider the scale of different objects. Our first proposition is to use a composite window for extracting texture features, which is a small window surrounded by a larger window. Our second proposition is to reinforce the performance of the trained ensemble classifier by training it using only the most important features. Considering the advantages of random forest classifier, such as fast training speed and few parameters, these features feed this classifier. Measures of feature importance are estimated along with the growth of the base classifiers, here decision trees. We aim to classify each pixel of the forest images disturbed by hurricanes and fires in three classes, damaged, not damaged, or unknown, as this could be used to compute time-dependent aggregates. In this study, two research areas—Nezer Forest in France and Blue Mountain Forest in Australia—are utilized to validating the effectiveness of the proposed method. Numerical simulations show increased performance and improved monitoring ability of forest disturbance when using these two propositions. When compared with the reference methods, the best increase of the overall accuracy obtained by the proposed algorithm is 4.77% and 2.96% on the Nezer forest data and Blue Mountain forest data, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
49. New Records of Plio-Pleistocene Koalas from Australia: Palaeoecological and Taxonomic Implications.
- Author
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PRICE, GILBERT J., ZHAO, JIAN-XIN, FENG, YUE-XING, and HOCKNULL, SCOTT A.
- Subjects
- *
FOSSIL animals , *KOALA , *TREE kangaroos , *HABITATS , *PLIOCENE-Pleistocene boundary - Abstract
Koalas (Phascolarctidae, Marsupialia) are generally rare components of the Australian fossil record. However, new specimens of fossil koalas were recovered during recent systematic excavations from several eastern Plio-Pleistocene deposits of Queensland, eastern Australia, including the regions of Chinchilla, Marmot and Mt. Etna. The new records are significant in that they extend the temporal and geographic range of Plio-Pleistocene koalas from southern and southeastern Australia, to northeastern central Queensland. We provide the first unambiguous evidence of koalas in the Pliocene Chinchilla Local Fauna (phascolarctid indet, and Ph. ?stirtoni): important additions to an increasingly diverse arboreal mammalian assemblage that also includes tree kangaroos. The persistence of koalas and local extinction of tree kangaroos in the Chinchilla region today suggests that significant habitat and faunal reorganization occurred between the Pliocene and Recent, presumably reflecting the expansion of open woodlands and grasslands. Other koala records from the newly U/Th-dated Middle Pleistocene Marmor and Mt. Etna fossil deposits (Phascolarctos sp. and Ph. ?stirtoni), along with independent palaeohabitat proxies, indicate the former presence of heterogeneous habitats comprised of rainforests, open woodlands and grasslands. The lack of such habitat mosaics in those regions today is likely the product of significant Middle Pleistocene climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2009
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
50. High-precision U-series dating of very young cyclone-transported coral reef blocks from Heron and Wistari reefs, southern Great Barrier Reef, Australia
- Author
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Zhao, Jian-xin, Neil, David T., Feng, Yue-xing, Yu, Ke-fu, and Pandolfi, John M.
- Subjects
- *
CORAL reefs & islands , *CYCLONES - Abstract
Abstract: Numerous high-energy-transported coral reef blocks occur on the outer reef flats of Heron and Wistari reefs at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. In a pilot study, five samples from Heron and one from Wistari were collected for high-precision U-series dating by thermal ionization mass spectrometry. Five of the six dated corals yield U-series dates that suggest these corals were killed and transported during the last century. Without precise knowledge of cyclone impacts in the area, it is not possible to unequivocally link these reef blocks to specific cyclones. Nevertheless, this pilot study demonstrates that cyclone-transported coral reef blocks over the past 300 years can be precisely dated to an age uncertainty of ±1–4 years. This opens up the opportunity for high-age-resolution reconstruction of cyclone history and high-precision assessment of the trend and frequency of cyclone occurrences over the past millennium, as well as for a better understanding of anthropogenic impact on cyclone activity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]
- Published
- 2009
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
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