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Nontyphoidal Salmonella is a major contributor to the global burden of foodborne disease, with invasive infections contributing substantially to illnesses and deaths. We analyzed notifiable disease surveillance data for invasive nontyphoidal Salmonella disease (iNTS) in Queensland, Australia. We used Poisson regression to estimate incidence rate ratios by gender, age group, and geographical area over 2007–2016. There were 995 iNTS cases, with 945 (92%) confirmed by blood culture. Salmonella Virchow accounted for 254 (25%) of 1,001 unique iNTS isolates. Invasive NTS disease notification rates peaked among infants, during the summer months, and in outback Queensland where the notification rate (95% CI) was 17.3 (14.5–20.1) cases per 100,000 population. Overall, there was a 6,5% annual increase (p<0.001) in iNTS disease incidence. In conclusion, high iNTS rates among males, infants, and the elderly require investigation of household level risk factors for NTS infection. Controlling Salmonella Virchow infections is a public health priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research reconstructed and validated the broadband UVA irradiances derived from discrete spectral irradiance data retrieved from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) satellite from 1 January to 31 December 2009. OMI data at solar noon were compared to ground-based spectral irradiances at Toowoomba (27°36′ S 151°55′ E), Australia, at 310, 324 and 380 nm for both cloud-free and all sky conditions. There was a strong relationship between the ground-based UV spectroradiometer data and satellite-based measurements with an R2 of 0.89 or better in each waveband for cloud-free days. The data show an overestimate of the satellite-derived spectral irradiances compared to the ground-based data. The models developed for the subtropical site data account for this overestimation and are essential for any data correlation between satellite- and ground-based measurements. Additionally, this research has compared solar noon broadband UVA irradiances evaluated with a model and the discrete satellite spectral irradiances for the solar noon values of cloud-free days to those measured with a ground-based UVA radiometer. An R2 of 0.86 was obtained confirming that for cloud-free days the broadband UVA can be evaluated from the OMI satellite spectral irradiances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Playground Shade Index (PSI) is introduced as a design metric for assessing the shade and solar ultraviolet (UV) protection provided by eight different cloth weave shade structures currently utilized in public playgrounds across a regional city located in southern Queensland, Australia. The PSI, expressing the ratio of available ambient solar UV exposure relative to the UV exposure received by a shaded 184 m2 playground surface over a whole day in midsummer and midwinter, is used to determine the best design and aspect of all eight existing structures. Unlike subjective shade audits that may only consider the type of shade structure, the number and characteristics of surrounding trees, and surface materials available at a given site, the PSI considers, in addition to previous factors, the available sky fraction and the direct solar UV contribution underneath the shade structure over a full day. By considering the in situ UV protection characteristics of the shade structure, the PSI has demonstrated its value as a robust design metric. Of the eight shade structure styles examined, this research presents the most likely structure best suited for UV protection over the two solar UV extremes in summer and winter, including optimal structure aspect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] UVB exposures measured to Queensland classroom teachers were in excess of ICNIRP guidelines. [•] Yard duties requiring teachers to use open playground environments have the greatest influence on cumulative exposure. [•] A linear model has been presented to determine ICNIRP exposure as a result of teacher yard duty time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

B Background: b Nontyphoidal Salmonella is a major contributor to the global burden of foodborne disease, with invasive infections contributing substantially to illnesses and deaths. B Methods and materials: b We analyzed notifiable disease surveillance data for invasive nontyphoidal Salmonella disease (iNTS) in Queensland, Australia. Increasing incidence of invasive nontyphoidal Salmonella infections in Queensland, Australia, 2007-2016. [Extracted from the article]

Measurements of anatomical UV exposure distribution were made using miniaturized polysulfone dosimeters over a four year period between 2005 and 2008 in Toowoomba, Australia (28° S, 152° E). Anatomical UV exposures were expressed relative to the horizontal plane ambient UV. The UV exposures were compared with existing data detailing the anatomical distribution of basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and solar keratoses (SK). Surface UV exposures to unprotected skin surfaces have been presented for each of the face, neck, arm, hand and leg assessing a total of 1453 body sites (2491 measurements). Measured exposures are presented for the human facial region to a resolution of 5 mm. The median anatomical UV expressed relative to the horizontal plane ambient UV for each of the face, neck, forearm, hand and leg regions of the body varied from 26%, 23%, 13%, 30% and 12% respectively in the 0°–30° SZA range; 39%, 36%, 17%, 35% and 23% in the 30°–50° SZA range; and 48%, 59%, 41%, 42% and 47% in the 50°–80° SZA range. Detailed positions of UV exposure measured over the face, neck, arm, hand and leg were more closely related to NMSC incidence data for the face and upper limbs. Further analysis with existing facial BCC and SK density data did not however show a direct relationship with the measured UV exposures highlighting the importance of other factors influencing the causation and localisation of facial NMSC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data are presented on the effect of the tree canopy transmittance in the visible waveband (V[sub T]), canopy width, height and height of the start of the tree canopy (C[sub H]) on the solar UV in tree shade on a horizontal plane at ground level during a Southern Hemisphere summer. Of these factors, the V[sub T] and C[sub H] have an influence on the UV irradiances in the tree shade. The shade ratios (UV in tree shade to that in full sun) for erythemal UV ranged from 0.71 to 0.42, 0.54 to 0.29 and 0.63 to 0.41 for morning, noon and afternoon, respectively, for the V[sub T] range of 0.4-1.0. Over the same V[sub T] range, the shade ratios for UVA ranged from 0.61 to 0.28, 0.50 to 0.22 and 0.49 to 0.29 for morning, noon and afternoon, respectively. The UV exposures in the tree shade decreased with the V[sub T] with a marginally higher decrease in the irradiances for the UVA compared to the erythemal UV. Despite the protection by the tree shade, significant UV in the tree shade of approximately 4 MED (minimum erythemal dose) were received for the latitude in this research on a cloud free summer day on a horizontal plane over a 2-h period centred about solar noon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The risk of keratinocyte skin cancer, malignant melanoma and ultraviolet radiation (UVR)‐induced eye disease is disproportionately higher in Australia and New Zealand compared to equivalent northern hemisphere latitudes. While many teachers are aware of the importance of reinforcing sun safety messages to students, many may not be aware of the considerable personal exposure risk while performing outdoor duties in locations experiencing high to extreme ambient UVR year‐round. Personal erythemally effective exposure of classroom teachers in tropical Townsville (19.3°S) was measured to establish seasonal extremes in exposure behavior. Mean daily personal exposure was higher in winter (91.2 J m‐2, 0.91 Standard Erythema Dose [SED]) than summer (63.3 J m−2, 0.63 SED). The range of exposures represents personal exposures that approximate current national guidelines for Australian workers at the study latitude of approximately 1.2 SED (30 J m−2 effective to the International Commission on Non‐Ionizing Radiation Protection). Similar proportions of teachers spent more than 1 h outdoors per day in winter (28.6%) and summer (23.6%) as part of their teaching duties with seasonal differences having little effect on the time of exposure. Personal exposures for teachers peaked during both seasons near school meal break times at 11:00 am and 1:00 pm, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standardised assessments comparing the surveyed shade quality characteristics of twenty-one trees currently established and growing in public parks and playgrounds in Queensland, Australia are presented for informing local government, shade designers and municipal planners. Assessments focus on the ultraviolet protection of individual tree canopies which are reported in terms of the Shade Protection Index (SPI) and Ultraviolet Protection Factor (UPF) assessed at fine temporal resolution and averaged over a full calendar year. The UPF and SPI are used to determine tree species best suited for optimal shade with respect to twenty-six regional cities spanning 17 ∘ in latitude. This assessment included all local coastal districts from Bamaga (− 10.89 ∘ S, 142.39 ∘ E) to Southport (− 27.97 ∘ S, 153.42 ∘ E) showing a general (species dependent) decline in ultraviolet protection with increasing southerly latitude. Survey tree species are ranked and listed in order of best ultraviolet protection for respective localities enabling the quality of protection provided by living tree canopies to be compared across a range of environments. • Solar UV protection characteristics are listed for 21 trees. • Trees are ranked in order of protection for 26 Queensland municipalities. • The quality of tree shade decreases with increasing latitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skin cancer, the most prevalent cancer in Caucasians residing at low latitudes, can primarily be prevented by avoiding overexposure to sunlight. Serial cross‐sectional observations were conducted at an outdoor motorsport event held in Townsville, Queensland each July (Southern winter) to determine whether sun‐protection habits changed over time. Most (71.1%) of the 1337 attendees observed (97.6% lightly pigmented skin, 64.0% male) wore a hat (any style shading the face), while few (18.5%) wore three‐quarter or full‐length sleeves. While hat‐wearing rates (any style) were similar in 2009 (326, 72.6%) and 2013 (625, 70.4%), the use of sun‐protective styles (wide‐brimmed/bucket/legionnaires) decreased from 29.2% to 18.6% over the same period, primarily because the use of sun‐protective hats halved (from 28.7% to 14.0%) among females, while decreasing from 29.4% to 21.1% in males. Although relatively few individuals wore sun‐protective (three‐quarter‐length or full‐length) sleeves regardless of year (OR = 0.117, P < 0.0001), encouragingly, the use of sun‐protective sleeves more than doubled between 2009 (10.5%) and 2013 (22.5%). Interestingly females, albeit the minority, at this sporting event were less likely to wear a hat (OR = 0.473, P < 0.0001) than males. These findings highlight the need for continued momentum toward skin cancer primary prevention through sun protection with a dedicated focus on outdoor sporting settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forecast models of solar radiation incorporating cloud effects are useful tools to evaluate the impact of stochastic behaviour of cloud movement, real-time integration of photovoltaic energy in power grids, skin cancer and eye disease risk minimisation through solar ultraviolet (UV) index prediction and bio-photosynthetic processes through the modelling of solar photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD). This research has developed deep learning hybrid model (i.e., CNN-LSTM) to factor in role of cloud effects integrating the merits of convolutional neural networks with long short-term memory networks to forecast near real-time (i.e., 5-min) PPFD in a sub-tropical region Queensland, Australia. The prescribed CLSTM model is trained with real-time sky images that depict stochastic cloud movements captured through a total sky imager (TSI-440) utilising advanced sky image segmentation to reveal cloud chromatic features into their statistical values, and to purposely factor in the cloud variation to optimise the CLSTM model. The model, with its competing algorithms (i.e., CNN, LSTM, deep neural network, extreme learning machine and multivariate adaptive regression spline), are trained with 17 distinct cloud cover inputs considering the chromaticity of red, blue, thin, and opaque cloud statistics, supplemented by solar zenith angle (SZA) to predict short-term PPFD. The models developed with cloud inputs yield accurate results, outperforming the SZA-based models while the best testing performance is recorded by the objective method (i.e., CLSTM) tested over a 7-day measurement period. Specifically, CLSTM yields a testing performance with correlation coefficient r = 0.92, root mean square error RMSE = 210.31 μ mol of photons m−2 s−1, mean absolute error MAE = 150.24 μ mol of photons m−2 s−1, including a relative error of RRMSE = 24.92% MAPE = 38.01%, and Nash Sutcliffe's coefficient ENS = 0.85, and Legate and McCabe's Index LM = 0.68 using cloud cover in addition to the SZA as an input. The study shows the importance of cloud inclusion in forecasting solar radiation and evaluating the risk with practical implications in monitoring solar energy, greenhouses and high-value agricultural operations affected by stochastic behaviour of clouds. Additional methodological refinements such as retraining the CLSTM model for hourly and seasonal time scales may aid in the promotion of agricultural crop farming and environmental risk evaluation applications such as predicting the solar UV index and direct normal solar irradiance for renewable energy monitoring systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fringing coral reefs provide a unique opportunity to study shallow aquatic ecosystems. A fringing coral reef system located in close proximity to a developed region was considered in this study. In such an environment, the rate of decay of dissolved organic matter is high and the penetration of higher energy ultraviolet-B ( UVB) extends a greater influence on species diversity, particularly upon shallow benthic communities. Results from a 9 month subsurface UVB exposure measurement campaign performed at a site located on the southern Queensland coast ( Hervey Bay, 25°S) are presented in this research. For this, a novel dosimetric technique was utilized to measure long-term subsurface UVB exposures. The resultant data set includes exposure measurements made during the significant La Niña event of late 2010 which resulted in unprecedented high sea surface temperatures and severe flooding across eastern Australia, impacting upon the lagoon regions of the Great Barrier Reef and Queensland's southern estuaries, including the study site. The influence of season, diurnal tidal variation, cloud cover and solar zenith angle were analyzed over the campaign period. Mean minimum daylight water depth was found to be the most significant factor influencing subsurface UVB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents UV data recorded over 12 months in 2000/2001 at a southern hemisphere (Toowoomba) and similar latitude northern hemisphere (BigBend and Everglades) sites using Brewer Spectrophotometers. The peak daily erythemally weighted UV (DUV) at the Toowoomba site was 8.8% and 25% higher compared to that at the BigBend and Everglades sites, respectively. The Everglades site exposures are lower than the BigBend site exposures in summer and spring. This may be due to the higher cloud cover for the Everglades site. The summer DUV values between Toowoomba and BigBend are similar. In spring, the average DUV value is the greatest at BigBend compared to the other two sites. Results indicate that variability between the measurement sites is due to varying cloud and ozone, and possibly due to aerosol and airmass differences of each region. Of these different site-specific local atmospheric conditions, cloud was the main contributor to the differences in UV between the sites. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Relative keratinocyte skin cancer risks attributable to lifetime occupational and casual sunlight exposures of working school teachers are assessed across the state of Queensland for 1578 schools. Relative risk modeling utilizing annual ultraviolet exposure assessments of teachers working in different geographic locations and exposed during periods of measured daily playground duty times for each school were made for local administrative education districts by considering traditional school opening and closing hours, and playground lunchtime schedules. State-wide, basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) relative risk estimates varied by 24% for BCC and 45% for SCC. The highest relative risk was calculated for the state's north (sunshine) coast education district which showed that risk could increase by as much as 32% for BCC and 64% for SCC due to differences in teacher duty schedules. These results highlight the importance of playground duty scheduling as a significant risk factor contributing to the overall burden of preventable keratinocyte skin cancers in Queensland. • The association between teacher duty schedule and skin cancer risk is examined. • BCC and SCC risks are calculated for school teachers from 1578 schools. • BCC and SCC risks are compared for all Queensland state education districts. • Risks are lower in schools where there is more time between the first and second meal break. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melanoma skin cancer rates in Queensland exceed the national Australian incidence rate, which together with New Zealand are recognized as the world's highest. Incidence is especially high among younger members of the population. In this study, the sun‐protective behaviors of urban Queenslanders (n = 752) going about their day‐to‐day activities during a midweek noon time hourly period were observed on a summer's day in central Brisbane (27.47°S, 153.03°E), Australia. Observed sun protection practices were poor, given the time of year and peak solar noon period of the study. More individuals (n = 249; 33.1%) were seen wearing sunglasses than a hat (n = 101; 13.4%). Ninety‐three individuals were actively engaging with mobile phones (phone in hand). A further 231 individuals (30.7%) were observed with a mobile phone on them. Opportunities to modify group behavior based on mobile phone sun protection notifications and to engage with "at risk" members of the Queensland population are considered from the variable codependencies examined in this study, including the influence of social group size, observed sun protection and mobile phone use. Our preliminary findings suggest that mobile phones provide an underutilized opportunity for delivering tailored skin cancer prevention messaging. Sun‐protective behaviours and mobile phone use of urban Queenslanders during a midweek noon time hourly period were observed on a summer's day in central, Brisbane, Australia. Our findings suggest that mobile phones provide an under‐utilized opportunity for delivering tailored skin cancer prevention messaging to young people and suggest that a sizeable proportion of funding for mass media public awareness campaigns should be directed towards this approach in favor of traditional electronic media outlets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classroom teachers located in Queensland, Australia are exposed to high levels of ambient solar ultraviolet as part of the occupational requirement to provide supervision of children during lunch and break times. We investigated the relationship between periods of outdoor occupational radiant exposure and available ambient solar radiation across different teaching classifications and schools relative to the daily occupational solar ultraviolet radiation ( H ICNIRP ) protection standard of 30 J/m 2 . Self-reported daily sun exposure habits (n = 480) and personal radiant exposures were monitored using calibrated polysulphone dosimeters (n = 474) in 57 teaching staff from 6 different schools located in tropical north and southern Queensland. Daily radiant exposure patterns among teaching groups were compared to the ambient UV-Index. Personal sun exposures were stratified among teaching classifications, school location, school ownership (government vs non-government), and type (primary vs secondary). Median daily radiant exposures were 15 J/m 2 and 5 J/m 2 H ICNIRP for schools located in northern and southern Queensland respectively. Of the 474 analyzed dosimeter-days, 23.0% were found to exceed the solar radiation protection standard, with the highest prevalence found among physical education teachers (57.4% dosimeter-days), followed by teacher aides (22.6% dosimeter-days) and classroom teachers (18.1% dosimeter-days). In Queensland, peak outdoor exposure times of teaching staff correspond with periods of extreme UV-Index. The daily occupational H ICNIRP radiant exposure standard was exceeded in all schools and in all teaching classifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]